A study for an apostle in the Transfiguration

A photograph of a preparatory drawing by Raphael (c. 1519-1520) now in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 242) for the figure of the apostle above St Peter in Raphael's "Transfiguration", Vatican Museum. Not in Ruland (1876). Annotated on the verso.

This photograph is not catalogued by Ruland (1876) and it is listed as an addition in the master copy of the catalogue. Nevertheless, it is pasted on the folio sheet and the organisation of the Raphael Collection is believed to have been largely completed by 1876.

A photograph of this drawing is also included in the 'New Testament Subjects' section of the Raphael Collection (see RCIN 850362).

The "Transfiguration" (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome) is Raphael's last large painting and is considered his artistic testament. It was commissioned in 1516/17 by Cardinal Giulio de 'Medici, later Pope Clement VII, for his episcopal church in Narbonne and was almost completed when Raphael died on 6 April 1520. The painting portrays two separate but consecutive events in the Gospels: the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor and the Healing of the Obsessed Boy.