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Studies

Studies

AFTER A WORK COPYING PIETRO PERUGINO (CITTÀ DELLA PIEVE C.1450-FONTIGNANO 1523)

The prophet Isaiah

published 1829

Etching | 26.9 x 20.8 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 854650

A facsimile etching of a drawing depicting a seated man now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice (inv. no. 53 verso). See RCIN 854649 for a photograph of the drawing. This print was catalogued by Ruland (1876) as having been 'published by Celotti'; by this he was presumably referring to Luigi Celotti's 'Disegni originali di Raffaello Sanzio, per la prima volta pubblicati (da Luigi Celotti), esistenti nella Imperial Regia Accademia di belle arti di Venezia' (1829). Lettered with attribution of the drawing to Raphael, and numbered within the plate at top right: X. Annotated on the verso.

Ferino Pagden (see Bibliographic References) identified the model of this drawing as the prophet Isaiah in the 'St Peter Altarpiece' executed by Pietro Perugino (c.1496-1500) and now in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Nantes (the painting is reproduced in the catalogue of the drawings of the Gallerie dell'Accademia). The high quality of this sheet is possibly a result of the draughtsman having had direct access to drawings by Raphael which were in turn copied from Perugino's composition.

This drawing is part of the so-called "Libretto di Raffaello" or "Libretto Veneziano", 53 sheets that used to be mounted in a volume. After complicated negotiations, the sketchbook was bought by the museum in the 1820s, after the death of Giuseppe Bossi, who was its previous owner. A number of scholars debated the author of the drawings (with many names proposed, such as Pinturicchio, Antonio da Viterbo, Eusebio del Giorgio, Girolamo Genga) and their date. In 1984, the Gallerie dell'Accademia catalogued the drawings as by an artist contemporary to Raphael, whose juvenile works he copied in this sketchbook (see Bibliographic References).

  • Creator(s)

    After a work copying Pietro Perugino (Città della Pieve c.1450-Fontignano 1523) (artist)

    After a work copying Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (draughtsman)

    Luigi Celotti (1759-1843) (publisher)

  • right (?)

  • 26.9 x 20.8 cm (sheet of paper)
    25.2 x 19.5 cm (platemark)

  • Added to the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-1876)