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Tapestries

Tapestries

ALESSANDRO PORRETTI (B. 1838)

St Paul striking Elymas blind in front of the proconsul Sergius Paulus

c.1858-1895

Engraving | 48.6 x 53.5 cm (platemark) | RCIN 853152

A print after the tapestry illustrating 'The Conversion of the Proconsul' (Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 13, 6-12), one of a set of ten tapestries illustrating episodes from the lives of St Peter and St Paul commissioned by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel. The bottom half of the tapestry is entirely lost, and the horizontal border reproduced here is not the original one: the left-hand scene is taken from a monochrome painting in the Stanza dell'Incendio in the Vatican, and the right-hand one from the border below the tapestry of 'The Sacrifice at Lystra'.

Lettered with production details, dedication and dedicatee's coat of arms. On watermarked paper, with pencil annotations. Described as from Pietro de Brognoli's series of prints after Raphael's Stanze frescoes and Sistine Chapel tapestries dated 1874 (Höper 2001). Not in Ruland (1876).

The tapestry designs were executed by Raphael and his workshop and transported to Flanders, where the tapestries were woven in the workshop of Pieter van Aelst. Seven of the tapestry cartoons survive (including that of 'The Conversion of the Proconsul'), now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, on loan from the Royal Collection. The ten original tapestries, intended to be hung in the Sistine Chapel, are housed in the Vatican Museums.
  • Creator(s)

    Alessandro Porretti (b. 1838) (engraver)

    After Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (artist)

    Filippo Costaggini (1839-1904) (designer)

    Angelo Biggi (active 19th century) (printer)

    Pompeo Gherardi (1832-77) (dedicatee)

    Pietro Brognoli (active c. 1874) (dedicator)

  • Pf. 32. A. VII / p 250 / Tapestries VII. 1a.
    A. VII 1a
    P.M

  • 48.6 x 53.5 cm (platemark)

  • IL FALSO PROFETA

  • Added to the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (after 1876)

  • Subject(s)
    • Places
      • Europe
        • Italy
          • Lazio [Italy]
            • Rome [Lazio]
              • Vatican City [Rome]
                • Vatican Palace [Vatican City]
                  • Sistine Chapel [Vatican Palace]
                    • Vatican-Sistine Chapel tapestries
  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    p.133, no.VII.3 (entry by Grazia Bernini Pezzini) (Raphael Invenit 1985 : Bernini Pezzini, G. et al., 1985. Raphael Invenit. Stampe di Raffaello nelle Collezioni dell'Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome)
    p.490, no.H 7.3 (Höper 2001 : Höper, C. Raffael und die Folgen, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2001)