The Presentation in the Temple

A photograph of a 16th-century drawing now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no.WA1846.299). The drawing is a copy after the tapestry of this subject part of the so-called 'Scuola Nuova' set, a twelve-piece set depicting scenes from the Life of Christ (eleven of which survive today in the Vatican Museums).

Another drawing of the same composition survives in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no.4275). See RCIN 853274. Ruland (1876) lists a further similar drawing as being then in the possession of Mr Ford (?).

The ‘Scuola Nuova’ set was probably commissioned by Pope Leo X, but the project seems to have been reactivated by Clement VII after his election as pope in 1523. Apparently designed by Raphael’s former assistants after the death of the master (perhaps incorporating some models by Raphael himself), the tapestries were woven in the workshop of Pieter van Aelst and completed by 1531, when the set was delivered to Rome. Ruland (1876) seemed to accept the view that the ‘Scuola Nuova’ set was a gift to Leo X from Francis I on the occasion of the canonization of Francesco di Paola in 1519. For further discussion, see Bibliographic References.