A Group from Raphael's School of Athens

The composition of this engraving is derived from the group of philosophers depicted in the left foreground of Raphael's 'School of Athens'. Lower corners made up. Dated: 1524, and signed with engraver's monogram: AV. Trimmed along right edge. Lettered on the base of the column at right: RAP[HAEL URB INVENTOR]. Second state. In the engraving Agostino turned the figures of the philosopher writing in a book, generally identified as Pythagoras, and of the youth holding a tablet before him into an Evangelist writing the Gospel in Greek, being presented with the text by an angel. Scholars have offered different interpretations of the figure: Bellori (1695) interpreted him as St Mark, Cordellier/Py (1992) as St Matthew, and Oberhuber/Gnann (1999) and Höper (2001) as St Luke. The inscriptions appear to be passages from the Gospel of Luke. In his account of Raphael's fresco, Vasari misinterpreted the figure of Pythagoras describing him as St Matthew writing the Gospel with the assistance of an angel. For further discussion, see Bibliographic References.