Vatican Frescoes
A study for the Disputa
c.1853-76Albumen print | RCIN 852394
A photograph of a drawing by Raphael (c.1509) currently in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle (RCIN 912732). The drawing is a preliminary study for the left half of the Disputa (The Disputation of the Holy Sacrament), painted by Raphael around 1508-09 in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican.
The decoration of Pope Julius II’s library in the Vatican Palace, a room now known as the Stanza della Segnatura, was Raphael's first major undertaking in Rome. The so-called 'Disputa' was probably the first of the large frescoes painted by Raphael in the Stanza della Segnatura.
Thirty sheets of studies survive for this fresco and the one catalogued here is the earliest surviving one. This drawing is laid out in a very similar way to the final fresco, with the exception of the role played by the architecture. See RCIN 912733 for a drawing by Raphael which represents a successive stage towards the definition of the pictorial programme of the fresco.
The decoration of Pope Julius II’s library in the Vatican Palace, a room now known as the Stanza della Segnatura, was Raphael's first major undertaking in Rome. The so-called 'Disputa' was probably the first of the large frescoes painted by Raphael in the Stanza della Segnatura.
Thirty sheets of studies survive for this fresco and the one catalogued here is the earliest surviving one. This drawing is laid out in a very similar way to the final fresco, with the exception of the role played by the architecture. See RCIN 912733 for a drawing by Raphael which represents a successive stage towards the definition of the pictorial programme of the fresco.
- Acquired for the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)
