This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Vatican Frescoes

Vatican Frescoes

AFTER A WORK COPYING GIOVANNI FRANCESCO PENNI (1496-C. 1536)

God separating Light from Darkness

c.1853-76

Albumen print | 15.6 x 19.7 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 853342

A photograph of a drawing catalogued by Ruland (1876) as being then in the collection of the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar. It is similar in composition to the fresco of God separating Light from Darkness painted by the workshop of Raphael (c.1517-19) in the vault of the first bay of the Raphael Loggia in the Vatican.

The drawing is generally considered to be a copy after a drawing by Penni, now in the British Museum (inv. no.1900,0824.109); see also RCIN 853341. For further information see Bibliographic References.
  • Creator(s)

    After a work copying Giovanni Francesco Penni (1496-c. 1536) (artist)

  • 15.6 x 19.7 cm (sheet of paper)

  • Acquired for the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)

  • Subject(s)
    • Religion & Theology
      • Religions and faiths
        • Christianity
          • Bible & Holy Scripture
            • Old Testament
    Object type(s)
      • visual works
        • photographs
  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    Italian Drawings [...] British Museum: Raphael and his circle: catalogue, 1962 / Philip Pouncey and J.A. Gere, London p.53, no.64

    Other number(s)

    Ruland p.212 B.I.7