Letter from Senator Culemann to the British Envoy to Hanover attempting to identify a Raphael drawing said to be in Hanover, which the Prince Consort has asked to have photographed.

Senator Culemann states that he spoke to Hermann Kestner after receiving Gordon's letter. As he said before, there is no painting by Raphael in the Kestner collection, although there is an ink drawing on very dark yellow paper which is said to be by Raphael. It is so faint as to be almost invisible to the naked eye.

It shows the Resurrection, with the three Marys on the right and the terrified guards on the left, and is related to the almost completely destroyed chiaroscuro paintings on the plinth below Raphael's larger frescoes in the Stanze. There is an old engraving of it by Antonio Veneziano which, although rough, shows the complete groups and is captioned with the words from St. Matthew's gospel on Christ's resurrection.

Culemann thinks, however, that the Prince's request might refer to a photograph of the painting of the Last Supper discovered by two painters in the former convent of San Onofrio in Florence in 1845. Some connoisseurs consider this to be by Raphael, although others think it the work of Perugino or Lo Spagna, and it is described in Passavant Vol. III p. 160. Sir Charles Eastlake saw this photograph at Herr Kestner's house, but it belongs to Culemann himself, and he states that if the Prince will accept it he will be glad to give it to him. He asks Gordon to explain all this to Dr. Becker, and if required he will immediately give the photograph to the British attaché to be sent over.

Related Material: For related correspondence, see VIC/ADDA10/85/435.