Annual Bulletin 3, 1979-1980

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A Re-Examination of the "Raphael"
drawing in the National Gallery of Canada

by Sylvia Ferino

Pages 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Notes

1 Inv. no. 5085, Oppé, 83. Provenance: Antonino Gianguzzo or Gianucci of Palermo; Sebastiano Resta; John, Lord Somers (Lugt 2981); Maurice Marignane; bought from H. M. Calmann, London, 1939.

2 A. E. Popham, "Raphael," Old Master Drawings, XIV (Sep-Mar, 1939-40), p. 50; A. E. Popharn and K. M. Fenwick, European Drawings in the Collection of the National Gallery of Canada (University of Toronto, 1965) pp 11-12, no.12.

3 Written expertise dated 21 Apri11938. See M. Laskin's catalogue entry in European Drawings from the National Gallery of Canada (London; Colnaghi, 1969), p. 14, no.2.

4 Popham, op, cit, U. Middeldorf: Raphael's Drawings (New York: 1945) p. 31, no.10.

5 Laskin, loc. cit.

6 K. T. Parker, Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum, II, The Italian Schools (Oxford; 1956) no. 509.

7 Raphael's St John the Evangelist comes very close indeed to the Ottawa youth, both in his pose and in his restrained and contemplative expression. But, again, he appears more affirmative and real with his broad, bulging body and the square stance.

8 Venice Academy, Inv. no.98; O. Fischel, "Die Zeichnungen der Umbrer," Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XXXVIII (1917), Beiheft no. 84.

9 E. Camesasca, L'opera completa del Perugino (Milan, 1969), no. 98. W. Bombe, Perugino (Stuttgart: Klassiker der Kunst, 1914), p. 138.

10 R. van Marie, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, XIV (The Hague: 1933), p. 482, fig. 313.

11 Frankfurt, Staedel Institute, Inv. no. 378, reproducd in E Gualdi, "Contributi a Berto di Giovanni pittore perugino", Commentari, XII (1961), pl. XCIV,: fig. 31. Madrid, Real Academia de San Fernando, pen and brown ink, reproduced in A. E. Pérez Sánchez, Catálogo de los dibujos, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Madrid: 1967), pl. 7. New York, Metropolitan Museum, gift Vanderbilt 1880, Inv. no. 80.3.197, pen and brown ink.

12 Photo Alinari: 20021.

13 Laskin, loc. cit.

14 On verso there is a profile of a youth wearing a cap, in black chalk; A. Mongan and P. J. Sachs, Drawings in the Fogg Museum of Art (Cambridge, Mass.: 1946), no. 29, figs. 27, 28.

15 I would like to thank Mrs Martin Cohn, Conservator of Works of Art on Paper in the Fogg Art Museum, for ail her help in sending me detailed descriptions and the photographic material of this drawing.

16 Camesasca, op, cit., no. 56C. Bombe, op, cit., p. 50.

17 This is not the place to discuss in any detail whether this transformation was carried out in close chronological sequence or whether the more gentle and "musical" treatment of the figures corresponds with a later phase in Perugino's stylistic development. Fischel (op. cit., Beiheft no. 95) dates the drawing to Perugino's late period; furthermore, he claims that it was heavily overworked. It seems likely, however, that Fischel took the fact that the underdrawing shows through in parts to the top layer as an indication of reworking. The style of the underdrawing suggests a date before 1500.

Perugino had represented an angel in a similar attitude in his altar fresco of the Assunta in the Sistine Chapel, as can be seen from the drawing after this composition in the Albertina (R 41, Inv. no.4861; see A. Stix and L. Fröhlich, Beschreibender katalog der Handzeichnungen in der graphischen Sammlung Albertina, III (Vienna; 1932), p. 8) A further drawing after this angel (Florence, Uffizi, Inv. no.1114 E) is reproduced by E. Steinmann in Die Sixlinische Kapelle, I (Munich: 1901), fig. 118. The angel appears furthermore in a fresco in S Sebastiano at Panicale, a work by a follower of Perugino (Camesasca, op. cit., no. 72). From examples like the Fogg drawing we learn that Perugino, even though he re-employed the same basic figure motifs and attitudes throughout his life, did in fact re-study them from nature at least from time to time.

18 Camesasca, op. cit., no. 52B and 54. Bombe, op. cit., pp. 67 and 74.

19 Compare L. Nikolenko, Francesco Ubertini called il Bacchiacca (New York: 1966), fig. 7 with Camesasca, op. cit., no. 48.

20 See photograph in the Witt Library, under Raphael; from the Goudstikker Catalogue 1930 / 31, no. 58.

21 Perugino occasionally used brush and washes in his figure studies to emphasize strongly-lit and strongly-shaded parts (see, for instance, the preparatory cartoon for his Apollo and Marsyas reproduced in Fischel, op. cit., Beiheft fig. 106), but he never used the brush as a main tool to delineate the figures as it is used here.

22 See, for instance, Fischel, op. cit., Beiheft figs. 152-154, 158, 159-161.

23 Fischel, op. cit., pl. I, Beiheft pl. X and fig. 150.

24 See, for instance, Popham, loc. cit.

25 C. Seymour, Jr. Early Italian Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven: 1970), no. 176. The angel in the Venice sheet measures about 12.2 cm in height and 5 cm in width while the Ottawa youth, which is slightly amputated on the lower edge, measures now about 12 cm. The Ottawa youth is also cut down in width and measures only 4.7 cm. The angel in the Metropolitan Museum drawing is similarly amputated in width, and measures 4.7 cm; it is 12.4 cm in height. The angel in the painting in the Yale University Art Gallery measures 11.5 x 5 cm, according to information kindly supplied by the Curator's Office.

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