RAPHAEL

RAPHAEL
Zoltán Kárpáti
Eszter Seres
RAPHAEL
Drawings in Budapest
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2013
Authors
Zoltán Kárpáti (Chapters 1–4 and 6)
Eszter Seres (Chapters 5 and 7)
Curators
Zoltán Kárpáti and Eszter Seres
with the assistance of Zsófia Vargyas
Editor
Zoltán Kárpáti
Exhibition management
Ágnes Pablényi
English proofreading
John King
Label texts
Eszter Seres and Zsófia Vargyas
Editorial co-ordination
Ágnes Pablényi
Design
Ágnes Megyeri and Zsolt Vidák
Photographs
Dénes Józsa and Csanád Szesztay
Mounting
Erzsébet Mózer and István Pankaszi
Technical imaging
András Fáy
Technical assistance
László Fehérváry and Miklós Pataky
Reproduction rights
Sára Kulcsár-Szabó
The exhibition has been supported by the Ministry of
Human Resources and the National Cultural Fund
of Hungary.
Layout
Zoltán Kárpáti
Printing
EPC Nyomda, Budapest
Publisher
Dr. László Baán, General Director
ISBN 978-615-5304-20-0
© Authors, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 2013
This publication is issued on the occasion of the
exhibition The Triumph of Perfection: Raphael: Drawings
and Prints from the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, from
18 December, 2013 to 30 March, 2014.
Front cover: Raphael, Head of an Angel (detail, fig. 77)
Photo credits
© Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, fig. 83 © Galleria
dell’Accademia, Venice, fig. 16 © Museum of Art,
Cleveland, figs. 29 and 72 © Albertina, Vienna, figs. 32
and 35 © Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, fig. 37
© Museo Horne, Florence, fig. 80 © Réunion des Musées
Nationaux, Paris, figs. 3, 9, 15, 76, 78 and 81 © Photo
Bridgeman Art Library, London, fig. 12 © Photo Fratelli
Alinari, Florence, fig. 75 © Photo Scala, Florence, figs.
2, 10, 30, 43, 59, 60, 65, 66, 67, 69, 84, and 85 © The
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, figs. 7, 8, 14, 20, 31, 58, 61,
and 68 © Royal Collection, Windsor, figs. 21, 34, 38, 42,
52, and 57 © Trustees of the British Museum, London,
figs. 13, 16, 18, 22, 28, 33, 50, 62, 73, and 82 © other
photo credits are retained by the Museum of Fine Arts,
Budapest
Preface
Seven Studies
7
11
Check-List
123
Appendix
133
Bibliography
137
The Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, preserves six drawings by Raphael. Ever since
the nineteenth century, they have been widely
discussed and included in every significant
modern œuvre catalogue and most monographs on the artist. Like the majority of Raphael’s sheets, these drawings have also given
rise to a large amount of debate. Among the
subjects under constant discussion are the
authorship of the early pen drawing for the
painter’s first Perugian altarpiece, The Coronation of the Virgin, the compositional study
for The Massacre of the Innocents, engraved by
Marcantonio Raimondi, and the Head of an
Angel associated with the fresco decoration of
the Sala di Costantino in the Vatican Palace.
The last comprehensive evaluation of Raphael’s Budapest drawings was offered by Loránd
Zentai in his exhibition catalogue of 1998,
devoted to sixteenth-century Central Italian
drawings of the collection. His entries incorporated the results of events and exhibitions
held in 1983 to honour the five-hundredth
anniversary of the artist’s birth. Since the 1998
catalogue, Raphael’s Budapest drawings have
not formed the subject of in-depth discussion.
Following a lull in activity immediately after
the anniversary year, the study of Raphael has
gained renewed impetus in the last decade.
Volumes of the new catalogue raisonée by Jürg
Meyer zur Capellen on Raphael’s paintings
have been published consecutively since 2001.
A magisterial collection of documents relating
to Raphael’s life and work, compiled and annotated by John Shearman, appeared in 2003.
A comprehensive account of the artist has
been given in two recent exhibitions. The
first in 2004 at the National Gallery, London,
curated by Hugo Chapman, Tom Henry and
Carol Plazzotta, was devoted to Raphael’s
formative years and early activity in Rome,
while the second, a joint exhibition organized by Tom Henry and Paul Joannides in the
Louvre and the Prado in 2012–13, covered his
late Roman period. In addition to the principal articles written on Raphael, new research
on the painter’s influential older colleagues
and his most gifted assistants has broadened
our understanding of Raphael’s art.
The present exhibition, drawn entirely
from our collection, focuses on drawings by
Raphael, and endeavours to shed further light
on his artistic legacy by including drawings
by his most talented assistants, as well as
some outstanding prints from the period. As
part of the preparations for the exhibition, a
8
research project was carried out by András
Fáy, chief conservator of the Museum of Fine
Arts, Budapest, on Raphael’s drawings as well
as the Esterházy Madonna. Ultraviolet and
infrared imaging provided information on the
materials of the drawings and their condition,
the results of which have contributed to the
studies in this volume. In the case of drawings, the ultraviolet radiation was used in the
property of 366 nm and infrared in the range
of 1100–1200 nm. In addition, the Esterházy
Madonna was also examined with ultraviolet
reflective imaging technique at 403 nm.
As preparation for the exhibition proceeded,
we realized that the flurry of recent publications on the artist, combined with the new,
detailed findings on the drawings’ technique
garnered from recent technical imaging, presented the case for a comprehensive reconsideration of Raphael’s Budapest drawings.
Accordingly, it was decided that the accompanying publication would focus on Raphael’s six sheets and on the Esterházy Madonna,
included in the exhibition for its clearly visible
underdrawing. However, as six drawings and
a single panel are far from sufficient to outline
Raphael’s entire career, each is integrated in
the context of a broader aspect of the painter’s
œuvre, presented in the form of longer studies.
Raphael’s early pen drawing for his first
Perugian altarpiece, The Coronation of the
Virgin, facilitated a reassessment of his relationship with two painters who were instrumental in his early career, Pietro Perugino and
Bernardino Pintoricchio. The Saint Jerome,
drawn in Florence, demonstrates Raphael’s
new approach to figure studies, in which the
pattern-book tradition of the Perugino workshop came up against the innovative method
of anatomical drawing perfected by Leonardo
and Michelangelo at the turn of the sixteenth
century. The Massacre of the Innocents, one
of Raphael’s most fervently debated sheets,
demanded a clarification of its possible function, which could only be explained in the
light of the Roman printmaking enterprise of
Raphael and Marcantonio Raimondi.
The only painting in this volume, the
small-scale Esterházy Madonna is included
for its underdrawing, detectible even to the
naked eye under the most transparent layers.
For the first time, high-resolution infrared
reflectographs were taken of the unfinished
panel work, revealing its underdrawing in
its entirety, and thus providing new insight
into Raphael’s method of painting. His pen
sketch of putti and an angel for the Disputa,
frescoed in the Stanza della Segnatura in the
Vatican Palace, raises the issue of the painter’s
constraints when accommodating his previous preparatory methods with the growing
demands placed upon him. The silverpoint
Venus, one of the artist’s most beautiful female
nudes drawn in all'antica style, illustrates his
close connection with classical antiquity, and
reveals how Raphael reutilized his motifs in a
number of works. Finally, the impressive chalk
drawing of an angel, destined for a fresco in
the Sala di Costantino, prompted a review of
Raphael’s Roman workshop practices, and
served to highlight the difference between
the approach of modern connoisseurship and
the Renaissance definition of the artist’s hand.
Like all exhibitions, this one would not
have been possible without the assistance of
many colleagues and friends. We are indebted,
first and foremost, to Zsófia Vargyas for her
tireless efforts in preparing the exhibition and
this volume. Ágnes Pablényi undertook the
organizational and administrative tasks asso-
9
ciated with the exhibition. This project would
have been inconceivable without the technical
imaging and analysis performed by András Fáy,
who also supplied invaluable comments on the
Esterházy Madonna. Kálmán Sipos assisted
us in assembling the literature on Raphael. We
would like to thank all the colleagues in various departments of the Museum of Fine Arts,
Budapest, in particular Dóra Sallay, Miriam
Szőcs, Vilmos Tátrai and Axel Vécsey, whose
collaboration made the exhibition possible.
We also express our heartfelt gratitude to
Achim Gnann (Vienna, Albertina), Oliver
Hahn (Berlin, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung Arbeitsgruppe ‘Kunstund Kulturgutanalyse’), Dagmar Korbacher
(Berlin, Kupferstichkabinet), C
laudia La Malfa
(Rome, International University Uninettuno), Giorgio Marini (Florence, Uffizi),
Catherine Monbeig-Goguel (Paris), Micaela
Sambucco Hamoud (Florence, Biblioteca
Nazionale Centrale), Nicolas Schwed (Paris)
as well as Carel van Tuyll van Serooskerken
(Paris, Louvre).
SEVEN STUDIES
1
1
Raphael
The Assumption of the Virgin
c. 1503–4
Pen and brown ink, some traces of black
chalk, a fragmentary motif in red chalk
158 × 193 mm
Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts, 1779
As with most Italian Renaissance artists, our
information on the life of Raffaello Santi
(1483–1520) derives primarily from Giorgio
Vasari’s (1511–1574) Le vite de’ più eccellenti
pittori, scultori ed architettori italiani, da
Cimabue insino a’ tempi nostri (Lives of the
Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Archi
tects, hereinafter called Lives).1 Vasari prized
Raphael as the exemplary painter, and his
biography, interspersed with literary topoi and
rhetorical overstatement, was also intended
as a parable for young artists. Despite some
inaccuracies and apart from several necessary
amendments and corrections, his account on
Raphael’s career, commissions and patrons
has proved to be reliable to the present day.2
Vasari was remarkably well informed about
the painter’s activity in Florence and Rome,
but had little to say about his formal education
and early works.
Very few written sources survive from
Raphael’s pre-Roman years. Even his date
of birth is controversial; all that is certain is
that he was born at Easter 1483 in Urbino,
the prosperous humanist centre ruled by
the Montefeltro family.3 His father, Giovanni
Santi (1435/40–1494), an archetypal courtier
(cortegiano) serving the Duke Guidobaldo da
Montefeltro and his wife Elisabetta Gonzaga,
executed paintings for the court as well as
churches in Urbino and neighbouring towns
during the 1480s and 1490s.4 According to
contemporary practice, Raphael was probably
trained in the family workshop. In the complete absence of documents concerning his
artistic formation, it is only known that Raphael was eleven years old when his father died,
and at the age of seventeen he was already
described on a contract as an independent
master (magister).5 The years in between are
shrouded in mystery.6
Vasari writes that, having realized he had
nothing more to teach his son, Santi decided
to apprentice Raphael to Pietro Perugino
(c. 1450–1523), and the talented young pupil
learned to imitate his master’s style so brilliantly that it was impossible to distinguish his
paintings from those by Perugino.7 This assertion must also derive from a topos of ancient
origin recounting a child genius eclipsing his
master, which often recurs in the Lives. In
Vasari’s words Giovanni Santi was ‘a painter
of no great excellence’ whose reputation was
gained more from his epic chronicle of 23,000
verses eulogizing Federico da Montefeltro
than from his paintings.8 Conversely Peru-
14
gino, the most successful and prolific painter
at the turn of the sixteenth century, maintained
prosperous workshops both in Perugia and
Florence and fulfilled commissions in Rome
for the papal court and the wealthy Sienese
banker Agostino Chigi.9 Thus Vasari had good
reason to regard Perugino an ideal master
for Raphael, certainly superior to his father,
who counted as no more than a cultivated but
mediocre painter.10
However, Vasari’s view should be treated
with reservation, as not a single contempo
rary source names Raphael among Perugi
no’s pupils.11 For his first documented work,
the Coronation of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino,
painted for the church of Sant’Agostino in
Città di Castello (now largely destroyed),
Raphael contracted jointly with Evangelista
di Pian di Meleto (c. 1460–1549).12 Evangelista
not only stood surety for the completion of the
altarpiece, but presumably was also to manage
the Santi workshop until Raphael officially
became an adult.13 Raphael’s close connection
with his father’s former assistant indicates that
he stayed in the family workshop after his
father’s death in 1494. Giovanni Santi and his
colleagues appear to have played a notably
more decisive role in his formation than Vasari
suggested. Still, Raphael’s modern biographers
disagree whether the painter remained in the
Santi workshop after his father’s death, joined
Perugino’s in Perugia or Florence, or perhaps
spent some time in all three places.14
Apart from Vasari’s report, the assumption
of a direct master-pupil relationship between
Perugino and Raphael originates primarily
from the young painter’s Peruginesque works.
Yet the elder artist’s influence is scarcely apparent in Raphael’s earliest paintings. He possibly
grew acquainted with Perugino’s art in his
15
father’s lifetime, as Santi and Perugino were
both involved in executing altarpieces for the
church of Santa Maria Nuova in Fano between
1488 and 1494.15
Raphael’s first signed work, the Mond Cru
cifixion of 1503 for the Gavari Chapel of the
San Domenico Church in Città di Castello
(London, National Gallery) and his Betrothal
of the Virgin of 1504, painted for Filippo
Albizzini (Milan, Pinacoteca Brera) not only
evidence Perugino’s impact16 but also suggest
that Raphael may have had access to drawings from the painter’s workshop in Perugia.17
Nevertheless, there is no reason to assume
that Raphael formally joined Perugino’s studio either before his father’s death or shortly
2
Raphael
The Coronation of the Virgin
c. 1503–4
Oil on canvas, transferred from panel
267 × 163 cm
Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana, 334
3
Raphael
The Assumption of the Virgin
c. 1503–4
Pen and brown ink
166 × 203 mm
Paris, Musée du Louvre, 3970
after, a supposition doubtful also for the lack
of relevant sources. Perugino’s influence is
most manifest in Raphael’s works dating
from 1502–3, suggesting he came into contact
with the master or his workshop later, when he
was already an independent painter.18 It must
have been the conservative milieu of Urbino
that stimulated Raphael to master the manner
of his older colleague.19
In fact, the paths of the two painters
barely crossed. In addition to Raphael’s first
independent work, the Coronation of Saint
Nicholas of Tolentino, two more altarpieces
and a double-sided processional banner (Città
di Castello, Pinacoteca Comunale) are linked
with his name in Città di Castello.20 This small,
16
prosperous town midway between Urbino
and Perugia fell out of Perugino’s orbit. Its
artistic scene was dominated by Luca Signorelli (c. 1450–1523), who painted no less than
five altarpieces for the local aristocracy.21
Signorelli’s departure in 1498 greatly increased
Raphael’s opportunities in the town between
1500 and 1504.
While Raphael was occupied in Perugia
from 1503 to 1505 and acquired five altarpiece
commissions, Perugino was entrusted with
none in his hometown; in this period his
Perugian workshop was completing earlier
tasks.22 Prompted possibly by the political
tension, Perugino moved to Florence and
was engaged there from October 1502 to June
1507. His absence from Perugia opened up new
prospects for the young Raphael.
The Coronation of the Virgin was Raphael’s first Perugian altarpiece as well as his
first large-scale, prestigious project, which
established his reputation as Perugino’s rival
[fig. 2]. The painting was commissioned by
the illustrious Alessandra degli Oddi for the
family’s burial chapel in the church of San
Francesco al Prato.23 The Oddi family played
a prominent role in Perugia but their rivalry
with the Baglione family, at times provoking
violent incidents, often forced them to leave
the town.24 In 1498 the Oddi family had been
declared rebels and banished; they were only
allowed to return for several months in 1503
under the protection of Cesare Borgia. Their
temporary reprieve provided them with an
opportunity to erect an altarpiece in memory
of the family members killed in the previous
decades.25
Raphael was fully aware that the success
of the prestigious commission was crucial to
convince potential patrons of his talent. He
4
Photo reconstruction from
figs. 1 and 3
5
Fig. 1 in ultraviolet-induced
luminescence
prepared the altarpiece with laborious precision: judging from the number of surviving
sheets, none of his early works was developed
through so many preliminary drawings as The
Coronation of the Virgin.26 The meticulously
executed pen drawing in Budapest, with its
simple clarity of outlines and minute modelling [fig. 1], together with its counterpart in
the Louvre, Paris [fig. 3], is usually regarded
a modello.27
Modelli were drawn to document the final
phase of the preparatory work, however, the
Budapest and Paris sheets doubtlessly originate from an earlier stage. This is mainly
indicated by the change of subject: while the
Budapest sheet develops the Assumption of
18
6
Infrared reflectograph of fig. 1
(detail)
the Virgin, Raphael painted the Coronation
of the Virgin in the end, and most of his preliminary drawings were made for the latter
theme.
During the preparatory process, Raphael
followed the Central Italian practice described
later by Vasari as the ideal method.28 The
painter would first draw rapid sketches
(schizzi or primi pensieri) of his initial idea
(invenzio), after which he elaborated the figures, poses and draperies in detailed studies
(studii), and recorded the final solutions in a
single comprehensive study for the complete
composition, which we designate today as
modello.29 Created primarily to be presented
to the patron for approval and providing an
opportunity to request modifications before
the painting’s execution, modelli also served
for the artist to review his concept.
Drawings attached to contracts were
intended for a similar purpose.30 These
so-called contract drawings documented
the composition in the most minute detail,
formalizing the discussion between the artist
and patron as a visual record of the agreed
composition. Contract drawings were usually executed in pen with scrupulous care,
enhancing their painterly effect with white
heightening or by colouring the paper. When
pinned to contracts, they were folded to a
small size. Accordingly, unless indicated by
their inscription, their original function is
19
revealed principally by their physical condition. Such traces of folding are perceivable
in Raphael’s Budapest and Paris sheets. The
distinct vertical crease along the central axis
of both papers is manifest proof that the
two drawings initially formed a single sheet
[fig. 4].31 The horizontal crease along the top
edge of the Paris drawing suggests that the
paper was folded in four before the two parts
were separated. Apparently, the complete
sheet containing both halves of the composition had been appended to the lost contract
for the Oddi Coronation. The paper was possibly bisected by a later collector, or an art dealer
intending to sell the two parts separately; this
assumption is also supported by the different
provenance of the two drawings.
7
Raphael
Angel Playing a Rebec
c. 1503–4
Silverpoint, heightened with white,
on grey ground, 191 × 127 mm
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 511a
8
Raphael
Angel Playing a Tambourine
c. 1503–4
Silverpoint, heightened with white,
on grey ground, 189 × 126 mm
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 511b
The Budapest and Paris sheets are the only
documents to suggest that Raphael was originally commissioned to paint the Assumption
of the Virgin. This is the first known instance
in his career when he changed the theme of a
work during its preparation. Probably dissatisfied with the static and frontal view of the
Assumption, Raphael might have convinced
his patrons of the more dynamic theme of
the Coronation. However, the unusual icon
ography unifying the Virgin’s Assumption
with her Coronation certainly necessitated the
approval of the Church as well.32 The Coronation of the Virgin was a favoured subject of the
observant Franciscans overseeing the chapel.
It may have been the intention of the Umbrian
friars, who highly venerated the Virgin, that in
21
9
Raphael
Virgin and Child with Saints
Sebastian and Roch
c. 1501–3
Pen and brown ink, over stylus
288 × 266 mm
Paris, Musée du Louvre, RF 1395
contrast with the conventional arrangement
showing the Virgin on a lower-lying cloud
[fig. 10], Raphael elevated her figure beside
that of Christ.
Similarly to most of Raphael’s early drawings, the authorship of the Budapest and
Paris sheets has long been questioned. The
unfavourable estimation was primarily due to
their poor condition: their surface is extremely
worn, the ink has faded, and the fine details of
the drawings, as well as most of the contours,
have therefore almost disappeared. In ultraviolet-induced luminescence the abraded
pen lines are clearly apparent, revealing the
delicate and lively character of the Budapest
drawing, which precludes the previous supposition that it was a copy after Raphael’s
original work [fig. 5]. The artist drew directly
in pen, sketching only the Virgin’s contours
in light charcoal or black chalk, and applied
compasses for the mandorla [fig. 6].33 Not
only are all these features inconsistent with a
copy, but it is highly unlikely that anyone
would repeat a discarded idea of a young
painter for his first significant commission.
Moreover, the presumed function of the sheet
also confutes this: having been attached to the
contract, it would not have been accessible in
the painter’s workshop.
Because only a small group of pen drawings has come down to us from the painter’s
Umbrian period, it is difficult to find examples comparable with the Budapest and Paris
sheets. The drawings for the Oddi Coronation,
various in technique, represent all phases of
the preparatory process.34 Although Raphael’s two silverpoint studies of apprentices
(garzoni) made for the angels playing music
correspond almost exactly to the left hand
angels of the Budapest sheet, their different
technique prevents their stylistic comparison
[figs. 7 and 8].35 Due to their sketchy character, the two pen drawings for the altarpiece
are also unsuitable to be directly paralleled
with the Budapest sheet.36 Raphael’s similarly
detailed early modelli may be found among
the drawings for the Entombment painted
for the burial chapel of the Baglione family in
the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia (Rome, Galleria Borghese).37 Although
the Baglione Entombment was executed only
three years later than the Oddi Coronation, its
preparatory studies reflecting Michelangelo’s
(1475–1564) drawing manner greatly differ
from the conservative Peruginesque character
of the Budapest and Paris sheets.
Closest in style to the Budapest drawing
is Raphael’s study from around 1501–3 for
the Virgin and Child, Saints Sebastian and
Roch, preserved in the Louvre, Paris [fig. 9].38
While more animated in character, its definite,
slightly angular contours, broken hatching
lines and controlled pen strokes also evoke
Raphael’s early silverpoint drawings.
The purpose of the Paris sheet is unknown,
but the inclusion of the figures of Saints Sebastian and Roch suggests its connection with
the plague of 1499 and implies it may be a
preliminary study for a proposed altarpiece in
Città di Castello. However, the Paris drawing
certainly preceded the processional banner
painted to commemorate the end of the
plague and was executed closer in time to the
Solly Madonna (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) and
its preparatory studies from around 1501–2.39
Although the composition of the Paris drawing was influenced by Perugino’s Decemviri
Altarpiece (Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana) from
the mid-1490s,40 and despite the Oddi Coro
nation being Raphael’s most Peruginesque
22
work,41 both the Budapest and Paris drawings
were tentatively linked with Bernardino Pinto
ricchio (c. 1452–1513).42
Along with Perugino, his Umbrian compatriot counted as the most successful painter of
the region. During the 1480s and 1490s Pintoricchio fulfilled prestigious commissions in
Rome, including frescoes in the Sistine Chapel
and the Borgia Apartments of the Vatican Palace. In 1495 he returned to his native town, and
in close connection with the local aristocracy
he was active mainly in Perugia and its environs. In June 1502 Pintoricchio was contracted
for the decoration of the Piccolomini Library
attached to the cathedral in Siena, and the
young Raphael assisted him in designing the
frescoes during the winter of 1502–3. Five of
Raphael’s related drawings survive, but his
contribution appears to have been limited to
the preparation of the frescoes, while in their
execution he did not participate.43
Concurrently with the frescoes of the Piccolomini Library, in late 1502 Pintoricchio
was entrusted to paint the altarpiece for the
observant Franciscans of Santa Maria della
Pietà at Fratta (today Umbertide) [fig. 10].
Two of Raphael’s drawings in the Louvre,
Paris, representing kneeling bishops suggest
that he probably cooperated in the creation of
the predella of the altarpiece.44 Although the
Fratta contract stipulates the painting of the
Assumption of the Virgin, similarly to Raphael’s Oddi Coronation, a Coronation of the Virgin was completed in the end. This raises the
possibility that Raphael may have begun work
on the Oddi Coronation in collaboration with
Pintoricchio, and the preparation of the two
altarpieces progressed simultaneously.45 The
alteration of the Oddi Coronation documented
by the Budapest and Paris drawings might
23
10
Pintoricchio
The Coronation of the Virgin
c. 1502–3
Oil on panel, 233 × 165 cm
Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana, 40318
have inspired Pintoricchio to introduce the
same change of subject for his Fratta altarpiece.
Unlike the Oddi Coronation, the circumstances of the preparation of the Fratta altarpiece are documented in detail: Pintoricchio
and his workshop designed and finished the
painting between 17 December, 1502 and 27
June, 1503.46 The connection between Raphael
and Pintoricchio was closest between late 1502
and early 1503, at the time of preparing the
Siena frescoes and the execution of the Fratta
altarpiece. This coincides with the hypothetical commencement of 1503 for the Oddi Coro
nation, a supposition based on the date when
the Oddi family returned to Perugia, and on
the style of the altarpiece. Raphael probably
owed the commission to Pintoricchio, who
was closely connected with the Oddi family. The possibility also arises that the task
was originally given to Pintoricchio, but his
increasing commitments in Siena prompted
him to forward it to his younger colleague.47
Although the exact date of Raphael’s arrival
in Perugia is uncertain, he is first mentioned
in the sources in January and May 1503, and
it is documented that in 1504 he remained in
the town for a longer time.48 His growing success coincided with the decline of Perugino’s
supremacy, and Pintoricchio, thus gaining
the opportunity to strengthen his position,
may have in turn promoted the young Raphael
to obtain commissions in the town. As was
characteristic of him throughout his career,
Raphael rapidly established connections with
local artists and potential patrons in Perugia.
In the meantime, he mastered Perugino’s
and Pintoricchio’s manner, paving his way to
replace his older colleagues.
24
1 References are given from the critical edition by
Gaetano Milanesi, Florence 1878–85.
2 Rubin 1995, pp. 357–401.
3 Vasari states that Raphael was born on Good
Friday 1483 and died on the same day that he was
born, Good Friday in 1520; Vasari (ed. Milanesi),
vol. 4, pp. 316 and 386. The confusion around
Raphael’s date of birth originates from the fact
that in 1483 Good Friday fell on 28 March, while
in 1520 it fell on 6 April, see Shearman 2003,
pp. 45–50.
4 For Giovanni Santi, see Varese 1994 and 1999; for
the Santi family, see Falcioni 2009.
5 Shearman 2003, pp. 71–73.
6 For Raphael’s formative years, see Chapman, Henry,
and Plazzotta 2004, pp. 15–65.
7 Vasari (ed. Milanesi), vol. 4, p. 317.
8 Giovanni Santi, La vita e le geste di Federico di
Montefeltro duca d'Urbino (Codice Vat. Ottob. lat.
1305), ed. Luigi Michelini Tocci, Vatican 1985.
9 For Perugino, see Scarpellini 1984.
10 Rubin 1995, p. 382.
11 Coonin 1999; for the documents, see Canuti 1931.
12 Shearman 2003, pp. 71–73.
13 Giovanni Santi’s wills of 1494 lack provisions
concerning his workshop (Shearman 2003, pp.
53–60). As his universal beneficiary, Raphael
possibly inherited the studio as well (Henry 1999;
Butler 2004; Cleri 2009, p. 74). It is notable, how
ever, that among his elaborate provisions Santi did
not even mention his shop, which suggests that
the courtly painter was probably not himself the
owner of the studio where he operated.
14 For the subject in summary and for the different
views, see Hiller von Gaertringen 1999, p. 41;
Butler 2009; Valazzi 2009.
15 Rubin 1995, pp. 382–84; for the contact between
Giovanni Santi and Perugino, see Varese 2004.
16 For the altarpieces, see Meyer zur Capellen 2001,
nos. 7 and 9; for the relation between Perugino’s
and Raphael’s mentioned altarpieces, see Hiller
von Gaertringen 1999, pp. 46–54, 56–60 and
Henry 2002.
17 Canuti 1931, vol. 2, pp. 302–3.
18 Between 1502 and 1503 Raphael prepared designs
for Pintoricchio’s frescoes in Siena (Shearman 2003,
pp. 75–79; Joannides 1983, nos. 56–58. Henry 2004,
esp. pp. 51–52; La Malfa 2008), while he was also
collaborating with the Perugian painter Domenico
Alfani (Shearman 2003, pp. 111–12 and 157) and
the Roman goldsmith Cesarino Rossetti (ibid.,
pp. 143–46). His association with Perugino had
been assumed with more or less reservation only
with a view to the predella of the Sacra Conver
sazione altarpiece in Santa Maria Nuova, Fano,
executed in 1497, see Scarpellini 1984, no. 73; for
the preparatory drawings, see Joannides 1983,
nos. 1 and 2; Ferino-Pagden 1982, nos. 47 and 48;
Ferino-Pagden 1983; for Raphael’s participation in
the painting of the predella, see Longhi 1955, p. 14;
Gregori 1987; Perugia 2004, pp. 314–15, 362–64.
19 The conservative milieu is well illustrated by the
contract for the Coronation of the Virgin to be
painted by Raphael and Berto di Giovanni, signed
in 1505, in which the Franciscan nuns of Santa
Maria di Monteluce requested the artists to follow
the altarpiece of the same subject painted by
Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop between
1484 and 1486 for the church of San Girolamo at
Narni (Narni, Palazzo Comunale), see Shearman
2003, pp. 86–92.
20 For Raphael’s works in Città di Castello, see Henry
2002; for a further supposed commission, see
Henry 2004, p. 121, note 2.
21 For Signorelli’s years in Città di Castello, see Henry
2012, pp. 121–51.
22 O'Malley 2007, p. 691.
23 For the altarpiece, see Meyer zur Capellen 2001,
no. 8 and Cooper 2001. For the identification of
the patron, see Luchs 1983, Cooper 2004 and
Sartore 2008.
24 Matarazzo 1905, esp. p. 240.
25 Although the altarpiece is generally dated around
1503–4 (Chapman, Henry, and Plazzotta 2004), it
had previously been dated variously between 1498
and 1504. Following Vasari, who mentioned the
Coronation of the Virgin before those made in Città
di Castello (Vasari [ed. Milanesi], vol. 4, p. 317),
some scholars assumed it was executed early in
Raphael’s career, around 1500 (Wittkower 1963, pp.
150–68 and Becherucci 1968, pp. 15–26). Others
assumed it had been painted over a longer period
of time, in two instalments: the upper half in late
1501 and early 1502, and the lower part and the
predella in early 1504 or somewhat later (De Vecchi
1986, pp. 73–84 and Mancinelli 1986, pp. 127–38).
25
Recently discovered documents raise the possibility that the altarpiece was completed only in 1505
(Sartore 2008). This late dating is plausible because
the contract for the Monteluce altarpiece, which
marks the terminus ante quem for the execution
of the Oddi Coronation, was in fact signed in 1505
instead of the previously supposed date of 1503, see
Shearman 2003, pp. 86–92.
26 Joannides 1983, nos. 38–55.
27 Loránd Zentai suggested that the Budapest sheet
may be related with the Coronation of the Virgin
designed by Raphael for the Franciscan nuns of
Monteluce (Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana), and
regarded it as a copy after the painter’s initial, lost
modello for its composition, see Zentai 1979; for
the altarpiece, see most recently Sartore 2011.
28 Vasari (ed. Milanesi), vol. 1, pp. 174–77, see also
Tolnay 1943, pp. 19–27.
29 For Raphael’s working method, see Ames-Lewis
1986; Joannides 1983, p. 12; Cox-Rearick 1999, pp.
13–27, esp. 19–21. The modern term modello originates from much later than Raphael’s period and
usually refers to three-dimensional sculptural or
architectural models in the Renaissance, see
Glasser 1965, pp. 116–18; Thomas 1995, p. 109.
30 O'Malley 2005, pp. 197–220.
31 During the detachment of the Budapest drawing
from its secondary support, a fragmentary watermark appeared at its lower edge. If the Budapest
and Paris drawings originally constituted a single
sheet, the missing half of the watermark should
be found at the upper edge of the drawing in Paris.
However, the old mounting of the Paris sheet
prevented us from checking if the fragmentary
watermark exists.
32 For the altarpiece’s iconography of Sienese origin,
see Krems 1996.
33 The image taken in raking light reveals only pen
and ink lines, and no traces of metalpoint can be
detected (cf. Joannides 1983, no. 38; Zentai 1998,
no. 5). Since the ultraviolet-induced luminescence
does not prove that the paper had been prepared,
the faint black lines visible in the infrared reflectograph must have been drawn in dry black carbon-based drawing media, charcoal or black chalk,
cf. Ambers, Higgitt, and Saunders 2010, pp. 39–56.
34 Joannides 1983, nos. 38–55.
35 Ibid., nos. 40 and 41.
36 Ibid., nos. 52 and 54.
37 For the altarpiece, see Meyer zur Capellen 2001,
no. 31; for the preliminary drawings, see Joannides
1983, nos. 124–137. The detailed compositional
study in the Louvre, Paris, derives from the initial
phase of the altarpiece’s preparation, and similarly
to the Budapest sheet it was probably executed as
a presentation drawing for the patron, see ibid., no.
125; Cordellier and Py 1992a, no. 57.
38 Joannides 1983, no. 20r; for a detailed description
of the drawing, see Cordellier and Py 1992a, no. 22;
Meyer zur Capellen 2001, pp. 20–22.
39 For the paintings, see Meyer zur Capellen 2001,
nos. 2 and 4; for Raphael’s early pen drawings
executed in a similar manner, see Joannides 1983,
nos. 19 and 22r; more recently Joachim Jacoby in
Frankfurt am Main 2012–13, nos. 1 and 2.
40 For the altarpiece, see Scarpellini 1984, no. 65.
41 Hiller von Gaertringen 1999, pp. 60–67.
42 Cordellier and Py 1992a, p. 29.
43 Oberhuber 1986a.
44 Joannides 1983, nos. 60r and 61r; Raphael’s authorship is questioned by La Malfa 2008, pp. 262–63.
45 For the relation between the two altarpieces, see
Oberhuber 1978 and Henry 2008.
46 Silvestrelli 2005.
47 It was possibly Perugino, also executing commissions for the Franciscan friars of Perugia, who
recommended Raphael to the Oddi family, but the
Umbrian branch of the Oddi may also have ensured that the yet unknown Raphael acquired commissions in the town, see Shearman 2003, pp.
57–60.
48 Shearman 2003, pp. 79–82 and 1642.

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