Raphael, Head and
shoulders of a young woman, a
drawing
Italy, around AD 1502-3
This is a drawing from early in
Raphael's career. It is drawn in
silverpoint
on warm white prepared paper. Raphael continued to use silverpoint
long after he discovered pen and ink or red and black chalks. With
silverpoint he needed to control the stylus carefully in order to
draw the contours of his forms very clearly. The results are
figures with precise lines and simple shading. He has used the fine
end of the silverpoint stylus to suggest the delicate degrees of
shading around the young woman's neck and left side of her
face. Her hair is wispy and the veil a series of thin lines. A
thicker and firmer stroke was used for the contours of her head,
eyes, mouth, nose and neck to reinforce the line on which he had
finally decided.
Although
there is no halo, the veil on her head, her lowered eyes and the
brooch at her breast suggest that this is a study for the figure of
the Virgin Mary. In fact, this drawing was used for the head of the
Virgin in a painting by Raphael, Madonna and
Child with a Book (Norton Simon Foundation,
Pasadena). It can be dated to around 1502-3 when Raphael was
studying and working in his native Umbria in central
Italy.
P. Pouncey and J. A. Gere, Italian drawings in the Depa-3 (London, The British Museum Press, 1962)
P. Joannides, The drawings of Raphael (Phaidon, 1983)
J.A Gere and N. Turner, Drawings by Raphael, from the, exh. cat. (London, The British Museum Press, 1983)