- Museum number
- Pp,1.64
- Description
-
St Francis receiving the stigmata; the saint, nude, kneeling to right, his left hand raised, his right hand on his breast
Pen and brown ink over stylus, traces of red chalk at bottom
- Production date
- 1498-1520
- Dimensions
-
Height: 238 millimetres
-
Width: 175 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Stigmata on the right side of the chest and on the hands identify this nude study as Saint Francis. This sheet is often dated to c. 1505 at the beginning of Raphael's stay in Florence. Nevertheless, the pose continues to show the influence of Perugino. The drawing has not been securely connected to a painting, but one can imagine that the intended work would have been a saint in a landscape like Perugino's 'Saint Jerome' now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (see P. Scarpellini, 'Perugino', Milan, 1984, cat. 120, fig. 205, p. 246). It is also akin to another drawing by Raphael, a study for 'Saint Jerome with a view of Perugia' in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (K.T. Parker, 'Catalogue of the Collection of Italian Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum, vol. II, Italian Schools, Oxford, 1956, no. 34; Joannides, no. 73).
Raphael began to draw this figure with a stylus, traces of which can be seen around the outlines of the body. A stylus underdrawing allowed the artist to explore and quickly sketch the nude before committing it to ink. As the stylus indents the page, but does not leave any other mark, it would have been particularly useful in this kind of study from a live model where the artist might have wanted to work out the position before applying the permanent ink to the page.
Watermark: As Pouncey and Gere state, the watermark is almost indecipherable, but appears, as Fischel suggested, to be a crowned eagle.
Lit.: J.D. Passavant, 'Tour of a German Artist in England', London, 1836, (translation from the original German ed. published in Frankfurt, 1833), II, p. 101 (where wrongly stated that this was in Lely's collection); G. Waagen, 'Treasure of Art in Great Britain', London, 1854, I, p. 226; P. Pouncey and J.A. Gere, 'Italian Drawings in the BM: Raphael and his Circle', London, 1962, no. 7 (with previous literature); J.A. Gere and N. Turner in exh. cat. BM, 'Drawings by Raphael', 1983, no. 41; P. Joannides, 'The Drawings of Raphael', Oxford, 1983, no. 81; E. Knab, E. Mitsch and K. Oberhuber, 'Raphael Die Zeichnungen', Stuttgart, 1983, no. 171.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1962/3 Nov-Sep, BM, Raphael and his Circle (P+G)
1983, BM, 'Drawings by Raphael', No. 41
- Acquisition date
- 1824
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Pp,1.64
