- Museum number
- Pp,1.73
- Description
-
Eight figures in the Parnassus; including a man standing at left with a book, another figure seated at right looking towards him
Metalpoint, on pale pink prepared paper
- Production date
- 1511 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 286 millimetres
-
Width: 183 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- It differs slightly from the fresco of the Parnassus, Stanza della Segnatura. In Pouncey and Gere considered a copy, but in the 1983 exhibition accepted it as autograph.
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. 100; R.W. Scheller, 'The Case of the Stolen Raphael Drawings', " Master Drawings", 11, Summer 1973, no. 12, p. 127; P. Joannides, 'The Drawings of Raphael', Oxford, 1983, No 243. BM Exhibition Catalogue: 'Raphael', London, 1983, No 105.
Pouncey & Gere 1962
Three figures and a tree are faintly indicated immediately to the r. of the standing man; even more faintly, three figures above 'Sappho'.
Pp,1.73, which differs slightly from the fresco in the drapery and hands and in the relative positions of the figures, was accepted by Passavant and by Ruland but not by Crowe and Cavalcaselle who rightly observe that the drawing is "too finished and delicate in the modulations of the shading not to be a copy". The differences from the fresco, taken in conjunction with the very Raphaelesque technique, identical with that of the early Roman 'Pink Sketchbook' (cf. Pp,1.72), suggest that Pp,1.73 is an early copy of a careful preliminary drawing.
Literature: C & C, ii, p. 87; Passavant, ii, p. 495, no. 442; Ruland, p. 187, no. 86; BM Guide, 1858, no. 23.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1962/3 Nov-Sep, BM, Raphael and his Circle (P+G)
1983, BM, 'Drawings by Raphael', no. 105
1983 Jan-May, Washington, NG of Art, 'Raphael and America', no. 89
2012/13 Nov-Feb, Frankfurt, Stadel Museum, Raphael as Draughtsman
2016-17, Oct-Jan, Suzhou, 'Italian Renaissance Drawings', no. 43
2019 11 Apr-30 Jun, Macau Museum of Art, Macau, 'Italian Renaissance Drawings'
2021-2022 3 Sept – 20 Feb, Beijing, MWOODS, Italian Renaissance Drawings
- Acquisition date
- 1824
- Acquisition notes
- One of the drawings stolen from Wicar and sold to Ottley at the end of the 1790s, see Scheller 1973.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Pp,1.73
