Cupids playing with Apples c.1520-50
Chiaroscuro woodcut, from three blocks, printed in brown | 27.8 x 40.9 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 851879
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A chiaroscuro woodcut after a design traditionally attributed to Raphael. Signed with printmaker's monogram at lower right (partially legible): NDB. Annotated in brown ink at lower centre: R.
The composition is known also from an anonymous engraving of the School of Fontainebleau (Bartsch XVI, p.403, no.70) and several drawings, including one in the Staatliche Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf (inv. no.D.208; photograph at RCIN 851877) and another in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no.3887; photograph at RCIN 851878). Scholars have pointed out connections between this composition and the so-called Giuochi di putti, a set of tapestries designed by Giovanni da Udine/Tommaso Vincidor and woven in Flanders for Leo X. Suggestions that this composition may be indebted to Raphael himself have also been made. For further discussion, see Bibliographic References.
Another chiaroscuro woodcut by the Monogrammist NDB of a related composition and dated 1544 at RCIN 851921.Provenance
Added to the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)
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Creator(s)
(wood cutter) -
Medium and techniques
Chiaroscuro woodcut, from three blocks, printed in brown
Measurements
27.8 x 40.9 cm (sheet of paper)
Markings
annotation: R [front, lower centre, in brown ink]
annotation: p.139 Amorini A III. 3 / PF 18 A III [lower left] / 112_108_4 [lower centre] [back , in pencil]
annotation: VIII / 4 [back, lower left, in brown ink]
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Bibliographic reference(s)
Catalogue of the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. v. P. Pouncey and J.A.Gere, Raphael and His Circle; pp.88-9, under no.155
Cordellier/Py 1992 : Raphael : son atelier, ses copistes, 1992 / par Dominique Cordellier et Bernadette Py, Paris (Inventaire general des dessins Italiens ; V / sous la direction de Francoise Viatte) pp.334-5; under no.488
