A sacrifice c.1789-98
Aquatint with etching | 52.7 x 39.4 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 852357
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An aquatint of a drawing then in the collection of Richard Cosway and attributed on the plate to Raphael. The print was published in C.M. Metz, Imitations of Ancient and Modern Drawings, London (first edition published in 1789, the second in 1798). On watermarked paper.
This print appears to be a pastiche of various Raphaelesque drawings: in the foreground, the man seen from behind is very similar to the study of Ganymede for the Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche in the Farnesina (the drawing is now in the Louvre, Paris, inv. no. 4019; see 853984 for a photograph of it). The man on the far right foreground is the reversed image of St Paul (the drawing is now at the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, inv. no. I 26) for the painting of St Cecilia, in Bologna. The group of two men on the far left is the reversed representation of the two draped figures on the left in a compositional study for the first version of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes (now in the Albertina, Vienna, inv. no.192r; see RCIN 853027 for a photograph of it). The depictions of animals resemble various examples by Giulio Romano.Provenance
Added to the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)
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Creator(s)
(printmaker) -
Medium and techniques
Aquatint with etching
Measurements
52.7 x 39.4 cm (sheet of paper)
51.0 x 34.5 cm (platemark)
Markings
watermark: SON [verso, bottom left]
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Bibliographic reference(s)
Joannides 1983 : Joannides, P., 1983. The Drawings of Raphael, with a complete catalogue, Oxford p.223, no. 356 r (for the Miracolous Draught of Fishes); p. 229, no. 382 (for St Paul); p. 235, no. 404 (for Ganymede)