RAPHAEL (Raffaeilo Sanzio)
38 Studies for the Disputa
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Pen and brown ink; H: 31.2 cm (i2I/4 in.); W: 20.8 cm
.(8^3 /i6 in.)
84.GA.92 0
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom left cor-
ner, collection mark of Sir Joshua Reynolds (L. 2364); at
bottom right corner, collection mark of Jonathan Rich-
ardson, Jr. (L. 2170).
PROVENANCE: Jonathan Richardson, Jr., London; Sir
Joshua Reynolds, London; Lord Overstone, Lockinge;
Lord and Lady Wantage and Harriet Loyd, Lockinge;
A. T. Loyd, Lockinge; C. L. Loyd, Lockinge.
EXHIBITIONS: Winter Exhibition, Burlington Fine Arts
Club, London, 1923 -1924, no. 14. Exhibition of Italian
Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930,
no. 459. Drawings by Raphael, from the P.oyal Library, the
Ashmolean, the British Museum, Chatsworth and other En-
glish Collections, British Museum, London, 1983 -1984,
no. 89 (catalogue byj. Gere and N. Turner).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Redford, Descriptive Catalogue of
Works of Art at Overstone Park (Lockinge House and Carl-
ton Gardens, 1878), p. 26, no. 100; A. G. B. Russell, The
Vasari Society, 2nd ser., pt. 5 (Oxford, 1924), p. 9, no. 6;
O. Fischel, Raphaels Zeichnungen (Berlin, 1925), vol. 6,
pp. 302-303, nos. 270, 271; idem, "An Unknown Draw-
ing for Raphael's Disputa" Burlington Magazine 47, no.
271 (October 1925), pp. 174-179; Guide to the Pictures at
Lockinge House (London[?] 5 1928), p. 29; The Loyd Col-
lection of Paintings and Drawings at Betterton House, Lock-
inge near Wantage, Berkshire (London, 1967), p. 67, no.
116; P. Joannides, The Drawings of Raphael (Oxford,
1983), p. 183, nos. 203r, 2O3v; E. Knab, E. Mitsch, and
K. Oberhuber, Raffaeilo: I disegni (Florence, 1983), p.
608 , nos. 291, 292; idem, Raphael: Die Zeichnungen
(Stuttgart, 1983), pp. 582-583, nos. 291, 292.
THIS DRAWING WAS DISCOVERED BY RUSSELL (1924,
p. 9) and first associated with the Disputa in the Stanza
della Segnatura by Fischel ("An Unknown Drawing... ," 1925, p. 175). The principal figure on the recto is
an early study for the man with his back to the viewer
standing on the steps to the left of the altar. The abstractly
drawn hooded figure at the right of the drawing is prob-
ably a quick first thought for the seated Saint Gregory,
also to the left of center in the fresco. Two men are shown
in animated discussion behind and to the left of the draw-
ing's principal figure, the one in monastic habit rendered
with remarkable graphic economy. They reappear in the
fresco at the left and well behind the main figure group
to the left of the altar.
The verso was much more hastily composed. It
consists of three studies of the primary image on the
recto, along with a first idea for the young man turning
outward to the viewer who stands in the left foreground
of the fresco. These sketches illustrate again Raphael's ca-
pacity to suggest both the structure and movement of
forms with a few lines.
RAPHAEL • ITALIAN SCHOOL 97