Portret van jonge man, halffiguur

Onderzoek voor de Rafaëlexpositie (najaar 2012) heeft geresulteerd in drie veranderde toeschrijvingen. Het gaat om de tekeningen Portret van een jonge man (inv. A 091), Vliegende Putto (inv. A 076) en Jozua spreekt tot de Israëlische stamhoofden in Sichem (inv. A+ 027).

Alhoewel deze bladen traditioneel aan Rafaël waren toegeschreven, zijn ze in het midden van de vorige eeuw bestempeld als ‘Rafaël School’. Door onderzoek van de afgelopen jaren, waarbij de oeuvres van de leerlingen opnieuw zijn doorgelicht en waarbij de atelierpraktijk van Rafael opnieuw aandacht heeft gekregen, zijn de organisatoren van de tentoonstelling (Achim Gnann en Michiel Plomp) ervan overtuigd dat de traditionele toeschrijving de juiste was. Alhoewel nogal verschillend van karakter, hebben ze ieder voor zich kenmerken die de signatuur vertonen van Rafaël, hetzij in de belichting of in het verkort weergeven of in de emotie-uitbeelding.
[Workshop of Raphael]

240

Portrait of a young man

Red chalk over stylus underdrawing on light tan paper. Framing line in pencil. Badly stained.

197 x 187 mm.

CHAIN LINES: 28-39 mm (h).

PROVENANCE: ? Christina of Sweden, etc.; Odescalchi; acquired in 1790 (L. 2392).

Perhaps to be identified in Queen Christina's Libro di Disegni di Rafaele among various `Ritratti' mentioned on pages 99-101.

Inv. 1854: unidentified; inv. 1864: B 22 (after Titian); inv. 1920: A 91 (Raphael).

INV. NO.: A 91.

EXHIBITIONS: Mantua, 1989, s.n. (repr.); Vienna, 1999, no. 168 (repr.).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Marcucci, 1958, p. 29, fig. 6; Van Regteren Altena, 1966, p. 52; Oberhuber-Fischel, 1972, p. 38, fig. 31; Ferino Pagden, exh. Mantua, 1989, pp. 95, 255, repr.; Monbeig Goguel, 1999, p. 496.


How this drawing came to be described in the 1864 inventory as a copy after Titian is a mystery. Luisa Marcucci thought it could be by Bacchiacca, but Van Regteren Altena rightly placed it in Raphael's orbit. The attribution to the young Giulio Romano was proposed by Oberhuber. Ferino Pagden (exh. Mantua, 1989) compared it to two drawings of Saint Roch and Saint Sebastian in the Louvre (inv. 10890 and 10138; Hartt, 1958, nos. 31b and 31c, figs. 46 and 47), which show the same unemphatic, parallel hatching suggestive of a strong raking light, and suggested a date c. 1520-1522 for the group. Most recently, however, Oberhuber and Gnann (exh. Mantua-Vienna, 1999) proposed returning the sheet to Raphael and dating it c. 1515-1517; initial reactions have not been favourable (Monbeig Goguel, 1999).
The horizontal line in red chalk cutting off the figure at the bottom, together with a less unequivocal framing line at the right, suggests the drawing was a study for a painted portrait. The presentation of the sitter, seen in three-quarter view with the head at the apex of a pyramid created by the ballooning sleeves, is clearly indebted to Raphael's Baldassare Castiglione (Louvre) of c. 1515, but here the format is extended downwards to include the sitter's hands and the arm of his chair at the base of the pyramid. Conceivably the drawing is a costume study for a commissioned portrait, with a studio assistant standing in for the sitter. The draughtsman was interested above all in capturing the fall of light on the voluminous sleeves, and in contrasting their bulk with the soft flat collar of the youth's cloak.