Instelling van de Sabbath

[Workshop of Raphael]

243

God the Father, surrounded by angels (The Institution of the Sabbath?)

Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over traces of black chalk, heightened with white, partly oxydised, on light tan paper tinted brown. Some red offsetting, centre right. Framing line in pencil. Top right corner torn and made up; old tears, top right and centre (repaired).

132 x 398 mm.

CHAIN LINES: 38-42 mm (h).

PROVENANCE: Christina of Sweden; Azzolini; Odescalchi; acquired in 1790 (L. 2392).

Inv. Libro di Disegni di Rafaele d'Urbino, c. 57 (`Dio Padre in mezzo a molti Angeli'); inv. 1854: unidentified; inv. 1864: A 91 (after Raphael).

INV. NO.: A 73.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ruland, 1876, p. 226, no. LIII, 2; Oberhuber-Fischel, 1972, p. 175, no. 470a, fig. 183; Dacos, [1977], 1986, p. 294, pl. CXXXVI a, b; Meijer, exh. Florence-Rome, 1983-1984, p. 150, under no. 64; Davidson, 1985, p. 46, fig. 9; Cordellier and Py, 1992, p. 401, under nos. 631, 632.


Previously attributed to Raphael and to Perino del Vaga (old annotations on the mount). Following Oberhuber (1972), No. 243 is now often considered to be a copy after a lost modello for the destroyed grisaille fresco on the socle of the first bay of the Vatican Loggia. The design was engraved in the seventeenth century, before the fresco was destroyed, by Pietro Santi Bartoli, who inscribed his print Benedixit die septimo, et sanctificavit illem (Davidson, 1985, fig. 8). The subject is therefore usually identified as the Institution of the Sabbath, although Davidson (ibid., pp. 46-47) noted that this is "based on a plausible surmise, not on conclusive evidence."
Oberhuber's argument that No. 243 is a copy, rather than the original modello, was based on technical grounds - the absence of squaring foremost among them - as well as because he judged the drawing to be of poorer quality than accepted originals. While it is true that most of the surviving modelli are squared in black chalk, such squaring is likewise absent from the Scene from the life of Solomon in the Ashmolean Museum (Oberhuber-Fischel, 1972, no. 472a), which Oberhuber did accept as an original. Moreover, the Haarlem sheet shows traces of a fine black chalk underdrawing, in places differing from the final composition, as well as clear pentimenti. The lower part of God's beard, for example, was drawn in its entirety before it was covered by His mantle. The drawing may make a less lively impression than others associated with the Logge, but no better version of the design has come to light and its status should be reconsidered.
There are two copies in the Louvre after the drawing or the fresco (Cordellier and Py, 1992, p. 401, nos. 631-632).