VIENNA, AUSTRIA – news aktuell – September 29, 2023 – The Old Masters Auction at Dorotheum on October 25, 2023 will feature a rediscovered work on paper that was recently identified as a late drawing by Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael, the central artist of the High Renaissance.
The sketch, depicting a horse and its rider, is one of the few known drawings by Raphael from his later period. The study is particularly important because of its role in one of the most ambitious artistic projects of the 16th century: the decoration of the papal apartments at the Vatican. The drawing is a preparatory study for part of the fresco of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in the Hall of Constantine. The Stanze, known collectively as the “Raphaël Rooms,” are considered one of the most important achievements in art history.
The drawing, executed in red chalk, provides new insight into Raphaël’s professional practice and an auction result in excess of one million euros is expected.
“Compositional and stylistic details confirm that this is a preparatory study by Raphael for the famous fresco,” says Dorotheum Old Masters specialist Mark MacDonnell: “It has an energy, a verve, a movement and a quality that makes this sheet an exceptional rarity.
The present study, a sketch in red chalk, is one of only three surviving drawings of this fresco made by the master’s hand, the other two being in the Louvre and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
This sheet has been kept in private collections and was formerly attributed to Rubens. Today, through comparative analysis of technique and composition, this study of horse and rider has been recognized as Raphael’s own work.
Raphael did not live to see the completion of the fresco as he died in 1520, and his student Giulio Romano took over the final painting.
More information
https://www.dorotheum.com/en/p/dorotheum-presents-a-rediscovered-raphael-drawing/
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUTqbIkiqs
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