Previously unrecorded, the drawing relates to Raphael’s Anside Madonna in the National Gallery in London and is probably the artist’s earliest drawing in red chalk.
Found during a routine valuation by Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings expert Cristiana Romalli, the drawing represents a highly important addition to Raphael’s oeuvre. It was executed some time around 1505, when Raphael was just 22 years old, and dates from a defining moment in his career, fully demonstrating his position at that time, poised as he then was between the traditions of the past and those of the future. One of only a handful of Raphael drawings still in private hands, Head of a Child is the first drawing by the artist to have come to auction since 1997*. It is estimated at £50,000 to £70,000.
Cristiana Romalli discovered the work while leafing through a folio of minor Italian drawings that had been brought into Sotheby’s by a client. She said: “The moment I came to the child’s head, I knew it was by Raphael. It was beautifully executed, and the combination of stylus and red chalk spoke to me immediately of Raphael. I was astonished: I could hardly believe that a work by so major an artist could really be here, so unexpected, and with no indication whatsoever of any previous attribution.”
Struck by the firmness and control of the composition, as well as by the unusual combination of red chalk over stylus, Cristiana took the drawing in for further research. Comparing it to other works in Raphael’s oeuvre, she found the forms of the child’s face echoed very closely of those of the Christ Child’s face in the Anside Madonna (executed as an altarpiece for the Church of S. Fiorenzo, Perugia, and now in the National Gallery in London.). On the strength of this, the drawing was taken to the National Gallery for side-by-side comparison with the painting there, and it was immediately clear that the two works were related. As is so often the case, there are some minor differences between the drawing and the painted work – in the drawing, the child’s left cheek is slightly plumper, and the tilt of his head is a little less acute – but otherwise the forms match perfectly.
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In fact, the minor differences are themselves revealing, for when the National Gallery painting is examined under infra-red light, early pentimenti (compositional revisions) show that, in the earlier stages of painting, Raphael had indeed painted a rounder, fuller cheek than the one we see now.
Aside from its connection with the painting, the drawing tells an independent story that is equally compelling. For while the precision of form and careful composition look back to previous generation of artists, the use of red chalk heralds a new and exciting moment both in Raphael’s career and, more broadly, in the history of Italian renaissance art. Dating from 1505, this seems to be Raphael’s first known use of red chalk. At this date, he was newly arrived in Florence, and his choice of this medium was almost certainly a direct result of his exposure there to the works of that great innovator, Leonardo da Vinci, who had already begun to explore its expressive possibilities. Raphael’s exposure to the art of Florence, and of Leonardo in particular – this ‘new encounter’, as it has been called – was to transform his art, and his use of red chalk in the present drawing stands as an early acknowledgement of all that was new and exciting around him – forces that were to have such a transforming impact on his work.
The drawing of the Head of the Child, therefore, stands at a crossroads – at once looking back to the Early Renaissance (to the works of artists such as Verrochio, Polloaiolo, Masaccio and Donatello), while at the same time looking forward to ‘new’ art of the next generation and to the works of the High Renaissance artists, among whom Raphael was to be a leading figure.
The verso of the drawing (above) is also fascinating. It shows a metal vessel, possibly an incense burner. While drawings of this kind of subject are rare in Raphael’s oeuvre, they nonetheless shed interesting light on little-known aspects of his life and career. For in fact there has long been speculation that, aside from his work as a painter, Raphael may also have been involved in designing objects for metalwork. This would tally both with his personal circumstances (his father’s second wife was from a family of goldsmiths) as well as with other circumstantial evidence (a small number of similar drawings, a receipt for some salver designs, and mention of two basins after Raphael designs having been offered to Isabella d’Este). If Raphael did indeed produce designs for metalwork, that would place him firmly among like-minded contemporaries – Perugino (widely believed to have been Raphael’s master) had a strong interest in metalwork and design, and Giulio Romano (one of Raphael’s leading pupils) was an almost unparalleled designer of silver and metal objects.
This exceptional drawing therefore presents a remarkably rich and full picture of the range and development of Raphael’s art around the time that he moved to Florence (a theme which is to be the subject of a major exhibition at the National Gallery London later this year). This sheet may be small, but its importance is certainly not, and its discovery adds considerably to our understanding of how Raphael traversed this crossroad in his artistic life.
* In January 1997, Sotheby’s sold a drawing, ‘Studies of the Christ Child’ for $310,500 (£191,830) at an auction in New York.
* Sotheby’s, 34-35, New Bond Street, London W1A2AA. Tel: +44 (0)20 7293 6000 www.sothebys.com