The Adoration of the Shepherds.

Drawing, red chalk heightened with white, 19,5 x 30,8 cm, laid paper with watemark (Amsterdam coat of arms; Heawood: 414), unsigned (trimmed to the borderline, oxidation of the lead white, some creases at corners, tiny piece lower right corner missing).

Under passe-partout.

An interesting figure drawing with an adoration scene. The composition of the figure group is based on a design by Raphael for Logias in the Vatican. A tapestry cycle after the fresco wascommissioned by Pope Leo X known as the Scuola Nova, with representations of The Life of Christ. The original drawing for this commission is now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA1846.298). Along with the more famous tapestry cycle on The Acts of the Apostles, the designs and cartoons of this cycle were sent with Raphael's student Tommaso Vincidor (1493-1536) to be woven in Brussels in 1520-1524. These cartoons and drawings remained in Brussels untill they were bought by the Dutch artist Govert Flinck. Given that the present drawing contains a 17th-c. Amsterdam watermark, the artist may have had access to Raphael's drawings in the Flinck workshop.
Ref. A. Van Camp, "A collection of Tapestry Cartoons at the Ashmolean in Oxford", Studiae Bruxellae 13 (2019), pp. 345-386.
Prov. Albert Van Loock (coll. stamp on verso, L. 3752).