Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
This drawing is from Raphael’s "pink sketchbook," comprised of ten sheets of roughly equal size that each portray variations of a mother and child. Today, six of the drawings at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille; two are at the British Museum; one is in a private collection; and one is in Cleveland. The small format of the sheets would have enabled the artist to carry the notebook as he traveled from Florence to Rome in 1508. Raphael used metalpoint, a technique popular in 15th- and early 16th-century Italy on a pink prepared surface. The pose of the infant's head in the drawing was based on that of the Christ child in Leonardo da Vinci's <em>Benois Madonna</em>, then in a private collection in Florence, with changes—such as the uplifted eyes and open mouth—made by Raphael. The curving back of the female nude is echoed in the roundness of the child's head. The three sketches of a reclining infant at the bottom of the sheet are freely handled and improvisational, relaying the child's squirming, continuous movement with repeated contour lines.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
149377
label
Studies of a Seated Female, Child's Head, and Three Studies of a Baby
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
149377
contentType
drawing
title
Studies of a Seated Female, Child's Head, and Three Studies of a Baby
description
This drawing is from Raphael’s "pink sketchbook," comprised of ten sheets of roughly equal size that each portray variations of a mother and child. Today, six of the drawings at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille; two are at the British Museum; one is in a private collection; and one is in Cleveland. The small format of the sheets would have enabled the artist to carry the notebook as he traveled from Florence to Rome in 1508. Raphael used metalpoint, a technique popular in 15th- and early 16th-century Italy on a pink prepared surface. The pose of the infant's head in the drawing was based on that of the Christ child in Leonardo da Vinci's <em>Benois Madonna</em>, then in a private collection in Florence, with changes—such as the uplifted eyes and open mouth—made by Raphael. The curving back of the female nude is echoed in the roundness of the child's head. The three sketches of a reclining infant at the bottom of the sheet are freely handled and improvisational, relaying the child's squirming, continuous movement with repeated contour lines.
date
c. 1507–8
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79930525
creators
4584
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 12 x 15.3 cm (4 3/4 x 6 in.)
cul
Italy, 16th century
accession
1978.37
Source extras
tec
metalpoint
tombstone
Studies of a Seated Female, Child's Head, and Three Studies of a Baby, c. 1507–8. Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520). Metalpoint; sheet: 12 x 15.3 cm (4 3/4 x 6 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1978.37
supportMaterials
description
cream(3) laid paper prepared with a pink ground
collection
DR - Italian
inscriptions
inscription
lower right, in brown ink: 74
didYouKnow
This sheet was probably once part of a sketchbook carried by the artist Raphael on a 1508 journey between Florence and Rome.
citations
citation
Passavant, Johann David. Rafael von Urbino und sein vater Giovanni Santi. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1839.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 145, pp. 489-90
citation
Passavant, Johann David, Jules Lunteschutz, and P. L. Jacob. Raphael d'Urbin et son père, Giovanni Santi. Paris: Vve J. Renouard, 1860.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 161, p. 428
citation
Ruland, Carl. The Works of Raphael Santi Da Urbino. [London?]: [publisher not identified], 1876. .
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: no. xxvi, p. 7, 317; no. xxx
citation
Fischel, Oskar, "Letter to the Editor: Some Lost Drawings by or Near to Raphael," Burlington Magazine, vol. XX, No. 103-108 (October 1911-March 1912): pp. 294-300.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 295, fig. 6, p. 299
citation
"Rundschau," Der Cicerone 22 (1930), 230 (repr.);
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 230
citation
Fischel, Oskar. "Raphael's Pink Sketch-Book." <em>The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs</em> 74, no. 433 (1939): 181-87.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 187, plate III, B
citation
Fischel, Oskar. Raphaels Zeichnungen. 1, 1. Berlin: Grote, 1913-1972. Vol 8 (1941)
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 354, pp. 366-67, illus
citation
Fischel, Oskar, and Bernard Rackham. Raphael. London: K. Paul, 1948.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 129-30, 360, no. 138b (repr.)
citation
British Museum, A. E. Popham, Philip Pouncey, and John A. Gere. Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. London: Published by the Trustees of the British Museum, 1950.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 20, under no. 23
citation
Kurz, Otto. Fakes. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 100, fig. 22
citation
Sotheby Parke Bernet, "Art at Auction:The Year at Sotheby Parke Bernet 1977-1978."
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 45-46
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Six Works from Von Hirsch Collection,” August 1, 1978, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
citation
---Art Investment Guide, vol 6, no. 2 (Autumn 1978)
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 19
citation
Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1978." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 66, no. 1 (1979): 3-47.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 3, 45
citation
"La Chronique des Arts, Principes Acquisitions des Musees en 1978," Gazette des Beaux Arts, xxciii (April 1979).
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 35
citation
Johnson, Mark M. Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 27-29, fig. 20
citation
Olszewski, Edward J., and Jane Glaubinger. The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles. Cleveland: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with the Indiana University Press, 1981.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 285, fig. 7
citation
Olszewski, Edward J., "Late Italian Renaissance drawings," Connoisseur vol 206, no. 830 (April, 1981): pp. 284-288.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 285, fig.7
citation
Gere, John A., and Nicholas Turner. Drawings by Raphael: From the Royal Library, the Ashmolean, the British Museum, Chatsworth, and Other English Collections. London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1983.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 143, under no. 116
citation
Joannides, Paul, and Raphael. The Drawings of Raphael: With a Complete Catalogue. Oxford: Phaidon, 1983.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 273, pp. 21, 201, 204, 256
citation
Raphael. Raphaël dans les collections françaises: Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 15 novembre 1983-13 février 1984. Paris: Ministère de la culture, Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1983.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 278-80, under nos. 96-97
citation
Knab, Eckhart, Raphael, Erwin Mitsch, and Konrad Oberhuber. Raphael: die Zeichnungen. Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 1983.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 417, pp. 120, 128, 595-96, illus
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. Drawing, a Glossary of Materials: Selections from the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1987.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 11-12,, illus.
citation
Musée du Louvre, Dominique Cordellier, and Bernadette Py. Raphaël, son atelier, ses copistes. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1992.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 183-84
citation
Raphael. Raphael: The Pursuit of Perfection. Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1994.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 52, 54, 66, fig. 43.
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: cat. no. 5, p. 9, pp. 28-29, pp. 283-284; Reproduced: p. 29
citation
Meyer zur Capellen, Jürg, Raphael, and Stefan B. Polter. Raphael: A Critical Catalogue of His Paintings. Landshut: Arcos, 2001.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 95, fig. 51/1.3
citation
Brink, Claudia, and Andreas Henning. Raffael: die Sixtinische Madonna ; Geschichte und Mythos eines Meisterwerks. München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2005.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 2, p. 61
citation
Olszewski, Edward. A Corpus of Drawings in Midwestern Collections: Sixteenth-Century Italian Drawings, vol. 2 (Turnhout, Belgium, Brepols Publishers, 2008).
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 362, fig. 292
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 162-63
citation
Kárpáti, Zoltán, and Raphael. Raphael: Drawings in Budapest. 2013.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 100-01, fig. 72
citation
Brown, Heather Lemonedes. “Mise en Page.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine </em>61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 19.
page_number
Reproduced: P. 19.
citation
Singer, Juliette, Raphael, and Lille (France). Musée des beaux-arts. ExpéRience RaphaëL. Paris: RMN-Grand Palais, 2024.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 28-29, fig. 7
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:41:25.963000
sourceId
149377
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - Italian
med
metalpoint
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
629393fe95ec5671