Adoration of the Shepherds (Raphael)
Adoration of the Shepherds is the title of a lost drawing by Raphael, described in a letter of 8 September 1508, from Raphael to his friend Francesco Raibolini alias Francesco Francia. This letter's contents were first published in 1678, in Carlo Cesare Malvasia's book Felsina Pittrice. Malvasia gave a full account of the letter, which he claimed to have found among the papers of Count Antonio Lambertini in Bologna. While the existence and contents of the letter are disputed, according to Malvasia it described the delivery of a drawing of the Adoration of the Shepherds to Francesco Francia. This drawing has been considered lost or never to have existed. Provenance This piece, mistakenly claimed to be Raphael's Adoration of the Shepherds is by , on paper, executed in red-chalk on an underlying metal point sketch. It has a collector's stamp in the upper right corner, which indicates that it was once part of a collection donated to the library of Urbania, region of Marche, Italy in 1667 by Count Bernardino Ubaldini. The Collezione Ubaldini consisted of a large number of drawings and prints of varying quality. The custodians of the library at the time, the religious order of the Caracciolini, pasted the drawings into two different books; Baldus de Ubaldis' Consilia from 1490, and Alexander Imolensis' Consilia, Lione edition from 1549. These two volumes are preserved, although the collection has been dismantled. The drawing was not part of Collezione Ubaldini during the great inventory of 1837. If Raphael's Adoration of the Shepherds drawing had been a part of the collection it is not known when or why it was separated. The drawing is signed "Raphaello Sancio fecit." An additional illegible word is written below this signature. The signature has been crossed over and a reattribution has been added: "Veneziano." The drawing has a short text on the verso side, not all of which is legible but which reads: "Nr 32 questo disegno Appartiene a Lambertini prospero […] dalla esegui che dicesi esser quello che Raffaello Regalo al Mag. Francia cio é per traduzione(?) di quello che lo stesso esegui)." The number may refer to the piece's collection number in the Ubaldini Collection. However the attribution to Veneziano is construed as the art work being of the Venetian style, and not an attribution. In 1678, when Malvasia published a history of painting in Bologna titled Felsina Pittrice, he included a transcript of a letter which he claimed to have seen. This letter was sent from Raphael in Rome in 1508 to his friend Francesco Francia in Bologna. In the letter Raphael wrote: “In Mean while I send to you by this same messenger, who will be going back in six days, another drawing, viz an Adoration of the Shepherds (presepe), which, as you will see, differs very much from the picture I painted, and of which you were kind enough to speak in such favourable terms”. In 1925, Francesco Filippini published a history of Raphael's visit to Bologna in 1506–1507, Raffaello