Study sheet with the Healing of the Crippled by Peter and Paul

Author: Surya Stemerding

This sheet of studies had been attributed to Filippino Lippi (1457-1504) since 1886, but that can be dismissed on stylistic grounds alone. In addition, the sheet is clearly related to a cartoon by Raphael (1483-1520) for the tapestry The Healing of the Lame Man by Peter and Paul (1515-1516), which was made after Filippino’s death.^[1]

The composition as a whole differs from Raphael’s tapestry design, but a passing reference to it can be seen in the central figure group with Peter, Paul and the cripple, and in the small child who comes walking in from the left of the central group with two dead doves hanging from a stick over his shoulder. The architectural background with the barley-sugar Solomonic column is an obvious allusion to The Healing of the Cripple. However, the woman with a basket on her head, of whom there are several sketches in the drawing, differs from the prototype in Raphael’s scene, and is also reversed relative to the cartoon. Admittedly, the two apostles are also standing on the right, holding out their hands to the cripple at bottom left, but their poses have been changed. Whereas in Raphael's composition the main figures are positioned behind and between colonnades of columns that run frontally and divide the picture plane into compartments, they now stand in front of them.

The mise en page – the arrangement of the studies on the sheet – and the elongated figures correspond to the drawn oeuvre of Polidoro da Caravaggio (1499-1543) from the period 1520-30, among other works a double-sided composition study in New York.^[2] Joannides (2019) is even tempted to give the drawing an early date around 1530 on the basis of stylistic features.^[3] Both the proximity of the work to Polidoro and the complicated relationship to Raphael’s design lead to a provisional attribution to an as yet unidentified artist from the circle or school of Raphael. It is not known why the drawing was made; perhaps it was nothing more than a creative exercise on the artist’s part.

On the verso there is a study in pen and ink for a decorative design. The lines were apparently made by drawing around the outlines of an object or working with a rule and compasses. There are also elements that were drawn freehand. It is impossible to say whether the design is by the same artist as the flowing studies on the recto, but it was probably made around the same time, and suggests that the studio was working on different projects simultaneously.