The Meeting between Pope Leo I and Attila the Hun

Author: Klazina Botke

The drawing is a copy after Raphael’s fresco The Meeting between Pope Leo I and Attila the Hun, painted around 1513-14 in the Stanza di Eliodoro (Room of Heliodorus), one of the four rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, also known as the Stanze di Raffaello (fig.). The suite was originally designed as an apartment complex for Pope Julius II (1443-1513) and the Stanze di Eliodoro was probably an audience chamber.^[1] The subjects chosen for this space were unmistakably political. The frescoes on the four walls picture The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, The Liberation of St Peter, The Mass of Bolsena and The Meeting between Pope Leo I and Attila the Hun. There is a form of divine intervention in all the scenes, and a pope is present, even if it deviates from the story.^[2] For example, in the fresco of the meeting with Attila, Pope Leo I appears on a white horse with two cardinals in his train. Above them a militant St Peter and St Paul hover in the sky. They help the pope to prevent Attila and his men from marching on Rome. In reality, Attila was forced to leave Italy in 452 before he had reached Rome, so probably never met the pope.^[3] Raphael likely painted most of the left half of the fresco himself, with minimal work by his pupils, while the other half can be attributed to artists from his workshop, including Giovan Francesco Penni (c.1488-1528), Giulio Romano (1492/1499-1546) and Raffaellino del Colle (1490-1566).

Raphael’s frescoes have been repeatedly copied through the centuries. This was a way for other artists to hone their skills, but the copies also helped to spread Raphael’s fame more widely. A number of drawn copies of the fresco with Leo and Attila have survived, among them anonymous studies in Vienna, Budapest, London and Oxford.^[4] Pouncey and Gere attributed a fifth copy in Paris to Giulio Romano (1499-1546), which they said was an earlier idea for this scene by Raphael.^[5] However, the rectangular shape of the drawing and the use of parchment would seem to contradict this. Whether this is the original design by Raphael or a copy by Giulio Romano or Penni, as is sometimes suggested, remains a subject of debate.^[6]

In the Rotterdam study, only the left part of the fresco was copied. The lunette shape was not adopted, and the figure of Peter hovers further to the left and much higher in the space. It is quite possible that the artist was only interested in this group as this was the part of the composition executed by Raphael himself. We can only speculate about the attribution of this copy. After his visit to the museum, Philip Pouncey suggested the name of Biagio Pupini (1511-1575).^[7] This Bolognese artist did indeed make a number of drawings after Raphael’s work but these studies in black chalk with many white highlights have nothing in common with the Rotterdam study.^[8] Bernardino Poccetti (1548-1612) was also once posited as the maker, but by whom and on what basis is unclear.