Circle of Pietro Perugino

In the catalogue of the Rijksmuseum exhibition, Karel Boon suggested a date of around 1500 for this drawing, which he convincingly associated with the entourage of Perugino. He also stressed a comparison with the style of a double-sided sheet in the Louvre (inv. RF 49), which was first published by Fischel in 1913 as the work of the young Raphael. The kneeling figure on the recto of that drawing is closely inspired by the figure of St. James on the extreme right in Perugino's fresco of the Transfiguration for the Collegio del Cambio, Perugia (see O. Fischel, Raphaels Zeichnungen, vol. I,  Berlin 1913, p. 39, reproduced figs. 35-6). Boon also noted Shearman's suggestion that the present drawing could be the work of the young Fra Bartolommeo before 1500.

Yet despite these various suggestions, the attribution of this intriguing drawing remains unresolved. The figure of Christ carrying the Cross is definitely reminiscent of Perugino's work.  It is also the only figure on the sheet that is drawn over indications in black chalk.  The other figures, two of which are surely prisoners, although drawn quickly and therefore less finished than the figure of Christ, are, however, more similar to the style of Ghirlandaio. Are the other figures following Christ part of the same composition or unrelated? Boon points out that similar figures of prisoners do occur in the depiction of the subject in the Umbrian tradition, see for instance, the predella representing the Way to Calvary, from the polyptych of S. Niccolò in Foligno, painted by Niccolò Alunno in 1492 and now in the Louvre (fig. 1, see Filippo Todini, La Pittura Umbra, vol. II,  Milan 1989, reproduced fig. 981). 

The attribution of this drawing may well continue to be discussed, but it remains a very rare and moving work, produced by an accomplished master working closely alongside Perugino and the young Raphael.