The gathering of manna

An engraving by Agostino Veneziano generally though to be after an early study for the almost entirely destroyed fresco 'The gathering of manna' painted by the workshop of Raphael (c.1517-19) in the basamento of the eighth bay of the Raphael Loggia in the Vatican. Signed with the printmaker's monogram at bottom centre (Nagler 1423). Trimmed to image. Second state.

This engraving is very different from the basamento fresco executed in the eighth loggia, as depicted in a print made by Pietro Santi Bartoli (see RCIN 853675 for an impression of this print). This engraving does, however, bear strong compositional similarities to a drawing of which a photograph is present in the Raphael Collection (RCIN 853682); this drawing was catalogued by Ruland (1876) as then being in the collection of the Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen. Ruland stated that this engraving was made after the Copenhagen drawing, which he hypothesised was 'perhaps a first sketch for' the fresco. Stefania Massari, in 'Raphael Invenit', references a different drawing, at Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford (see RCIN 853684 for a photograph of it), which is attributed to the school of Raphael and which has been cited as the modello from which the print was made. Massari, however, suggests that the Oxford drawing may in fact be a copy from an original, by Raphael, cited by P. Zani (Enciclopedia metodica critico-ragionata delle belle arti, 1820) as in the collection of Antonio Armani.

According to Dacos (see Bibliographic References), the basamento paintings of the Raphael Loggia in the Vatican were executed in grisaille and imitated bronze reliefs.