Study for the Disputa 1509

This is Raphael’s study in pen and brown ink for his fresco the Disputa, made in Italy sometime in the early 16th century. The finished work was commissioned for the Vatican, as part of a large project to decorate the Pope’s private rooms. The Disputa, or the “Disputation of the Holy Sacrament,” is a grand, somewhat idealized vision of religious scholars in conversation with divine figures. This study gives us some insight into Raphael’s process: he’s exploring how to represent religious authority through the arrangement of figures, and he is working out the visual codes that would have been familiar to his audience. While this drawing gives us a glimpse into the practice of one of the Renaissance’s most celebrated artists, it also reminds us that art making is always conditioned by social and institutional demands. Using resources from the Vatican archives we can learn more about the social and political context of Raphael’s work.