Study for the Disputa

Story

Raphael created more drawings for the Disputa in the Stanza della Segnatura than for any other work in his career, and more than the total of drawings for the other scenes in the Stanza della Segnatura: no less than thirty sheets survived. Raphael always improved his works through whole series of drawings, but the sophisticated composition of the Disputa demanded exceptionally careful preparation.

The present drawing is an early study which follows traditional patterns. Their static, frontal view, and symmetrical, compact grouping closely correspond with Pinturicchio's previous frescoes in the Borgia Apartments. Raphael achieved the painted version of the Disputa, comprised of sophistical groups of figures in various poses, through discarded and finalized solutions in his preparatory drawings.

The earliest idea for representing the 'uomini famosi' for the Disputa was the visual portrayal of the "living rocks" on which the Church was founded. Raphael found the design unsatisfactory because there was no way of depicting the link between the uomini famosi and the most important motif of the entire program, the truth revealed in the form of the divine Trinity in heaven. His problem was solved by the additional symbolic portrayal of this central theme in the form of the Host on the altar.