The Prophet Isaiah with Banner

Author: Rosie Razzall

This drawing of a seated man relates to a roundel of the prophet Isaiah painted by Perugino as part of a polyptych with saints, prophets and scenes from the life of Christ for the Pala di San Pietro, Perugia. The paintings were begun in 1496 and completed by 1499. They were dismantled in 1591 and taken to France at the end of the eighteenth century.^[1] The Isaiah roundel is now in Nantes (fig.).^[2]

The Rotterdam drawing is in poor condition, with many areas of abrasion across the sheet and with losses to the wash and white heightening. This damage makes it difficult to judge whether this drawing is a preparatory drawing by Perugino himself, as has been assumed since the early twentieth century. It seems more likely that the motif was copied by a member of the workshop, a practice that was very common, as a way of learning and perfecting the master’s style. There is, for example, a copy by another hand of another of the roundels with the prophet David, now in New York.^[3] The rigid lines of the left hand holding the banner are particularly suggestive of a copy, though the figure is freely hatched, enhanced with white highlights, and the face and hair are fluently drawn. On the verso are several brief studies in pen and ink, showing a man’s head, a pair of legs and a hen pecking its foot. These studies are in a less accomplished hand, and as with the verso of I 254, may have been added to the sheet by a junior member of the workshop.