Adoration of the Shepherds (Raphael)
Adoration of the Shepherds is the title of a lost drawing by Raphael, described in a letter of 8 September 1508, from Raphael to his friend Francesco Raibolini alias Francesco Francia. This letter's contents were first published in 1678, in Carlo Cesare Malvasia's book Felsina Pittrice. Malvasia gave a full account of the letter, which he claimed to have found among the papers of Count Antonio Lambertini in Bologna. While the existence and contents of the letter are disputed, according to Malvasia it described the delivery of a drawing of the Adoration of the Shepherds to Francesco Francia. This drawing has been considered lost or never to have existed. Provenance This piece, mistakenly claimed to be Raphael's Adoration of the Shepherds is by , on paper, executed in red-chalk on an underlying metal point sketch. It has a collector's stamp in the upper right corner, which indicates that it was once part of a collection donated to the library of Urbania, region of Marche, Italy in 1667 by Count Bernardino Ubaldini. The Collezione Ubaldini consisted of a large number of drawings and prints of varying quality. The custodians of the library at the time, the religious order of the Caracciolini,