Fragment of a Tapestry Cartoon: Foot in a Buskin, Drapery, and a Plant

School of Raphael

Brush, yellow, blue, green, brown, black and white gouache, over some black chalk

Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small but refined drawing depicts a foot clad in a buskin—a classical laced boot—accompanied by drapery and a plant, rendered in brush with yellow, blue, green, brown, black, and white gouache over black chalk. It is a surviving fragment of a full-scale preparatory cartoon associated with the Scuola Nuova (New School) tapestry series, a second series of papal tapestries linked to the workshop traditions established by Raphael and carried forward by artists such as Giulio Romano and Tommaso Vincidor. Scholarly consensus attributes the Scuola Nuova cartoons to the Brussels workshop of Tommaso Vincidor, one of Raphael's pupils sent to Brussels in 1520 to supervise papal tapestry production. The fragment's meticulous gouache technique and pricked surface for transfer reflect the exacting craft methods employed in large-scale Renaissance tapestry production.