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Secondary sourcePhotograph1518-1519 (fresco); slide made 1839-1939

Glass Slide of Raphael's Grotesques in the Vatican

Raphael · 1518-1519 (fresco); slide made 1839-1939

A photographic lantern slide showing Raphael's decorative fresco grotesques in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, made with his workshop around 1518-1519.

Shows decorative fresco work created by Raphael and his workshop in the Vatican.

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Photograph of a lantern glass slide showing a vertical strip of Renaissance wall decoration with grotesque ornament: framed figure panels, medallions, and painted candelabra-like motifs. Labels read Raphael et atelier, Grotteschi (1515-9), Rome, Vatican, Loggie, and Université de Louvain.
Raphael and workshop, Grotesques, Vatican Apostolic Palace, 1518-1519. Glass slide, KU Leuven.

About this source

What it is

This is an old glass lantern slide, a type of photograph used for projection, showing a detail of fresco decoration painted by Raphael and his workshop between 1518 and 1519. The frescoes, called grotesques, are in the Vatican Apostolic Palace in Rome. The slide itself was made between 1839 and 1939 for teaching art history.

Why it matters

Raphael and his workshop decorated many spaces for the Vatican, showing how artists of his time worked in teams and used classical Roman decoration as inspiration. This slide reflects how later scholars studied and taught about Raphael's work using photography, long before digital images existed.

Look closer

  • What makes this decoration different from a painting of people or a scene?
  • Why might Raphael have worked with a team instead of doing all the painting himself?
  • How does photographing a fresco change how we understand the original artwork?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Raphael on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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