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Healing of the Lame Man

Print
1719 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The subject of this print is the Healing of the Lame Man by Saints Peter and John. The event took place at the Temple of Jerusalem at a gate known as the Beautiful Gate, which led to the entry into the Women's Court, where Israelite men and women could make offerings for the upkeep of the Temple. The man was begging for alms but Peter and John instead gave him the gift of being able to walk. The spiral columns shown in this image were modelled on those of the tomb of St Peter in St Peter's Basilica.

This print is in reverse of the cartoon from which it is derived. The so-called Raphael Cartoons are seven full size designs for tapestries by the great Italian Renaissance artist Raphael (1483-1520). They illustrate passages from the Bible concerning the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. None of them is smaller than ten feet high by thirteen feet wide. They belong to Her Majesty the Queen and have been on loan to this museum since 1865. The earliest print relating to the Raphael Cartoons dates from 1516, the year in which Raphael received final payment for the commission. It inaugurates an extraordinary case study in the history of printmaking, stretching over more than four hundred and fifty years and across a wide range of printmaking techniques.

Nicholas Dorigny's prints were the subject of an editorial in the 'Spectator' on the 19th November 1711. "These invaluable pieces are very justly in the Hands of the greatest and most pious sovereign in the World; and cannot be the frequent object of every one at their own leisure; but an engraver is to a painter, what a printer is to an author it is worthy Her Majesty's name, that she has encouraged that noble artist Monsieur Dorigny to publish these works of Raphael." Writing in 1722 about the works of Raphael in Rome, Jonathan Richardson said "That I should write upon what I never saw may appear strange to some; Such may please only to obeserve that My remarks are chiefly upon the way of thinking itself."

The engraver and antiquarian George Vertue had met and spoken with Dorigny. Vertue records that "several gentlemen of note travelling to Rome there found Mr Dorigny who was then in the highest reputation for several engraved works after Raphael. These got him justly the reputation of the first engraver in Europe for which reason several Curious persons persuaded & engaged him to come to England to undertake those Famous Cartons at Hampton Court painted by Raphael...From his coming to England [in 1711] I may justly date the rise of the reputation of the engraving." According to George Vertue, Dorigny acknowledged trying to imitate the great French engraver Gérard Audran when he was studying to improve his engraving style.

The first proposal was that Dorigny engrave the Cartoons for the exclusive use of Queen Anne as presents for the nobility and visiting diplomats. Dorigny's price for the work of £4000-£5000 meant this idea was quashed and the prints were sold by subscription at four guineas a set. Dorigny was provided with limited royal patronage in the form of lodgings at Hampton Court, coals, and a bottle of wine a day.

The lettering in this set of prints is entirely in Latin underlining how they were aimed at an elite educated market. Listed are the titles, biblical quotations, details of the lcoations of the Cartoons and their sizes.

Queen Anne had died while Dorigny was still at work. On the first of April 1719 Dorigny presented to King George I two sets of his newly completed prints of the Cartoons. On the 13th June 1720 Dorigny received a knighthood. He was the first of only two individuals in the history of British art to be knighted for having made particular prints. The other was Sir Robert Strange, knighted in 1787 for an engraving of Benjamin West's 'Apotheosis of the Princes Octavius and Alfred'.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Healing of the Lame Man (popular title)
  • Pinacotheca Hamptoniana (series title)
  • St. Peter and St. John Healing the Lame Man (popular title)
  • Raphael Cartoons (generic title)
Materials and techniques
etching and engraving on paper
Brief description
The Healing of the Lame Man by Sir Nicholas Dorigny (1657-1746); from a cartoon by Raphael for the tapestries in the Sistine Chapel; etching and engraving; British; originally printed 1719, a later impression.

The V&A holds two other sets of the Pinacotheca Hamptoniana; see Museum No. E.656-1996 (bound volume) and Museum Nos. Dyce.2560 to Dyce.2566.
Physical description
The subject is the Healing of the Lame Man by Saints Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple of Jerusalem.

Scene showing a covered walkway of rows of spiral columns decorated with acanthus and putti climbing amongst foliage. A crowd waiting in the walkway watches as Peter and John help a lame man, sitting cross-legged in the centre foreground, to stand up. Another man with staff kneels nearby to the left. In the crowd to the right are two young children, one carrying two birds, a woman holding a baby and a woman carrying a basket of good, probably as a temple offering.

This print is in reverse of the cartoon from which it is derived but is faithful in compositional detail.
Dimensions
  • Sheet height: 53.8cm
  • Sheet trimmed width: 75.3cm
  • Platemark height: 51.5cm
Content description
Beautiful Gate of the Temple of Jerusalem
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • Raphael Sanctius Urbinas pinxit (left side of lower margin)
  • Eq. Nicolaus Dorigny Gallus Del. & sculp. (right side of lower margin)
  • PETRUS CUM JOANNE CLAUDUM A MATRIS UTERO SANAT. (Title lower margin, centred)
  • Petrus autem, et Joannes ascendebant in templum, ad horam orationis nonam. Et quidam vir qui erat claudus ex utero matris suae, bajulabatur: quem ponebant quotidie ad portam templi, quae dicitur speciosa, ut peteret eleemosynam ab introeuntibus in templum. Is cum / vidisset Petrum et Joannem incipientes introire in templum, rogabat ut ut eleemosunam acciperet. Intuens autem in eum Petrus cum Joanne, dixit: respice in nos. At ille intendebat in eos, sperans se aliquid accepturum ab eis. Petrus autem dixit: Argentum, et-/ aurum non est mihi: quod autem habeo, hoc tibi do: In nomine Jesu Christi Nazareni surge, et ambula et apprehensa manu ejus dextera, allevavit eum. Et protinus consoldatae sunt nbases ejus, et plantae. Act. apost. III. (Lower margin)
  • Exemplar asservatur in Palatio MAG. BRIT. REG. dicto HAMPTON-COVRT Long. ped. 18. alt. ped. 11. pol. 4. (Lower margin centred below rest of text)
  • 4 (Plate number lower right)
Gallery label
The lettering in this set of prints is entirely in Latin underlining how they were aimed at an elite educated market. Listed are the titles, biblical quotations, details of the lcoations of the Cartoons and their sizes.(1995)
Object history
NB. While the term ‘lame’ has been used in this record, it has since fallen from usage and is now considered offensive. The term is repeated in this record in its original historical context.
Production
later impression, first printed 1719
Subjects depicted
Literary referenceBible, Acts, 3
Summary
The subject of this print is the Healing of the Lame Man by Saints Peter and John. The event took place at the Temple of Jerusalem at a gate known as the Beautiful Gate, which led to the entry into the Women's Court, where Israelite men and women could make offerings for the upkeep of the Temple. The man was begging for alms but Peter and John instead gave him the gift of being able to walk. The spiral columns shown in this image were modelled on those of the tomb of St Peter in St Peter's Basilica.

This print is in reverse of the cartoon from which it is derived. The so-called Raphael Cartoons are seven full size designs for tapestries by the great Italian Renaissance artist Raphael (1483-1520). They illustrate passages from the Bible concerning the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. None of them is smaller than ten feet high by thirteen feet wide. They belong to Her Majesty the Queen and have been on loan to this museum since 1865. The earliest print relating to the Raphael Cartoons dates from 1516, the year in which Raphael received final payment for the commission. It inaugurates an extraordinary case study in the history of printmaking, stretching over more than four hundred and fifty years and across a wide range of printmaking techniques.

Nicholas Dorigny's prints were the subject of an editorial in the 'Spectator' on the 19th November 1711. "These invaluable pieces are very justly in the Hands of the greatest and most pious sovereign in the World; and cannot be the frequent object of every one at their own leisure; but an engraver is to a painter, what a printer is to an author it is worthy Her Majesty's name, that she has encouraged that noble artist Monsieur Dorigny to publish these works of Raphael." Writing in 1722 about the works of Raphael in Rome, Jonathan Richardson said "That I should write upon what I never saw may appear strange to some; Such may please only to obeserve that My remarks are chiefly upon the way of thinking itself."

The engraver and antiquarian George Vertue had met and spoken with Dorigny. Vertue records that "several gentlemen of note travelling to Rome there found Mr Dorigny who was then in the highest reputation for several engraved works after Raphael. These got him justly the reputation of the first engraver in Europe for which reason several Curious persons persuaded & engaged him to come to England to undertake those Famous Cartons at Hampton Court painted by Raphael...From his coming to England [in 1711] I may justly date the rise of the reputation of the engraving." According to George Vertue, Dorigny acknowledged trying to imitate the great French engraver Gérard Audran when he was studying to improve his engraving style.

The first proposal was that Dorigny engrave the Cartoons for the exclusive use of Queen Anne as presents for the nobility and visiting diplomats. Dorigny's price for the work of £4000-£5000 meant this idea was quashed and the prints were sold by subscription at four guineas a set. Dorigny was provided with limited royal patronage in the form of lodgings at Hampton Court, coals, and a bottle of wine a day.

The lettering in this set of prints is entirely in Latin underlining how they were aimed at an elite educated market. Listed are the titles, biblical quotations, details of the lcoations of the Cartoons and their sizes.

Queen Anne had died while Dorigny was still at work. On the first of April 1719 Dorigny presented to King George I two sets of his newly completed prints of the Cartoons. On the 13th June 1720 Dorigny received a knighthood. He was the first of only two individuals in the history of British art to be knighted for having made particular prints. The other was Sir Robert Strange, knighted in 1787 for an engraving of Benjamin West's 'Apotheosis of the Princes Octavius and Alfred'.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Dorigny, Nicholas. Pinacotheca Hamptoniana. London, 1719.
  • Miller, Liz. 'From Marcantonio Raimondi to the Postcard: Prints of the Raphael Cartoons'. Display leaflet, 1995.
  • Gilpin, William. An Essay Upon Prints., 1768, p. 83.
  • Meyer, A. Apostles in England: Sir James Thornhill and the Legacy of the Rapael Taspestry Cartoons. Exhibition catalogue, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, 1996, pp.27-30, figs 12 and 16 [other impressions exhibited].
  • Shearman, John. Raphael's Cartoons in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen and the tapestries for the Sistine Chapel. London, Phaidon, 1972.
  • Fermor, Sharon. The Raphael Tapestry Cartoons: Narrative, Decoration, Design. London, Scala Books in association with the Victoria and Albery Museum.
Collection
Accession number
20285

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
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