The School of Raphael The Student's Guide to Expression in Historical Painting

This book of prints of the human head, showing the range of emotions and expressions, were engraved by the most skilled artists of the day from tracings and drawings made by Nicholas Dorigny from the famous cartoons that Raphael designed in the early 1500s to be made into tapestries for the Sistine Chapel.

Nicholas Dorigny (1658-1746) was from a famous French artistic family. He was trained by his father Michael and worked mainly as an engraver. He continued his studies in Rome and stayed there 28 years where he made his name making engravings of Italian works of art especially the works of Raphael (whose reputation rivaled Michaelangelo's among art enthusiasts of the time) including a well received portfolio of prints of Raphael's frescoes of the Wedding of Psyche and Cupid in the Villa Farnesina in Rome. In Rome he became know to "several Englishmen of rank, who persuaded him to come to England, and engrave the cartoons of Raphael.