London — News shook Italy and the continent of Europe: On April 6, 1520, painter, draftman, architect, archaeologist, and all-around genius Rafael died suddenly at the age of 37.
He had a fever about a week ago, but 16th-century artist and writer Giorgio Vasari is working in the bedroom in his “Life of the Best Painter, Sculptor and Architect”. Was the cause. Rafael “continues to distract himself immeasurably with the joy of love,” Vasari wrote. “At one point he was more spoiled than usual, so he went home with a fierce fever,” and “bleeding indiscriminately” by the doctor.
Five centuries after his premature death, the National Gallery in London pays homage to the great Renaissance artists in a blockbuster exhibition originally planned for 2020 (anniversary) and postponed by a pandemic.
90 objects (29 of which are paintings) showing the full range of Raphael’s talent, including sculptures, tapestries, prints and decorative arts designs, are on display. One of the drawings displayed is a new discovery. The curator-determined study of the Little Holy Family scene, 1512-13, was created by Rafael, not his workshop.
“Raphael was Rome’s most famous artist and one of Europe’s most famous artists when he died. He soon became a legend,” said the show’s three curators. One, Matthias Wibel, said. “He is part of the DNA of the Western visual tradition that is at the heart of the canon.”
Anniversary planning was started around 2015 by the National Gallery. Its director, Gabriele Finaldy, said Raphael is well represented in the British collection: the National Museum itself (owning 10 Raphael paintings), the British Museum, the Ashmorian Museum in Oxford, and the National Gallery in Scotland. .. The show is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2020 and has been heated following the world’s largest Raphael exhibition at Scuderiedel Quirinale in Rome. The show began in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Closed after 3 days. And in June, it resumed with a tightly limited number of visitors (a group of 6 people was allowed every 5 minutes).
By that time, the National Gallery had postponed its own show and faced its own virus problems. The museum has undergone three closure periods, which has reduced the number of visitors “very dramatically,” according to Dr. Finaldy.
“Credit Suisse Exhibition: Rafael” begins in April and ends on July 31st.
“We have experienced such a turmoil,” said Dr. Finaldy. “Rafael is a welcome antidote, especially because his world is a world of harmony and peace.”
Rafael was born in the city of Urbino in central Italy. His mother died at the age of eight, and his father, a painter of the court of the Duchy of Urbino, died when Raphael was eleven. The boy was raised by his uncle’s monk and painted and painted in his family’s workshop. From an early age. Very talented, he received his first known committee at the age of 17. Since then, Rafael has always moved to the towns and cities where his patrons and committees took him.
Not all Raphael masterpieces exist in the National Gallery exhibits, but there are quite a few. According to the National Gallery website, it includes rentals from the Louvre, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Prado Museum, the Ufiji Gallery, and the Vatican Museums.
This exhibition is a chronological visual representation of the life and era of Renaissance masters. It begins with some of his early altarpieces and Madonna’s representation: a perfectly rendered photo with a heavenly blue background that enhances the sense of sacredness and purity exuded by the subject.
In real life, curator Dr. Wibel said Rafael’s interests were clearly more grounded. He was not only “charismatic and always surrounded by people”, but also “very ambitious” and somewhat arrogant. At a very young age of 23, he created his self-portrait hanging on the show. It depicts him wearing long hair and a dark hat, looking sideways at the viewer. Even more unusual, the artist, still in his thirties, spent a great deal of money to secure a marble tomb in the Roman Pantheon where he was buried.
Raphael’s charm and networking capabilities allowed him to conclude one of his most important artistic missions to date. It is a fresco of Stanzedella Segnatura, four rooms in the papal apartment near the Sistine Chapel. While he was working in the field, Rafael became known for “taking ideas from Michelangelo and using them without his permission.”
He was also indiscriminate, as evidenced by the stunning portraits of women in the last section of the exhibition, “La fornarina” (1519-20), lent primarily from Rome. .. Rafael capitalized his name. She reads the text on the wall, “It is supposed to be a private portrait of his lover.”
Rafael enjoyed superstar status for more than three centuries after his death (despite Vasari’s bedroom theory, the exact cause remains unknown).
Until the mid-19th century, Raphael “thought Shakespeare to appear in literature” and “recognized as the greatest painter of all time.” 2011 book About Rafael and Professor of Italian Renaissance Art at Ohio State University.
In the 19th century, a group of British painters, poets and critics, led by critic John Ruskin, rebelled against Rafael’s idealization as an embodiment of a “very classic and very rational” style, Klein said. Dr. Bab said. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood argued that his style was not an accurate expression, and their criticism led to Rafael’s omission of art history elegance.
Ironically, for those who are very concerned about the afterlife, Rafael’s legacy suffered after death as there were few direct documents about his life. For example, unlike Leonardo da Vinci’s work, most of his work has been lost. Of the Renaissance.
“I think painting has always fascinated us,” Dr. Kleinbab added, adding that the boring pair of angels at the bottom of The Sistine Madonna is still a popular “campus poster choice.” ..
He began to focus on less-considered aspects of his work, such as “beyond Rafael in porcelain figurines” and “less idealized, more realistic” portraits by scholars of the last few decades. Said that. It seems to have a personality, “he said, suggesting the inner world as well as Leonardo’s portrait.
“As famous and sometimes more famous in his own time,” when considering those portraits, Dr. Kleinbab said, “You really have it all.”
