Rome to Host the Biggest Raphael Show in History

Roberta Cutillo (February 27, 2020)
500 years from the artist’s death, Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale and Florence’s Uffizi Gallery collaborate on creating the most extensive exhibition dedicated to one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance, bringing together works never before exhibited together.
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If 2019 was all about celebrating the 500th anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death, 2020 will be dedicated to Raphael’s. Museums and institutions across Italy and beyond are holding initiatives in honor of the celebrated Renaissance artist from Urbino, who passed away on April 6, 1520 in Rome at the age of 37.

Self-portrait by the artist, 1506 (Uffizi)
Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, Raphael, 1514-15 (Louvre Museum)
Madonna del Granduca, Raphael, 1505 (Uffizi)

Among these initiatives is the biggest monographic exhibition ever held on the artist, which will take place in Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale from March 6th through June 2nd. The show will feature over 200 works including paintings and sketches as well as comparison works.

"It is the largest exhibit ever organized on Raphael", commented Mario De Simoni, the President and CEO of the Scuderie del Quirinale, who collaborated with Florence's Uffizi Gallery to bring this ambitious project to life.

The Florentine museum will be sending over several masterworks never before displayed in Rome. And over 50 other art institutions contributed to the show, including Rome’s Galleria Borghese, the National Gallery of Ancient Art, Bologna’s Pinacoteca, the Royal Museum of Capodimonte, Naples’ Archaeological Museum, and foreign museums too such as the Vatican Museums, the Louvre, London’s National Gallery, the British Museum, the Prado, Vienna’s Albertina, and the National Gallery of Art in DC.

It took three years of studies and restorations carried out by a team of art historians and curators including Marzia Faietti and Matteo Lanfranconi to realize this massive exhibition, which will include the Madonna del Granduca and Woman with a Veil from the Uffizi, the Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione and Self-Portrait with Friend from the Louvre, and the Madonna of the Rose from the Prado among other priceless masterpieces. Works which have never been gathered in the same place before.

"Never since Raphael's death have so many works returned to Rome," noted the director of the Uffizi Eike Schmidt.

To further mark the collaborative effort between the two Italian institutions, the Uffizi is offering a 33% discount on tickets to those who have visited the show at the Scuderie and vice versa.

So far, the show has raised a great deal of anticipation: despite fear surrounding the coronavirus outbreak in the country, over 70,000 tickets have already been booked or sold online.

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on Katherine Petri... (not verified) wrote

COMMENT ON THE UPCOMING RAPHAEL EXHIBITION

As noble and noteworthy an undertaking this is, I believe that the collective will, spirit, compassion and energy of the country and the Italian people must be directed toward stemming the tide of this tsunami of disease that has overtaken and overwhelmed not only your healthcare system and medical professionals but which has laid claim to an entire generation of esteemed and beloved elders. As an Italian-American and health care provider, I have watched, grief-stricken, the images from the medical units and emergency departments that have been broadcast online. I’ve gazed into the faces and listened to the voices of physicians and nurses as they recount the staggering toll the disease, and its relentless onslaught , first and foremost, on patients and then the entire system including providers. I’ve seen the pages and pages of notices in the region’s newspapers attesting to the individual and collective losses to families and communities of almost an entire generation that sustained, nurtured, preserved and loved their patria. Italy has/had the largest population of a long-lived, healthy community of elders owing to a culture, lifestyle and practices that promoted longevity. I cannot imagine that any of these beloved persons could ever have foreseen or conceived of an end of life scenario such as too many of them have endured. It came like a thief in the night. Likewise, I would not want to even dare imagine this same plight befalling my beloved Italian-American grandparents with whom my sister and I grew up. They have since departed us but thankfully did not experience such a ravaging illness. We are witnessing the same scenarios unfolding, tragically but predictably now, across Western Europe, particularly in Spain and France. I was grateful for the opportunity to contribute in a small but meaningful way to an effort led by Samaritan’s Purse, a U.S. Christian faith-based organization that has responded to the medical need in the north by delivering supplies and personnel via air to the city of Cremona. They have constructed a fourteen tent field hospital in the parking lot of the hospital in Cremona, stocked with ventilators, medication, and supplies in addition to a contingent of medial personnel to offer remedy and respite to the lack of adequate bed capacity in the hospital and the exhausted and overwhelmed staff of physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and others. Forty-five physicians have succumbed to the disease, as reported in the press. How many nurses and other health care workers have as well? The country has not even reached the apex of cases yet. The task going forward, and there most certainly will be a forward, will be a call to reclaim, restore, repopulate, prepare for what will surely be another pandemic at an unknown time, and remember the beautiful souls of those claimed by the virus. The vitality, strength, and culture of the Italian people, has been a treasure and gift to the world, the entire country must now muster the resolve to defeat this enemy. We all stand ready to assist.