Art lovers will be able to marvel at Raphael’s masterpieces at the National Gallery in a major new exhibition
- A new exhibition is set to incorporate the works of famous artist Raphael
- The exhibition is to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death
- Works have been borrowed from other museums to complete the collection
A major new retrospective of works by Raphael will launch next year at the National Gallery to mark the 500th anniversary of his death.
One of the first ever exhibitions to explore the complete career of the renaissance master, the new show will focus on his other multimedia disciplines as well as his painting.
The wide-ranging show will feature the Italian’s architecture, archaeology, poetry, and design for sculpture, tapestry, prints, and the applied arts.
The large scale exhibition will showcase the Italian’s sculpture, tapestry, paintings and much more
The National Gallery has managed to secure and a number of impressive loans from some of the world’s biggest museums for the blockbuster show, which will launch in October 2020.
As well as the 10 works from the National Gallery’s collection of Raphaels, curators have borrowed works from the Louvre, Musei Vaticani, Galleria degli Uffizi, National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), and the Museo Nacional del Prado.
Works which cannot be physically displayed, such as the monumental frescoed rooms in the Vatican Palace, known as the Stanze of Raphael, will be presented in other ‘innovative’ ways.
‘His painting is so familiar and iconic for very good reasons and so many people associate him with that but he applied the principles of his painting in everything he did,’ Matthias Wivel, curator of 16th century Italian paintings at the gallery, told the London Evening Standard.
Works by Raphael will launch next year at the National Gallery to mark the 500th anniversary of his death.
‘There will be works never seen in the UK before or never seen outside of where they reside now, it will be the broadest in scope we’ve seen and it’s surprising there has never been a show that’s taken this approach before.’
Mr Wivel said that Raphael ‘shows us the things we should aspire to, he represents our ideals better than any other visual artist.’
While he was only working for two decades before his death at 37 in 1520, Raphael is still recognised today as the supreme High Renaissance painter.
