Great gallery of paintings of the “Renaissance superstar” in Rome

Luiza Poreda, 8 March 2020

In the exhibition halls at the Roman Quirinal (Le Scuderie del Quirinale), on March 11, 2020, Rafael’s largest art gallery in history opens – all on the occasion of the 500-year anniversary of the death of the great master of painting. It will not be easy to visit this exhibition – during the first two days of ticket sales, more than 10,000 were sold. The exhibition will last until June 15 2020.

The exhibition promises to be very interesting: in addition to oil paintings on canvas, of which there will be as many as two hundred, we will also see drawings, sketches and graphics of the Grand Master. It will definitely be one of the most important cultural events in Italy this year and the largest exhibition of Rafael’s works that has ever taken place.

As many as fifty of the two hundred oil paintings by Rafael come from the Florence Uffizi gallery – interestingly, the conservation staff at this art gallery have given notice after agreeing to transport Rafael’s works to Rome.

Other oil paintings, graphics, sketches and drawings of Rafael were imported from the Louvre Museum in Paris, the London National Gallery in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Albertina Gallery in Vienna, and from the Vatican Museums and Italian galleries.

Oil paintings and other works of Rafael, a genius of Renaissance

Rafael was considered a genius in his lifetime, and because he was born on Good Friday, he is called “the god of art.” He is also referred to as the youngest of the great trinity of the Italian Renaissance, which includes Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Painting was learned by Rafael from his father, who discovered his son’s extraordinary artistic skills very early. When Rafael was 9 years old, his mother died. Three years later, the boy also lost his dad, and Rafael took care of his mother’s brother. Uncle made sure that the child developed his painting talent. He first learned from Timoteo Viti, and then from Pietro Perugino. During this time, Rafael began to make the first oil paintings on canvas to order and worked, among others with the decoration of the church of St. Francis (Perugia).

In 1504, the young artist came to Florence. Under the influence of the work of Michelangelo and da Vinci, he painted oil paintings: “Madonna in the Green” and “Madonna with the Goldfinch”, thanks to which he quickly gained fame. He returned to his hometown, and then went to Perugia and then to Rome, where he worked at decorating the papal official and court room (the so-called Stanza della Segnatura). In 1514, he began supervision over the construction of a new Basilica of St. Peter in the Italian capital.