NAPLES - 'Raffaello a Capodimonte: the artist's workshop' opens by Angela Cerasuolo and Andrea Zezza: '' An exhibition due not only for the importance of Raphael in the world but also for the importance of Raphael here in Capodimonte, to enhance his collection 'explains the director of the Museum and Real Bosco Sylvain Bellenger. In fact, some autograph works of great importance are preserved in the Neapolitan museum: The Eternal and the Virgin, two fragments of the Altarpiece of San Nicola da Tolentino ( 1500-1501) first known work of the seventeen-year-old Raphael, the Portrait of Alessandro Farnese (about 1511), the cartoon of Moses and the burning bush (1514), the Madonna del Divino Amore (1516-18). But also, by Giulio Romano, the Madonna of the cat (1518-1520), and then a series of copies, derivations, multiples,some of which perhaps elaborated in the artist's own workshop (Madonna del Passeggio, Madonna del Velo).
The event was organized as part of the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the artist's death: the exhibition will be open until 13 September. The exhibition stems from specific diagnostic investigations, coordinated by Marco Cardinali, on the paintings in the collections, carried out with the Department of Letters and Cultural Heritage of the University of Campania Vanvitelli, the LAMS in Paris and various other institutes: the results, described in the videos in the hall, they will be and discussed at an international conference from 1 to 4 July. Urbino is represented by the Portrait of Fra Luca Pacioli with a pupil attributed to Jacopo de 'Barbari, and again by Luca Signorelli's Nativity, Perugino's Madonna and Child, Pinturicchio's Assumption.
We then move on to derivations, variations, copies, replicas. Even before the death of their author, an authentic 'team' was operating in his workshop. For this reason the very concept of 'copy' in Raphael is rich in different meanings, from replication to counterfeiting. In the first, his own students excelled, authorized to own the 'trademark', in the second, followers and artists even of the highest level challenged each other. To conclude the itinerary, the Portrait of Pope Leo X by Andrea del Sarto (by Raphael), a painting that has the strange destiny of being one of the most famous in the museum despite being a copy. Vasari made him an exemplary case of the difficulty of distinguishing originals from copies, if made precisely by an excellent painter.
