The National Gallery bows to the genius of Raphael

(by Lorenzo Amuso) (ANSA) - LONDON, 06 APR - Almost 90 masterpieces, including exceptional works and others less known, which reflect the eclectic and multifaceted art of an absolute genius of beauty: the National Gallery in London dedicates a sumptuous retrospective to Raffaello Sanzio, the first of this range outside Italy, which contains the twenty-year epic of the high Renaissance picturesque in all its serene grace and extraordinary variety.

    Originally scheduled for 2020, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Urbinate (who died just 37 years old on 6 April 1520, as is known), then postponed due to the pandemic, the exhibition-event marks the return of a great cultural event in a United Kingdom by now. free from any anti-Covid restrictions.

Retracing in chronological order the dazzling artistic path of Raphael, it proposes not only some of his most famous paintings - from the Madonna del Cardellino (Uffizi Gallery), to the portrait of BaldassarreCastiglione (Louvre), to the Fornarina (Palazzo Barberini) - mapure testimonies of his multifaceted genius , partly unpublished to the general public, in fields ranging from architecture to archeology, from poetry to design for sculpture, to tapestries, to printing, to applied arts.

With the aim of exploring every aspect of his activity, in order to show plastically how and why the master from Urbino played such a central role in the history of Italian and world art.

If the Hermitage in St. Petersburg has retained its Holy Family, against the background of the conflict that arose between Russia and the West also on the terrain of culture after the invasion of Ukraine, curators David Ekserdjian and TomHenry were able to integrate the Raphaelite collection of the Gallery (nine key works which include the sublime Santa Caterina d'Alessandria, the gloomy Pope Julius II or the delicate Madonna dei Rosa) with loans, sometimes unprecedented, obtained from all over the world.

Thus bringing together, in a single gallery, six different Madonnas by Raphael: more than enough to guarantee since

now the announced success of an exhibition destined to remain open to the public from 9 April to 31 July.

(HANDLE).