Before the outbreak of Covid-19, the phrase “once in a lifetime” was seemingly attached to each and every exhibition. Yet it seems now that there were opportunities in which this epithet was entirely accurate, most notably the Raphael Exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome which reopens today, following a relaxation to Italy’s lockdown rules.
The exhibition, which was forced to close just days after its opening, is part of one of an esteemed cohort of Raphael exhibitions which had been planned for 2020, marking the 500th anniversary of the artist's death. The decision to extend the exhibition’s run until the end of August will provide little solace for Britons trapped on this side of the pond, especially considering the recently announced quarantine measures. A 13-minute YouTube tour will have to suffice at present.
Yet according to Alastair Sooke, the artist who once “occupied the pinnacle of Western painting” has fallen out of favour of late. According to Kenneth Clark’s Civlisation series, Raphael was “the supreme harmoniser – that’s why he’s out of favour today”. His argument – can there be a place for beauty in a century filled with such catastrophe?
This is not to say Raphael is without his fans, indeed, Hugo Chapman, Raphael scholar, believes that: “That entrepreneurial spirit of Raphael, this idea of him sitting in the centre of his studio as the chief designer of a variety of different lines, is very modern.
"If Raphael were alive today, he would be a film director at the same time as writing a novel. He was extraordinarily creative.”
Sooke seeks instead to defend the contribution of Raphael, indeed, raising his status. He concludes: “Given the scope of Raphael’s output, and his long-lasting standing within Europe’s art academies, you could argue that he exerted even greater influence than Michelangelo.”
