This year marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael, the Italian painter and artist.
Works of the artist, who was a firm favourite of Queen Victoria, were loaned to the Victoria and Albert Museum in memory of her husband, Prince Albert.
The cartoons have a specifically designed gallery dedicated to them, which has undergone renovations since last year as part of the museum’s FuturePlan programme.
The gallery was last renovated between 1992 and 1996, and the timing of the restoration deliberately coincides with this year’s anniversary.
In a piece for the Financial Times, Dr Tristram Hunt, the museum’s director, said: “we honour the genius of the high Renaissance by repainting and reinterpreting the vast gallery in which they hang.”
Hunt used his piece to examine the importance of nationalism in art, a topic of discussion more so of late, due to the Brexit negotiations.
He noted that “After the unnecessary drama and machismo of last year’s Leonardo anniversary (with France and Italy at loggerheads over his “nationality”), this year’s Raphael commemorations, appropriately, seem so much more serene.”
The former Labour MP noted that the “very first intake of Labour MPs cited John Ruskin as one of their most important political influences, and the Labour movement has since regarded art and culture as a vital component of social democracy.”
As the cartoons cannot be moved, all necessary work will go on around them, much like the in-situ restoration which took place in on Rembrandt’s Nightwatch in the Rijksmuseum last year.
It is currently hoped that the gallery will re-open in October of this year.
