Late Raphael at the Prado, Madrid (until September 16th, 2012), by Bruce Boucher

Fig. 1. Raphael, Santa Cecilia. Oil on panel transferred to canvas, 236 x 149 cm (ca. 1515 – 1516) Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale.

Late Raphael continues at the Museo del Prado until September 16th, 2012. A slightly different version will be shown at the Musée du Louvre,Paris, from October 8th, 2012 to January 14th, 2013. The catalogue was edited by Tom Henry and Paul Joannides.

If we think of Raphael today—and that is a big “if”—our mental picture is probably of a painter of Madonnas or, perhaps, of the Raphael of his first Roman frescoes, which long epitomized academic art at its best. But these are works associated with the early to middle periods of the painter’s brief life (1483-1520) and do not tell the whole story of his evolution, one of the most remarkable in the history of western art. The splendid exhibition now on show at the Prado gives us a glimpse of the greatness Raphael achieved in his last decade even though it does not fully answer the question of who Raphael really was.


Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!