Sponsodred by Servired

Contexts of the Permanent Collection nº 17 Raphael. Portrait of a Young Man

Sponsodred by ServiRed 18 October 2005 to 15 January 2006 Curator: Mauro Natale

Entitled Raphael. Portrait of a Young Man, the 17th in the “Contexts” exhibition series at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is sponsored by ServiRed. The focus of the exhibition will be the only work by Raphael – one of the great names of Italian Renaissance art – in the Collection. It will allow for an analysis of a number of interesting aspects relating to this oil painting, such as Raphael’s late production and the nature of the collaboration with his workshop.

Raphael’s late oils are an exceptionally appealing group of works and include some of his masterpieces, such as Portrait of a Young Woman in Strasburg (Fine Arts Museum), which has been compared to the painting in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Both will be included in the present exhibition, along with other important works by the artist loaned from leading international museums such as the Uffizzi in Florence and the Szepmüsveszeti Muzeum in Budapest.

Raphael directed an important workshop that received an enormous volume of commissions, which the artist supervised in addition to producing the overall designs for these projects. The exhibition also looks at the active participation of his pupils, among them Giulio Romano, in the numerous projects received. This collaboration was particularly intense during the years 1516-1520, which are covered by the present exhibition. On Raphael’s death in 1520,it was Giulio Romano who was entrusted with completing the paintings that had remained unfinished, as well as directing the workshop.

The exhibition’s curator, Mauro Natale, previously curated The Mediterranean Renaissance, organised at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in 2001. In the present exhibition he focuses on the last years of Raphael’s life. As the head of his studio, Raphael was above all master of disegno, in the sense of both drawing and intellectual project. It was Raphael who provided the models in the form of preparatory drawings and who also guided the conceptual direction of the group of artists working under him. With regard to the evolution of the Raphaelesque style, the late portraits reveal the search for an effect of reality less tempered by idealisation. Without renouncing that spirit of grazia which all contemporary art theoreticians attributed to Raphael, at this period the artist adopted a more sober, almost rough style, while his chromatic range and other aspects of his painting herald the imminent appearance of Mannerism.

For more information and/or images, please contact: Press Office Thyssen-Bornemisza Museums Tel: 00 34 91 420 39 44 Fax: 00 34 91 420 27 80 [email protected] Raphael. Portrait of a Young Man, 1518-1519

This painting entered the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection in 1928, having been attributed in the earlier literature to Giulio Romano. The attribution to Raphael was made by Wilhelm Suida who saw affinities with the artist’s late style, and by Philip Hendy, who confirmed the painting’s authorship in 1964, emphasising the high quality of the panel. Hendy considered the Thyssen painting to be “the most brilliant and spontaneous of all those painted in a century when painting did not always emphasise spontaneity”. Nonetheless, since its publication, the attribution of this panel (formerly in a private British collection) has oscillated between Raphael and Giulio Romano.

This vigorous, characterful portrait depicts a young man with thick black, curly hair and a pronounced set of the mouth. The idealisation of the face is in harmony with the elegance of the chromatic range, which emphasises pale tones for the flesh. These stand out against the pink and white of the shirt and cloak as well as the greenish background. “ With the torso turned towards the light and the sitter’s gaze meeting that of the spectator, the portrait in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum has a striking sense of immediacy, almost of insolence, which results from a mastery of compositional organisation. The figure is represented with an unusual distortion of the perspective which combines a frontal focus for the face with the torso almost in profile, giving the neck of the shirt and the cloak a very pronounced sense of chromatic relief. In addition, the sharp definition of the image is emphasised by the difference between the precise execution and highly detailed drawing of the face, and the much more loose and liquid description of the lower part of the painting with its softened outlines. This approach to representation, also to be found in the Portrait of a Young Woman in the Strasbourg Museum and in other works of this date exhibited here, was perfected by Raphael with a variety of results in the oils and drawings of 1514-1515” (From the text by Mauro Natale in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition). The same characteristics are to be found in religious works of this period, such as The Virgin and Child, Saint John and Saint Joseph (the Virgin of the Rose) in the Museo del Prado, and The Virgin and Child (the Hertz Madonna) in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini, Rome.

With regard to the identity of the sitter, Natale summarises the various theories suggested to date, including the most widely known by Retgeren Altena, who suggested that the young man is Alessandro de Medici. Alessandro (ca. 1510-1537), who became Duke of Florence, was the illegitimate son of Giulio de Medici (Pope Clement VII between 1523 and 1534) and of “Simonetta”, a humble peasant girl from the Roman Campagna, incorrectly identified in some of the literature as an African slave.

Biography

Raffaello Sanzio, Raphael (Urbino, 1483 – Rome, 1520)

Raffaello Sanzio (or Santi) was the son of Giovanni Santi, an artist who worked for the court of Urbino and who may have first instructed his son in drawing and colour. Raphael subsequently completed his training with Perugino in Umbria. Between 1503/1504 and 1508 he is documented in Florence, where he gained direct knowledge of the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo. Both exercised a profound influence on his work, and Raphael rapidly assimilated the innovations of these artists, incorporating them into his own art but interpreted from the basis of his particular aesthetic vision. One of his first dated works is The Marriage of the Virgin (1504), now in the Galleria di Brera in Milan.

In 1509 Raphael was in Rome, summoned by Pope Julius II. He began work on the fresco decoration of a small series of rooms in the Vatican, as well as initiating his activities as an architect. During this period Raphael coincided in the Vatican with Michelangelo, who was working on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Following the death of Bramante in 1514, Pope Leo X entrusted Raphael with the direction of the architectural work currently underway in the Vatican. By the age of 25, the artist was considered a fully mature and consummate master, a status he maintained until the end of his life, during which he had enjoyed an elevated social status. Contexts of the Permanent Collection, No. 17 Raphael. Portrait of a Young Man

For ServiRed, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum’s suggestion of sponsoring an exhibition on the subject of Portrait of a Young Man by the great Renaissance artist Raphael offered the company a marvellous opportunity to make a small contribution to the endeavour of bringing art to the widest possible public. The exhibition will enable the visiting public to see and admire works from other museums and to analyse and learn more about various interesting aspects regarding the artist’s late works and his collaboration with his pupil Giulio Romano.

The company thus committed itself to offering the necessary financial support, motivated by the concept of the responsibility which all companies should have in supporting the cultural and social development of the community in which they exercise their activities.

ServiRed is a company with the juridical status of a Sociedad Civil, i.e. it is non-profit- making. It is a payment system belonging to 103 banks, building societies and Spanish credit firms, part of whose activities relate to cash cards. As such, it is widely present in the daily life of every Spanish person. For this reason, it is also active in sponsoring projects of relevance to society in general. Every year, ServiRed supports projects ranging from medical and economic research, literature and music, as well as promoting excellence in business activities.

Collaboration with an institution as prestigious as the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum conforms to our objectives of excellence and outstanding public interest. We our proud to have contributed to the realisation of a project which represents a fruitful collaboration between important international museums and other institutions who have lent their works of art and worked together to make this exhibition possible. Thanks to this collaboration, visitors to the Museum have the exceptional opportunity to see an outstanding group of works by one of the great masters of the Renaissance. At ServiRed we know that collaboration of this type between institutions is essential to bring about such levels of excellence, and within the area of research and cultural promotion the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum has been fully capable of realising this aim.

As with all projects undertaken by the Museum, the exhibition Raphael. Portrait of a Young Man in the “Contexts of the Permanent Collection” series is the result of a process of research aimed at increasing knowledge of a work in the Museum’s own collection, as well as a further step in scholarly research on this great Italian painter. The results of this research have been given shape in the form of the exhibition and the excellent accompanying catalogue. The undoubtedly large numbers of visitors which it will receive will not only be able to appreciate an exceptional group of works but also learn more about one of the most brilliant figures in the history of art.

For this reason, and in the name of ServiRed and the 103 financial entities which make up our organisation, I would like to express our satisfaction at having had the opportunity to be involved in a project of such merit, and one which has enabled us to take a further step in supporting the preservation and promotion of culture.

José Manuel Gabeiras Vázquez President of ServiRed Catalogue introductory text

EXHIBITION DETAILS AND INFORMATION

Title: Contexts of the Permanent Collection, No. 17: Raphael. Portrait of a Young Man

Sponsor: ServiRed

Venue: Exhibition gallery, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Ground Floor

Dates: 18 October 2005 to 15 January 2006

Curator: Mauro Natale, Professor of Art History, University of Geneva

Co-ordination: Mar Borobia, Head of the department of Old Master Paintings, Thyssen- Bornemisza Museum

Opening hours: Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 7pm

Entrance charge: Free entry

Catalogue: A general essay with texts on the paintings, and the related literature. Language: Spanish

Leaflet: Explanatory leaflet on the exhibition, published in Spanish