Raphael Altarpiece at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thursday, 15 June 2006 11:39

New York City - The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents the exhibit Raphael (RAFFAELLO SANZIO (1483-1520) at the Metropolitan: The Colonna Altarpiece starting on June 20 and running until September 3.  In 1901, J. Pierpont Morgan acquired the last major altarpiece by Raphael still in private hands.  Painted by the young artist for a convent in Perugia, the work was dismantled in 1663 and pieces were subsequently owned by Queen Christina of Sweden, the Colonna family in Rome, and the King of Naples and the Two Sicilies.

To obtain his prize, Morgan paid the phenomenal sum of two million francs.  News of the banker's acquisition caused a sensation in the press and the picture was judged to be the most important ever to cross the Atlantic.  Since 1916 it has been one of the treasures of the Metropolitan Museum.  This exhibition will reunite the two main panels with all the scenes from its predella.  A select group of drawings and paintings by Raphael produced close in time to the Colonna Altarpiece, including a preparatory study for the Metropolitan's predella panel, will also be included.

The young painter from Urbino adopted the artistic innovations of his elder colleagues, in particular those of Leonardo and Michelangelo, and synthesized them with his own aims.  This did not pass Michelangelo by; in 1541, long after Raphael's death, he was still complaining in a letter that "everything he knew about art he got from me."

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