English transfer for the Fornarina. In return comes Holbein's Lady with a Squirrel.

English transfer for Raphael’s Fornarina, which leaves the National Gallery of Palazzo Barberini in Rome, where it is kept, for a few months. In fact, the Urbino’s very famous painting flies to London where it will be the protagonist of The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Raphael, curated by Matthias Wivel, scheduled from April 12 to July 31, 2022 at the National Gallery. The London institution reciprocates with an important loan: in fact, the Lady and the Squirrel, a masterpiece by Hans Holbein, arrives from the same museum.

The London exhibition on Raphael Sanzio was postponed two years because of the pandemic and includes an itinerary where the artist is presented not only as a painter, but also through his architectural designs, poetic experiments, in sculpture and tapestries.

“The exchange between the National Galleries of Ancient Art and the National Gallery in London represents a great opportunity for us to grow and learn,” says Flaminia Gennari Santori, director of the Barberini Corsini National Galleries. “The promotion abroad of our cultural heritage, with the possibility of hosting an equally important masterpiece in our Galleries, is one of the strategic directions of my work, which aims to make culture increasingly universal and shared.”

The Lady with the Squirrel, possibly a portrait of the London noblewoman Anne Lovell, datable to 1526-1528, will be flanked in Room 16, dedicated to portraits, by two paintings from the National Galleries referable more or less directly to Holbein or his entourage: the Portrait of Henry VIII and the lesser-known and never exhibited Portrait of Sir Thomas More, a copy of the celebrated original now in the Frick Collection in New York and also datable to 1527.

According to the museum, the close comparison, in addition to a philological interest in studying the workmanship and autography of the paintings, also aims to focus on other different functional and “ideological” aspects related to the theme of the portrait, both official and private, as explored in peculiar terms by Hans Holbein, particularly during his stay at the Tudor court. The exhibition is also meant to be an opportunity to thematize the relationship between the portrait image and its memorial, diplomatic, celebratory, biographical and affective functions.

English transfer for the Fornarina. In return comes Holbein's Lady with a Squirrel.

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