Raphael's Muta is going to London for a major exhibition on the Urbino artist. It will return to Urbino in August

La Muta, a masterpiece by Raphael kept on the piano nobile of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino, in theDuchess’s Apartment, will go on a trip to London: in fact, the Female Portrait painted on panel in the early 16th century will be the protagonist between April and July 2022 of an exhibition at the National Gallery. It will return to Urbino in August.

"The loan of the painting is connected to the policy of collaboration between our gallery and the London museum, which allowed masterpieces such as the Aldobrandini Madonna and the Mackintosh Madonna to be exhibited in Urbino on the occasion of the exhibition that, between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 opened the Raphael celebrations, right in his hometown," says Luigi Gallo, director of the National Gallery of the Marches.

In fact, Raphael’s masterpiece will take part in the Raphael exhibition scheduled from April 9 to July 31, 2022: a selection of works by the Urbino artist from the Louvre in Paris, the Prado in Madrid, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Vatican Museums in Rome, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington will arrive in the British capital.

The Muta is still among the most discussed today, particularly because of the identification of the female figure portrayed. Its collecting history begins in early eighteenth-century Florence: the painting is mentioned in the Pitti Palace among the possessions of the Grand Prince of Tuscany Ferdinando de’ Medici (inventory of 1702-1710); in 1713 it was moved to the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano, and sixty years later it is found in the Uffizi, first in the Hermaphrodite room and then in the Tribuna. On the other hand, it cannot be traced with certainty in the previous inventories of 1666 (legacy of Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici) and 1631 (legacy of Vittoria della Rovere) because in both the description of the young woman portrayed is too generic for the subject of the painting to be identified there.

Since 1927 it has been in permanent storage at the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche where, in 1975 it was stolen along with other works and then recovered the following year in Switzerland. In 2014, it was subjected to extensive diagnostic investigations that revealed new features (mainly pentimenti in the lines of the face and in the shape of the dress), but did not lead to a conclusion regarding theidentification of the figure portrayed.

Image: Raphael Sanzio, La Muta, detail (1507; oil on panel, 64 x 48 cm; Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche)

Raphael's Muta is going to London for a major exhibition on the Urbino artist. It will return to Urbino in August

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.