Vatican Museums confirm: two figures in the Hall of Constantine painted by Raphael

The Vatican Museums have today confirmed Raphael ’s authorship of the two figures, the allegories of Justice andFriendship(Comitas in Latin), that appear near the Vision of the Cross and the Battle of Ponte Milvio (works by Giulio Romano) in the Hall of Constantine, the room designed by Raphael Sanzio himself (Urbino, 1483 - Rome, 1520) and decorated by his school. Or so it was thought until now: in fact, it was believed that the master had disappeared before he could attend to the making of the paintings. The discovery, however, tells us that Raphael made it in time to paint the two figures of Comitas and Justice. The confirmation comes following major restoration work on the room, which is part of the so-called Raphael Rooms, which began in March 2015 and was coordinated by Maria Ludmilla Pustka, chief restorer at the Vatican Museums: restorer Fabio Piacentini and art historian Arnold Nesselrath, who specializes in 16th-century art and is the Delegate for the Scientific Departments and Restoration Laboratories of the Vatican Museums, as well as the person in charge of 15th- and 16th-century art, established the authorship.

"By analyzing the painting de visu,“ Piacentini said, ”we realized that it is now certain the intervention of the master, of the great Raphael, at least with regard to the execution of two specific figures, in particular Justice and Comitas.“ The paintings were executed in oil on wall. ”By removing all the substances superimposed over the centuries during the older restorations,“ the restorer continued, ”the preciousness of the painting emerges, the pictorial ductus typical of Raphael. The technique adopted is the one that Raphael had developed for the decoration of the entire room: on the wall structure he applies a sufficiently thick layer of a natural resin, rosin, also known as Greek pitch, and over it he spreads a thin layer of white preparation, which is then painted as if it were a painting on canvas, or on panel."

“It was known from sixteenth-century sources,” Nesselrath said instead, "that Raphael had painted two more figures in this room, and they were the Comitas and Justice. That’s what Vasari’s letters told us: we knew that before he died he had still done two tests of the oil technique in this room. These two figures are actually painted in oil, as the sources say, and they are of a much higher quality than what is around them. Raphael was a great adventurer in painting, always trying something different, and when he had figured out how one thing worked, he would try the next challenge. So when he got to the largest room in the papal apartment, he decided to paint this room in oils."

Images of the two figures were released exclusively from a video by the Vatican Television Center, which can be seen on YouTube.

Vatican Museums confirm: two figures in the Hall of Constantine painted by Raphael

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