Raphael and Friends of Urbino. Exhibition dedicated to Urbino's famous man in October

The director of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Peter Aufreiter, anticipated that the exhibition Raphael and Friends of Urbino, which will be on view in the Ducal Palace in Urbino from October 3, 2019 to January 19, 2020, will investigate and recount for the first time in such an accomplished way the world of Raphael’s relations with a group of artists working in Urbino who accompanied, albeit in dialogue but from different positions, his transition to the modern manner and his stylistic developments during the Roman season.

Fundamental was the role of Perugino and Luca Signorelli, as well as of his father Giovanni Santi, in the formation and early years of theUrbino artist’s production; the art of the more mature Girolamo Genga and Timoteo Viti, on the other hand, related to that of Raphael in his Florentine period and his early Roman years.

The curators of the exhibition, Barbara Agosti and Silvia Ginzburg, emphasized that “it is by moving from the common background, the shared experiences, and the comparison with the different reactions when faced with similar solicitations of figurative culture, that the exceptional ’detachment’ made by the young Raphael stands out best, and that the characters and limits of the path of the contemporary Urbino artists most closely related to him at that time are understood.” They continue: “In the new scholastic dimension assumed by Raphael’s work during the pontificate of Leo X lie the premises for the subsequent developments of modern painting in the Urbino duchy, with the emergence of the personality of Raphael del Colle from the rib of Giulio Romano and above all with the moving homage to Raphael’s formal and decorative models attempted by Genga in the aftermath of Raphael’s death but in full continuity and contiguity with his magisterium.”

"The exhibition is therefore an opportunity to measure, in a specific context of extreme relevance such as that of Urbino and in its major stages, the great transformation that involved Italian figurative culture in the transition between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These scans correspond, in the historiographical reflection constructed by Vasari and made their own by subsequent studies, to the initial moment of the adherence of the painters of the late fifteenth century to the first innovations introduced by Leonardo, that is, to the adoption of that ’dolcezza ne’ united colors, which began to be used in his things by the Bolognese Francia, and Pietro Perugino; et i popoli nel vederla corsero, come matti a questa bellezza nuova e più viva, parendo loro assolutamente che è non si potrebbe già far far far meglio’ conclude the curators.

The exhibition is promoted and organized by the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche and is part of the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death.

For info: www.gallerianazionalemarche.it

Image: Raphael Sanzio, The Mute (1507; oil on panel; Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche)

Raphael and Friends of Urbino. Exhibition dedicated to Urbino's famous man in October

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