Raphael. Born an architect: exhibition in Vicenza sheds light on Raphael's lesser-known talent

Raphael Sanzio was not born a painter and then became an architect, but he was an architect from the very beginning of his activity as an artist. This is what Raphael intends to demonstrate. Born an Architect, the exhibition proposed by the Palladio Museum in Vicenza on the 10th anniversary of its founding, from April 7 to July 9, 2023. The exhibition, curated by Guido Beltramini, Howard Burns and Arnold Nesselrath and promoted by the CISA-International Center for the History of Architecture as part of the initiatives of the National Committee “Raphael 1520-2020,” aims not only to bring out that the artist known to all as a painter was an architect, but even one of the most influential of the entire Renaissance.

It is Raphael who defined the theoretical and practical status of architectural drawing, with which buildings were designed for the next five centuries until the computer drawing revolution. It is also Raphael who transformed the study of ancient Roman architecture, placing it at the basis of forms and decorations of the new Renaissance architecture. It is Raphael who lays the foundations of the “invention” of architectural orders; who first designs thegiant columns that Michelangelo will develop in the Capitol decades later; who builds “custom-made” palaces for the high officials of Pope Leo X’s inner circle, making them recognizable in the city as true masonry portraits. It is Raphael who revives the ancient Roman tradition of country living with the first Renaissance villa, Villa Madama, on the slopes of Monte Mario.

Raphael, therefore, the exhibition proposes to show, was not born a painter and then became an architect, but an architect from the very beginning of his activity as an artist, and even in his figurative works he immediately lives a new and innovative idea of space, fueled by the study and imitation of the architecture of ancient Rome. Original drawings, including precious autographs by Raphael from the Royal Institute of British Architects in London and the Uffizi, notebooks and manuscripts from the Central Library in Florence, ancient sculptures and Renaissance books, present on display not only the architecture built by Raphael but also those that remained on paper or were destroyed, such as Palazzo Branconio dell’Aquila.

Two very high fidelity reproductions of the huge, untransportable cartoons for the Sistine Chapel tapestries, such as the Sacrifice of Lystra or the Preaching of St. Paul in Athens, will bring the inseparable intertwining of Raphael as painter and architect to the exhibition.

Accompanying the exhibition is a scholarly catalog that brings together the results of new research on Raphael’s built and painted architecture. In particular, the volume, which brings together contributions from the curators and all the specialists who participated in the working group, sees reconstructions of Raphael’s lost projects published for the first time.

The exhibition is curated by architectural historians Guido Beltramini (Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, Vicenza), Howard Burns (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, emeritus) and Arnold Nesselrath (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin). Alongside them, the research project involves a group of international specialists: Simone Baldissini (CISA Andrea Palladio, Vicenza), Amedeo Belluzzi (University of Florence), Maria Beltramini (University of Rome Tor Vergata), Christiane Denker Nesselrath (independent scholar), Pierre Gros (Institut de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris), Francesco Marcorin (CISA Andrea Palladio, Vicenza), Timo Strauch (Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin).

The staging is by architect and theater director Andrea Bernard.

Hours Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (last admission 5:30 p.m.) Tuesdays by reservation, min. groups 10 people.

information www.palladiomuseum.org/rinascimento mail: accoglienza@palladiomuseum.org tel: +39 0444 323014

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full tickets € 8.00 reduced € 6.00 (groups of at least 15 adults, FAI members, Touring Club members, over 60, students under 25) schools € 2.00 (schools, Touring Club Junior members) free (children under 6, journalists, 1 handicapped person + 1 accompanying person, ICOM members, 1 accompanying teacher per class, military personnel) Palladio family € 12.00 (1 to 4 children/youth under 18 with two adults) Guided tours € 80.00 (group of 25 people)

Raphael. Born an architect: exhibition in Vicenza sheds light on Raphael's lesser-known talent

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