The Vatican Museums unveil for the first time Raphael's last paintings: Justice and Courtesy

The allegories of Justice(Iustitia) and Courtesy(Comitas) were unveiled for the first time last May 13 after restoration began in March 2015: they would be, as scholars had revealed in 2017, the last works painted by Raphael Sanzio (Urbino, 1483 - Rome, 1520). They are located in the Hall of Constantine, next to two works by Giulio Romano (the Vision of the Cross and the Battle of Ponte Milvio) and were attributed to Raphael in 2017 by 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 head of the art of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Breaking the news of the unveiling is the newspaper Vatican News, organ of the Vatican City Dicastery of Communication. The forthcoming reopening of the Vatican Museums will thus make it possible to admire what are probably Raphael’s last two works. The decoration of the Hall of Constantine had been entrusted to him between the fall of 1518 and the spring of 1519 by Pope Leo X Medici: the room, intended for banquets and receptions, at 18 meters long by 12 meters wide is the fourth largest of the Stanze in the state apartment on the second floor of the Apostolic Palace. Raphael disappeared before he saw it finished, in 1520: the decorations were therefore completed by Giulio Romano and his other collaborators.

For Justice and Courtesy, Raphael experimented with the technique of oil painting on the wall, and the deterioration of the materials used had not made it possible to formulate an attribution to the Urbino artist (on whom, however, as Vatican News also notes, critics are divided). “The long and complex restoration just completed by the Vatican Museums, thanks to the support of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums,” writes Paola Ondarza in her article, “has brought to light significant elements that now allow the two Allegories to be traced back to Urbino. Refined methods of cleaning the pictorial surface have been carried out since 2015 on three walls of the Hall of Constantine by the technicians of the Restoration Laboratory led by Francesca Persegati, coordinated by Fabio Piacentini, under the scientific direction of Guido Cornini. The interventions have allowed the extraordinary colors of the entire pictorial cycle that inaugurated the season of Raphaelesque Mannerism to emerge clearly.” Among the most significant details, “the iridescence, transparencies and nuances typical of Sanzio’s ductus and palette stand out,” as well as “the discovery of numerous nails below the surface on which the two Allegories stand out.” The nails were used to fasten rosin, or Greek pitch spread hot and covered with a layer of white plaster, to the wall in order to reproduce on the wall the characteristics of a panel and thus safely proceed to the execution of oil painting.

The two new figures will be visible to all visitors to the Vatican Museums when they reopen their doors.

Pictured below: the Iustitia. Ph. Credit Vatican News

The Vatican Museums unveil for the first time Raphael's last paintings: Justice and Courtesy

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