Raphael

From the MD Archive - August 2022

📍Location: National Gallery 

❤️Favourite Artwork: The Vision of Ezekiel
🏷Favourite Name for Artwork: The Holy Family with a Pomegranate 
💡Tattoo Inspiration: The sun & moon from ‘The Mond Crucifixion’ 

📜What I learnt:

➡️ A circle shaped painting is called a ‘tondo’ and is associated with Florence 
➡️ Raphael was a workaholic, he received his first commission at the age of 17 and completed an enormous volume of work up until his untimely death at the age of 37
➡️ He sketched using a metal point to scratch paper before committing to a drawing 
➡️ He was a master draftsman, and allowed other artists to use his sketches as references for their works
➡️ He was also an architect and designed many buildings. He also designed mosaics which hadn’t been created in Rome for centuries
➡️ It’s likely he was the first artist to study the female nude since classical antiquity (& the nature of his drawings suggest they are from life)
➡️ The figures in his work ‘The Judgement of Paris’ were used by Manet in his 1863 painting ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’ 
➡️ St Cecelia is the patron saint of Music 
➡️ He was the only Renaissance artist to depict the Old Testament story ‘The Vision of Ezekiel’ 

Images

• Outside the Natonal Gallery entrance to the exhibition 
• The Mond Crucifixion
• The Holy Family with a Pomegranate
• The Alba Madonna
• The Incredulity of St Thomas
• Study for an Angel
• St Cecelia with Saints Paul, John the Evangelist, Augustine and Mary Magdalene
• Standing Female Nude
• The Judgement of Paris
• The Vision of Ezekiel