Raphael, "Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints," "Colonna Altarpiece" main panel, circa 1504-05, oil and gold on wood, overall 67 7/8 by 67 7/8 inches, painted surface 66 3/4 by 66 1/2 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
:On view to September 3, "Raphael At The Metropolitan: The Colonna Altarpiece" highlights the "Colonna Altarpiece," the only such monumental work by Raphael in America and, since 1916, a treasure of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. This exhibition reunites the altarpiece's two main panels with the five dispersed scenes from its predella, which were separated from the altarpiece in 1663.
A select group of drawings and paintings by Raphael produced close in time to the "Colonna Altarpiece," including a preparatory study for the Metropolitan's predella panel and a landscape sketch for the background of the altarpiece, and by the Umbrian and Florentine artists who influenced him in this period of his career, is included.
In 1901, to great fanfare, the wealthy and acquisitive New York banker J.P. Morgan acquired the "Colonna Altarpiece," the last major altarpiece by Raphael still in private hands. Painted by the young artist for a convent in Perugia, the work conforms to the conservative Umbrian style of Perugino, while at the same time reflecting Raphael's first response to the artistic innovations of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolommeo in Florence.
Dismembered and sold in two campaigns in the Seventeenth Century, Raphael's altarpiece traversed the continent for the next 200 years, its pieces passing through the hands of a succession of illustrious owners, from the maverick Queen Christina of Sweden to the venerable Colonna family in Rome, the licentious duc d'Orléans in Paris, the despotic kings of Naples and the Two Sicilies, and the wealthy Baroness Burdett-Coutts, an early crusader for animal and workers' rights whom Queen Victoria's son annointed "after my mother, the most remarkable woman in the country."
Raphael, "God the Father Blessing, with Angels and Cherubim," "Colonna Altarpiece" lunette, circa 1504-05, oil and gold on wood, overall 29 1/2 by 70 7/8 inches, painted surface 25 1/2 by 67 1/2 inches
To obtain his prize, Morgan paid the sum of two million francs (the equivalent of roughly $9 million today); when the Raphael arrived in New York, it was roundly acclaimed by the press as the most important painting ever to cross the Atlantic.
For the first time since the altarpiece was dismembered more than three centuries ago, the main panel and the lunette of the "Colonna Altarpiece" are reunited in this exhibit with all the scenes from its predella, the loans of which have been secured from museums both in the United States and abroad.
The exhibition also includes paintings and drawings by Raphael dating from the years 1502-1505, including the two surviving predella panels from a slightly earlier altarpiece, and the contemporaneous "Madonna and Child with a Book" from the Norton Simon Museum, which is exhibited with all the related preparatory studies by Raphael.
Other drawings by the artist in the exhibition represent all aspects and categories of his draftsmanship, from composition studies, and sketches of figures and draperies, to studies of heads. The exhibition brings together for the first time the scant body of related preparatory drawings, which is set within the broader context of his activity as a draftsman, and key paintings from this pivotal moment in Raphael's stylistic evolution.
Raphael, "Madonna and Child Reading in a Landscape," pen and ink, 4 7/8 by 4 3/4 inches, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Finally, a selection of works by Perugino and Pintoricchio, the highly influential artists who shaped Raphael's early style, and by Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolommeo - exemplars of the new artistic paradigm he sought to emulate upon his transfer to Florence - round out the exhibit.
"Raphael At The Metropolitan: The Colonna Altarpiece" is organized by Linda Wolk-Simon, associate curator in the Metropolitan Museum's department of drawings and prints, with the collaboration of Keith Christiansen, Jayne Wrightsman Curator in the department of European paintings.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication by Wolk-Simon that discusses the painting in the context of Raphael's career and the circumstances of its commission, presents new technical findings, and traces its colorful ownership history that culminated in Morgan's spectacular acquisition. A checklist of works in the exhibition is also included. The publication is available for sale in the museum's bookshops ($19.95). It is published by the Metropolitan Museum and distributed by Yale University Press.
Through the concerts and lectures department, a two-part lecture series on Raphael by Linda Wolk-Simon will also take place on October 10 and 17 (tickets are available for $40 for both lectures).
For information, 212-535-7710 or www.metmuseum.org.
