Perugia celebrates Raphael with three major exhibitions and initiatives spread throughout the city

Perugia is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death with three major exhibitions, joined by workshops, conferences, lectures and numerous events involving the most important institutions in the area. All of this is part of the Perugia celebrates Raphael initiative, which is intended to be a widespread itinerary in the city, and the broader program of Raphael celebrations in Umbria.

The initiatives of the city of Perugia reflect “a twofold will,” as Leonardo Varasano, Councillor for Culture of the City of Perugia, said during the presentation of the project, “to create exhibition appointments and to build a diffuse itinerary in the city that acts as a collector of various initiatives, so that the visitor can have a wide and capillary vision of Perugia,” since “we could not fail to pay homage to Raphael, who is linked to Perugia for biographical matters and artistic production.”
A logo was also created for the occasion by Fabrizio Fabbri, starting with an in-depth Raphaelesque iconographic analysis of works from the Perugia period.

The first of the three major upcoming exhibitions will be Raphael in Umbria and His Legacy, which will be on view from April 8, 2020 at Palazzo Baldeschi al Corso, organized by the CariPerugia Arte Foundation in collaboration with the “Pietro Vannucci” Academy of Fine Arts. Cristina Colaiacovo, president of the CariPerugia Arte Foundation, emphasized how, thanks to the collaboration with the Academy, it was possible to design an original exhibition itinerary that combines a multimedia part, with immersive images, and an exhibition part. “Our exhibition is among those that have obtained the recognition of the National Committee for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death,” he added.

The multimedia section, curated by Francesco Federico Mancini, aims to reconstruct Raphael’s pictorial universe, with images and narrative voice, particularly related to his Umbrian activity between 1500 and 1504-1505. It will also focus on archival materials dealing with the relationship between Raphael and Umbria, on display thanks to the collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archivistica dell’Umbria e delle Marche and the Archivio di Stato di Perugia.

The second section, entitled The Perugia Academy of Fine Arts and Raphael: from Minardi and Wicar to the Twentieth Century, is organized by the “Pietro Vannucci” Academy of Fine Arts Foundation and curated by Alessandra Migliorati and Stefania Petrillo of the University of Perugia and Saverio Ricci of the L’Aquila Superintendency, with coordination by Giovanni Manuali. “The exhibition highlights how Perugia, along with Rome, thanks to the presence of Tommaso Minardi, who was director of the Academy, was a true epicenter, a laboratory of Purism, the taste that spreads in the production of sacred paintings and in the great decoration also profane. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Perugia Academy was a nursery of talented painters who interpreted the lesson of the old masters, Perugino and Raphael first and foremost, updating their models and style. As confirmed by the accurate research conducted for this occasion, which will present many unpublished works, truly fruitful is the activity of the artists who are trained in Perugia and who become perfect interpreters of the neo-Renaissance taste, much appreciated also by international collectors and the market,” said the president of the Academy, Mario Rampini.

June, on the other hand, will see the opening of the exhibition Fortuna e mito di Raffaello in Umbria, curated by Francesco Federico Mancini, promoted by the Municipality of Perugia, and set up at the Museo civico di Palazzo della Penna. The exhibition will trace the fortune and myth of Raphael through paintings, engravings, drawings, ceramics and painted glass, from the 16th to the 20th century. Literary and critical history accounts will also be on display.

The third exhibition, titled The Fortune of Raphael’s Baglioni Altarpiece in Perugian Copies, will open Oct. 3 and will be on view until Jan. 10, 2021: it will be held at the National Gallery of Umbria and will be dedicated to the fortune of the most significant work Raphael created for Perugia, namely the 1507 altarpiece executed for the Baglioni family chapel in San Francesco al Prato. The exhibition will be curated by Marco Pierini and Veruska Picchiarelli.

To further explore the figure of Raphael, theUniversity of Perugia has organized a series of scholarly meetings in Perugia and the region. Events will also be scheduled to allow the public to engage with demonstrations of non-invasive studies of works of art. And a series of lectures, curated by Michele Dantini and sponsored by theUniversity for Foreigners of Perugia, will illustrate Raphael’s nineteenth- and twentieth-century fortunes through renowned artists, writers and art historians.

In addition to the three exhibitions, the program thus includes initiatives by the University of Perugia, the University for Foreigners, the POST Foundation - Perugia Officina per la Scienza e la Tecnologia and the Orintia Carletti Bonucci Foundation.

The Soprintendenza Archeologica, di Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria and the Soprintendenza Archivistica e Bibliografica dell’Umbria e delle Marche, the Archivio di Stato di Perugia, the Museo del Capitolo della Cattedrale di Perugia, the Nobile Collegio del Cambio, the Nobile Collegio della Mercanzia, the Archdiocese of Perugia Città della Pieve, and the Museo degli Strumenti Musicali Antichi will make important contributions in various ways. The latter will offer an exhibition of some woodcuts, prints and manuscripts pertaining to music in the painter’s time, an addition to its collection with instruments reconstructed from early 16th-century iconography, and a multimedia tour of performance practice and lutherie coeval with the artist.

Pictured is Raphael’s fresco created in the Chapel of San Severo

Perugia celebrates Raphael with three major exhibitions and initiatives spread throughout the city

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