An exhibition dedicated to Raphael and tapestries in Urbino

The Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, in collaboration with the Vatican Museums and the Mobilier National in Paris, presents an exhibition dedicated to Raphael and tapestries from May 21 to September 12, 2021, at the Ducal Palace in Urbino. The exhibition On the Thread of Raphael. Enterprise and Fortune in the Art of Tapestry, curated by Anna Cerboni Baiardi and Nello Forti Grazzini, aims to investigate both the contribution that the painter made in the field of tapestries (he experimented with inventions and made cartoons that were later woven in Flemish workshops) and the fortune that Raphael’s works experienced over the centuries in tapestry production.

Through twelve large works woven in Europe’s finest tapestries, mainly depicting the paintings of the Vatican Rooms, Urbino will be able to showcase Raphael’s monumental pictorial work in the majestic Throne Room. The exhibition spaces will welcome his grandest work, created in Rome for the popes and appreciated by artists, critics, and connoisseurs of all ages.

The Urbino exhibition stands in the wake of research concerning the irradiation of Raphael’s work, verifying its fortune in the field of tapestry. Visitors will find squared off, thanks to the installation curated by the architects of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, the famous frescoes that Raphael created in Rome, here proposed in the colors and weavings of the weavings. Eleven of the tapestries on display come from the Mobilier National in Paris and bear witness to how France, more than any other country, under the reign of Louis XIV (but then until the 19th century), nurtured a true veneration for Raphael, to the point of conceiving the “mad” project of recreating in tapestry in Paris, in several replicas, the most famous frescoes of theUrbinate, using on the one hand the French painters from the French Academy residing in Rome to copy the prototypes from life, and on the other the extraordinary skill of the tapestry makers framed by Colbert under the aegis of the Gobelins manufactory, opened in Paris and active exclusively for royal commissions, where many of the tapestries were woven.

The Galleria Nazionale delle Marche contributed not only to the knowledge of this fine art but also to the preservation of the precious textiles by financially supporting the restoration of some of the pieces loaned by Mobilier National in Paris.

Image: Gobelins Manufacture, atelier Lefebvre (from Raphael), Judgement of Paris (1691 - 1703; tapestry, 455 x 640 cm; Paris, Mobilier National)

An exhibition dedicated to Raphael and tapestries in Urbino

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