Raphael at the Ducal Palace of Urbino

A landmark exhibition of paintings by the Italian Renaissance master Raffaelo Sanzio — now known simply by his Anglicized first name, Raphael — has opened at the Ducal Palace in Urbino,  where he was born in 1483.

While his most famous works are massive frescoes in the private library of Pope Julius II at the Vatican Palace in Rome (where Raphael died young in 1520), the Urbino exhibition offers travelers a chance to explore the artist’s somewhat mysterious formative period.

Raphael was the son of Giovanni Santi, a court painter for Federico di Montefeltro, the duke of Urbino, and was thought to have been apprenticed to the Umbrian painter Perugino after his father died when he was 11. Overlooked paintings by Santi are included in the exhibition, as is Raphael’s first signed work, “The Coronation of San Nicolo da Tolentina,” from about 1500.

Raphael left Urbino for Florence around 1505 where Leonardo da Vinci influenced his “Holy Family” and “Cowper Madonna,” both included in the Urbino show.

It runs through July 12 at the Ducal Palace in Urbino, the home of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, one of Italy’s most important art museums, replete with works by Piero della Francesca.

– Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: www.raffaelloeurbino.it]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 1:38 pm by Susan Spano and is filed under Europe, Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.