Pitti Artists | Situation | Opening Hours Tickets | Authorizations
Artists Raphael | Botticelli Lippi Giorgione | Rubens | Tintoretto | Titian | Caravaggio V.Dyck Murillo | Veronese Vasari | Palace
Raphael at the Palatina Gallery in Florence
Mirgin with Child The Madonna and Child with St John the Baptist was painted by Raphael in 1512.
The painting, also known as the "Madonna della Seggiola", is thought to have been made for a Roman client, the Pope himself.
With this painting, specialists believe that Raphael reached the pinnacle of his technique in producing works in a circular format.
The chair on which the Virgin is seated corresponds to those in Pope Julius II's reception room, reserved for the highest dignitaries.
Raphael succeeded in humanising the Virgin while preserving her dignity.
Madonna and Child in Throne The Madonna of the Baldachin, a Virgin on a throne surrounded by St Peter and St Bernard, was painted for the altar of the chapel of the Dei family in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence, dedicated to St Bernard.
This work is the only altarpiece Raphael ever painted in Florence.
One of its interests is the way in which the figures interact with each other and with the viewer, in an unprecedented grandeur tinged with casualness - for example, St Bernard's book, placed familiarly on the step of the Virgin's throne.
Mirgin with Jesus Child The Madonna of the Grand Duke, another of Raphael's Madonna and Child works on display in the Palatina Gallery, owes its name simply to the fact that it was part of the private collection of Grand Duke Ferdinand III de' Medici.
It was a work of particular affection for the Medici family, who kept it privately until 30 January 1800, when it entered the Pitti Palace.
This Madonna exudes an abstract, solemn majesty that is at once tender and communicative, right down to the way she holds Jesus in her arms.
Portrait of a Pregnant Woman Raphael's portrait of the Pregnant Woman, painted in 1508, remains a mystery as to the identity of the woman. Every hypothesis has been put forward, but to no avail.
Her clothes certainly suggest that she belongs to the Florentine upper middle class, dressed in the Florentine fashion of the first half of the 16th century.
Her expression of an abstract monumentality unseen before in Raphael is further accentuated by the three-quarter view.
The hand on the belly adds to the general gentleness of the painting.
The Woman with Veil The Woman with Veil, painted by Raphael in 1518, is cited by Giorgio Vasari as being in Matteo Botti's house in Florence. Vasari adds that it is "a woman whom Raphael loved until her death, and of whom he has painted here a superb portrait in which she seems alive."
Vasari was to make a copy in Botti's house.
All sorts of hypotheses have been put forward as to the identity of the young woman in Raphael's portrait, without it being possible to say whether it was a woman Raphael had known before the Fornarina or whether it was her, but idealised.
The fact remains that this young woman exudes a spiritual intensity that, in addition to its beauty and that of the work itself, makes it a superb painting to be admired at the Palatina Gallery.
Tommaso Inghirami The Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami, known as "Fedra", painted in 1510 by Raphael, was part of the collection of Pope Leo X.
Tommaso Inghirami was born in Volterra in 1470. His father died when he was two and his uncle took him to Florence under the protection of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
He left for Rome in 1483, where he became famous not only as a poet, but also and above all as an orator. So famous, in fact, that Erasmus of Rotterdam described him as the Cicero of his century.
His nickname, “Fedra”, is due to his brilliant interpretation of the Fedra part of Seneca's Hippolytus.
He never took Holy Orders, but was awarded numerous titles and offices by Popes Alexander VI and Julius II. He was appointed prefect of the Vatican library and even secretary to the conclave at the end of which Pope Leo X was elected.
Pitti Artists | Situation | Opening Hours Tickets | Authorizations
Artists Raphael | Botticelli Lippi Giorgione | Rubens | Tintoretto | Titian | Caravaggio V.Dyck Murillo | Veronese Vasari | Palace
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