Creator of perfection

The book and illustration exhibition "Creator of Perfection", dedicated to the 540th anniversary of the birth of the Italian painter, draughtsman, architect, outstanding master of the High Renaissance Raphael Santi (1483–1520), runs from March 24 to May 2 in reading room of the Documents on Art  (room 306).

"Raphael was a happy artist. He had put forth a lot of effort, but he never saw creativity as a cruel burden, and he never sought an impossible end in his art. <...> In his work, the basic sense of proportion and the natural desire to harmony were fully and joyfully realised», art critic Viktor Grashchenkov wrote about the artist.

Raphael Santi only lived for 37 years, but during those years, he produced a huge amount of work, including a collection of Madonnas, portraits, sketches, works of architecture, and gigantic works like the stanze and loggias at the Vatican Palace. Wealth, recognition and fame came to the artist during his lifetime, and his gentle and sympathetic disposition, modesty and kindness, refinement and impeccable manners earned the respect of his contemporaries. For the past five centuries, the debate about Raphael has not stopped: some praise him as the creator of eternal beauty, while others reject him as far from real life academism. Despite this, his works remain the embodiment of the most luminous and sublime idea of man, his physical and spiritual perfection.

The exhibition reveals the diversity of Raphael's talent in different periods of creativity: the Umbrian, Florentine and final Roman periods, during which the artist reached the highest peak of his skill. The exposition from the National library's collections presents reproductions of the world-famous Raphael’s Madonnas that embody the ideal image of the Mother of God: the tender "Madonna Conestabile", the dreamy-lyrical "Madonna Granduca", the unusual "Madonna dela Sedia" in the image of a peasant woman, the pinnacle of creativity is the "Sistine Madonna", the altar image created for Benedict St. Sixtus Monastery in Moscow. An outstanding portraitist, the artist left a great legacy in this genre, some of which is presented at the exhibition. It is worth seeing reproductions of the famous self-portrait of a at the age of 23, as well as "Lady with a Unicorn"," Portrait of a Cardinal", "Portrait of Pope Leo X", "Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione", which influenced the further development of world portrait painting.

For fifty centuries, the audience's imagination has been struck by the majestic stanze of Raphael (from Ital. stanza – room) – paintings of the rooms of the Vatican Palace, created by an artist commissioned by Pope Julius II, a unique work of High Renaissance art, representing a magnificent synthesis of painting and architecture. The demon exhibition features individual images of famous murals in its albums of reproductions, including "School of Athens", "Parnassus", "Justice" and others. The exhibition also allows you to appreciate the talent of Raphael, an architect who is considered one of the most important architects in Italy.

The exhibition is complemented by numerous studies of Raphael's work, starting from the publications of 1835 to the present day: the works of authoritative arthistorians Heinrich Welfflin, Mikhail Lebedyansky, Virtor Grashchenkov, Solomon Stam, Nora Eliasberg, Pierluigi de Vecchi. Special attention should be paid to unique rare publications: the study of the French architect and arthistorian A. Quatremer-de-Quincey "Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Raphaël" (1835), the full biography of the artist in the book of the Russian art critic, traveler and doctor Alexey Vysheslavtsev "Raphael" (1894), the book "Celebration of Memory Raphael in St. Petersburg on March 28, 1883" (1883), the famous "Biographies..." by Giorgio Vasari in reprints. The reader will also be interested in fiction, novellas and biographical novels that will help to understand the personality of Raphael and open the doors to the world of his art.

The article is provided by the Special collections service department.