Raphael: from Urbino to Rome (National Gallery 2004-5)
What the reviewers said about the exhibition:
David Ekserdjian (Apollo, December 2004)
“For many of us, the ideal exhibition is one which manages to square the circle by combining a rich diet of masterpieces with a genuine intellectual purpose. Seen in those terms it is impossible to fault the National Gallery’s current ‘Raphael: from Urbino to Rome’ show, a project of the utmost scholarly seriousness which has managed to assemble an unprecedented – and unrepeatable – array of major works, above all from the early part of the artist’s career.”
Richard Dorment (The Daily Telegraph, 20 October 2004)
“In bringing together the most thrilling collection of Raphael’s early works ever assembled, the National Gallery reveals his astonishing progress from obscurity to the heart of Western culture.”
Jackie Wullschlager (Financial Times, 20 October 2004)
“A Raphael for the 21st century, the curators have seen, cannot be the purely painterly genius of legend, born fully fledged into tranquil grandeur. A struggling, changing, responsive individual who explores his own style, with his expressiveness laced with the anxiety of influence, is so much more appealingly one of us.”
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