One painting, belonging to a private collection abroad, has been attributed to Raffaello Sanzio by a group of experts. The work depicts a dark-haired Mary Magdalene, with a penetrating gaze and tapered hands. The woman's face is that of Chiara Francelli, wife of Perugino, Raphael's master. The art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, however, dampens the enthusiasm and states: "He is not a Raphael, but at most a prototype of Perugino".
The painting is at the center of a study
The painting in question, dated 1504, is an oil on poplar panel and measures 46x34 centimetres. The work is at the center of a study that will be published next week in the scientific journal “Open Science, Art and Science”. The results were previewed during an international conference in Pergola (Pesaro Urbino). The conference, entitled "Ideal Beauty - Raffaello Sanzio's vision of perfection", was attended by several experts, according to whom it is a rediscovered masterpiece of Raphael.
Among these: mother Maria Cecilia Visentin, pontifical professor specialized in religious iconography of the order of the Servants of Mary; Annalisa DiMaria among the leading international experts on Leonardo da Vinci and the Italian Renaissance, specialized in the Neoplatonic current; the professor Jean-Charles Pomerol of the Sorbonne, former rector of the Pierre and Marie Curie University; Andrew of Montefeltro, researcher and sculptor.
The reasons of the experts
Experts attribute the painting to Raphael for a number of reasons. First of all, because laboratory analyzes carried out by ART & Co, a spin-off of the University of Camerino, revealed that the dusting technique, used by Raphael and not by Perugino, was used to create it. There are also 'repentances' and indispensable materials in the creation of the nuances, typically Raphaelesque, pigments compatible with the palette of the "divine painter". The study also analyzes the mathematical proportions used by Raphael, "who knew mathematics, unlike Perugino".
“Impossible” according to Sgarbi
The painting does not belong to Raffaello Sanzio according to Vittorio Sgarbi, art historian and undersecretary of Culture. “There is no possibility – states Sgarbi – that the painting advertised as Raphael, and announced in Pergola, an affectionate city, is by the master from Urbino. It is only a journalistic scoop, since it is based on the knowledge of a few as it is a work in a private collection, with the owner's legitimate aspiration to own a Raphael."
“The idea of a Magdalene with the appearance of Perugino's wife is already bizarre – adds Sgarbi – as is the legitimate propensity of some scholars to comment only on great names: Raphael, Leonardo, Botticelli. Perugino is enough and moving forward. The work announced as Raphael – he states – is in fact a version, perhaps autograph, of a prototype by Perugino preserved in Palazzo Pitti, of which another version is known in the Galleria Borghese”. “At most – concludes the art critic – the new version, from a private collection, is a replica of Perugino. The autography of which must be verified, compared to the certain one of the works preserved in museums, and in the public domain".
(Photo: Art for Art's sake; Vittorio Sgarbi; Raffaello Sanzio Facebook Pages)
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