Exhibition of portraits of Pope Julius II at the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt

FRANKFURT. From November 8, 2013 to February 2, 2014, the exhibition "Raphael and Portrait of Julius II. Will be presented at the Städel Museum." Cabinet Art Exhibition. The Evolution and Attribution of Portrait in the Stadel Museum” (Raphael and the Portrait of Julius II. A Cabinet Exhibition on the Pictorial Type, Evolution and Attribution of the Portrait in the Städel Museum), consisting of several versions of the portrait of Pope Julius II, one of which was acquired by the museum three years ago.

The exhibition includes several picturesque portraits of the Pope, including two works by Raphael and Titian from the galleries Uffizi (Uffizi) and the Palazzo Pitti (Palazzo Pitti) in Florence. The exhibition also includes technical documentation and research reports on the canvas belonging to the Stadel Museum, including X-ray and infrared images of the painting. The purpose of organizing the exhibition was not only to tell the viewer about the painting acquired by the museum and its history, but also to visually show its close relationship with other versions of the portrait of Julius II.

Recall that the Frankfurt Museum acquired the painting in 2010 from a German collector living in Switzerland. Moreover, at the time of the acquisition of the canvas, it was considered a late copy of the portrait of Raphael. The transaction amount was not disclosed, but when a year earlier the picture was put up for auction, the sum of only 8 thousand euros was listed as the lower threshold for its value. Examinations carried out by Staedel’s experts proved that the picture is a genuine work of Raphael, in the creation of which his students also participated. Moreover, this particular option is most likely the earliest.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog edited by Professor Jochen Sander, responsible curator of the Stödel Museum, by the German publishing house Michael Imhof Verlag. The catalog contains a detailed history, chronology and description of the portrait of Pope Julius II, owned by the Stadel Museum, and also includes the opinions of the most venerable professors and art historians who studied the painting after establishing its authenticity.

Between June 1511 and March 1512, Raffaello Santi (Raffaello Santi, Urbino, 1483-1520 Rome) created a portrait of Giuliano della Rovere (Giuliano della Rovere, 1443-1513), which in 1503 became Pope Julius II, capturing this outstanding figure of the Renaissance. But he did not just create a portrait - Raphael’s canvas became a model and a “classic standard” of the image of all subsequent chapters of the Vatican, which is still valid today. Julius II appears before us not in a formal attire for the liturgy, but in the "intimate" atmosphere of an individual audience, for which he took his place in the chair.

Rafael himself was extremely proud of the work done, and his contemporaries were so shocked by the masterpiece, so vividly and accurately depicting the Pope (who, by the way, was not a “quiet thoughtful old man”, as on the canvas), that at the sight of him they trembled no less than in the presence Julius II himself. Not surprisingly, the painting gave rise to the creation of many copies, several of them were made in the workshops of Raphael himself, with his active participation (such as work from the Uffizi Gallery, also presented at the exhibition). Own copy of the same portrait was created by another great Renaissance artist - Titian, his work is also presented at the exhibition. In his painting, Titian pushed Julius a little and wrote it, as if from a lower point of view. Initially, art historians believed that this was due to a desire to emphasize their authorship, but later, experts came to the conclusion that Titian thus “imperceptibly” emphasized the pope’s remoteness from the people, his own greatness and authority.

Unfortunately, the exhibition “Portrait of Pope Julius II”, also created in the workshop of Raphael, from the National Gallery in London, which is currently under restoration, was not included in the exhibition.

The infrared photographs presented at the exhibition, produced in the Shtedel laboratory, allow you to see the changes made by the author in the process of creating the canvas. First of all, they relate to the area of the face, the location of Julius II in the chair and the hands of the head of the Vatican.

“These changes, as well as the specifics of the pictorial design, which in some respects directly refers us to the Sistine Madonna (Madonna di Foligno), convincingly show that in the process of developing the graphic idea of Raphael himself, this particular version of the canvas played a very important role, even despite the fact that, presumably, his students took part in his writing, ”explained Jochen Sander.

Most likely, in the infrared spectrum we see the initial version of the composition of the picture, rejected by Raphael already at the stage of creating the work. This is precisely proved by the fact that the version of the painting stored in Stadel is the earliest, and it is from it that all subsequent copies of the canvas are written.

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru