Theresa Thompson sees a new exhibition celebrating legacy of a Renaissance master and his pupils’ works

Immediately, you see a difference. For one, there are larger works than usual displayed in the intimate drawings gallery at Christ Church Picture Gallery for this exhibition highlighting the legacy of Raphael in 16th-century Italy.

For another, there’s colour. Real colour, body colour in red, pink, brown, greenish blue, dark grey and white, enhancing the effect of the weeping woman seen in profile on the fragment of cartoon depicting The Massacre of the Innocents.

Similarly, colour vitalises the heads from The Presentation in the Temple, hung adjacent, a cartoon from the studio of Giulio Romano, Raphael’s prolific and most talented assistant. Both are actual-size coloured designs, worked in reverse, destined for the finest weavers in Brussels: the workshop of celebrated weaver and painter Pieter van Aelst, where they were made into tapestries that are still in the Vatican today.

In all, nine large fragments of coloured cartoons for tapestries associated with Raphael are included in this fascinating exhibition, including several designs for feisty war horses.

Brussels was feted in the 16th century for manufacturing the best tapestries. At that time, tapestries were the most luxurious and expensive of all wall decorations, far exceeding fresco or wood panelling. As Jacqueline Thalmann, curator of the gallery explained, Raphael’s tapestries depicting the lives of Saints Peter and Paul commissioned by Pope Leo X in 1515, made for the lower walls of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, cost more than five times the price of the ceiling decoration. These cartoons are in the V&A.

Raphael was one of the most celebrated and influential artists, both in his day and for almost 400 years after his death. He died, aged 37, in 1520, at the height of his fame, but his pupils and workshop assistants continued their master’s tradition, developing their styles and designs, examples of which are on show. Hence, the show’s title, Raphael’s Legacy, and its subtitle, Italian Design in the 16th Century.

Of course, when you go to this exhibition you’ll be looking for works by the master. As Thalmann said: “The complexity of his art, in which he achieved perfect beauty and harmony, seduced people until the beginning of the 20th century.”

There are two Raphael drawings, both showing puttis, the chubby children, often winged, that decorated so many artworks in the Renaissance. There are also several works by Giulio Romano, his principal pupil, who led the workshop after his master’s death and shared Raphael’s interest in the antique.

These include designs for silverware, some of which are pretty outlandish; for instance, a bed warmer in the form of Medusa’s head surrounded by snakes. There was no stopping Giulio’s creative exuberance. “Giulio’s designs try to outwit nature and outwit the natural properties of the materials they are supposed to be made of,” Thalmann observed. This was a cause of frustration not only for himself, but for goldsmiths and silversmiths who tried to change his ideas, knowing them to be impossible to realise.

Oxford Mail:
Studio of Giulio Romano

Designs that stemmed from the discovery in Rome in the late 15th century of the domus aurea, Emperor Nero’s golden palace, conclude the show. Delicate winding foliage, birds, masks, flowers and fruit, putti and more putti, became the order of the day for 16th century design. Thus, looking at Giulio’s intricate design for a frieze, Thalmann asked: “How many different forms of acanthus foliage can you have?”

This show is wonderfully absorbing, it’s about Raphael and what he started, about the complexity and innovation of his art and that of his followers. Essentially, what we see here is “the pleasure of inventiveness.”

By the 18th century, Raphael, Giulio Romano likewise, was a name every art collector wanted to have. All drawings in this show come from the collection of General John Guise (1682-1765), whose Raphaels and Giulios were among his most prized possessions. Later this year, Christ Church Picture Gallery will hold an exhibition to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Guise bequest.

Raphael’s Legacy & Italian Design in the 16th Century
* Christ Church Picture Gallery
* Until May 25
* Visit chch.ox.ac.uk/gallery