Raphael and the Antique by Claudia La Malfa review

Celebrating the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death, this new study sheds light on particular aspects of Raphael's work and has a wonderful surprise at the end, says David Ekserdjian

Raphael by Claudia la Malfa

Reaktion

David Ekserdjian

24 February 2021

Urbino’s best loved son, Raphael (1483-1520), was famously cut short in his prime (as a result of overdoing it under the duvet, according to some sources), dying when he was only thirty-seven, the age young geniuses seem to choose at which to meet their maker.

2020 was therefore the five-hundredth anniversary of his death, and unsurprisingly various temporary exhibitions were planned in his honour. The two most substantial of these were respectively intended for the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome, and the National Gallery in London, but neither went according to plan.

The former was closed almost as soon as it opened, but the generosity and understanding of lenders did at least mean it could be prolonged and some lucky people were able to visit it, while the latter has been postponed, and will now take place in 2022.

On an altogether more positive note, a number of important books have also been published to celebrate this particular milestone, although the vast majority are so far only available in Italian.

The

notable exception is Claudia La Malfa’s absorbing Raphael and the Antique, which is part of a recently launched Reaktion Books series called Renaissance Lives, which features writers, scientists, and thinkers alongside artists.

These books are not intended to be full-blooded cradle to grave last words on their subjects, but rather seek to shed light on particular aspects of their work alongside a more general account of their careers.

In the case of Raphael, his engagement with the arts of classical antiquity is an unusually rewarding focus, above all because it allows the author not only to demonstrate the seriousness of his study of both the sculpture and the architecture of the ancients, but also to explore the consequences of this profound immersion on his own productions.

At the same time, it would be misleading to give the impression that the rest of Raphael’s career simply follows previous opinion, since the author is very well aware that it is always possible to cast new light on old problems.

Just occasionally, this reader felt the need to part company with his guide over points of detail, but never without having been made to think, and the book has a wonderful – and fascinating – surprise half a dozen pages or so from its end.

This is a previously unpublished Latin elegy to Raphael written by one Fausto Evangelista Maddaleni de’ Capodiferro, whose last line reads: ‘The Urbinate lays down in this grave and Rome with him.’

Raphael and the Antique by Claudia La Malfa (Reaktion Books, £16.95)

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