Posted on 06/19/2005 1:18:03 PM PDT by wagglebee
MILAN (Reuters) - The tiny pearl brooch seems an innocuous detail in Raphael's enigmatic "Fornarina" portrait, but for one group of historians it unlocks a scandalous love affair kept secret for centuries.
According to new research published in May, the pearl, pinned onto an elaborate turban, is part of a web of allusions to the Renaissance artist's clandestine marriage to the beautiful sitter, a baker's daughter -- despite a very public engagement to the niece of a powerful Vatican cardinal.
Officially, Raphael died a bachelor at 37.
"It was an impossible love affair," says Maurizio Bernardelli Curuz, editor of specialist journal Stile, who led a year of research into Raphael's romantic riddle.
"It is hard to overstate Raphael's status in Rome -- he was a superstar. The distance separating them was like that which today would separate George Clooney and his cleaner."
The pearl, also included in the "Velata" portrait, suggests the sitter's name was Margherita -- the Latin word for pearl -- and not Maria Bibbiena, the artist's intended bride.
It ties Margherita to a string of nuptial allegories in the "Fornarina," from the band on her arm bearing Raphael's name -- an unusual way to sign a painting -- to a wedding ring on her finger, later covered up by the painter's anxious students.
"It may seem artificial to us, but these were everyday games at the Renaissance courts," says Bernardelli Curuz.
"At least until the 18th Century, the allegorical side of painting was extremely important. It was Impressionism that dampened our ability to read a painting like a book."
The art historian says he has found evidence to support the allegories, from contemporary documents to X-rays of the "Fornarina" painting carried out during a recent restoration.
"Of course this is not just about the pearl, nor is it just about the documents. The absolute certainty comes from the way everything fits together," he says.
"But the pearl was what tipped us off -- we would have been forcing the allegory if it had been the other way around."
PEARLS, MYRTLE AND QUINCE
The notion that Margherita was Raphael's mistress is not altogether new -- inspired by her coy smile in the "Fornarina," 19th century France's Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painted the muse sitting on the artist's knee. A century later, Picasso portrayed their trysts in a series of explicit drawings.
Novelist Honore de Balzac mentioned the two lovers.
But Bernardelli Curuz and his team have gone beyond the myth, tracing back the various symbols and uncovering documents to prove the two married in a secret ceremony, a relatively common practice at the time.
The historians say they have also proved conclusively that Margherita is the subject of both the "Fornarina" and of the "Velata," or veiled portrait, logged by one contemporary as the painting of the woman Raphael "loved until he died."
Transferring the face of one painting to the other, thanks to computer technology, there is more than a passing similarity.
And according to Bernardelli Curuz, Margherita is also to be found elsewhere in Raphael's work, from the "School of Athens" fresco to the walls of the Farnesina palace in Rome.
In the "School of Athens," painted on the walls of a room that is now part of the Vatican museum, all the characters are looking away or at each other -- only Margherita and Raphael himself are looking defiantly straight at the visitor.
But despite her presence in his paintings, Margherita's existence seems to have been kept carefully under wraps, if not by Raphael, then at least by his students.
Initial drawings uncovered under the "Fornarina" during recent restoration show the figure clothed in a diaphanous veil was sketched rapidly and presumably from life -- another indication of the painter's ties to his muse.
The sketched figure is set against quince and myrtle bushes -- symbols of fertility and fidelity -- and wears a wedding ring on her left hand.
But the final painting, completed after Raphael's death with a clumsy hand, covers the bushes and the tell-tale ring.
"At the time of his death, Raphael's school was painting the Sala di Constantino in the Vatican and they wanted at all costs to avoid losing that commission. It could have meant bankruptcy," Bernardelli Curuz says.
"He had left the "Fornarina" unfinished and the students began to fret about the landscape, the ring, anything that could tie it to the marriage."
Michelangelo, Raphael's greatest rival, was pressing the Vatican to hand him the commission.
To silence the rumors, Raphael's students placed a plaque on his tomb in the memory of his eternal fiancee, Maria Bibbiena, as if to tie the two together after death.
Raven-haired Margherita was instead sent away. Four months after Raphael's death, the convent of Sant'Apollonia in Rome's Trastevere quarter registered the arrival of "widow Margherita," daughter of a Siena baker.
I remember the paintings from Western Civ class my freshman year of college, but we didn't hear the gory details :-).
That is a great story.
/sarcasm
If you click on the Reuters link, you can see the painting.
Have you ever watched the Sister Wendy programs on (ugh), PBS? Sister Wendy is a British Catholic nun who has some of the most interesting takes on many artists and art works. I think I learned more from her than a host of teachers that I had over the years.
I love Raphael's work, but Da Vinci's is the best IMHO! :*)
Did he die a natural death?
Leni
btt
is that true? he did have a very distant relationship with his father...
Yes, it is true. He had a young pupil, Salai(?) by name, and in Leonardo's notebooks and drawings there are enough references in rather graphic detail, properly fit for a VERY adult magazine.
"It is hard to overstate Raphael's status in Rome -- he was a superstar. The distance separating them was like that which today would separate George Clooney and his cleaner."
Fornarina/Velata
(FWIW, in the full image, the "Fornarina" looks pregnant, to me...)
Raphael School of Athens 1510-12
Raphael detail of the above work, with Raphael's self-portrait second from the right
Raphael detail again, with his lover looking at us. I had never heard this before, but sounds plausible to me. However, I think the lady in School of Athens looks prettier and different from Fornarina.
BTW, that slumped figure in the middle is Michelangelo, added to the painting after Raphael got a sneak peak at the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo is moody and is posed somewhat like his prophets on the edge of the Sistine Chapel.
Raphael of Michelangelo vs. Michelangelo's Isaiah
Art Ping.
Let Sam Cree or I know if you want on or off the list.
Let me know if you want on or off this list. This is not a recent "class," but it is still interesting.
The next "class" on Cubism is coming up in a day or two.
These have turned into such fascinating threads.
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