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.
"Fornarina" means what? Fornicatrix? Is that a clue? Anyone know Italian?
Yes, please on your art lesson list.
Do you know what Fornarina means? Fornicatrix?
Please add me to your list.
Did we do Impressionists yet?
margherita has to be one of the sexiest pictures in the western canon.
As I said, I put very little effort into my comment. And I'm certainly no art expert! Just having a bit of amusement... '-)
Add me to your ping list, too, please.
Good point. I wasn't sure if the difference wasn't an effect of shading and difference in the direction the model's head is turned. (Is "Velata's" detached lobe obscured behind her jaw line?}
As I said, I put very little effort into my comment. And I'm certainly no art expert! Just having a bit of amusement... '-)
I think they look very similar.
I thought it was an odd comparison, too. Clooney is hardly a superstar....not even close to being in the same league as an artist such as Raphael!
Maybe the writer of the article has a "Clooney" fixation, huh?
How else would someone come up with something so inane! Yeesh!
Excellent point about the ears. Are you a budding art historian? Even the shapes of the ear otherwise look a little different. I've heard ears are even more different than fingerprints.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1414727/posts
Do a search under Art for keyword if you want the other "classes."
Another ping for you.
Yeah, right.
Nice earlobes.
i don't think those ears look alike at all...
The Fornarina is currently at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (along with Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' painting and other associated works).
http://www.ima-art.org/
I haven't seen a reproduction of this painting that does it justice. It's truly stunning.
I believe that "Fornarina" roughly means "little baker woman." This would go along with the belief that Raphael's lover was the daughter of a baker. I studied in Rome for a semester in college and right next door to my school in Trastevere was a restaurant called "La Fornarina." It occupied a building said to be the home of the original Fornarina. On the other side of the school was the Villa Farnesina which contains several wonderful frescoes by Raphael. Perhaps Raphael met this lady while in the neighborhood working on the villa's frescoes?
I'm surprised by how many people think Velata and Fornarina are the same woman. They look completely different to me - Velata being much prettier IMO. (pretty as a woman, not a painting - both paintings are beautiful)
Of course, now that you mention it, the baker woman. A good restaurant chain in the USA is Il Fornaio, in San Fran, Seattle, Pasadena, other places. They always bake bread and sell it along with serving excellent meals.
How terrific to have spent a semester studying art in Rome! I'm so pleased that FR has this nice little culture corner where I can meet people who've done the things that interest me. I spent one month there in 97 visiting friends and sort of frumming around the city on my own, as they worked. At the Vatican Grill, I met a fellow --American as I recall-- who'd just completed the art for the improved Grand Central Station in NYC. His friends swore up and down that he had indeed done so....I forget his name but you probably can roll it off your tongue. He was, I think, teaching at the American U in Rome.
One of my best semesters in college was to spend a semester in Florence, Italy. It was amazing to have lectures on site at the various churches, and to live with Italian families, speak Italian with them. It was wonderful just to experience a different culture and live the way they live.
(Of course everything so far (except for the picture of the bent one) would pass the sofa test)
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