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Painted pearl unlocks secret of Raphael's love
Reuters ^ | 6/17/05 | Clara Ferreira-Marques

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: art; fornarina; godsgravesglyphs; painting; raphael; renaissance
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Interesting theory.
1 posted on 06/19/2005 1:18:04 PM PDT by wagglebee
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To: wagglebee

I remember the paintings from Western Civ class my freshman year of college, but we didn't hear the gory details :-).


2 posted on 06/19/2005 1:25:37 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Children don't need counting, because whatever number you have, you never have enough.")
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To: wagglebee

That is a great story.


3 posted on 06/19/2005 1:26:26 PM PDT by conservative cat
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To: wagglebee
You mean he wasn't a homosexual? I thought that every artists, musician, writer, leader, philosopher, etc., going back to the year one, was a homosexual.

/sarcasm

4 posted on 06/19/2005 1:29:26 PM PDT by Paul Atreides (FACT: You can get more reliable information in a beauty shop, than from the media)
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To: Tax-chick

If you click on the Reuters link, you can see the painting.


5 posted on 06/19/2005 1:30:55 PM PDT by tiamat ("I live in my own little world. But it's okay. They know me here.")
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To: wagglebee
Good article and interesting theory.

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! :*)

6 posted on 06/19/2005 1:31:19 PM PDT by asp1
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To: conservative cat
Cool....Died at 37. Imagine what we could have before us if he lived another 20 years.

Did he die a natural death?

7 posted on 06/19/2005 1:31:27 PM PDT by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: conservative cat
It would make a great movie, starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford.

Leni

8 posted on 06/19/2005 1:32:22 PM PDT by MinuteGal (Remember, Half the People You Know are Below Average)
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To: wagglebee

btt


9 posted on 06/19/2005 1:33:06 PM PDT by mel
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To: wagglebee

10 posted on 06/19/2005 1:35:36 PM PDT by primeval patriot
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To: Paul Atreides
"You mean he wasn't a homosexual?"
Nah, Raphael was merely a fornicator. Leonardo was the one who was a homo, and Michelangelo was a manic-depressive. These High Renaissance Masters were quite a bunch.
11 posted on 06/19/2005 1:35:49 PM PDT by GSlob
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To: wagglebee

12 posted on 06/19/2005 1:37:07 PM PDT by rawhide
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To: GSlob
Leonardo was the one who was a homo

is that true? he did have a very distant relationship with his father...

13 posted on 06/19/2005 1:50:15 PM PDT by latina4dubya
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To: latina4dubya

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.


14 posted on 06/19/2005 2:00:16 PM PDT by GSlob
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To: wagglebee

"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."



Really...I wonder if anyone asked the "cleaner" if she is slightly motivated to get in bed with short and smelly Clooney. So typical of A loopy European dilettante saying something like this.


15 posted on 06/19/2005 3:00:45 PM PDT by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
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To: wagglebee
I put only a tiny bit of effort into matching image size, brightness, etc, but, Unless Rapahel painted all ears the same, I'd say the "Fornarina" and the" Velata" portray the same woman.

Fornarina/Velata

(FWIW, in the full image, the "Fornarina" looks pregnant, to me...)

16 posted on 06/19/2005 3:44:11 PM PDT by TXnMA (ATTN, ACLU & NAACP: There's no constitutionally protected right to NOT be offended -- Shove It!)
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To: Sacajaweau
I thought he'd died of diseases as a result of fooling around with court women. But I could not find verification of this on line.

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

17 posted on 06/19/2005 3:47:42 PM PDT by Republicanprofessor
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To: Sam Cree; Liz; Joe 6-pack; woofie; vannrox; giotto; iceskater; Conspiracy Guy; B Knotts; Dolphy; ...

Art Ping.

Let Sam Cree or I know if you want on or off the list.


18 posted on 06/19/2005 3:48:50 PM PDT by Republicanprofessor
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To: Sam Cree; Liz; Joe 6-pack; woofie; vannrox; giotto; iceskater; Conspiracy Guy; B Knotts; Dolphy; ...
Art Appreciaton/Education ping 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.

19 posted on 06/19/2005 3:50:46 PM PDT by Republicanprofessor
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To: Republicanprofessor

These have turned into such fascinating threads.


20 posted on 06/19/2005 4:24:15 PM PDT by Dante3
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