Raphael Tapestries ‘Integral’ to Fully Understanding Sistine Chapel, Theologian Says

Crux ^ | 2/4/20 | Ines San Martin

[marshmallow]

Raphael, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. (Credit: Wiki Commons.)

ROME - For the first time since 1983, all ten of Raphael’s grand tapestries depicting the lives of Saints Peter and Paul will be exhibited together in the Sistine Chapel, hanging at eye level beneath Michelangelo’s frescoed ceiling as was the original intention.

Scheduled to be on display Feb. 17-23, 2020, this will be the Vatican’s way of honoring the famous Renaissance master as the world marks the 500th anniversary of his death. The last time they were presented was for the 500th anniversary of his birth.

The artist, who died in 1520 at the age of 37, never saw all ten together. The pieces were woven over a four-year period in Brussels, in the notable and highly successful Brussels tapestry workshop of Pieter van Aelst, using silk, wool and gilded silver thread.

Raphael painted the “cartoons” used to create the tapestries while he was decorating the “Stanze” in the Vatican, also called the Raphael rooms, and he remained in Rome while the tapestries were created.

(Only seven of these “cartoons” survive, and are on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.)

The first seven tapestries were exhibited in the Sistine Chapel on Dec. 26, 1519. The entire set hung for only a short time, before the death of Pope Leo in 1521.

Commissioned by Leo, they were pawned to pay for his funeral, and they then had a turbulent history: They were recovered for the coronation of Hadrian VI a year after being pawned, but they were stolen during the Sack of Rome in 1527, and after many adventures returned to the papal collection between 1544 and 1554.

According to The Art Newspaper, they were looted again during the French occupation of Rome in 1798......

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This topic was posted 02/06/2020, thanks marshmallow.