Curator's Introduction | The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Raphael | National Gallery 

As a person who lives so far away(Korea), it’s truly great to be able to watch these great lectures online! Thank you for uploading.

Beautiful. Over 500 years and still inspiring artists around the world, he truly was mystical in nature.

Wivel's knowledge and energy are amazing. So love learning from someone so dedicated to the topic.

Thank you for this beautiful presentation of one of those unique men in the history of art. Just imagine those decades when Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raffaello challenged each other to reach unimaginable heights.

Matthias Wivel is my favorite from the Gallery. He's such a great speaker.

I love the passion of the speakers in the series. It really brings to life the most exquisite Works in the history of mankind. Thank you

The greatest, Raffaello! Sunday I'll be there. Thanks Matthias, always a pleasure listening to you

Matthias Wivel oozes passion for the work of artists and I love it..

Thank you for uploading this talk. As always, it's a pleasure to hear Matthias' insights into the artists and their works.

It's a truly eye-opening, mind-blowing exhibition. Thanks to all involved.

The speaker has a beautiful understanding of Art and Religion...this Art created by Raphael, Leonardo , Michelangelo etc is always to remind you of our great creator (Conductor) ...the symphony of beauty 👏👏👏

Very enlightening. Thank you.

Wonderful presentation. All my life, Rafael was just a name and not a living artist. Thank you.

What a talk! riveting introduction (even if seen a posteriori) to a superb, memorable, exhibition. THANK YOU.

It's an extraordinary lecture. Many thanks for Matthias Wivel!

What strikes me most about Raphael is the repetitive focus on primary colours -- blue, read, green, a little yellow -- though it's the green that stands out most, even its reflection in the undertones of skin. However, in his final portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, we do finally see the softer tones and intimacy of what almost looks like a Rembrandt, though not as dark. It's lovely.

This man is so brilliant. I never get bored of his talks.

I find the interconnectedness between players intriguing: Pietro Bembo, secretary to Leo X, visited the ruins of Rome with Raphael and would advocate the protection of the ancient buildings for posterity. xxx Apparently Raphael's double portrait of Navagero and Beazzano sees these friends in dialogue with not only the painter but also Bembo, another close friend. Lacking photography, artists would celebrate emotional ties/ through 'speaking' portraits. Brilliant! At a distance of 500 years we appreciate assistance in interpreting the intentions (codified?)of artists at times where mores may or may not have been the same as ours. xxx Thank you.

A wonderful introduction, thank you.💐

I love online lectures!! Please upload more!

Wonderful lecture

Great lecture, thank you so much Mattias !!!!!!!! You traveled inthe spirit, soul, work and legacy of the Great Raphael. ///// I went to Urbino, vaticans, etc................but I learned a lot from some special works. 💎💎💎

Excellent introduction to Raphael in what was a wonderfully curated exhibition.

Thank you. Beautifully and with a touch of passion presented

Thanks for sharing, very interesting, well done 👌👏👏👏👋

It's funny the sense you get of the personalities of the Renaissance masters - Raphael is the gregarious, good-looking, chummy extrovert; Michelangelo is the brooding, scruffy, suspicious introvert; Leonardo is almost between these, handsome and charming but also guarded and secretive. And you see it in their work, with Raphael's congenial, pretty Madonnas, Michelangelo's tortured, twisted musclemen, and Leonardo's hazy sfumato illusions of living flesh in space.

I learned a lot today, thank you!!

Always good to see Raffaello Santi. What a treat and so bad that I will not be able to travel from Canada to see the show. A good starting point may be to comment that on the Saint Catherine, at the start of the lecture, and early work, thus possibly more prone to pictorial stiffness from a still developing artist, the twisting of the spine to create the pose steals the scene. The pose crosses from the saintly to the sensuous. There is so much movement in that figure, and so much of it related more to what made her (or the model) into a wonderful human being, than our Saint Catherine. A note about the La Fornarina. I would compare her to the Galatea at Chigi's Farnesina. The Galatea's face is wonderful. Radiating light, with the wind carrying her hair aloft. The Fornarina has an impish look. I've always been quite taken by it. If it is as you say, and the handling of the paint is problematic around the face, maybe the picture wasn't finished before Raffaello fell ill. Maybe someone like Romano finished it. The Galatea would be a marvellous addition to the show (and the lecture). Too bad we can't move walls and rooms around the world! A second aspect of Raffaello that bothers me is the depiction of heavenly space. I think it is most noticeable (and objectionable) at the Stanza della Signatura, on the "Disputation of the Holy Sacrament". The Heavenly Court is hoisted up in air, sitting at their semicircular tribunal, floating on a cloud. In the lecture we saw Santa Cecilia with the musical instruments strewn at her feet. Above her the heavens open in a similarly unconvincing way. The opening in the sphere of the heavens to show several important deities poking through is such a huge step down from what we normally see Raffaello's pictures. An artist as inventive as he, and as talented, surely could have come up with something more agile. And the obvious place to go to to resolve this impass is to the architecture, where Julio lived to do some spectacular things, especially the round courtyard in the palace of Charles V in the Alhambra, in Granada. Raffaello has to content himself with the School of Athens-a drop-dead moment for western architecture. In order to draw the two-point perspective one needs to have a plan to project from. And an elevation or section from where to establish the heights. So the notion that the great Bramante did not have a plan seems difficult to access standing before the fresco. Maybe there was a wood model similar to the one Brunelleschi used for the dome at the Duomo in Firenze. The other puzzle-worth a trip to Roma with a few cameras and sketchbooks-is to match what is shown on the wall in the fresco, with what is built at S Pietro. It seems to me we are standing coming into the space that will be capped by Michelangelo's future dome, the doors to the Basilica at our backs, and we are looking in the direction of Bernini's future Baldacchino. The niches, the size of the piers, the height to the dome in proportion to the circumference of its opening, all that stuff rings true to my eyes. So I see it as a remarkable gift to Julius II to 'give' him his Basilica nearing completion at the time while he was still alive to see it. I just find it hard to accept that Raffaello conjured all this up without architectural drawings or models. And I put all my faith in the abilities of the designer of the courtyard at SM della Pace and the Tempietto. He knew more about the project than even the School of Athens is showing us. Yet, the design was advancing along lines that a budding architect like Raffaello would be able to render accurately without much difficulty. I suppose the Ambrosiana doesn't loan out its cartoon for the School of Athens? I read that it has just undergone a full restoration. Too bad they didn't get it scanned to create 'copies' that could travel to exhibitions like this one. Just the scale of the thing is gobsmacking and would revolutionize the experience of the exhibition. But kudos for getting one of the Sistine tapestries! What an important commission that was. Even in reproduction, the School of Athens would serve to make the point that Raffaello may have been on stronger ground 'designing' the vaults of the heavens as lost classical spaces living in the artist's imagination, than holes in the sky or structures erected floating in air on cloud formations. These issues would be resolved over the next 150 years with fine examples extant today in Venezia. I agree and support your thesis that ultimately we can judge the quality of the artist by the empathy we feel in their depiction of babies, girl friends, patrons and colleagues. Its my litmus test for Renaissance madonnas and child: "Does the mother express her relationship, her love, for her baby?" And does the baby reciprocate? Yes, he is omniscient form birth and fully aware of EVERYTHING that will unfold right into our time and beyond, but is he also a healthy looking baby, plump and happy? Or is he a fully grown man shrunken down to baby scale? The pictures drop like flies put to this simple test. And the best ones shine brightly. The best I've seen ever is in Chicago at the Loyola University's small Renaissance art gallery (the name slips my mind, and I can't seem to find it on line). Baldassare Castiglione's portrait, the Galatea, Julius II, any number of the portraits of people in his studio, including the double portrait with Julio Romano-Raffaello passes the test so many times in so many ways. What a great finale for the show. Thank you for a wonderful hour.

Tremendous lecture, thank you.

What a brilliant insight into this fundamental artist. I learnt a great deal. Thank you.

Great hour spent watching this..👏

Wonderful. THANK YOU!

The comparison of Raphael's art to harmony in music is quite apt -many decades ago I listened to Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy's symphony composed to celebrate the 400 th anniversary of Gutenberg's printing press which ends with an exquisite choral finale -a music critic (G.B Shaw I think) said that listening to this choral finale was like looking into the eyes of a Raphael Madonna and seeing in her eyes all of heaven reflected.I've never forgotten that beautiful comment.

Thank you so much

I visited recently. The pictures are spectacular. the colours are beautiful. The skill. It takes you on a visual journey of his life. I don't think you can appreciate the pictures on this video. The pictures are more intricate and draw you. It was the most specatualr event.

Wow! Raphael

Thank you for sharing.

Phenomenal presentation by Curator Matthias Wivel, clearly showing his depth of knowledge.

Thank goodness the artists had each other.

Raphael was my favorite artist in the childhood , it always seemed to me that we had looked similar )

Curators always have cool accents.

Good lecture. It’s obvious he has a lot of knowledge. Thanks

Raphael genius of a artist

Brilliant!

Beautiful all art Thank you for sharing Wonderful video and explaining I enjoyed it watching 👋💕

Ra Phi EL.. He drew pictures on the earth.. I enjoyed this excellent explanation Thanks

Great narration and such a passion and love he shows towards his work and speech

Прекрасно. Спасибо огромное. Есть ли еще хоть какие-то лекции этого мастера искусствознания?

What a beautiful talk on beauty and the human condition. So refreshing! I was waiting for the usual political correctness that I encounter everywhere these days, but thankfully, to the speakers credit, not here.

I love all the great artists but Raphel was so dramatic and I love how his work almost steps off the painting, or you are privy to something secret and amazing

Raffaello un grande pittore, mi piace Il sogno del cavaliere.

🗽

Raphael's paintings in the Sistine Chapel shine brightly . Michaelangelo

Thanks, this was excellent. A misheard caption @25:13 : it's Emilia Romagna not Giulio Romano

Perspective and geometry. !!!

感谢🙏

Very nice information Sir

Great lecture, thank you!

Thank you for a wonderful presentation, Matthias! Small correction, if I may be so presumptuous, at 27:11 with ". .Adrian VI, the Borgia pope. ." I'm sure you meant Alexander VI.

Note how Raphael placed himself squarely on the side of Aristotle and the Empiricists.

Eduard man...usef space well as well.

...is there a video about Raphael's portrait of Baldassare Castiliogne?

St. Catherine. So important

27:10 the hated Borgia predecessor was Alexander VI, not Adrian VI. Adrian VI will be elected pope two papacies after Julius II (there is Leo X Medici between them).

Its a pitty that you dont see details like eyes , clothes etc . To far away slides .

Do we know enough about Raphael now?🤔🤔🤔

I wish to marry (someone like) matthias.

Jesus these people are religious. The narrator is absolutely brilliant!

Not at all bad for a turtle

Raphael > Leonardo

Not 'he'. 'Raphael' was a woman.

Thank you!

Thank you for this complex overview of Raphael, his work and world, not as good as seeing the show but for those who cannot visit it, a consolation and much food for thought.

Thank you so much for such an amazing naration

Absolutely terrific lecture! Thanks you so much for posting.

Форнарина похожа на Рафаэля.Возможно это работа Джулио Романо, с которым у них (с Рафаэлем, ) были более близкие отношения чем мы думаем, а повязка на руке с именем "Рафаэль" тому подсказка. То есть Форнарина это Рафаэль. Также повязка может быть подписью художника Рафаэль написал " Рафаэль".

Thank you.

Curator's Introduction | The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Raphael | National Gallery 1233PM 21.7.22 i can't make it - much to your blessed relief, i feel... shame. very much so... pity you can't allow another few months of exhibition time...

Made magic.

This exhibition was pretty much the same one I saw in Italy two years before.

Very beautiful, excellent presentation.

Thank you for sharing.

Thank you so much !!

BRAVO!

Nicely done!