CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/6/2021

Authoritative 'Raphael: 1520–1483' is a New Release this week!

This early-sixteenth-century portrait of the noted Italian author, courtier and diplomat Baldassarre Castiglione—who helped Renaissance master Raphael pen his famous 1519 letter to Pope Leo X, advocating for the conservation and restoration of classical Roman art and architecture—is reproduced from Raphael: 1520–1483. Published to accompany the quincentennial of the artist's death in 2020, this volume was selected by The New York Times's Jason Farago as one of the best art books of the year: "There’s no 2020 show I regret missing more than this one in Rome," he writes, "the largest Raphael retrospective ever. As the title indicates, both exhibition and catalog proceed in reverse chronological order. From the epic funeral procession after Raphael’s death on his 37th birthday, we rewind through his indelible portraits of the Medici pope Leo X and the courtier Baldassare Castiglione, past his grand “School of Athens,” to his first, hesitant figure studies in Urbino. This a posteriori saga gives us a refreshed Raphael, whose psychological acuity feels newly approachable."