Raphael exhibit at Columbus Museum of Art, delayed two years by COVID is worth the tripCOLUMBUS, Ohio — Poor Raphael. Hailed as a rival of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance, he died in Rome in 1520 at age 37 at the height of his artistic power and fame.
But restrictions on international travel cut attendance, and some exhibitions were delayed. Among them was a major collaboration undertaken by the Columbus Museum of Art and the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany. The tapestries, like other works from the Dresden collection, were dispersed for safekeeping during World War II and escaped the Allied bombing of the city that set off a firestorm in February 1945.
Founded in 1878, the Columbus Museum of Art is known primarily for its excellent holdings in American art, including masterpieces by Edward Hopper and Columbus native George Bellows, and in modern and contemporary art. In the case of the Raphael show, Maciejunes parlayed a longtime friendship with Stephan Koja, who became director of the Dresden museum in 2016, into a coup for Columbus.
Peter kneels amid his wet, smelly catch, extending his joined hands in prayer toward Christ in one of the most moving images of faith in the history of art. There’s also the blinding of Elymas, in which Paul performs another miracle by temporarily blinding a sorcerer who tried to bar Paul from converting a Roman proconsul to Christianity. Shocked by the evidence of divine power, the old magician gropes pathetically as those around him gape in amazement.
After Raphael’s death, the original paintings on paper went missing for a century before seven of them surfaced in Genoa in the early 17th century. Maciejunes said that Rubens, a friend of Charles Stuart, who later became King Charles I of England, urged him to buy the cartoons.