The National Gallery of Art%u23AFthe American institution's reputation stands alongside great tradition in Washington, D.C. Visiting Milwaukee for this special exhibition, the National Gallery's Curator of Italian and Spanish Paintings David Allen Brown eagerly attends the Milwaukee Art Museum's March opening for “Raphael: The Woman With The Veil" last weekend. This one painting masterpiece exhibition promotes “slow looking," or the opportunity to view the painting up close and personal, but then enhanced by a 12 minute video in another room, which is well worth watching. Even the painting's frame, considered a bridge to the painting like an introduction Brown believes, is worthy of study. Added during the 17th century, the frame's Baroque style allows the painting to mix with the impressive Pitti Palace art collection in Florence, Italy, the city from where the painting traveled to be here at the MAM. The veiled woman's very good condition made it possible for its consideration to survive such a long journey that could otherwise jeopardize a priceless 500-year-old artwork. Masterpieces such as this rarely travel, and the MAM exhibition provides an incomparable opportunity to see Raphael's wonderful portrait. Brown takes a few minutes while viewing the veiled woman to discuss the masterwork.
Q: How many Raphael paintings does the National Gallery exhibit?
A: We have five actually. Three Madonna's, and this includes the very famous Alba Madonna, along with a portrait of a young man [titled Bindo Altoviti] and a early, small painting St. George and the Dragon, one of my personal favorites. We also have some [of Raphael's] etchings and drawings. One of his etchings recently sold for over 40 million dollars.
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Q: What does “The Woman with the Veil,” a portrait from 1516, say to the viewer in 2010?
A: This painting, orLa Donna Velata in Italian, still engages the viewer, draws us in and is still fresh. This is a lesson learned from Leonardo Da Vinci, drawing the viewer into the portrait, from [Raphael's time spent in] Florence and then relearned in Rome. There is balance, harmonious balance. Raphael's work had it all, everything, genres, skills, and emotions.
Q: What does the veil signify in the painting?
A: This painting was believed to be Raphael's answer to Leonardo's Mona Lisa. She [Raphael's painting] has a half-length portrait and looks out at the viewer in a similar position. The Mona Lisa also wears a veil, and so that is why Raphael may have had this woman wear a veil. But a veil signifies that a woman was a matron, married, and often with children. That's the one thing this woman was not. She is not married, so the use of the veil is intriguing. It's also interesting that the Sistine Madonna in Dresden [Germany] shows the same lady in a veil.
Q: Do you feel that this is a portrait and a study using one color as oppossed to some of his other paintings?
A: Yes, I speak to that in the lecture. This is a very limited palette, a very controlled palette of white, cream, gold and brown, very intentional and restricted, even in the jewelry [on the woman]. This all adds to the subtly of the painting and how it communicates [to the viewer].
Q: Will there ever be another painter like Raphael?
A: I sincerely don't believe so. He was a great technician, in every aspect, with training from workshops, immersed from the time they were boys [Raphael trained under his father first] and then apprenticed to other great Italian painters [Raphael studied under Pietro Perugino]. Artists, painters don't have anything like that kind of training now.
Q: How does Raphael compare to this great trio of Renaissance artists, together with Da Vinci and Michelangelo?
A: In this great trio of Renaissance artists there is the most need to rediscover Raphael. He was very prolific in painting, as well as other genres, even in architecture, and an exhibition like this one [only one painting] allows you to have the painting all to yourself. We need to be reintroduced to Raphael with his compelling portraits and great epic narratives. He was such a technician in total command of his medium. This one painting displays all the possibilities of painting in oil. It's dazzling.
