The Afterlife of Raphael''s Paintings

Acclaimed during his lifetime, Raphael was imitated by contemporaries and served as a model for painters through the nineteenth century. Hoeniger focuses on the five-hundred-year story of many of Raphael's most well-known paintings: some being lost altogether and others damaged, and reveals the historical trajectory - or 'afterlife' - of the paintings themselves.

Raphael is one of the rare artists who have never gone out of fashion. Acclaimed during his lifetime, he was imitated by contemporaries and served as a model for painters through the nineteenth century. His works have continuously been subject to care, conservation, and restoration, and here Hoeniger focuses on the legacy of Raphael''s art: the historical trajectory - or ''afterlife'' - of the paintings themselves. Appreciation of Raphael was expressed and the restoration of his works debated in contemporary treatises, providing a backdrop for probing the fortune of his paintings. What happened to his panel-paintings and frescoes in the centuries after his death in 1520? Some were lost altogether; others damaged in natural disasters; and many were affected by uncontrolled climatic conditions, by travel from one place to another, and by the not always careful hands of restorers. This book reveals the five-hundred-year story of many of Raphael''s most well-known paintings.