While we’re waiting for the delayed National Gallery extravaganza, this wide-ranging documentary relays the full breadth of Raphael’s achievements
In 2022, London’s National Gallery will finally get to mount its blockbuster Raphael exhibition for the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death – two years late, thanks to Covid. In the meantime, the Exhibition on Screen strand are offering this taster-cum-primer, which takes as its subject the 500th anniversary exhibition that did take place in 2020 in Rome, and much of which is travelling to
London next year.
Raphael Revealed is directed by Exhibition on Screen veteran Phil Grabsky, and it provides a typically smooth and erudite presentation, bringing together artist biography, historical context, knowledgeable talking heads and beautifully filmed closeups of the works themselves. With a subject so well worked over, there’s not much all that new to say, but the depth and brilliance of Raphael’s painting is restated again, along with some interesting details gleaned from his preparatory drawings and archaeological activities.