Pinacoteca di Brera, Image from the exhibition <em>First dialogue, Raphael and Perugino around two Marriages of the Virgin</em>, 2016 | Courtesy of Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan<br />
Raphael was only 21 when he painted his first masterpiece. The Sposalizio della Vergine came to light in Città di Castello, just before Raffaello took off on a triumphal tour of all the cultural hotspots of central Italy. Later on, with little adieu, an officer of Napoleon would remove the altarpiece from the church for which it was painted, selling it for quite a price in Milan where, today, it is one of the jewels of the Collection of the Pinacoteca of Brera. Elegant, harmonious and mathematically perfect, the altarpiece of the Sposalizio shows all the distinctive trademarks of the Renaissance that Raphael ruled. But at the time, it was a sensation for another reason - the young artist was obscuring his Master Pietro Perugino’s fame, whose brush was lauded with successes from Umbria to Florence to Rome. The first to point this out was the great Giorgio Vasari who compared the respective versions of the Sposalizio della Vergine painted by the two artists. In the work of Raphael, he notices a new, warm naturalness, capable of intertwining both figure and background, invention and tradition, a marvel of perspective and the mysteries of life itself. Beside the admirable holy scene in the foreground, the artist renders a sacred idea of the universe and creation itself, “not as nature has made but as it should have made it.”
Nicolas Party's wonderful creatures under the threat of extinction
In the last year Nicolas Party's imagery has evolved: he has painted large forest fires and dinosaurs. When Tomorrow Comes establishes a clear connection between the work and the idea of extinction. The end of humanity and many other species is the artist's theme of interest.
150 years after the birth of the Impressionist movement, an exhibition compares the personalities and works of two painters, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who contributed decisively to the fortunes of Impressionism and who influenced future generations of artists.
The unconventional approach to the world of luxury of the D&G duo in an elegant, fun and eclectic journey to rediscover the history of one of the most celebrated brands in the Milanese fashion world.
Piero della Francesca's masterpiece reunited again
In a unique and unrepeatable exhibition, a masterpiece by Piero della Francesca is presented for the first time in history, 555 years after its creation: the Augustinian Polyptych.