At the end of the year celebrating the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, and after more than a year of restorations carried out in a special box, the altarpiece also known as the “Pala Baglioni” has been hung back on the walls of the Borghese Gallery, which houses it since the second half of the 19th century.
The new position and lighting emphasize the beauty of the painting, dated 1507 and commissioned by Atalanta Baglioni in memory of her son, represented by the young man carrying Christ, who died in a conspiracy a few years earlier. Taken up by Caravaggio a century later, Raphael’s work blends together the iconographic theme of the Pietà, inspired by Michelangelo, and that of the entombment in an innovative solution that uses a new expressive language.
The painting, a masterpiece of almost 4 square meters, is on a poplar panel whose inevitable deformations will from now on be subjected to constant monitoring by means of sophisticated technologies. The restoration also made it possible to discover new details, for example the use of multiple techniques and the rethinking that led the artist to cancel a figure in order not to sacrifice the landscape in the background.
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