The Portrait of Pope Julius II della Rovere, one of Raphael’s masterpieces, will be – and it is a completely exceptional event – exhibited at the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna, the highlight of the exhibition «Julius II and Raphael. A new season of the Renaissance in Bologna ”, open from 8 October to 5 February 2023, curated by Daniele Benati, Maria Luisa Pacelli and Elena Rossoni.
Julius II was the Pontiff who subjected Bologna to the State of the Church, profoundly changing the course of the city’s history and starting, also thanks to the presence of artists such as Bramante and Michelangelo, a new period of the Renaissance in the city. The famous portrait was granted to the Bolognese exhibition by the National Gallery of London which, in turn, had obtained from the Bolognese institution the painting «Ecstasy of Santa Cecilia» by the master from Urbino, for a very successful London exhibition.
An absolute masterpiece
The Portrait of Julius II is an oil painting on wood (108.7×80 cm) commissioned by Pope della Rovere to Raphael and made in Rome around 1511-1512. In addition to the version kept at the National Gallery in London, several copies are known, some anonymous, others by important artists such as the one attributed to Titian, kept at the Galleria Palatina in Florence. These are specimens that testify to the interest in the portrayed character and for the Raphaelesque interpretative model, which remained dominant in the portraiture of the popes for most of the artists in the following centuries. Vasari and Lomazzo speak of a portrait of the Pope made by Raphael in the basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. The work, which passed into the Borghese collection in 1608, was later sold to Emperor Rudolph II and since then its traces had been lost.
That mysterious number
In 1976 a scholar of the National Gallery in London solved the puzzle of the painting, which had been purchased in 1824 by the museum and which had been in England since the late eighteenth century. In fact, an inventory number was found on the panel, 118, which was found to correspond with that of the Scipione Borghese Gallery in 1693. The scientific analyzes then confirmed the Raphaelesque autography and a restoration restored the pictorial quality of the work. hitherto hidden under layers of yellowed paint.
«What is striking in the portrait is the interpretation that Urbinate proposes of the Pontiff and the attention to his psychology. It is a compositional model that breaks with tradition: here Raphael captures Julius II in half figure, a little bent and turned to the right, present, although absorbed and completely hieratic – highlights Maria Luisa Pacelli, director of the National Art Gallery and co- curator of the Bolognese exhibition – The Pope seems to be perfectly at ease among the symbols of his function, but as if detached from them. A man of God and of power, but perfectly aware of the difficulties of his earthly kingdom. Finally, let us not forget that the figure of Julius II had a great impact on Bolognese society and art, while the influence of Raphael’s work left a very lasting mark on the city’s artists ».