The Afterlife of Raphael's Paintings

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. Because of the artist's renown, his works have continuously been subject to care, conservation, and restoration. In this book, Cathleen Hoeniger focuses on the legacy of Raphael's art: the historical trajectory - or "afterlife" - of the paintings themselves. The appreciation of Raphael was expressed and the restoration of his works debated in contemporary treatises, which provide 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 were severely damaged in natural disasters; and many were affected by uncontrolled climactic conditions, by travel from one place to another, and by the not always cautious and careful hands of restorers. This book reveals the five-hundred-year story of many of Raphael's most well-known paintings.

Author: Cathleen Hoeniger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 10/21/2010
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 3.05lbs
Size: 10.10h x 6.90w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9780521196949

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2011

About the Author
Hoeniger, Cathleen: - Cathleen Hoeniger is Associate Professor of Art History at Queen's University in Canada. The author of numerous journal articles and book chapters, she has recently contributed to Conservation: Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths and The Cambridge Companion to Raphael. She is also the author of The Renovation of Paintings in Tuscany, 1250-1500 (Cambridge University Press, 1995).