Refurbished Raphael Court

Beautifully refurbished gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum for displaying and explaining the Raphael Sistine Chapel cartoons.

I have always been fond of this room and the cartoons and the refurbishment makes them look even better. There is new brighter but subtle lighting and the walls are a lovely dark blue colour makes the cartoons pop off the walls. For the first time the light makes it more obvious that the works are on paper and up close you can see the texture and the old fold marks.

They are shown with a few contemporary works by artists Raphael knew and worked with, as well as the huge earlier Legend of St George altarpiece from Valencia which is a good reminder of the development in art over the previous 100 years. All of this helps to give atmosphere without detracting from the cartoons themselves.

While the refurbishment was being done the opportunity was taken to do lots of research work on the cartoons which is well presented online. It is a shame that, in this Covid world, the AV equipment in the room can’t be used so you can see this in a larger format but instead they are currently offering talks in the room every half an hour to give context.

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