Raphael at the Metropolitan: The Colonna Altarpiece

by Linda Wolk-Simon

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Book cover for Raphael at the Metropolitan

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The Renaissance master Raphael (1483–1520) painted the Colonna altarpiece circa 1504–05 for a convent in Perugia. It was subsequently owned by Queen Christina of Sweden, the duc d’Orlèans of France, and the Colonna family in Rome. In 1901, J. Pierpont Morgan acquired the altarpiece, which was still in a private collection, paying the phenomenal sum of two million francs. Morgan’s son bequeathed the painting to the Metropolitan Museum in 1916, and it remains one of the great treasures of the collection.
This catalogue explores the altarpiece’s commission in the context of Raphael’s career.  Its fascinating history, new technical findings, and a reconstruction of the original altarpiece with its long-separated predella panels are featured. Raphael’s preparatory drawings and selected works by such mentors as Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Fra Bartolommeo are illustrated and supplement this intriguing history, which unfolded over the course of four centuries.

Published in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art


Exhibition Schedule:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (June 19 – September 3, 2006)

  • ISBN10 0300117906
  • ISBN13 9780300117905
  • Publish Date 29 September 2006 (first published 1 June 2006)
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 29 November 2012
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Yale University Press