Raphael works found hiding in plain sight
Art experts have discovered two paintings by Raphael in a magnificently decorated room inside the Vatican.
The paintings are of two female figures, representing Justice and Friendship, and were identified during a five-year restoration of the Hall of Constantine, a vast room that was designed for diplomatic meetings and state occasions.
Scholars believe the paintings may have been the last works completed by the Renaissance genius before his sudden death from a fever at the age of 37 in 1520.
The oil paintings have always been on display but were previously attributed to students or assistants of Raphael, notably Giulio Romano and Giovan Francesco Penni.
But in what was described by the Vatican as “an exceptional discovery”, detailed analysis of the brush strokes, painting technique and artistic style has convinced experts that they were by Raphael himself.
They are the only figures painted in oil, rather than in the fresco style.
Those details set the allegorical female figures apart from other figures that adorn the walls of the hall, which were painted by Raphael’s apprentices after his death.
The figures are identified in Latin as Iustitia and Comitas. While Raphael was instrumental in providing the sketches of how the Hall of Constantine would look, he died before it was finished.
The vast hall depicts scenes from the life of Constantine, the Roman emperor who converted to Christianity and decreed that it should be legalised throughout the empire in AD 313.
The decoration of the hall was commissioned by Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family, in 1517.
The newly attributed works can now be admired by the public, after the Vatican Museums reopened on Monday from its three-month coronavirus closure.
The discovery of the Raphael works was originally going to be announced in April to mark the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death but the event had to be postponed because of the Covid-19 emergency.
A landmark Raphael exhibition in Rome, featuring the largest yet number of works by the artist collected in one place, also had to be cancelled because of the virus.
But it reopened this week and has been extended until August.
The artworks have been lent by more than 50 institutions, including the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, the Louvre in Paris and the Prado in Madrid.