Self-Portrait
(Urbino 1483 - Rome 1520)
The work is a copy of the famous youthful self-portrait by Raphael, dated 1506-08 and originally held in the Uffizi Galleries in Florence. The painting was stolen on 11 November 1978.
Object details
Inventory
Date
first half of the 16th century
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Provenance
Borghese Collection, cited in Inventory 1693, room IV, no. 62; Inventory 1700, room IV, no. 38; Inventory 1790, room IV, no. 23; Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833. Purchased by Italian State 1902. The painting was stolen on 11 November 1978.
Commentary
The panel, which entered the collection at an unspecified date, was listed in the 1693 inventory as being by Raphael. In 1700, it was indicated as a work by Giulio Romano, while from 1790 onwards, and subsequently in 1833 and 1891, it was considered to be by Timoteo Viti, perhaps confused, as Della Pergola (1959) also noted, with the attribution of the Portrait of a Man, also by Raphael (inv. 397). This is one of the many replicas of Raphael’s youthful Self-Portrait held in the Uffizi Galleries in Florence (1506-08). According to Paola Della Pergola’s catalogue, it was a mediocre copy and in a poor state of conservation, considering the cracks in the support and the abrasions of the paint film, especially in the dark area of the robe.
Raphael’s Self-portrait, ‘an icon of refinement and mirror of the artist’s spiritual dimension’, was probably painted for a Montefeltro in gratitude for his intervention in the commission of the papal building site of the Vatican Rooms (see M. Braghin, in Raffaello 1520/1483, exhibition cat. edited by M. Faietti and M. Lafranconi with F.P. Di Teodoro and V. Farinella, Milan 2020, catalogue X.18, p. 461). Created in Florence on a poplar panel, the work arrived in Urbino, to then return definitively to the Grand Ducal city in 1631, with the support of Vittoria della Rovere, wife of Ferdinando II de’ Medici.
In the Self-Portrait, which resembles the other image of the painter visible in the fresco depicting the School of Athens in the Room of the Signatura (Vatican), Raphael appears with a haircut and style typical of the fashion of the Renaissance, with a headdress, in the style later known as ‘raffaella’, of the same dark colour as his robe, from which the collar of his white shirt barely protrudes.
The Florentine painting immediately proved to be one of the Urbino artist’s most copied works; there are also many printed copies. Nothing is known about the date or author of the Borghese copy, which is however considered to be of mediocre quality. Its theft in November 1978 naturally prevented any further in-depth study.
Sofia Barchiesi
Bibliography
- E. Z. Platner, Bilderheft zur beschreibung der stadt Rom, Sttutgart-Tübingen 1842, III, I, p.284.
- R. Passavant, Raphaël d’Urbin et son père Giovanni Santi, Paris 1860, II, p.49.
- X. Barbier de Montault, Les Musées et galeries de Rome, catalogue général de tous les objets d'art qui y sont exposés, Roma 1870, p.346.
- G. Piancastelli 1888-1891, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese iscritti nelle note fidecommissarie, redatte nel 1888 da Giovanni Piancastelli, con note aggiunte nel 1891, p. 314.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 193.
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane I: La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 216.
- P. Della Pergola La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, vol. II, Roma 1959, p. 128, n. 179.
- La Galleria Borghese, a cura di A. Coliva, CD-rom, Roma 1995, inv. 400.
- K. Hermann Fiore, Roma scopre un tesoro, dalla pinacoteca ai depositi un museo che non ha più segreti, Sesto Ulteriano (MI) 2006, p.131.
