Raphael: Gold & Silk

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino and workshop, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes with a Crowd of People in Foreground, ca. 1515-16, wool and silk, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

The momentous painter Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, called Raphael (1483–1520), was commissioned by Pope Leo X. to create the famous series depicting the life and acts of the apostles St Peter and St Paul for the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His designs set Flemish tapestry art on a new course. Raphael: Gold and Silk includes unique Renaissance works in ‘gold & silk’ as well as tapestries depicting the seven deadly sins after designs by the renowned tapestry designer Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502–1550) and more.

The exhibition website includes an online presentation of several works, such as a comparison of the tapestry of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes produced in the workshop, with the cartoon by Raphael on which the tapestry was based