“Unabashedly Raphael adopts the pose, compositional framework and and spatial organisation of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa…”
Christof Thoenes
Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo have a lot in common. All were master artists, all lived in the same period, all lived in Rome, all shared an intense rivalry, and now all have had blockbuster exhibitions at the Met In New York. Raphael’s exhibition opened this month, over 250 works, one of the centrepieces being Young Woman with Unicorn. Painted in 1506, this piece has had a number of twists and turns. For centuries it was just the portrait of woman. During a 1934 conservation, cleaning of over paint revealed a small unicorn sitting on the woman’s lap. The unicorn was a medieval symbol of chasity in marriage. This painting was to promote the woman as a potential marriage partner. Radiology in 1959 revealed the unicorn was initially painted as a small dog, before the artist upped the symbolism. At some later moment, the presence of a unicorn was obviously thought ridiculous. #medievaltinder #letsmakelemonade
Pen Paint and Scalpel 