LONDON, ENGLAND.- This autumn the National Gallery is staging a major exhibition of works by Raphael (1483 - 1520), one of the greatest of all Italian Renaissance painters. The exhibition charts the dramatic rise of the gifted young artist from his earliest works to the flowering of his talent under the patronage of Pope Julius II. This is the first time such a comprehensive show of paintings and drawings by the artist has been attempted outside Italy and this unique event will take place in London only.

Many of the loan paintings have never been seen in Britain, while others return to these shores for the first time since being sold abroad in the 19th Century. Among them are the newly cleaned 'Alba Madonna' from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the 'Conestabile Madonna' from the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, the Louvre's 'Saint George' and 'Saint Michael' and the Uffizi 'Self Portrait'.

Generously sponsored by Credit Suisse First Boston, this will be the third in a series of major shows at the National Gallery devoted to the great Renaissance artists which have included Titian and, most recently, El Greco. As well as many prestigious international loans, the exhibition will centre on the National Gallery's own collection of nine magnificent Raphael paintings, including the newly-acquired 'Madonna of the Pinks'. It will feature a large number of Britain's remarkable holding of Raphael drawings; on loan from the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum and the Royal Collection.

Raphael's precocious talent and determined efforts to outshine his contemporaries took him on an extraordinary journey. Within a decade, he moved from painting altarpieces for provincial towns in central Italy to assume a dominant position at the enlightened papal court in Rome. The show spans the entire scope of this period and will include over 100 paintings and drawings.

Raphael was a brilliant draughtsman and designer and the exhibition will explore his techniques as well as the meaning and context of his work. It opens with a look at Raphael's artistic origins under the tutelage of his father, Giovanni Santi and the influence of the Umbrian masters Perugino and Pintoricchio. It continues by exploring Raphael's first independent works for religious institutions and private patrons. In 1504 Raphael went to Florence to study the works of great masters including Leonardo and Michelangelo and their influence on the young artist is explored. Raphael's career changed gear again following his move to Rome to work for Pope Julius II whose complex character he so convincingly captures in the National Gallery's magisterial portrait. The exhibition will also include nine drawings for the Disputa, the first of the frescoes Raphael painted in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican.

Exhibition curator Carol Plazzotta says 'A monographic Raphael show, particularly one devoted to the transition from the artist's fresh early style to the assured classicism of his Roman maturity, is long overdue in this country. Its aim is to reintroduce the public to an extraordinarily versatile artist, whose facility and unparalleled grasp of design revolutionised the art of painting.'

To mark the exhibition, the National Gallery cinema will show a special season of Italian films chosen to reflect the spirituality and transcendence in Raphael's work. Two major documentaries to coincide with the exhibition will run on BBC ONE and Channel Five.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue containing much new research by Hugo Chapman, Tom Henry and Carol Plazzotta with contributions from Arnold Nesselrath and Nicholas Penny.

Image #2978939 Getty (hacer recorte para que salgan la cabeza de la mujer y del niño y sin el marco de la pintura, para que quede un cuadro horizontal como es el de la portada)