What they learned from the OLD MASTERS: Raphael.

On 7 Jul, 2011 With 0 Comments

What they learned from the OLD MASTERS? From Raphael.

La Fornarina by Raphael

The Portrait of a Young Woman (also known as La fornarina) is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael

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Raphael and Fornarina by Ingres

It is probable that the picture was in the painter’s studio at his death in 1520, and that it was modified and then sold by his assistant Giulio Romano.

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Joël Ducorroy

The woman is traditionally identified with the fornarina (bakeress) Margherita Luti, Raphael’s Roman mistress, though this has been questioned. The woman is pictured with an oriental style hat and bare breasts. She is making the gesture to cover her left breast, or to turn it with her hand, and is illuminated by a strong artificial light coming from the external. Her left arm has a narrow band carrying the signature of the artist, RAPHAEL URBINAS. It has been suggested that the right hand on the left breast reveals a cancerous breast tumour disguised in a characteristic pose of love.

X-Ray analysis have shown that in the background was originally a style of Leonardo landscape in place of the myrtle bush, which was sacred to Venus, goddess of love and passion.