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9. Raphael Santi or Sanzio,
1483-1520
Baldassar Castiglione
The
Grand Gallerie in the Louvre
Museum in Paris is the length
of three Washington Monuments
laid end-to-endthe
longest room in Europe. On
my first visit, I was struck
by the fact that I had walked
the entire length of this
gigantic exhibition hall before
I encountered a single portrait
of any real interest. It was
Raphael's Baldassar Castiglione.
Perhaps the first truly great
portrait of the Italian Renaissance,
it is magnificent in design,
brilliant in execution, and
vividly portrays a unique
human being at a specific
moment in time.
Everything
is right herethe composition
is magnificently simple, the
shapes are decorative and
well-related, the colors are
conservative and elegant.
Buthandsome as this
is as a piece of graphic design
in two dimensions, Baldassar
Castiglione gives us a
highly believable human beingthoughtful, vulnerable,
rather like people we know.
Above all else, portraiture
is about the human dimension.
Louvre
Museum, Paris
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