Exhibition
The Predella of the Oddi Altarpiece, a youthful masterpiece by one of the greatest exponents of the Italian Renaissance, coming from the collections of the Vatican Museums, is the Masterpiece for Milan 2022, an initiative now in its 14th edition.
The Oddi Altarpiece, one of three major commissions Raphael received from Perugia in the early sixteenth century, was made for the Oddi family altar in the church of San Francesco al Prato. It consists of a central painting depicting the Coronation of the Virgin and a predella devoted to three episodes from the life of Mary.
The three panels of the predella clearly reveal Perugino’s influence, while also showing the young painter’s genius and his pursuit of fully Renaissance solutions with innovative, modern results.
The Annunciation, on the left, makes Raphael’s debt to Piero della Francesca and Perugino clear. The remarkable decorative pattern of the floor follows a geometric scheme that emphasizes the receding perspective opening onto the gentle landscape beyond. The central scene, the Adoration of the Magi, also draws on Perugino’s style, but Raphael introduces a new sense of unified space through the figures’ staggered arrangement in perspective. Horses placed along intersecting diagonals reinforce the vanishing point. The Marian trilogy concludes with the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Its dominant feature is the interior of a centrally planned temple, supported by columns and pillars with Ionic capitals, revealing Raphael’s passion for architecture and his deep knowledge of classical buildings. The masterful perspective demonstrates the young artist’s assimilation of Piero della Francesca’s theories.
