Author's Copy Raphael - The Veiled Woman

The work in question is a perfect copy of the painting known as "La Velata," executed by Raphael Sanzio around 1516 and housed in the Palatine Gallery in Florence. According to some scholars, the subject of the work is the same as the "Fornarina," one of the artist's lovers. Portraiture is one of the most widespread artistic expressions, especially in painting, but also in sculpture, throughout the ages. Portraiture is, first and foremost, a description of the subject depicted, an attempt to capture their physiognomy and individual characteristics truthfully and naturally. With the progressive evolution of artistic research, the physiognomic description of the subject has also been accompanied by a psychological one. Therefore, over the centuries, portraiture has also become a means of introspective investigation of the subject, their character, and their state of mind. In this sense, Raphael Sanzio was truly one of the greatest interpreters (along with Titian) of the portrait genre, combining a perfect naturalistic rendering with an in-depth interior investigation of the subject.

The author of this copy also formally respects all of the painting's Raphaelesque characteristics. First and foremost, the compositional scheme demonstrates the close connection between Raphael's work and Leonardo da Vinci, and is a direct reflection of the aspiration to a classical ideal of harmony and unity in artwork typical of the sixteenth-century Renaissance. The figure, with its sculptural presence and veil covering it, is perfectly enclosed in an ideal pyramid. Furthermore, within this scheme, its slight yet intricate torsion and the movements of its arms are calibrated by precise relationships of correspondence and balance. The figure of the woman, displaying a typically sixteenth-century monumentality enhanced by the ample and complex drapery of her dress, moves with great naturalness, perfectly blending into the space surrounding her. And it is precisely here that the extraordinary skill of the artist who created the copy comes to the fore. Indeed, he is capable of perfectly reproducing the sfumato, still Leonardo-esque, which allows the "veiled woman" to blend seamlessly into the neutral background of the work. But it is even more in the definition of the face that one can admire that extraordinary mobility and indefiniteness of the physiognomic features, which bring the portrait to life and characterize a strong individual personality, typical of the most mature phase of the Renaissance.

From a stylistic analysis of the work, we have been able to confirm that the hand of the person who created this master copy is that of a truly excellent painter. An extraordinary technique is essential to perfectly reproduce Raphael's sfumato and the graceful facial expressions typical of the Urbino painter.

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