Isabella Stewart Gardner was the first collector to bring a painting by Raphael to America, and this exhibition examines the story behind the portrait’s acquisition – and that of the man it depicts, the papal librarian Tommaso Inghirami. Presented alongside Raphael’s portrait is a contemporaneous painting of an incident that took place in 1508, in which Inghirami was injured when he fell under an ox-cart, on loan from the Vatican Museums. Find out more from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s website.
Preview the exhibition below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here
Tommaso Inghirami (c. 1510), Raphael. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Ex-voto of Tommaso Inghirami Fallen under an Ox-Cart in Rome (c. 1508), attributed to Raphael. Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Procession of Pope Sylvester I (c. 1516–17), Raphael. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Boston Post newspaper clipping (c. 1898) with the headline ‘Fine Raphael Found by Mrs. Jack Gardner’. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
The Raphael Room at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, photographed in 1903 by Thomas E. Marr and Son. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
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