Louvre Lens opens (ctd.)
December 6 2012
Picture: BG
Following my post on the opening of the Louvre's satellite museum in Lens, and the raiding of the Louvre's collection to fill the new site, a reader writes:
One consequence of the opening of the Louvre Lens, is that the Raphael Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, which was for a time part of the Raphael "Les denieres annees" exhibition at the Louvre, is no longer on show in the exhibition (it's been sent to Lens).
Yet the exhibition catalogue makes the point (on page 296) that comparing the Castiglione portrait with the Raphael/?Giulio Romano double portrait supports the attribution of the double portrait to Raphael, rather than to Sebastiano del Piombo or some other venetian painter.
Perhaps the hope is that people will come back to the Louvre sometime next year to confirm this statement in the catalogue.
I find this astonishing. The photo above is from the Prado's version of the catalogue, where the picture was an exhibit, on loan from the Louvre. So how can it not be on display in the Louvre's own exhibition? Couldn't they wait till January 14th, when the Late Raphael show closes, before sending the picture to Lens?
