The birthplace of Renaissance genius Raphael has launched a drive to show off his works in the environment that nurtured his genius - and help keep that heritage in a fit state.
As a precocious young artist, Raphael's first sponsor was the Duke of Urbino, Federico da Montefeltro, a true Renaissance man who cultivated artists and poets in his fairy-tale palace.
But Raphael's talents were soon sought in Florence and later Rome, leaving little trace of his work in Urbino apart from La Muta (The Silent Woman) in Guido's Ducal Palace.
Urbino is one of the best-preserved Renaissance towns in Italy and its palace - as well as Raphael's house - should be a massive draw. But it's well off the beaten tourist track, in the eastern Marche region, and the town council is having trouble finding the cash to keep its treasures intact.
So the city administrators have come up with the idea of staging shows of major Raphael works in their native setting, helping publicise the town's attractions. The first picture will be exhibited this summer on loan from Rome's Galleria Doria Pamphili: a double portrait (1516) of two Venetian poets and diplomats who moved in the artist's circle in Rome: Andrea Navagero and Agostino Beazzano.
According to the show's curator, Lorenza Mochi Onori, the painting "is an extraordinary example of Raphael's portraiture at the peak of his artistic maturity".
"It highlights the sensitivity and intelligence of the two poets and reflects Raphael's close relationship with the leading humanists of his time," she added, saying the June 25-September 24 show would illustrate more links between the artistic and literary worlds of the era.
Beazzano was for many years the secretary of the scholarly cardinal Pietro Bembo, a famed theorist of platonic love.
In one of his letters, Bembo describes a journey with Raphael, the two Venetian poets and Baldassare Castiglione, author of a famous treatise on Renaissance courtly virtures, The Book of the Courtesan. Raphael's portrait of Castiglione, housed in the Louvre, is among his most famous works.
Urbino is hoping the Paris gallery may be one of the future donors in its efforts to bring more Raphaels home.
