Two Rome exhibitions celebrate Raphael's tapestries

Two exhibitions in Rome celebrate Raphael's tapestries, marking 500 years since the artist's death. The first, at the Vatican Museums, presents the tapestries from the Acts of the Apostles series, designed by Raphael between 1515 and 1516 and woven by Pieter van Aelst in Brussels from 1517. The ten large-scale tapestries (nearly 5 meters high and over 6 meters long) depict scenes including the Stoning of Stephen, the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, and the Conversion of Saul. Normally housed in the Vatican Pinacoteca and rotated for conservation, they are now displayed alongside Michelangelo's works for the first time, curated by Alessandra Rodolfo until February 23, 2020. Vatican Museums director Barbara Jatta noted that Raphael completed the iconographic program of the Sistine Chapel with these tapestries, inaugurated on Saint Stephen's Day 1519 before Pope Leo X. The second exhibition, at the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica in Palazzo Poli, features the tapestry "Anania e Saphira" from the Roberto Bilotti Ruggi d'Aragona collection, on view for one week from February 18. Anna Maria de Strobel's research identifies it as a 17th-century reinterpretation by Heinrich Mattens, linked to the "Old School" series commissioned by Leo X.