A cleaning crew cracked a 500-year-old mystery when they discovered 2 lost Raphael paintings
byPlanet Today-
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(Screenshot/CNN)
Have you ever lost something in your room and could not figure out
where it is? After searching for what seems like forever, you finally
give up because it almost seems impossible to find that item you are
looking for. But then, after tearing your space apart, you clean up and
that item you were looking for pops up!
Sometimes tidying up can help you come across things that you forgot
that you lost. If someone would have thought of that years ago,
Raphael’s paintings would have been discovered! The 500-year-old mystery
has been solved, and it is thanks to the cleaning and restoration crew.
There had always been clues that the Raphael paintings existed,
based on a description in an old book, but they were never found.
The fresco walls inside of a room in the Vatican Museum were getting
restored and a once in a lifetime discovery was made. The Renaissance
painter had used two females to depict justice and friendship, and they
were found blending into the frescoes that were painted by other artists
following Raphael’s death.
A restorer named Fabio Piacentini explained to CNN that the discovery is amazing because those are probably the last two paintings he created.
“You almost feel the real presence of the Maestro,” Piacentini said.
(Screenshot/ CNN)
Piacentini confirms that the paintings are by Raphael based on the
“confidence of the brushwork” and shades of color. Also, they were the
only two figures in the fresco that were painted with oil paints, an
experimental technique at the time that is mentioned in a book from 1550
describing the work of Raphael and other great painters.
Now that the paintings have been discovered, they will get the
attention that they deserve. The complete restoration of the room is
expected to take until 2022.
