The Three Graces by Raphael
Works on paper by Renaissance masters from the British royal collection will soon be displayed in a new exhibition at the King’s Gallery.
The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace is a public museum dedicated to showcasing selections from the British Royal Collection, one of the largest private collections in the world. The collection’s contents range from Old Master works to twentieth-century acquisitions. These include Vermeer’s Music Lesson, Titian’s Bacchus & Ariadne, Warhol’s Queen Elizabeth prints, and countless royal portraits from various European painters. The museum was originally opened as the Queen’s Gallery in 1962, using Buckingham Palace’s south wing. Recently, the palace announced that it is planning an exhibition of works on paper, some of which have never been exhibited in Britain.
The upcoming exhibition, Drawing the Italian Renaissance, will open on November 1st. It will feature nearly one hundred sixty pieces by eighty-one artists, mostly between 1450 and 1600. Twelve of these works have never been exhibited in Britain before, while thirty have never been publicly displayed at all. It is likely Britain’s most comprehensive exhibition of Renaissance drawings ever organized. Some of the exhibition’s highlights will include Raphael’s red chalk drawing The Three Graces, the metalpoint portrait Bust of a Cleric attributed to Fra Angelico, and a study of an ostrich by Titian. According to the gallery curator Martin Clayton, “These drawings cannot be on permanent display for conservation reasons, so the exhibition is a unique opportunity to see such a wide range of drawings up close and gain an insight into the minds of these great Italian Renaissance artists.” The exhibition is an opportunity to show some of the royal collection’s drawings and prints from the Renaissance period and to emphasize some of these artists’ abilities at working with such media. For example, Clayton highlights artists such as Parmigianino and Andrea Sonsovino, known primarily as a painter and a sculptor, respectively. Therefore, Parmigianino’s preparatory drawings and Sonsovino’s designs and studies in the royal collection show their skills as draftsmen. It highlights the art of drawing as a respected medium in its own right and an absolutely necessary part of many other artistic media. As part of the exhibition, three artists-in-residence from the Royal Drawing School will be drawing in the gallery spaces three days per week while the exhibition is open. The King’s Gallery will also make drawing supplies available to visiting members of the public.
Drawing the Italian Renaissance will run from November 1, 2024 to March 9, 2025 at the King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace.