Portret van schilder Rafaël 1818 - 1842

Jean Jacques François Monanteuil made this portrait of the painter Raphael, most likely through engraving, in the early 19th century. This image taps into a broader cultural fascination with the Renaissance during the Neoclassical period. It was a time when artists and intellectuals looked back to earlier eras for inspiration, selectively appropriating what they considered to be the greatest achievements of the past. Raphael, as a paragon of High Renaissance art, became a figure to emulate and idealize. Note how Monanteuil emphasizes Raphael's serene, almost angelic features, conforming to the 19th century's own aesthetic ideals. Prints like this served to solidify the fame of Old Master artists like Raphael and thus also helped to perpetuate the institutional power of the museums and academies that held them up as examples. To understand the image fully, one must explore the complex relationship between artistic revivals, the development of art history as a discipline, and the institutions that shaped our understanding of art.