The Deposition is not the only name by which you can find this work by Raphael Sanzio referred to. It is sometimes cited as the Entombment or, much more often, as the Baglioni Altarpiece.
The sad story of this work is linked to its patron, the noblewoman Atalanta Baglioni, who commissioned Raphael, then an emerging artist, to paint an altarpiece for her family's chapel, the Church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia.
You should know that the woman, who had been widowed for years, had a son named Federico, nicknamed Grifonetto, in memory of his father Grifone. The young man, unfortunately, had the ill-fated idea of taking part in an internal conspiracy within his household, as a result of which he was killed at the age of only 20.
The work, for Atalanta Baglioni, was intended as a tribute to her lost son, perhaps a representation of her immense grief as a mother, skillfully expressed by Raphael in the suffering features of Mary, portrayed in the background on the right, bereft, her face marked by torment.
Just imagine that originally, what you are admiring was the central part of an altarpiece that also included an overlying part, now preserved in the National Gallery of Umbria, depicting God the Blessing Father, and a part below, with the Theological Virtues, now held in the Vatican Museums.
After a century in the church for which it was intended, the work you are admiring was noticed by Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, while he was staying in Perugia for study. Well, the future cardinal fell in love with it and ensured, with the complicity of the friars in charge of the place, that it be stolen and transferred to the Holy Father in Rome, who then gave it to his nephew.
There is no hiding the fact that this resulted in a real diplomatic incident with the city of Perugia, which, as compensation, obtained a copy of the altarpiece made by Giuseppe Cesari, a painter known as Cavalier d'Arpino.
Here’s an interesting fact: it is said that after the death of her son, Atalanta Baglioni took his bloody clothes and left them on the steps of Perugia Cathedral, asking the citizens that this be the last blood shed on the city.
Language: English