A restoration project in the largest of the four Raphael Rooms has uncovered a mural painting technique initiated by the Renaissance painter and architect Raphael, involving the use of oil paint directly on walls, supported by a grid of embedded nails to secure the resin surface he worked upon.
The Vatican Museums’ authorities announced the findings at the reopening of the room, known as the Room of Constantine, following the dismantling of the final scaffolding.
This reception hall, painted by Raphael and his students starting in the early 1500s, is dedicated to the 4th-century Roman Emperor Constantine, whose conversion to Christianity helped spread the faith throughout the Roman Empire.
“With this restoration, we are rewriting a part of art history,” stated Vatican Museums Director Barbara Jatta, suggesting that the Room of Constantine rivals Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, a contemporary of Raphael, as a pinnacle of Renaissance art.
Pope Julius II summoned the young Raphael Sanzio from Florence to Rome in 1508 to decorate a private wing of the Apostolic Palace, granting the then 25-year-old a significant commission at the height of his artistic career.
There were early reports that Raphael intended to adorn the rooms not with frescoes but with oil paint applied directly on the walls to enhance the brightness of the images.
The 10-year restoration of the Room of Constantine has confirmed these centuries-old rumors, according to Fabio Piacentini, one of the chief restorers of the project.
Vatican experts discovered that two female figures at opposite corners of the hall, Justice and Courtesy, were indeed oil paintings on the wall, not frescoes where paint is mixed with plaster mortar, “clearly the work of Raphael himself,” he said.
Raphael passed away on April 6, 1520, at the age of 37, before the project was completed. The remaining paintings are frescoes finished by his disciples, who did not master the oil painting technique employed by Raphael, explained Barbara Jatta.
During the cleaning process, restorers found that Raphael intended to execute more oil paintings: beneath the plaster frescoes, they uncovered a series of metal nails believed to have been inserted into the wall to hold the natural resin surface Raphael planned to paint on, described Fabio Piacentini.
“From a historical, critical, and technical standpoint, it was a true discovery,” continued the chief restorer. “The technique used and planned by Raphael was genuinely experimental for the time and has never been found in any other oil-painted mural.”
The final phase of the room’s restoration involved the ceiling, painted by Tommaso Laureti, featuring a display of Renaissance perspective with a fresco of a faux tapestry titled ‘The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism.’
The Raphael Rooms were never completely closed to the public during the restoration and conservation process, but they are now scaffold-free for the many visitors to the Vatican Museums anticipated during the Jubilee 2025.
