Raphael: The Power of Renaissance Images: The Dresden tapestries and their impactApostles in Prussia: The Raphael tapestries of the Bode-MuseumThe Raphael Cartoons

During the Raphael quincentenary, three books appeared on the cartoons and tapestries of the Acts of the Apostles. These are reviewed here by the former senior curator of paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum, who co-curated an earlier exhibition there on these works (see Mark Evans and Clare Browne, with Arnold Nesselrath (eds.), Raphael: Cartoons and tapestries for the Sistine Chapel (London, 2010)). Raphael was commissioned in 1515 by Pope Leo X to paint ten monumental cartoons in gouache on paper for tapestries of the lives of St Peter and St Paul. Their weighty draped figures were inspired by Masaccio and Filippo Lippi’s frescos at the Brancacci Chapel in Florence. By 1516–18 Raphael’s designs had already been reproduced as prints. The tapestries of wool, silk and gilt-wrapped thread were woven between 1517 and 1521 at the Brussels workshop of Pieter van Aelst. These were displayed on special occasions...