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Raphael's works

Having a view of works by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael, would be a life-time accomplishment for art lovers. Two paintings attributed to Raphael, one of the most talented artists of the Italian Renaissance, are at the heart of a Beijing exhibition at the Guardian Art Center through Oct 14. The Meet Raphael: Masterpieces from Renaissance to Neoclassicism exhibition has brought to local audiences the oil work, Saint Luke the Evangelist Paints the Virgin in the Presence of Raphael, and a detached fresco, Putto Reggifestone, both attributed to Raphael and in the collection of the National Academy of Saint Luke in Rome. In the former painting, Raphael painted himself together with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Saint Luke the evangelist, conveying a strong sense of purity and sanctity. Moreover, one can compare Raphael's self-portrait in the painting on show to another self-portrait in a reproduction of the masterpiece, The School of Athens. The exhibition also unveils a panoramic view of the time Raphael grew from an apprentice to a prominent painter and architect. It shows documents of Raphael's architectural designs to tell about the formation of his aesthetics during the Renaissance. It also gathers paintings by Raphael's contemporaries to provide a glimpse of the standards and philosophies to which painters at the time lived up.

10 am-6 pm, Tuesday to Thursday, Sunday; 10 am-9 pm, Friday and Saturday. 1 Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing.