Come a little bit closer

FEEL free to (digitally) put your nose right up to this Renaissance painting and watch it come to life. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (Luke 5: 1–11) is among seven 16ft by 11ft Raphael Cartoons on the lives of St Peter and St Paul that have been on loan to the V&A Museum from the Royal Family since 1865. When lockdown lifts, the newly restored Raphael Court will open to the public and, as part of the initiative, the V&A has launched a digital space for anyone who misses exhibitions to explore the cartoons now, from home. Visitors will even be able to zoom in on them and enjoy interactive features and stories about their design and origin.

It was in 1515 that Pope Leo X commissioned Raphael to create 10 largescale designs for tapestries in the Sistine Chapel. Only seven of the original cartoons survive; they came to Britain in the early 17th century, bought by Charles I, having been lost for some 100 years.

The museum’s experts had to construct a scaffold to create the groundbreaking ultra-high-res photography, infrared images and 3D scans required. To put this into context, each 3D image took more than 95 hours to create. The glass is off and users can explore between the layers, examining charcoal drawings beneath vibrant paint and zooming in on facial expressions, far-off landscapes, tiny pinholes and the creases, tears and repairs that make up the fragile 200-plus sheets of paper underneath each cartoon. ‘You can see how he drew a fish before deciding it was too large,’ explains V&A director Tristram Hunt. ‘He rubbed it out and redrafted. You are there absolutely with his hand.’

Once Raphael Court re-opens, this pioneering digital experience—created as part of the V&A’S celebration of the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death last year—will be available for visitors to use on their phones as they look at the paintings in real life. It’s extraordinary and, let’s face it, it’s the closest you’re going to get to the Sistine Chapel this spring. Visit www.vam.ac.uk/ collections/raphael-cartoons

The public will be able to inspect and analyse masterpieces by Raphael, such as The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (above) closer than ever before thanks to a new ‘digital experience’