Girolamo Tubino After Raffaello Sanzio Da Urbino, La Velata

This fine mid-19th-century watercolour by Italian artist Girolamo Tubino (1805-1879) is after ‘La Velata’ (Woman with a Veil) by Raphael (1483-1520), which is housed at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

Raphael’s sumptuous depiction of this young married noblewoman captures beauty personified wrapped in exquisite cascading drapery. Her right hand is pressed to her heart in a romantic gesture of love, while her left arm is held forward to emphasise the decadence of her gown. Produced at the peak of Rapheal’s career, it represents one of his most enchanting portrayals.

Copied by Girolamo Tubino in around 1840, this sublime homage respectfully conveys the allure of the original. Tubino was one of the leading copyists of his generation and worked closely with the Uffizi Gallery.

Born in Genoa, he undertook his training at the prestigious, and remarkably formal, Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. By today’s standards, it’s impossible to imagine the respect his tutors afforded to the Old Masters and students were expected to laboriously study models from antiquity to hone their drawing prowess. Many would be daunted by the reverence given to Italy’s rich artistic heritage, but Tubino was altogether different. Rather than cower in the wake of such luminaries, he embraced them, inspired by the possibilities.

He frequented numerous galleries during his time in Florence and produced an array of drawings after numerous masterpieces. Many of these were designed ahead of lithographs of which several are held at the British Museum. They include works after Titian, Annibale Carracci, Carlo Dolci and Andrea del Sarto among others. In addition, he also produced drawings of Raphael’s ‘Madonna del Cardellino’ and ‘Ezekiel's Vision’.

In 1851, he was appointed a teacher at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti di Genova, where he later became its chair of drawing. He also began exhibiting in his hometown at the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti.

In the memoirs of the Honourable William Warren Vernon, a scholar, he recalls being given a splendid tour of Genoa by Tubino, which included “all the palaces, galleries, churches, and other sights”. Vernon was so taken with some of the masterpieces on display that he “commissioned Tubino to make us copies in water-colour of two beautiful boys by Vandyck”. 

Throughout his remarkable career, he maintained the glowing respect of his peers and students alike, with many training under him via the Academy. The press, too, were in raptures with one critic praising his “beautiful smoothness of execution”.

He’s represented in several public collections including the British Museum and Genoa’s Galleria d'Arte Moderna.

Signed in gold lower right and housed within a period gilt frame.

Medium: Watercolour on paper
Overall size: 13” x 16” / 33cm x 40cm
Year of creation: c. 1840
Labels & Inscriptions: Label from art dealership P & D Colnaghi & Co.
Provenance: With P & D Colnaghi & Co / Private collection, UK.
Condition: Very good. Frame in reasonable condition with minor age-related wear.
Our reference: BRV1998