Now in the collection at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., Raphael's St. George and the Dragon
was a thank-you gift from Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, to Henry VII in 1506 for making him a knight of the Order of the Garter (St. George was the order's patron saint). The work has had a complex, contested ownership, including Charles I, French financier Pierre Crozat, Catherine the Great, Joseph Stalin and Andrew Mellon. Pitman (On Blondes
), photography critic for the Times
of London, enthusiastically unravels this provenance in a skillfully paced, energetically written account that reads like a detective story, though her deep research includes archives from the Hermitage and interviews with prominent historians. Pitman's portrait of Raphael is vivid if familiar, describing a precocious, highly ambitious and financially astute artist-courtier who was a bitter rival of Michelangelo, a committed womanizer and consummate professional whose death, according to Vasari, resulted from "an excessive bout of lovemaking." Pitman has a broader aim beyond this one painting: she wants to demystify art and art history. The epilogue is an ode to public museums that allow not just rulers but ordinary people to view masterpieces of art. But Pitman's passion for Raphael's painting and for the investigative process is infectious and the book's greatest strength. (Apr. 17)
