La Madonna de Bogota (Raphael)
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[edit] El Lio de La Madona de Bogota
(About the Madonna of Bogota by Raphael Sanzio)
In 1938 Mrs. Maria Mendoza a friend of Master Santiago Martinez Delgado invited him and his wife Leonor Concha de Martinez, to her home in Bogotá Colombia. Mrs. Mendoza had with her a painting she thought to be by Gregorio Vazquez Arce y Ceballos a well-known Colombian artist of whom Martinez Delgado had written a book, so based in the Fact that Martinez was considered an expert in Art History, she ask him to attribute the piece. As soon as Master Martinez laid eyes on the painting he immediately knew that it was either by Raphael Sanzio or his school.
The piece was in very poor condition broken in two and kept together by a wire. Master Martinez took the painting for further archives and scientific research, after x rays and other steps he was convinced that it was by Raphael. When the rumor about the painting started the press, It quickly to started a debate; some dismissed it (like an article in el Tiempo) that argued: it was a copy of a Raphael piece currently at the Museo del Prado.
Soon the Master called for a symposium at the municipal theater to talk about his find. The event was attended by well known Colombian experts like: Enrique Uribe White, Antonio Bergmann, Domingo Otero and Ines Acevedo Biester. Martinez explained the provenance and the scientific work of the piece making an irrefutable point that this was indeed a Madonna by Raphael, brought to Colombia by Caballero Góngora; Furthermore, Mr. Enrique Restrepo proved that although it was similar to the one in El Prado it was different in many aspects and pointed to the fact; that the one in Madrid was in el Escorial Chapel during a very long time making it impossible to be copied during the 1500’s.
Finally in 1939 Martinez brought the piece to New York, where it travel to the Metropolitan Museum and Columbia University where the piece was studied by Daniel Catton, Rich A. Sweet, Ruber H. Clark, Leo A. Marzolo, Adolfo Venturiy, and Wilhelm Valentiner the foremost authority on Raphael in the world, who was in NY for the International Fair. In June 1939 The piece was confirm as an original by the great renaissance Master Raphael and was entered in the Artist catalog as THE MADONNA OF BOGOTA. The piece was taken to the Chicago Art Institute to be Restored.
Joaquin Pineros Corpas confirmed it in Colombia on an Article in el Tiempo; “CONFIRMADO: MADONNA DE BOGOTA POR RAFAEL SANZIO URBINO” Many US papers acclaim Master Martinez for his discovery.
The Whereabouts of this piece are clouded, but rumors are that it may be in bank volt in New York City. The discussion of this painting's provenance and authenticity in Bogotá where so big that the quotation: "UN LIO DE LA MADONNA” is nowadays commonly used to describe a complicated dilemma.
