Ben Thomas & Tom Henry in Conversation: Raphael at the National Gallery

Join us for our online Summer Lecture Series; Artists, curators and writers look in-depth at ideas and approaches to art and the creative endeavour through talks and conversations. Curated by Dr Claudia Tobin, lectures are held Wednesday evenings live on Zoom. 

As an independent charity we rely on donations to keep our programmes accessible and open to everyone. If you would like to support our free online Lecture Series you can make a donation here.

Raphael, Self-Portrait with Giulio Romano, Oil on canvas, 99 x 83 cm. 1519-20, Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. 614

Curators and Art Historians Ben Thomas and Tom Henry will discuss the current Raphael exhibition at the National Gallery, reflecting on the artist’s importance and how the exhibition fits into a series of initiatives that have tried to bring us closer to an understanding of his work. They will explore the process of curating the show – not least the challenges posed by the pandemic. 

Ben Thomas was the co-curator of Raphael: The Drawings at the Ashmolean Museum in 2017, an exhibition which won the Apollo Exhibition of the Year award. His recent books include Raphael and the Eloquence of Drawing, Edgar Wind and Modern Art: In Defence of Marginal Anarchy, and Humphrey Ocean. He is Reader in Art History at the University of Kent.

Prof. Tom Henry co-curated the National Gallery Raphael exhibition (runs until 30th July 2022). He previously curated the exhibition Late Raphael (Prado/Louvre 2012-13) and has also published an extensive study of The Life and Art of Luca Signorelli (Yale University Press, 2012).