Two Raphael works at the center of Beijing exhibition

In the former painting, Raphael painted himself with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Saint Luke the Evangelist, conveying a strong sense of purity and sanctity. Moreover, one can compare Raphael's self-portrait in this painting to another self-portrait of himself in a reproduction of the masterpiece, The School of Athens, on show.

The exhibition also unveils a panoramic view of the time Raphael grew from an apprentice to a prominent painter and architect. It displays documents of Raphael's architectural designs to tell the formation of aesthetics during the Italian Renaissance. It also gathers paintings by Raphael's contemporaries to provide a glimpse of the standards and philosophies to which painters at the time lived up to.