Vatican unveils final Raphael Room, revealing artist’s bold but unfinished experiment

The Vatican Museums have recently unveiled the final and most significant of the restored Raphael Rooms—ornate reception chambers in the Apostolic Palace that, in many ways, rival the Sistine Chapel as masterpieces of the high Renaissance period.

A ten-year restoration of the largest of the four rooms has revealed a groundbreaking painting technique attempted by Raphael but never finished. Instead of traditional fresco, Raphael applied oil paint directly to the wall and embedded a grid of nails to secure a resin layer he planned to paint on.

Vatican Museums officials shared the findings during the inauguration of the hall at the end of June, known as the Room of Constantine. With the last of the scaffolding removed, the room’s vibrant artwork was on full display. Painted by Raphael and his students in the early 1500s, the room honours the Roman emperor Constantine, whose conversion to Christianity helped solidify the religion’s reach across the empire.

“With this restoration, we rewrite a part of the history of art,” said Vatican Museums director Barbara Jatta as cited in an article by the National Catholic Reporter.

Restorers found that two female figures in opposite corners—Justice and Courtesy—were painted with oil directly on the wall, not as frescoes. Because this technique was rarely used at the time and required great skill, the figures were almost certainly painted by Raphael himself, one of the restoration’s leaders explained.

Raphael Sanzio was summoned to Rome in 1508 by Pope Julius II to decorate a new suite in the Apostolic Palace. The commission was a major opportunity for the 25-year-old artist, who was then at the height of his career. However, Raphael died prematurely on April 6, 1520, at just 37, before the Room of Constantine was completed. His students finished the remaining sections using the more familiar fresco technique, as they lacked the expertise to continue his oil method, Jatta said.

During cleaning, experts uncovered further signs of Raphael’s original plan to use oil paints. Beneath layers of plaster fresco, they found small metal nails embedded in the wall, which were likely meant to secure the resin surface Raphael had intended to paint upon, said restorer Giandomenico Piacentini.

“From a historical and critical point of view, and also technical, it was truly a discovery,” he said. “The technique used and planned by Raphael was truly experimental for the time, and has never been found in any other mural made with oil paint.”

The Raphael Rooms remained partially open to visitors throughout the lengthy restoration process. Now, for the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee, they are fully unveiled, free of scaffolding and ready for the surge of visitors expected in the coming months.

By Nazrin Sadigova