ISABELLA ROSSELLINI (NARRATOR): In this extraordinary altarpiece we see Raphael experimenting with many new ideas.

CARMEN BAMBACH: So, the central panel of the Virgin and Child with two female saints, two male saints, who are all in a conversation with one another, what we call a sacra conversazione. Then in the upper part, we have God the Father with the two flanking angels.

ROSSELLINI: And below the central panel are five more scenes from the predella, or base. It’s the first time since 1663 that all of these pieces have been reunited in this original formation—so that we can experience the altarpiece as Raphael intended. Curator Carmen Bambach:

BAMBACH: It’s really an incredible coup to have all the pieces of the Colonna altarpiece together.

ROSSELLINI: When Raphael was little more than twenty years old, he painted this altarpiece for a convent in Perugia. It hung in a private part of the church reserved for the nuns, who would have gazed up at it during worship. The Virgin or Madonna provided a virtuous role model for their own lives. And here, Raphael shows off his technical brilliance, finding multiple ways to bring this sacred scene to life.

BAMBACH: One, I would say is the perspectival composition of the throne where the Virgin is sitting. We have a sense perspectival depth.

There is a kind of rhythm in how the figures interact with one another with gestures. And we'll see more and more the artist who becomes the consummate storyteller, and then those gestures become really the heart and soul of a composition.

And I also want to call attention to his way of using color to create harmonies. Notice the yellow drapery on Saint Peter, the figure on the left foreground here.

ROSSELLINI: Now, look diagonally towards the angel on the upper right… also in yellow. We see a kind of cross-cross dynamic of color. And something similar is happening with the reds and greens.

BAMBACH: We see him playing off colors in a way that’s almost rhythmic and musical. This is an artist who really understands the mechanics of harmony.