Of the three great High Renaissance artists, Michelangelo and Leonardo are still household names, available models of artistic genius. Raphael, who died on April 6, 1520, at the age of 37, is only vaguely known to those who aren’t committed fans of Renaissance art. This past spring, the 500th anniversary of his death brought a series of exhibitions across Europe and the U.S., the largest of which opened in early March in Rome, where Raphael spent most of his working years as artist and architect to the Popes and all-around cultural star. The celebrations, conferences, and shows of 2020, placed on hold by the coronavirus, are now coming back to life. But can they bring Raphael back into popular consciousness? READ ON

The principle that locates the universal in the particular couldn’t have a better avatar than Winnie-the-Pooh. The “silly old bear”—who originated in the playtime imagination of a young Christopher Robin Milne, and was subsequently burnished by his father, A. A. (Alan Alexander)—has long since slipped the bonds of English nursery literature to become a global brand, nearly as ubiquitous as the Nike swoosh (except in China, where depictions of Pooh have been censored in recent years after satirical comparisons between him and President Xi Jinping went viral). READ ON