Susanna Avery-Quash
Senior Research Curator (History of Collecting) at the National Gallery
Project role: Curator
Raphael Digital Project (Mellon Digital Documentation Project)
Key information
Summary
The ‘Raphael Digital Project’ (also known as the Mellon Digital Documentation Project) was a funded initiative to digitize and make publicly accessible extensive, previously internal, documentation on the ten paintings by Raphael in the Gallery’s collection.
Key information
Supported by
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Contact
researchcentre@nationalgallery.org.uk
Context
Launched with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the project compiled nearly 200 years of research, by centralizing and digitizing diverse types of information, including X-rays, infrared images, photomicrographs, and conservation reports as well as pooling information from a 2004/5 exhibition on the artist. A primary goal was to make these valuable and often overlooked resources available to a broader audience by moving them from internal archives to a public online platform, presented in such a way that the content was navigable by both specialists and the general public.
Aims
The project was designed to be expanded in new ways, allowing, on the one hand, for the inclusion of information from other institutions and, on the other, being applicable to research into other artists. Furthermore, the initiative served as a pilot for the Gallery's broader digital documentation efforts, demonstrating the value of online publication for conservation and research materials.