One victim of the Covid-19 pandemic had died 500 years earlier. Raphael (1483-1520) was due to get the quincentennial treatment from some august museums. Then the doors shut. When at last his moment came, the shows were drowned out in the hubbub of a reopening world. And so a big chance was lost to arrest two centuries of reputational drift for the artist. Raphael will continue to be seen as the bronze medallist of the High Renaissance, some distance beneath Michelangelo and Leonardo, whatever his technical perfection, whatever his former standing as their equal or better.
新冠疫情的一位受害者早在500年前就去世了。拉斐爾(1483-1520)本應得到一些權威博物館的500周年紀念禮遇。然而博物館卻關了門。等到屬于他的時刻終于來了，展出卻被重新開放的世界的喧囂給淹沒了。也因此，為這位藝術家止住兩個世紀來聲譽漂移的大好機會也就此失去。拉斐爾將繼續被視為文藝復興鼎盛時期的銅牌選手，距離米開朗基羅和列奧納多還落后一段距離，無論他的技藝多么完美，無論他以前的地位曾與前面那兩位旗鼓相當甚或更好。