Rome (AFP)
The exhibition event dedicated to the genius of the Renaissance, Raphael, who died 500 years ago, closed on Sunday after only three days of opening, following a government decree providing for the closure of all museums in Italy until 'to April 3.
Despite the coronavirus epidemic, more than 70,000 visitors had booked their tickets online to admire Raphael's works.
The exhibition open to the public on Thursday until June 2 is the fruit of three years of work which brought together a hundred works of the "handsome Raphael", a prodigy famous from his youth, who died at only 37 years old, in 1520 in Rome.
Famous for the perfection and the grace of his paintings, Raphaël forms with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci a sort of trinity of the great artists of the Renaissance.
In addition to the prestigious Uffizi Museum in Florence, paintings have also been loaned from the Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery in London and Washington as well as the Prado Museum in Madrid.
The Vatican Museums, a financial windfall for the Holy See with its more than 6 million visitors, have also followed the instructions of the Italian government and will remain closed until April 3.
Large archaeological sites have also closed in the country, such as the Roman Forum or the Colosseum or the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, or Pompeii in the Bay of Naples.
© 2020 AFP