Opening: 'Raphael's 'La Velata' at the Portland Art Museum

Opening: 'La Velata' at the Portland Art Museum | Portland & Oregon Art - - OregonLive.com: "We're talking about Raphael's 'La Velata (The Woman with the Veil),' the Renaissance masterpiece that is coming to Portland for a special show opening on Saturday.The Portland Art Museum has been negotiating with the Italian government for more than a year to bring the painting to Portland. This portrait of a ravishing young woman -- painted by the lesser-known contemporary of Michelangelo -- is on loan from the Medici Collection of the Palatine Gallery, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy.The show is something of a novelty. Rare is the one-painting show. But the museum is counting on the work's pedigree and the fact that it has rarely left its home country.There is also the mystery of the subject. The young woman may be Margherita Luti, a baker's daughter who many believed was Raphael's lover."