Stanze di Raffaello II, Roma

‘Stanze di Raffaello II, Roma’ is one of the most crowded of Struth’s museum photographs. The dynamic group of individuals packed into the Stanza della Segnatura – reading about, discussing and looking at Raphael’s murals – show engagement in what they are doing. Their pointing hands and turning heads are anchored by the dramatic features of the face of a boy in the middle of the group. The light streaming in through the unshuttered windows in the centre of this work is a critical part of the composition, as it is with Struth’s ‘Chiesa dei Frari ‘1995, where light is evident through all the windows, but most especially from the left where it illuminates the elegant architecture and washes over the small group of visitors in the middle admiring Titian’s altarpiece. The upward sweep in ‘Chiesa dei Frari’ works in a similar way to the vortex in ‘Stanze di Raffaello II, Roma’.