Moneta Città del Vaticano 2 Euros Commemo. BE 2020 - 500 years since Raphael's death

2 Euros Commemorative BE VATICAN 2020

Theme: 500 years since the death of Raphael

Bi-metallic (nickel silver centre - cupronickel ring) - 8 5 g - 25 75 mm in diameter - 2 20 mm thick.

Issued in 9,000 copies - Quality BE (Belle Epreuve) 
Delivered in a slipcase with official certificate of authenticity

Beauty, like truth, is what brings joy to the hearts of men; it is the precious fruit that resists the wear and tear of time, that unites generations and makes them share in admiration. (Paul VI).

Even today, the world in which we live, just like the one 500 years ago in which Raffaello Sanzio, prince of the arts, lived and worked, "needs beauty if it is not to sink into despair". To celebrate the genius born in Urbino (Italy), whose death the papal city is celebrating 500 years ago, Daniela Longo has produced a two-euro coin for the Vatican City State Mint that reproduces and interprets the nostalgic beauty of Raphael's gaze in his self-portrait in the School of Athens fresco, as well as in the attitude of the two unforgettable little angels at the foot of the Sistine Madonna, who are surprisingly natural. "Make way for the great Raphael". It was with these words that Frederick Augustus III welcomed the Sistine Madonna to Dresden in 1757. Now housed at the Gemälderie Alte Maister (Germany), it is still considered to be one of the finest works ever produced by this brilliant painter of the Italian Renaissance.

Edge: striated and inscribed with a 2 followed by two stars, all repeated six times, alternating right side and wrong side.

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