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Raphael Sanzio
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or RAPHAEL SANZIO (1483-1520), the great Italian painter, was the son of Giovanni Sanzio or Santi, a painter of some repute in the ducal city of Urbino, situated among the Apennines on the borders of Tuscany and Umbria.' For many years both before and after the birth of Raphael (6th of April 1483) the city of Urbino was one of the chief centres in Italy of intellectual and artistic activity, thanks to its highly cultured rulers, Duke Federigo II. of Montefeltro and his son Guidobaldo, who succeeded him in 1482, 2 the year before Raphael was born. Giovanni Santi was a welcome guest at this miniature but splendid court, and the rich treasures which the palace contained, familiar to Raphael from his earliest years, were a very important item among the various influences which formed and fostered his early love for art. It may not perhaps be purely fanciful to trace Raphael's boyish admiration of the oil-paintings of Jan Van Eyck and Justus of Ghent in the miniature-like care and delicacy with which some of his earliest works, such as the " Apollo and Marsyas," were executed.
Though Raphael lost his father at the age of eleven, yet to him he certainly owed a great part of that early training which enabled him to produce paintings of apparently mature beauty when he was scarcely twenty years of age. The altarpiece painted by Giovanni for the church of Gradara, and a fresco, now preserved in the Santi house 3 at Urbino, are clearly prototypes of some of Raphael's most graceful ' See Pungileoni, Elogio Storico di Raffaello (Urbino, 1829); for a valuable account of Raphael's family and his early life, see also, Id., Vita di Giov. Santi (Urbino, 1822), and Campori, Notizie e Documenti per la Vita di Giov. Santi e di Raffaello (Modena, 1870).
2 See an interesting account of the court of Urbino by Delaborde, E tudes sur les B. Arts ... en Italie (Paris, 1864), vol. i. p. 145.
The house of Giovanni Santi, where Raphael was born, still exists at Urbino in the Contrada del Monte, and, being the property of the municipality, is now safe from destruction.
paintings of the Madonna and Child. On the death of his father in 1494 Raphael was left in the care of his stepmother (his own mother, Magia Ciarla, having died in 1491) and of his uncle, a priest called Bartolomeo.' First or Perugian Period. - In what year Raphael was apprenticed to Perugino and how the interval before that was spent are matters of doubt. Vasari's statement that he was sent to Perugia during his father's lifetime is certainly a mistake. On the whole it appears most probable that he did not enter Perugino's studio till the end of 1499, as during the four or five years before that Perugino was mostly absent from his native city.' The so-called Sketch Book of Raphael in the academy of Venice contains studies apparently from the cartoons of some of Perugino's Sistine frescoes, possibly done as practice in drawing.
This celebrated collection of thirty drawings, now framed or preserved in portfolios, bears signs of having once formed a bound hook, and has been supposed to be a sketch-book filled by Raphael during his Perugian apprenticeship. Many points, however, make this tempting hypothesis very improbable; the fact that the drawings were not all originally on leaves of the same size, and the miscellaneous character of the sketches - varying much both in style and merit of execution - seem to show that it is a collection of studies by different hands, made and bound together by some subsequent owner, and may contain but very few drawings by Raphael himself.' Before long Raphael appears to have been admitted to share in the execution of paintings by his master; and his touch can with more or less certainty be traced in some of Perugino's panels which were executed about 1502. Many of those who, like Crowe and Cavalcaselle, adopt the earlier date of Raphael's apprenticeship, believe that his hand is visible in the execution of the beautiful series of frescoes by Perugino in the Sala del Cambio, dated 1500; as does also M. Miintz in his excellent Raphael, sa vie, Paris, 1881,1881, in spite of his accepting the end of 1 499 as the period of Raphael's first entering Perugino's studio, - two statements almost impossible to reconcile. Considering that Raphael was barely seventeen when these frescoes were painted, it is hardly reasonable to attribute the finest heads to his hand; nor did he at an early age master the difficulties of fresco buono. The Resurrection of Christ in the Vatican and the Diotalevi Madonna in the Berlin Museum are the principal pictures by Perugino in parts of which the touch of Raphael appears to be visible, though any real certainty on this point is unattainable.4 About 1502 Raphael began to execute independent works; four pictures for churches at Citta di Castello were probably the earliest of these, and appear to have been painted in the years 1502-4. The first is a gild-banner painted on one side with the Trinity, and below, kneeling figures of S. Sebastian and S. Rocco; on the reverse is a Creation of Eve, very like Perugino in style, but possessing more grace and breadth of treatment. These are still in the church of S. Trinita. 5 Also 1 The administration of Giovanni Santi's will occasioned many painful family disputes and even appeals to law; see Pungileoni, El. Stor. di Raffaello. 2 Crowe and Cavalcaselle ( Life of Raphael, vol. i., London, 1882) adopt the notion that Raphael went to Perugia in 1495, but the reasons with which they support this view appear insufficient.
See an excellent critical examination of the Sketch Book by Morelli, Italian Masters in German Galleries, translated by Mrs Richter (London, 1882); according to Morelli, only two drawings are by Raphael. Schmarsow, " Raphael's Skizzenbuch in Venedig," in Preussische Jahrbilcher, xlviii. pp. 122-149 (Berlin, 1881), takes the opposite view. But Kahl, Das venezianische Skizzenbuch (Leipzig, 1882), follows Morelli's opinion, which has been generally adopted.
4 Parts of Perugino's beautiful triptych of the Madonna, with the archangels Raphael and Michael, painted for the Certosa near Pavia and now in the National Gallery of London, have been attributed to Raphael, but with little reason. Perugino's grand altar-piece at Florence of the Assumption of the Virgin shows that he was quite capable of painting figures equal in beauty and delicacy to the St Michael of the Certosa triptych. See Frizzioni, L'Arte Italiana nella Gal. Nat. di Londra (Florence, 1880).
For an account of processional banners painted by distinguished artists, see Mariotti, Lettere pittoriche Perugine, p. 76 seq.
for Citta di Castello were the coronation of S. Niccolo Tolentino, now destroyed, though studies for it exist at Oxford and Lille (Gaz. d. B. Arts, 1878, i. p. 48), and the Crucifixion, now in the Dudley collection, painted for the church of S. Domenico, and signed Raphael Vrbinas P. It is a panel 8 ft.6 in. high by 5 ft. 5 in. wide, and contains noble figures of the Virgin, St John, St Jerome and St Mary Magdalene. The fourth painting executed for this town, for the church of S. Francesco, is the exquisitely beautiful and highly finished Sposalizio, now in the Brera at Milan, signed and dated RAPHAEL VRBINAS MDIIII. This is closely copied both in composition and detail from Perugino's painting of the same subject now at Caen, but is far superior to it in sweetness of expression and grace of attitude. The Temple of Jerusalem, a domed octagon with outer ambulatory in Perugino's picture, is reproduced with slight alterations by Raphael, and the attitudes and grouping of the figures are almost exactly the same in both. The Connestabile Madonna is one of Raphael's finest works, painted during his Perugian period; it is a round panel; the motive, the Virgin reading a book of hours, is a favourite one with him, as it was with his father Giovanni. This lovely picture was lost to Perugia in 1871, when Count Connestabile sold it to the emperor of Russia for 13,200.
Second or Florentine Period, 1504-1508
From 1504 to 1508 Raphael's life was very stirring and active. In the first half of 1504 he visited Urbino, where he painted two small panels for Duke Guidobaldo, the St George and the St Michael of the Louvre. His first and for him momentous visit to Florence was made towards the end of 1504, when he presented himself with a warm letter of recommendation s from his patroness Joanna della Rovere to the gonfaloniere Pier Soderini. In Florence Raphael was kindly received, and, in spite of his youth (being barely of age), was welcomed as an equal by the majority of those great artists who at that time had raised Florence to a pitch of artistic celebrity far above all other cities of the world. At the time of his arrival the whole of artistic Italy was being excited to enthusiasm by the cartoons of the battle of Anghiari and the war with Pisa, on which Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were then devoting their utmost energies. To describe the various influences under which Raphael came, and the many sources, from which he drank in stores of artistic knowledge, would be to give a complete history of Florentine art in the 15th century. ? With astonishing rapidity he shook off the mannerisms of Perugino, and put one great artist after another under contribution for some special power of drawing, beauty of colour, or grace of composition in which each happened to excel. Nor was it from painters only that Raphael acquired his enlarged field of knowledge and rapidly growing powers. Sculptors like Ghiberti and Donatello must be numbered among those whose works helped to develop his new-born style. 8 The Carmine frescoes of Masaccio and Masolino taught this eager student long-remembered lessons of methods of dramatic expression. 9 Among his contemporaries it was especially Signorelli and Michelangelo who taught him the importance of precision of line and the necessity of a thorough knowledge of the human form.' 0 From da Vinci he learnt subtleties of modelling and soft beauty of expression," from Fra Bartolommeo nobility of composition and skilful treatment of drapery in dignified folds. 12 The friendship between Raphael and the last of these was very close and lasted for many years.
The architect Baccio d'Agnolo was another of his special friends, at whose house the young painter enjoyed social intercourse This letter, which still exists, was sold in Paris in 1856, and is now in private hands.
See Minghetti, " I Maestri di Raffaello," in the Nuova Antologia, 1st August 1881.
8 See his sketch of St George and the Dragon, in the Uffizi, largely taken from Donatello's pedestal relief outside Or San Michele.
' See his cartoon of St Paul preaching at Athens (Victoria and Albert Museum).
'° See many of his life-studies, especially the one he sent to Albert Durer, now at Vienna.
11 See the portrait of Maddalena Doni in the Pitti.
See the Madonna del Baldacchino in the Pitti.
with a large circle of the chief artists of Florence, and probably learned from him much that was afterwards useful in his practice as an architect.
The transition in Raphael's style from his first or Perugian to his second or Florentine manner is well shown in the large picture of the Coronation of the Virgin painted for Maddalena degli Oddi, now in the Vatican, one of the most beautiful that he ever produced, and especially remarkable for its strong religious sentiment - in this respect a great contrast to the paintings of his last or Roman manner which hang near it. The exquisite grace of the angel musicians and the beauty of the faces show signs of his short visit to Florence, while the general formality of the composition and certain details, such as the fluttering ribands of the angels, recall peculiarities of Perugino and of Pinturicchio, with whose fine picture of the same subject hung close by it is interesting to compare it. Raphael's painting, though by far the more beautiful of the two, is yet inferior to that of Pinturicchio in the composition of the whole; an awkward horizontal line divides the upper group of the Coronation from that below, the apostles standing round the Virgin's tomb, filled with roses and lilies (Dante, Par. xxiii. 73), while the older Perugian has skilfully united the two groups by a less formal arrangement of the figures. The predella of this masterpiece of Raphael is also in the Vatican; some of its small paintings, especially that of the FIG. 1. - Silver-point study for the main Annunciation to the Virfigures in the Coronation of the Virgin, are interesting as gin (Vatican). In the Lille museum. showing his careful study models dun g Raphael' s early period. raped of the rules of perspec tive.' Several prepara tory sketches for this picture exist: fig. 1 shows a study, now at Lille, for the two principal figures, Christ setting the crown on His mother's head (see fig. 2). It is drawn from two youths in the ordinary dress of the time; and it is interesting to compare it with his later studies from the nude, many of which are for figures which in the future picture were to be draped. It was at Florence, as Vasari says, that Raphael began serious life studies, not only from nude models but also by making careful anatomical drawings from dissected corpses and from skeletons.
His first visit to Florence lasted only a few months; in 1505 he was again in Perugia painting his first fresco, the Trinity and Saints for the Camaldoli monks of San Severo, now a mere wreck from injury and restorations. The date MDV and the signature were added later, probably in 1521. Part of this work was left incomplete by the painter, and the fresco was finished in 1521 (after his death) by his old master Perugino.2 It was probably earlier than this that Raphael visited Siena and assisted Pinturicchio with sketches for his Piccolomini frescoes. 3 The Madonna of S. Antonio was also finished in 1505, but was probably begun before the Florentine visit.' A 1 While at Florence he is said to have taught the science of perspective to his friend Fra Bartolommeo, who certainly gave his young instructor valuable lessons on composition in return.
2 The fresco of the Last Supper, dated 1505, in the refectory of S. Onofrio at Florence, is not now claimed as a work of Raphael's, in spite of a signature partly introduced by the restorer.
3 Raphael probably had no hand in the actual execution of the paintings; see Schmarsow, Raphael and Pinturicchio in Siena (Stuttgart, 1880), and Milanesi, in his edition of Vasari, iii. p. 515 seq., appendix to life of Pinturicchio.
4 This fine altar-piece, with many large figures, is now the property of the heirs of the duke of Ripalta, and is stored in the basement of the National Gallery, London.
record of his visit to Siena exists in a sketch of the antique marble group of the Three Graces, then in the cathedral library, FIG. 2. - The group for which fig. I is a study.
from which, not long afterwards, he painted the small panel of the same subject now in Lord Dudley's collection.
In 1506 Raphael was again in Urbino, where he painted for the duke another picture of St George, which was sent to England as a present to Henry VII. The bearer of this and other gifts was Guidobaldo's ambassador, the accomplished Baldassare Castiglione, a friend of Raphael, whose noble portrait of him is in the Louvre. At the court of Duke Guidobaldo the painter's ideas appear to have been led into a more secular direction, and to this stay in Urbino probably belong the Dudley Graces, the miniature " Knight's Dream of Duty and Pleasure " in the National Gallery (London), 5 and also the " Apollo and Marsyas," sold in 1882 by Morris Moore to the Louvre for lo,000, a most lovely little panel, painted with almost Flemish minuteness, rich in colour, and graceful in arrangement.6 Towards the end of 1506 Raphael returned to Florence, and there (before 1508) produced a large number of his finest works, carefully finished, and for the most part wholly the work of his own hand. Several of these are signed and dated, but the date is frequently very doubtful, owing to his custom of using Roman numerals, introduced among the sham Arabic embroidered on the borders of dresses, so that the I.'s after the V. are not always distinguishable from the straight lines of the ornament. The following is a list of some of his chief paintings of this period: the " Madonna del Gran Duca " (Pitti); " Madonna del Giardino," 1506 (Vienna); " Holy Family with the Lamb," 1506 or 1507 (Madrid); the " Ansidei Madonna," 1506 or 1507 (National Gallery); the Borghese " Entombment," 1507; Lord Cowper's " Madonna " at Panshanger, 1508; " La bella Giardiniera," 5 This missal-like painting is about 7 in. square; it was bought in 1847 for moo guineas. The National Gallery also possesses its cartoon, in brown ink, pricked for transference.
s In spite of some adverse opinions, frequently expressed with extreme virulence, the genuineness of this little gem can hardly be doubted by any one who carefully studies it without bias. Sketches for it at Venice and in the Uffizi also appear to bear the impress of Raphael's manner. See Delaborde, E tudes sur les B. Arts. en Italie, i. p. 236; Gruyer, Raphael et l'antiquite, ii. p. 421; Eitelberger, Rafael's Apollo and Marsyas (Vienna, 1860); Batte, Le Raphael de M. Moore (Paris, 1859); and also various pamphlets on it by its former owner, Mr. Morris Moore.
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1508 (Louvre); the " Eszterhazy Madonna," probably the same year; as well as the " Madonna del Cardellino " (Uffizi), the " Tempi Madonna " (Munich), the " Colonna Madonna " (Berlin), the " Bridgewater Madonna " (Bridgewater House), and the " Orleans Madonna " (duc d'Aumale's collection). The " Ansidei Madonna " was bought in 1884 for the National Gallery from the duke of Marlborough for £70,000, more than three times the highest price ever before given for a picture.' It was painted for the Ansidei family of Perugia as an altarpiece in the church of S. Fiorenzo, and is a work of the highest beauty in colour, well preserved and very large in scale. The Virgin with veiled head is seated on a throne, supporting the Infant with one hand and holding a book in the other. Below stands S. Niccolo da Tolentino, for whose altar it was painted; he holds a book and a crozier, and is clad in jewelled mitre and green cope, under which appear the alb and cassock. On the other side is the Baptist, in red mantle and camel's-hair tunic, holding a crystal cross. The rich jewellery in this picture is painted with Flemish-like minuteness. On the border of the Virgin's robe is a date, formerly read as MDV by Passavant and others; it really is Mdvi or MdviI. If the later date is the true one, the picture was probably begun a year or two before. A. favourite method of grouping his Holy Families is that seen in-the " Madonna del Cardellino " and the " Bella Giardiniera," in which the main lines form a pyramid. This arrangement is also used in the " Madonna del Giardino " and in the larger group, including St Joseph and St Elizabeth, known as the " Canigiani Holy Family, " now at Munich, one of the least graceful of all Raphael's compositions. The " Entombment of Christ," now in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, was painted during a visit to Perugia in 1507 for Lady Atalanta Baglioni, in memory of the death of her brave and handsome but treacherous son Grifonetto, who was killed in 1500 by his enemies the Oddi party. 2 The many studies and preliminary sketches 3 for this important picture which exist in various collections show that it cost Raphael an unusual amount of thought and labour in its composition, and yet it is quite one of his least successful paintings, especially in colour. It is, however, much injured by scraping and repainting, and appears not to be wholly by his hand. The " Madonna del Baldacchino," one of the finest compositions of the Florentine period, owing much to Fra Bartolommeo, is also unsatisfactory in execution; being left unfinished by Raphael, it was completed by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, by whom the ungraceful angels of the upper part and the canopy were wholly executed, and even designed. It was painted for the Dei family as an altar-piece for their chapel in S. Spirito, Florence. The " St Catherine " of the National Gallery was probably painted in 1507; its cartoon, pricked for transference, is in the Louvre. In colouring it much resembles parts of the Borghese " Entombment," being quiet and grey in tone. To the Florentine period belong some of his finest portraits, and it is especially in these that da Vinci's influence appears. The portraits of Angelo Doni and his wife Maddalena (Pitti) are vivid and carefully executed paintings, and the unknown lady with hard features (now in the Uffizi) is a masterpiece of noble realism and conscientious finish. The Czartoriski portrait, a graceful effeminate-looking youth with long hair and tapering hands, now moved to Cracow, is probably a work of this period; though worthy to rank with Raphael's finest portraits, its authenticity has been doubted. Very similar in style is the Herrenhausen portrait, once attributed to Giovanni Bellini, but an undoubted work of Raphael, in his second manner; it also represents a young man with long hair, close-shaven chin, a wide cloth hat and black dress, painted in half-length. The ' It is engraved at p. 53, vol. ii., of Dohme, Kunst and Kiinstler des Mittelalters (Leipzig, 1878), a work which has many good reproductions of Raphael's paintings and sketches.
See Symonds, Sketches in Italy, the chapter on Perugia, mainly taken from the contemporary chronicle of Matarazzo.
3 These show that Raphael at first intended to paint a Deposition from the Cross, and afterwards altered his scheme into the Entombment; an excess of study and elaboration partly account for the shortcomings of this picture.
so-called Portrait of Raphael by himself at Hampton Court is a very beautiful work, glowing with light and colour, which may possibly be a genuine picture of about 1506. It represents a pleasant-looking youth with turned-up nose, not bearing the remotest resemblance to Raphael, except the long hair and black cap common to nearly all the portraits of this time.4 A fine but much-restored portrait of Raphael by himself, painted at Florence, exists in the Uffizi; it represents him at a very early age, and was probably painted during the early part of his stay in Florence. - Third or Roman Period, 1508-1520. 1508 Raphael was painting several important pictures in Florence; in September of that year we find him settled in Rome, from a letter addressed in the warmest terms of affectionate admiration to Francia, to whom he sent a sketch for his " Adoration of the Shepherds," and promised to send his own portrait in return for that which Francia had given him. 5 Raphael was invited to Rome by his fellow-citizen (not relation, as Vasari says) Bramante, who was then occupied in the erection of the new church of St Peter, the foundation-stone of which had been laid by Julius II_ on the 18th of April 1506. At this time the love of the popes for art had already attracted to Rome a number of the chief artists of Tuscany, Umbria and North Italy, among whom were Michelangelo, Signorelli, Perugino, Pinturicchio, Lorenzo Lotto, Peruzzi, Sodoma, and many others, and it was among this brilliant assembly that Raphael, almost at once, took a leading position. 6 Thanks to Bramante's friendly intervention, Julius II. (Della Rovere) soon became Raphael's most zealous patron and friend, as did also the rich bankers Agostino Chigi (the Rothschild of his time) and Bindo Altoviti, whose portrait, at the age of twenty, now at Munich, is one of the most beautiful that Raphael ever produced.
A series of rooms in the Vatican, over the Appartamenti Borgia, were already decorated with frescoes by Bonfigli, FIG. 3. - Plan showing position of Raphael's frescoes in the stanze.
A. Stanza della Segnatura (I 509 -I I); 1, Disputa; 2, School of Athens; 3, Justinian giving his code to Trebonian; 4, Gregory IX. giving decretals to a jurist; 5 (over the window), Three Virtues; 6 (over the other window), Apollo and a group of poets on Mount Parnassus; vault with medallions of Poetry, Theology, Science, and Justice, and other paintings. B. Stanza d'Eliodoro (1511-14): 7, Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple; 8, Mass of Bolsena; 9, St Peter freed from prison; 10, Attila repulsed by Leo I.; vault with scenes from Old Testament, by pupils. C. Stanza dell' Incendio (1517), nearly all painted by pupils: II, Burning of the Borgo; 12, Victory of Leo IV. over the Saracens at Ostia; 13, Coronation of Charlemagne by Leo III. in St Peter's; 14, Oath of Leo III. before Charlemagne. D. Sala di Costantino, painted by pupils (1520-24): 15 and 16, oil-paintings of Comitas end Justitia attributed to Raphael; 17, 17, great fresco of the Defeat of Maxentius. E E. Part of Raphael's loggia, by his pupils. F. Chapel of Nicholas V., painted by Fra Angelico. G. Cortile of Bramante.
Perugino, Piero della Francesca, Andrea del Castagno, Signorelli and Sodoma; but so rapidly had the taste of the time changed that Julius II. decided to sweep them all away and re-cover the To judge of the authorship of a portrait from internal evidence is especially difficult, as in so many cases the strong individuality of the person represented obscures that of the painter.
5 Malvasia, Felsina pittrice (Bologna, 1678), was the first to publish this letter; see also Miintz, Raphael, sa vie, &'c., p. 315 (Paris, 1881). Minghetti ( Nuova Antologia, 1883) throws doubt on the date of this letter.
Mtintz, " Michel-Ange et Raphael a la cour de Rome;" Gaz. des B. Arts, March and April 1882, and Les arts a la cour des papcs, vol. iii. (Paris, 1884).
walls with paintings in the more developed but less truly decorative style of Raphael. It was not without regret that Raphael saw the destruction of this noble series of frescoes. One vault, that of the Stanza dell' Incendio, painted by his master Perugino, he saved from obliteration; it still exists, well preserved, a most skilful piece of decorative work; and he also set his pupils to copy a number of portrait-heads in the frescoes of Piero della Francesca before they were destroyed.' Fig. 3 shows the positions of Raphael's frescoes in the stanze, which, both from their size and method of lighting, are very unsuited for the reception of these large pictures. The two most important rooms (A and B) are small, and have an awkward crosslight from opposite windows.2 Stanza della Segnatura (papal signature room), painted in 1509-11 (A on fig. 3). The first painting executed by Raphael in the stanze was the so-called Disputa, finished in 1509. It is very unlike the later ones in style, showing the beginning of transition from his Florentine to his " Roman manner "; as a decorative work it is very superior to the other frescoes; the figures are much smaller in scale, as was suited to the very moderate size of the room, and the whole is arranged mainly on one plane, without those strong effects of perspective which are so unsuited to the decorative treatment of a wall-surface. In its religious sentiment, too, it far excels any of the later stanze paintings, retaining much of the sacred character of earlier Florentine and Umbrian art. As a scheme of decoration it appears to have been suggested by some of the early apsidal mosaics. Fig. 4 shows the disposition of its main masses, which seem to indicate the curved recess of an apse. Gold is largely used, with much richness of effect, while the later purely pictorial frescoes have little or none. The subject of this magnificent painting is the hierarchy of the church on earth and its glory in heaven.' The angels in the upper tier and the nude cherubs who carry the books of the Gospels are among the most beautiful figures that Raphael ever painted.
The painting on the vault of this room is the next in date, and shows further transition towards the " Roman manner." In his treatment of the whole Raphael has, with much advantage, been partly guided by the painting of Perugino's vault in the next room (C). Though not without faults, it is a very skilful piece of decoration; the pictures are kept subordinate to the lines of the vault, and their small scale adds greatly to the apparent size of the whole. A great part of the ground is gilt, marked with mosaic-like squares, a common practice with decorative painters - not intended to deceive the eye, but simply to give a softer texture to the gilt surface by breaking up its otherwise monotonous glare. The principal medallions in each cell of this quadripartite vault are very graceful female figures, representing Theology, Science, Justice, and Poetry. Smaller subjects, some almost miniature-like in scale, are arranged in the intermediate spaces, and each has some special meaning in reference to the medallion it adjoins; some of these are painted in warm monochrome to suggest bas-reliefs. The fine painting of the " Flaying of Marsyas " is interesting as showing Raphael's study of antique sculpture: the figure of Marsyas is a copy of a Roman statue, of which several replicas exist. The very beautiful little picture of the " Temptation of Eve " recalls Albert Dtirer's treatment of that subject, though only vaguely. Much mutual admiration existed between Raphael and Diirer: in 1515 Raphael sent the German artist a most masterly life study of two nude male figures (now at Vienna); on it is written in Albert Durer's beautiful hand the date and a record of its being a gift from Raphael. It is executed in red chalk, and was a study for two figures in the " Battle of Ostia " (see below).
On the wall opposite the Disputa is the so-called School of Athens.4 1 How fine these portrait-heads probably were may be guessed from Piero's magnificent frescoes at Arezzo, in the retro-choir of S. Francesco.
2 See Brunn, Die Composition der Wandgemeilde Raphaels im Vatican (Berlin), and Gruyer, Les fresques de Raphael au Vatican (Paris, 1859).
It need hardly be said that the name Disputa is a misnomer; there could be no dispute among the saints and doctors of the church about so well-established a dogma as the real presence: the monstrance with the Host below and the figure of Christ above indicate His double presence both on earth and in heaven. Dr Braun, Springer, and Hagen have published monographs in German on this painting.
4 See Trendelenburg, Ober Rafael's Schule von Aiken (Berlin, 1843), and Richter (same title) (Heidelberg, 1882); the title " School of Athens " is comparatively modern.
In this and the succeeding frescoes all notion of decorative treatment is thrown aside, and Raphael has simply painted a magnificent series of paintings, treated as easel pictures might have been, with but little reference to their architectural surroundings.' The subject of this noble fresco, in contrast to that opposite, is " Earthly Knowledge," represented by an assembly of the great philosophers, poets and men of science of ancient Greece. The central figures are Plato and Aristotle, while below and on each side are groups arranged with the most consummate skill, including the whole " filosofica famiglia " of Dante (Infer. iv. 1 331 44), and a number of other leaders of thought, selected in a way that shows no slight acquaintance with the history of philosophy and science among the ancient Greeks. Many interesting portraits are introducedBramante as the aged Archimedes, stooping over a geometrical diagram; a beautiful fair-haired youth on the left is Francesco Maria della Rovere, duke of Urbino; and on the extreme right figures of Raphael himself and Sodoma are introduced (see fig. 5, below). The stately building in which these groups are arranged is taken with modifications from Bramante's first design for St Peter's. Over the window (No. 6 on fig. 3) is a group of poets and musicians on Mount Parnassus, round a central figure of Apollo; it contains many heads of great beauty and fine portraits of Dante and Petrarch. The former, as a theologian, appears also in the Disputa. Over the opposite window (No. 5) are graceful figures of the three chief Virtues, and at one side (No. 4) Gregory IX. (a portrait of Julius II.) presenting his volume of decretals to a jurist; beside him is a splendid portrait of Cardinal de' Medici (afterwards Leo X.) before his face was spoiled by getting too stout. This painting shows the influence of Melozzo da Forli. 6 On the other side Justinian presents his code to Trebonianus (No. 3); this is inferior in execution, and appears to have been chiefly painted by pupils.
The next room (B), called La Stanza d'Eliodoro, was painted in 151,1-14; 7 it is so called from the fresco (No. 7 in fig. 3) representing the expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (2 Macc. iii.), an allusion to the struggles between Louis XII. of France and Julius II. The whole spirit of the subjects in this room is less broad and tolerant than in the first: no pagan ideas are admitted, and its chief motive is the glorification of the pontificate, with insistence on the temporal power. The main incident of this picture is the least successful part of it: the angel visitant on the horse is wanting in dignity, and the animal is poorly drawn, as is also the case with the horses of Attila's army in the fresco opposite. The group of women and children on the left is, however, very beautiful, and the figures of Julius II. and his attendants are most nobly designed and painted with great vigour. The tall standing figure of Marc Antonio Raimondi, as one of the pope's bearers, is a marvellous piece of portrait-painting, as is also the next figure who bears his name on a scroll. Petro. De. Foliariis. Cremonen. Behind, Giulio Romano is represented as another papal attendant. This picture was completed in 1512. Over the window (No. 8) is the scene of the Miracle at Bolsena of 1264, when the real presence was proved to a doubting priest by the appearance of blood-stains on the Corporal (see Orvieto). Julius II. is introduced kneeling behind the altar; and the lower spaces on each side of the windows are filled with two groups, that on the left with women, that on the right with officers of the papal guard. The last group is one of the most masterly of all throughout the stanze: each face, a careful portrait, is a marvel of expression and power, and the technical skill with which the whole is painted to the utmost degree of finish, almost without any tempera touches, is most wonderful. The next fresco in date (No. to) is that of the Repulsion of Attila from the walls of Rome by Leo I., miraculously aided by the apparitions of St Peter and St Paul; it contains another allusion to the papal quarrels with France. It was begun in the lifetime of Julius II., but was only half-finished at the time of his death in 1513; thus it happens that the portrait of his successor, the Medici pope Leo X., appears twice over, first as a cardinal riding behind the pope, painted before the death of Julius II., and again in the character of S. Leo, instead of the portrait of Julius which Raphael was about to paint.' Attila with his savage-looking b He has shown great skill in the way in which he has fitted his end frescoes into the awkward spaces cut into by the windows, but they are none the less treated in a purely pictorial manner.
6 Compare his fresco of Sixtus IV., now in the picture-gallery of the Vatican.
7 The vault of this room is painted with scenes from the Old Testament on a harsh blue ground, much restored; they are probably the work of Giulio Romano, and in a decorative way are very unsuccessful - a striking contrast to the beautiful vaults of Perugino and Raphael in rooms C and A. The deep blue grounds so much used by Raphael's school are very liable to injury from damp, and in most cases have been coarsely restored. Those in the Villa Madama are untouched, and in parts the damp has changed the ultramarine into emerald green.
8 A pen sketch in the Louvre by Raphael shows Julius II. in the place afterwards occupied by Leo X.; another difference in this sketch is that the pope is borne in a chair, not on horseback as in the fresco.
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FIG. 4 - Diagram to show main lines of the Disputa, suggesting an apse, with mosaic decoration.
army is not the most successful part of the fresco: the horses are very wooden in appearance, and the tight-fitting scale armour, put on in some impossible way without any joints, gives a very unreal and theatrical look to the picture. Part is the work of pupils. In 1514 he painted the " Deliverance of St Peter from Prison," with a further political allusion (No. 9). It is very skilfully arranged to fit in the awkward space round the window, and is remarkable for an attempt, not much suited for fresco-painting, to combine and contrast the three different qualities of light coming from the moon, the glory round the angel, and the torches of the sentinels.
For room C Raphael designed and partly painted the " Incendio del Borgo " (No. I I), a fire in the Borgo or Leonine City, which was miraculously stopped by Leo IV. appearing and making the sign of the cross at a window in the Vatican. On the background is shown the façade of the old basilica of St Peter, not yet destroyed when this fresco was painted. One group on the left, in the foreground, is remarkable for its vigour and powerful drawing; the motive is taken from the burning of Troy; a fine nude figure of .Æneas issues from the burning houses bearing on his back the old Anchises and leading the boy Ascanius by the hand. Some of the female figures are designed with much grace and dramatic power. Many studies for this picture exist. This is the last of the stanze frescoes on which Raphael himself worked. Others designed by him and painted by Giulio Romano, Gianfrancesco Penni, and other pupils were the " Battle of Ostia " (No. 12), a very nobly composed picture, and the " Oath of Leo III. before Charlemagne " (No. 14). The other great picture in this room (No. 13), the " Coronation of Charlemagne " (a portrait of Francis I. of France), is so very inferior in composition that it is difficult to believe that Raphael even made a sketch for it. The enormous fresco of the " Defeat of Maxentius by Constantine " (room D, No. 17) was painted by Giulio Romano, soon after Raphael's death, from a sketch by the latter; it is even more harsh and disagreeable in colour than most of Giulio Romano's early frescoes.' Among the other very inferior frescoes in this great hall are two female figures (Nos. 15 and 16) representing Comitas and Justitia, painted on the wall in oil colours, very harmonious and rich in tone; they are usually, though wrongly, attributed to Raphael himself.
Technical Methods employed in Raphael's Frescoes
Having made many studies, both nude and draped, for single figures and groups, the painter made a small drawing of the whole composition, which was enlarged by his pupils with the help of numbered squares, drawn all over it, to the full size required, on paper or canvas. Holes were then pricked along the outlines of the cartoon, and the design pounced through on to an undercoat of dry stucco on the wall, with pounded charcoal and a stiff brush. Over this, early in the morning, a patch of wet stucco was laid, about enough to serve for the day's painting; this of course obliterated the outline on the wall, and the part covered by the patch was again sketched in by freehand, with a point on the wet stucco, so as to be a guide for the outline traced with the brush and the subsequent painting. A line impressed on the wet stucco was easily smoothed out, but a touch of the brush full of pigment sank deeply into the moist stucco, and could not easily be effaced. It will thus be seen that in fresco painting the only use of pouncing the whole design on to the wall was to keep the general positions of the figures right, and was no guide as to the drawing of each separate part. Fig. 5 shows the portrait-heads of himself and Perugino (?), at the extreme right of the School of Athens; on this are visible many of the impressed sketch-lines, and also part of the " fresco edge " of the patch on which this part is painted. The heads in this figure are less than one day's work. It will be seen that there is no attempt at any accuracy of drawing in the impressed lines. Raphael, especially in his later frescoes, worked with wonderful rapidity: three life-sized busts, or half a full-length figure, more than life-size, was a not unusual day's work. In some of the frescoes the edges of each day's patch of stucco can easily be traced, especially in the Incendio del Borgo, which has a strong side light. In the Disputa much use was made of tempera in the final touches, but less was used in the subsequent frescoes, owing to his increasing mastery of the difficulties of the process.
The paintings in the stanze were only a small part of Raphael's work between 1509 and 1513. To this period belong the Madonna of Foligno (Vatican), painted in 1511 for Sigismondo Conti; it is one of his most beautiful compositions, full of the utmost grace and sweetness of expression, and appears to be wholly the work of his hand. It has suffered much from repainting. Of about the same date are the gem-like Garvagh Madonna (National Gallery, bought for £9000; once in the possession of the Aldobrandini family), the Diademed Virgin 1 See Montagnani, Sala di Costantino (Rome, 1834). Though he was never a good colourist, the great frescoes by Giulio Romano in the Palazzo del Te, Mantua, show some improvement as compared with his Roman work.
2 These three stages were usually distinguished as study, sketch and cartoon. of the Louvre, and the Madonna del Pesce at Madrid. The last is a very noble picture but the design is more pleasing than the FIG. 5. - Heads of Raphael and Perugino (?), from the School of Athens, showing incised lines and " fresco edges." colour, which, like ,other paintings of Raphael's at Madrid, suggests the inferior touch of a pupil; it was executed in 1513 for S. Domenico in Naples. In addition to other easel pictures a number of his finest portraits belong to this period - that of Julius II. (Uffizi), 3 of which a good replica or contemporary copy exists in the National Gallery, the so-called Fornarina in the Palazzo Barberini, the Baldassare Castiglione of the Louvre, and the unfinished portrait of Federigo Gonzaga of Mantua.
When Giovanni de' Medici, at the age of thirty-eight, became pope as Leo X., a period of the most glowing splendour and reckless magnificence succeeded the sterner rule of Julius II. Agostino Chigi, the Sienese financier, was the chief of those whose lavish expenditure contributed to enrich Rome with countless works of art. For him Raphael painted, in 1513-14, the very beautiful fresco of the Triumph of Galatea in his new palace by the Tiber bank, the Villa Farnesina, and also made a large series of magnificent designs from Apuleius's romance of Cupid and Psyche, which were carried out by a number of his pupils. 4 These cover the vault and lunettes of a large loggia (now closed in for protection); in colouring they are mostly harsh and gaudy,' as is usually the case with the works of his pupils, a great contrast to the fresco of the Galatea, the greater part of which is certainly the master's own work s For the same patron he painted (also in 1513) his celebrated Sibyls 3 A very fine ancient copy of this portrait is in the Pitti Palace; certain peculiarities in its execution show it to be by some Venetian painter, as was pointed out to Professor Middleton by Mr Fairfax Murray.
4 Chiefly by Giulio Romano, Gianfrancesco Penni and Giovanni da Udine; much injury has been done to these frescoes by repainting, especially in the coarse blue of the ground.
These and other frescoes by his pupils are much disfigured by the disagreeable hot tone of the flesh, very unlike the pearly tone of the flesh of Galatea.
6 Dorigny, Psychis et Amoris fabula a Raphaele, &c. (Rome, 2693); and Gruner, Fresco Decorations in Italy (London, 1854), pls. 16-18. The group of the Triton and Nymph on the left of the composition' was probably executed by Giulio Romano.: XXII. 29 a in S. Maria della Pace, - figures of exquisite grace, arranged with perfect skill in an awkward space. It is not without reason that Vasari gives these the highest position among his frescopaintings.' Agostino Chigi also employed Raphael to build for him a private chapel in S. Maria del Popolo, and to make a series of cartoons to be executed in mosaic on the inner dome.2 The central medallion has a figure of God among clouds and angel boys, such as Raphael drew with unrivalled grace (fig. 6), and around are the eight planets, each with its pagan deity and directing angel.' He has not hampered himself by any of the usual rules which should apply to the designing of mosaic; they are simply treated as pictures, with almost deceptive effects of perspective. The execution of these brilliant mosaics was carried out by the Venetian Luigi della Pace, whose signature is introduced on the torch of Cupid in LV the panel representing the star Venus (Ludovico DP della Pace Veneziano fecit, 1516). These F V were the work of yesterday. Probably in the early mosaics are still as perfect and brilliant as if they years of Leo X.'s reign were painted the Madonna della Seggiola (Pitti), the S. Cecilia at Bologna (not completed till 1516), the miniature Vision of Ezekiel (Pitti) and three important pictures at Madrid. The latest of these, known as Lo Spasimo, from the church a t Palermo, for which it was painted, is one of Raphael's finest compositions, representing Christ bearing His Cross. It bears signs of Giulio Romano's hand in its heavy colouring with unpleasant purple tones. The Madonna called Della Perla has much changed from the darkening of the pigments; in design it recalls Leonardo da Vinci. 4 The small Madonna della Rosa is the most perfect in colour of all the master's pictures in the Madrid Gallery, and is usually rather undervalued; it is a most graceful little picture. The portrait of Leo X. with Cardinals de' Rossi and de' Medici, in the Pitti, is one of his finest portrait-pictures, especially as regards the figure of the pope.' Little is known about the Madonna di S. Sisto, the glory of the Dresden Gallery; no studies or sketches for it exist. In style it much resembles the Madonna di Foligno; it is less injured by restoration than the latter.
Among the latest works of Raphael are the large " St Michael and the Devil," in the Louvre, signed " Raphael Urbinas pingebat, MDXVIII.," and the very beautiful portrait of the Violinplayer, in the Sciarra-Colonna Palace in Rome, also dated
1518; this last bears much resemblance to the painter himself. The British Museum possesses one of Raphael's finest portraits, 1 Thanks to Michelangelo's generous intervention, Raphael was paid the large sum for that time of 900 gold ducats for this fresco.
2 Gruner, Mosaici in S. Maria del Popolo (Rome, 1839).
3 In accordance with Dante's scheme in the Paradiso. 4 La Perla, " the pearl " of the Spanish royal collection, was originally painted for Bishop Louis of Canossa; it was sold by Cromwell with the greater part of Charles I.'s collection at Hampton Court. The composition, though not the execution, of this picture belongs to Raphael's early years in Rome; it is very remarkable for its delicacy of touch and high finish.
5 The magnificent portrait-heads of the Venetian scholars Navagero and Beazzano, now in the Doria Gallery in Rome, are worthy of Raphael at his best, and have for long been attributed to him. There are good contemporary copies at Madrid.
though only a chalk drawing, that of his friend the painter Timoteo della Vite, a masterpiece of expression and vigour; it is executed in black and red, and is but little inferior in chromatic effect to an oil-painting; it is life size, and is executed with wonderful skill and evident keen interest in the subject.
The tapestry cartoons, seven of which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, were painted by pupils from Raphael's designs. They are part of a set of ten, with scenes from the Acts of the Apostles, intended, when copied in tapestry, to adorn the lower part of the walls of the Sistine chapel. The tapestries themselves, worked at Brussels, are now, after many vicissitudes, hung in a gallery in the Vatican; the set is complete, thus preserving the design of the three lost cartoons. The existing seven, after being cut up into strips for use on the looms, were bought by Rubens for Charles I. 6 The tapestry copies are executed with wonderful skill, in spite of Raphael's having treated the subjects in a purely pictorial way, with little regard to the exigencies of textile work. The designs are reversed, and the colours far more brilliant than those of the cartoons, much gold and silver being introduced. The noble figure of Christ in the Delivery of the Keys to St Peter is in the tapestry much disfigured by the addition of a number of large gold stars all over the drapery, which spoil the simple dignity of the folds. The rich framework round each picture, designed by Raphael's pupils, probably by Penni and Giovanni da Udine, exists in the tapestries and adds greatly to their decorative effect. The cartoons were executed in 1515 and 1516, and the finished tapestries were first exhibited in their place in the Sistine chapel on the 26th of December 1 519 - a very short time for the weaving of such large and elaborate pictures. The three of which the cartoons are lost represent the Martyrdom of St Stephen, the Conversion of St Paul, and St Paul in Prison at Philippi. Probably no pictures are better known to have been more often engraved and copied than these seven cartoons.' The Transfiguration. $ - In 1519 Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici (afterwards Clement VII.), as bishop of Narbonne, ordered two altar-pieces for his cathedral - the one by Raphael, the other by Raphael's Venetian rival Sebastiano del Piombo. That by the latter painter is the noble Resurrection of Lazarus, now in the National Gallery, in the drawing of which the Venetian received important aid from Michelangelo. Several studies for Raphael's picture exist, showing that he at first intended to paint a Resurrection of Christ as a pendant to Sebastiano's subject, but soon altered his scheme into the Transfiguration. The eight or nine existing studies are scattered through the Oxford, Lille, Windsor and some private collections. A great part of the lower group was unfinished at the time of the painter's sudden death in 1520, and a good deal of the heavy colouring of Giulio Romano is visible in it. On the death of Raphael the picture became too precious to send out of Rome, and Cardinal de' Medici contented himself with sending' the Resurrection of Lazarus to Narbonne. The Transfiguration was bequeathed by him to the monks of S. Pietro in Montorio, in whose church it remained till it was stolen by Napoleon I. It now hangs in the Vatican Gallery.
Architectural Work. 9 - Though he designed but few buildings, Raphael's great repute even in this branch of art is shown by the Fortunately they were not sold with the bulk of Charles's collection, and remained at Hampton Court till a few years ago. See Koch, Rafael's Tapeten im Vatican (Vienna, 1878), and Muntz, Hist. de la tapisserie italienne (Paris, 1880).
7 The name " arazzi " given by Italians to these tapestries is derived from Arras, where they were erroneously thought to have been woven; they were made at Brussels. It is much to be regretted that visitors to the Vatican are no longer allowed to see these priceless examples of textile work.
$ See Morgenstern, Ober Rafael's Verkldrung (Leipzig, 1822), and Justi, Die Verklarung Christi (Leipzig, 1870).
9 See Ojetti, Discorso su Raffaello Architetto (Rome, 1883), but more especially Geymtiller's work mentioned in the text, and his Projets primitifs pour la Bas. de S. Pierre (Paris, 1875-80); also the works of Hofmann and Bloch (Dresden, 1900).
Raphaelsanzio-3.jpg
FIG. 6. - Mosaic of God creating the stars, from the Chigi chapel, in centre of dome, designed by Raphael.
fact that Bramante, before his death in March 1514, specially requested that Raphael should be made his successor as chief architect of St Peter's. To this most important post he was appointed by a brief of Leo X., dated the 1st of August 1514. The progress of St Peter's was, however, too slow for him to leave much mark on its design. Another work of Bramante's completed, by Raphael, was the graceful Cortile di S. Damaso in the Vatican, including the loggie, which were decorated with stucco-reliefs and paintings of sacred subjects by his pupils under his own supervision, but only very partially from his designs.' The Palazzo dell' Aquila, built for Giovanni Battista Branconio, and destroyed in the 17th century during the extension of St Peter's, was one of Raphael's chief works as an architect. He also designed the little cross church, domed at the intersection like a miniature St Peter's, called S. Eligio degli Orefici, which still exists near the Tiber, almost opposite the Farnesina gardens, a work of but little merit. According to M. Geymuller, whose valuable work, Raffaello come Architetto (Milan, 1883), has done so much to increase our knowledge of this subject, the Villa Farnesina of Agostino Chigi, usually attributed to Peruzzi, was, as well as its palace-like stables, designed by Raphael; but internal evidence makes this very difficult to believe. It has too much of the delicate and refined character of the 15th century for Raphael, whose taste seems to have been strongly inclined to the more developed classic style, of which Palladio afterwards became the chief exponent. The Palazzo Vidoni, near S. Andrea della Valle, also in Rome, is usually attributed to Raphael, but an original sketch for this in Peruzzi's own hand has recently been identified among the collection of drawings at Siena; this, however, is not a certain proof that the design was not Raphael's. M. Geymuller has, however, shown that the Villa Madama, on the slopes of Monte Mario above Rome, was really designed by him, though its actual carrying out, and the unrivalled stuccoreliefs which make its interior one of the most magnificent palaces in the world, are due to Giulio Romano and Giovanni da Udine, as mentioned in Vasari's life of the latter.' The original design for this villa made by Raphael himself has been discovered by M. Geymuller. Another architectural work was the little Chigi chapel in S. Maria del Popolo, built in 1516, for the dome of which the above-mentioned mosaics were designed (see fig. 6). At the time of his death he was preparing to build himself a handsome palace near the church of S. Eligio; the deed for the purchase of its site was signed by him only a few days before his last short illness. Though not completed till 1530, the Palazzo Pandolfini at Florence was also designed by him; it is a dull scholastic building without any special beauty either in proportion or treatment of the mass; it is illustrated by Montigny and Famin, Architecture Toscane (Paris, 1815), pls. 33-36.
A sober criticism of Raphael's architectural works must force one to refuse him a high position in this branch of art. In the church of S. Eligio and the Chigi chapel he is merely a copyist of Bramante, and his more original works show but little power of invention or even mastery of the first principles of architectural design. His details are, however, often delicate and refined (especially in the Palazzo Pandolfini), and he was supremely successful in the decorative treatment of richly ornamented interiors when he did not, as in some of the Vatican stanze, sacrifice the room to the frescoes on its walls.
Sculpture
That Vasari is right in attributing to him the model for the beautiful statue of Jonah in the Chigi chapel (fig. 7) is borne witness to by two important documents, which show that his almost universal talents led him to attempt with success the preliminary part of the sculptor's art, though there is no evidence to show that he ever worked on marble. 3 One of these is a letter written to Michelangelo to warn him that Raphael had been invading his province as a sculptor by modelling a boy, which had been executed in marble by a pupil, and was a work of much beauty. Again, after his death his friend Baldassare Castiglione, in a letter ' See Mariani, La Bibbia nelle Loggie del Vaticano (Rome); Anon., Dipinti nelle Loggie del Vaticano (Rome, 1841); and Gruner, Fresco Decorations (London, 1854), pls. 1-5. Too great a share in the decoration of the loggie is usually given to Raphael; not only the harsh colour but also the feebleness of much of the drawing shows that he can have had but little to do with it.
2 See Gruner, Fresco Decorations, &c. (London, 1854), pls. 6-12, and Raffaelle Santi, Ornati della Villa Madama, &c. (Rome, 1875). Two other little known but very beautiful architectural works, executed under Raphael's influence by his pupils, are the bathroom of Cardinal Bibbiena in the Vatican and the bathroom of Clement VII. in the castle of S. Angelo, both richly decorated with delicate stucco-reliefs and paintings, treated after a classical model.
3 See note on p. 369, vol. iv., of Milanesi's edition of Vasari (Florence, 1879). To one branch of the sculptor's art, practised under Raphael's supervision, belong the elaborate and delicately executed stucco-reliefs of the loggie and elsewhere. Among these occur many panels with figure-subjects, large in scale and important in composition; those executed during his lifetime are free from the too pictorial character which is an obvious fault in the very magnificent reliefs of the Villa Madama.
dated the 8th of May 1523, asks his steward in Rome " if Giulio Romano still possesses a certain boy in marble by Raphael and what his lowest price for it would be," - " s'egli [Giulio Romano] ha pill quel puttino di marmo di mano di Raffaello e per quanto si daria all' ultimo." A group in marble of a Dead Boy on his Dolphin Playfellow, now in the St Petersburg Hermitage, has been erroneously supposed to be Raphael's " puttino," which has also been identified with a statuette of a child formerly at Florence in the possession of Signor Molini.4 The statue of Jonah was executed in marble by Lorenzetto, a Florentine sculptor; and it remained in his studio for many years after Raphael's death. The Victoria and Albert Museum possesses a small clay sketch for this beautiful group, slightly different from the marble; it is probably the original design by the master's own hand. The whole feeling of the group - a beautiful youth seated on a sea-monster - is purely classical, and the motive is probably taken from some antique statue representing Arion or Taras on a dolphin. 5 Being intended for a church it was necessary to give the figure a sacred name, and hence the very incongruous title that it received. There is no trace of Raphael's hand in the design of the other statue, an Elijah by Lorenzetto, though it also is ascribed to him by Vasari.
Lesser Arts practised by Raphael
Like other great artists, Raphael did not disdain to practise the lesser branches of art: a design for a silver perfume-burner with female caryatids is preserved. in an engraving by Marco da Ravenna; and he also designed two handsome repousse salvers for Agostino Chigi, drawings for which are now at Dresden. In designs for tarsia-work and wood-carving he was especially skilful; witness the magnificent doors and shutters of the stanze executed by his pupil Giovanni Baffle of Siena. s The majolica designs attributed to him were by a namesake and relation called Raffaello di Ciarla; 7 and, though many fine dishes and ewers of Urbino and other majolica are decorated with Raphael's designs, they are all taken front pictures or engravings, not specially done by him for ceramic purposes. With the frivolity of his age Leo X. occasionally wasted Raphael's skill on unworthy subjects, such as the scenery of a temporary theatre; and in 1516 the pope set him to paint in fresco the portrait life-size of a large elephant, the gift of the king of Portugal, after the animal was dead. 8 This elephant is also introduced among the stucco reliefs of the Vatican loggie, with the poetaster Barrabal sitting in mock triumph on its back.
Though Raphael himself does not appear to have practised the art of engraving, yet this formed one of the many branches of art which were carried on under his supervision. A large number of his designs were engraved by his pupils Marcantonio Raimondi and Agostino Veneziano. These valuable engravings are from Raphael's, sketches, not from his finished pictures, and in some cases they show ' See Appendix, p. 406, vol. iv., of Milanesi's edition of Vasari; Rembadi, Del putto. .. di Raffaello (Florence, 1872); Gennarelli, Sopra una Scultura di Raffaello (Florence, 1873). The evidence which would attribute this piece of sculpture to Raphael is almost worthless. See on the St Petersburg group, Gubdeonoff, Ober die dem Raphael zugeschr. Marmorgruppe (St Petersburg, 1872).
5 Compare this latter subject on reverses of the beautiful didrachms of Tarentum, c. 300 B.C.
The very beautiful and elaborate choir-stalls of the church of S. Pietro de' Casinensi at Perugia, with panels carved in relief, executed in 1535 by Stefano da Bergamo, are mainly adapted from Raphael's designs.
Campori, Notizie Stor. d. Maiolica di Ferrara (3rd ed., Pesaro, 18 79), pp. 132-133.
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8 Under it was inscribed - " Raphael Urbinas quod natura ab stulerat arte restituit." FIG. 7. - Statue of Jonah in the Chigi chapel, designed by Raphael, sculptured by Lorenzetto; heroic size.
important alterations made in the execution of the picture. Raimondi's engraving of the S. Cecilia of Bologna in design is very inferior to that of the actual painting. Several of Raphael's most important compositions are known to us only by these early engravings, e.g. the Massacre of the Innocents (engraved by Raimondi), which is one of his finest works, both for skilful composition and for masterly drawing of the nude. Another magnificent design is the Judgment of Paris, containing a large number of figures; the nude figure of Minerva is a work of especial force and beauty. A standing figure of Lucretia' about to stab herself is also one of his most lovely figures. Many of Raphael's studi
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Raphael Sanzio'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/r/raphael-sanzio.html. 1910.
