Page images
PDF
EPUB

abundant mucilaginous slime, and by taking up oxygen it | residence of Urbino, built by Federigo II., even now one acquires a peculiar disagreeable odour and an acrid taste. Refined by the ordinary processes (see OIs, vol. xvii. p. 743), the oil assumes a clear golden yellow colour. In specific gravity it ranges between 0·9112 and 0.9117 in the raw state, and from 0-9127 to 0.9136 when refined; the solidifying point is from -2° to -10° C. Rape oil consists of a mixture of three simple fats or glycerides of fatty acids the glyceride of oleic acid (olein), of stearic acid (stearin), and of brassic acid, the latter being a fat found hitherto only in oils from the Cruciferæ and from grape seeds. The olein of rape oil differs from ordinary olein in not yielding sebacylic acid on destructive distillation.

วง

of the most magnificent palaces in Italy, was lavishly adorned with works of art of every class-frescos, panelpictures, tapestries, tarsia-work, stucco-reliefs, and sculpture-executed for the duke by some of the chief Italian artists of his time, and contained a collection of oil-paintings by the Van Eycks and other celebrated Flemish painters. 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 Knight's Dream, 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 age. From his father, too, Raphael learned much of the religious sentiment and grace of motive which are specially

of

The principal uses of rape oil are for lubrication and lighting; but since the introduction of mineral oils for both these purposes the importance of rape has considerably decreased. It is but little employed in soap-making, as it saponifies with difficulty and yields only an indifferent product. In Germany it is very considerably used as a salad oil under the name of Schmalzöl, being for that purpose freed from its biting taste by being mixed with starch, heated till the starch is carbonized, and filtered after the oil has cooled. The offensive taste of rape oil may also be removed by treatment with a small proportion of sweet spirit of nitre (nitrous ether). In the East Indies rape oil and its equivalents, known under various names, are the most important of oils for native use. They are largely consumed as food instead of ghi under the name of "metah or sweet oil, but for all other purposes the same sub-conspicuous in his earlier paintings. The altar-piece stance is known as "kurwah" or bitter oil. Most natives prefer it for the preparation of their curries and other hot dishes. Rape oil is the subject of extensive adulteration, principally with the cheaper hemp oil, rosin oil, and mineral oils. These sophistications can be most conveniently detected, first by taste and next by saponification, rosin oil and mineral oil remaining unsaponified, hemp oil giving a greenish soap, while rape oil yields a soap with a yellow tinge. With concentrated sulphuric acid, fuming nitric acid, nitrous acid, and other reagents rape oil gives also characteristic colorations; but these are modified according to the degree of purity of the oil itself. The presence of sulphur in rape and other cruciferous oils also affords a ready means for their identification. Lead plaster (emplastrum lithargyri) boiled in rape oil dissolves, and, sulphide of lead being formed, the oil becomes brown or black. Other lead compounds give the same black coloration from the formation of sulphide.

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 paintings of the Madonna and Child. On the death of his father in 1494 young 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.4

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.5 As was the case with every one with whom Raphael came in contact, the Perugian master was fascinated by the charm of his manner and delighted by his precocious ability, and seems to have devoted special pains to his artistic education. The so-called Sketch Book of Raphael in the academy of Venice contains studies apparently from the cartoons of some of Perugino's Sistine frescos, possibly done as practice in drawing.

RAPHAEL (N", "God heals") first appears in literature in the book of Tobit, where in human disguise and under the name of Azarias ("God helps") he accompanies Tobias in his adventurous journey and conquers the demon Asmodeus. He is said to be "one of the seven angels [archangels] who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One." In the book of Enoch Raphael is the angel of the spirits of man, and it is his business to gather the souls of the dead in the place where they are reserved till the day of judg-preserved in portfolios, bears signs of having once formed a bound ment,- a conception which seems to imply a derivation from DND, "ghosts." In later Midrash Raphael appears as the angel commissioned to put down the evil spirits that vexed the sons of Noah with plagues and sicknesses after the flood, and he it was who taught men the use of simples and furnished materials for the "Book of Noah," the earliest treatise on materia medica (Rönsch, Buch der Jubiläen, p. 385 sq.).

RAPHAEL (1483-1520). RAPHAEL SANZIO was the son of Giovanni Santi, a painter of some repute in the ducal city of Urbino, situated among the Apennines on the borders of Tuscany and Umbria.1 For many years both before and after the birth of Raphael 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. The ducal

1 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 la Vita di Giov. Santi e di Raffaello, Modena, 1870.

per

2 See an interesting account of the court of Urbino by Delaborde, Études sur les B. Arts. en Italie, Paris, 1864, vol. i. p. 145.

This celebrated collection of thirty drawings, now framed or book, 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. 6

Before long Raphael appears to have been admitted to take a share in the execution of paintings by his master;

3 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.

4 The administration of Giovanni Santi's will occasioned many painful family disputes and even appeals to law; see Pungileoni, El. Stor. di Raffaello.

5 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.

6 See an excellent critical examination of the Sketch Book by Morelli, Italian Masters in German Galleries, translated by Mrs Richter, London, 1882; according to this able critic, only two drawings are by Raphael. See also Schmarsow, "Raphael's Skizzenbuch in Venedig," in Preussische Jahrbücher, xlviii. pp. 122-149, Berlin, 1881, who takes the opposite view. Kahl, Das venezianische Skizzénbuch, Leipsic, 1882, follows Morelli's opinion.

4

and his touch can with more or less certainty be traced in to the gonfaloniere Pier Soderini. In Florence Raphael some of Perugino's panels which were executed about 1502. was kindly received, and, in spite of his youth (being Many of those who, like Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle, barely of age), was welcomed as an equal by the majority adopt the earlier date of Raphael's apprenticeship believe of those great artists who at that time had raised Florence that his hand is visible in the execution of the beautiful to a pitch of artistic celebrity far above all other cities of series of frescos by Perugino in the Sala del Cambio, dated the world. At the time of his arrival the whole of artistic 1500; as does also M. Müntz in his excellent Raphaël, Italy was being excited to enthusiasm by the cartoons of sa Vie, Paris, 1881, in spite of his accepting the end of the battle of Anghiari and the war with Pisa, on which 1499 as the period of Raphael's first entering Perugino's Da Vinci and Michelangelo were then devoting their studio, -two statements almost impossible to reconcile. utmost energies (see LEONARDO and MICHELANGELO). To Considering that Raphael was barely seventeen when these describe the various influences under which Raphael came frescos were painted, it is hardly reasonable to attribute and the many sources from which he drank in stores of the finest heads to his hand; nor did he at an early age artistic knowledge would be to give a complete history master the difficulties of fresco buono. The Resurrection of Florentine art in the 15th century. With astonishing of Christ in the Vatican and the Diotalevi Madonna in the rapidity he shook off the mannerisms of Perugino, and Berlin Museum are the principal pictures by Perugino in put one great artist after another under contribution for parts of which the touch of Raphael appears to be visible, some special power of drawing, beauty of colour, or grace though any real certainty on this point is unattainable.1 of composition in which each happened to excel. Nor was About 1502 Raphael began to execute independent it from painters only that Raphael acquired his enlarged works; four pictures for churches at Città di Castello field of knowledge and rapidly growing powers. Sculptors were probably the earliest of these, and appear to have like Ghiberti and Donatello must be numbered among been painted in the years 1502-4. The first is a guild- those whose works helped to develop his new-born style.5 banner painted on one side with the Trinity, and below, The Carmine frescos of Masaccio and Masolino taught kneeling figures of S. Sebastian and S. Rocco; on the this eager student long-remembered lessons of methods reverse is a Creation of Eve, very like Perugino in style, but of dramatic expression. Among his contemporaries it possessing more grace and breadth of treatment. These was especially Signorelli and Michelangelo who taught are still in the church of S. Trinità.2 Also for Città di him the importance of precision of line and the necessity Castello were the coronation of S. Niccolo Tolentino, now of a thorough knowledge of the human form. From Da destroyed, though studies for it exist at Oxford and Lille Vinci he learned subtleties of modelling and soft beauty (Gaz. d. B. Arts, 1878, i. p. 48), and the Crucifixion, now of expression, from Fra Bartolomeo nobility of composiin the Dudley collection, painted for the church of S. tion and skilful treatment of drapery in dignified folds." Domenico, and signed RAPHAEL VRBINAS P. It is a The friendship between Raphael and the last of these panel 8 feet 6 inches high by 5 feet 5 inches wide, and was very close and lasted for many years. The architect contains noble figures of the Virgin, St John, St Jerome, Baccio d'Agnolo was another of his special friends, at and St Mary Magdalene. The fourth painting executed whose house the young painter enjoyed social intercourse for this town, for the church of S. Francesco, is the with a large circle of the chief artists of Florence, and exquisitely beautiful and highly finished Sposalizio, now probably learned from him much that was afterwards usein the Brera at Milan, signed and dated RAPHAEL ful in his practice as an architect. 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 from his patroness Joanna della Rovere 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 Frizzoni, 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 sq.

This letter, which still exists, was sold in Paris in 1856, and is now in private hands.

8

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 ribbands 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

• See Minghetti, "I Maestri di Raffaello," in the Nuova Antologia, 1st August 1881.

5 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 (South Kensington Museum).

7 See many of his life-studies, especially the one he sent to Albert Dürer, now at Vienna.

See the portrait of Maddalena Doni in the Pitti.
See the Madonna del Baldacchino in the Pitti.

its small paintings, especially that of the Annunciation | death) by his old master Perugino. It was probably
to the Virgin, are interesting as showing his careful study earlier than this that Raphael visited Siena and assisted

FIG. 1.-Silver-point study for the main
figures in the Coronation of the Virgin
(Vatican). In the Lille museum.
trating Raphael's use of draped models
during his early period.

of the rules of per-
spective.1 Several
preparatory 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 ordi-
nary dress of the
time; and it is in-
teresting 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,
made at a time when his developed style required a more
careful rendering of the human form than was necessary
for the simpler and more religious manner of Perugia.
It was at Florence, as Vasari says, that Raphael began

FIG. 2.-The group for which fig. 1 is a study. serious life studies, not only from nude models but also by making careful anatomical drawings from dissected and from skeletons.

corpses

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

1 While at Florence he is said to have taught the science of perspective to his friend Fra Bartolomeo, who certainly gave his young instructor valuable lessons on composition in return.

Pinturicchio with sketches for his Piccolomini frescos.3
The Madonna of S. Antonio was also finished in 1505,
but was probably begun before the Florentine visit. A
record of his visit to Siena exists in a sketch of the
antique marble group of the Three Graces, then in the
cathedral library, 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 accom-
plished Baldassare CASTIGLIONE (q.v.), a friend of Raphael's,
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 Mr Morris Moore to the Louvre
for £10,000, a most lovely little panel, painted with
almost Flemish minuteness, rich in colour, and graceful in
arrangement.

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, 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.7 It was painted for the Ansidei

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 und Pinturicchio in Siena, Stuttgart, 1880, and Milanesi, in his edition of Vasari, iii. p. 515 sq., appendix to life of Pinturicchio.

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.

5 This missal-like painting is about 7 inches square; it was bought
in 1847 for 1000 guineas. The National Gallery also possesses its
cartoon, in brown ink, pricked for transference.

treme virulence, the genuineness of this little gem can hardly be
In spite of some adverse opinions, frequently expressed with ex
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
Italie, i. p. 236; Gruyer, Raphaël et l'Antiquité, ii. p. 421; Eitelberger,
Raphael's manner. See Delaborde, Études sur les B. Arts...
Rafael's Apollo und Marsyas, Vienna, 1860; Batte, Le Raphaël de M.
Moore, Paris, 1859; and also various pamphlets on it by its former

owner, Mr Morris Moore.

en

7 It is engraved at p. 53, vol. ii., of Dohme, Kunst und Künstler des Mittelalters, Leipsic, 1878, a work which has many good reproductions of Raphael's paintings and sketches.

fam

Fi

C

J

[graphic]

family of Perugia as an altar-piece in the church of S. | youth with turned-up nose, not bearing the remotest Fiorenzo, and is a work of the highest beauty in colour, resemblance to Raphael, except the long hair and black well preserved, and very large in scale. The Virgin cap common to nearly all the portraits of this time. A with veiled head is seated on a throne, supporting the fine but much-restored portrait of Raphael by himself, Infant with one hand and holding a book in the other. painted at Florence, exists in the Uffizi; it represents him Below stands S. Niccolo da Tolentino, for whose altar it at a very early age, and was probably painted during the was painted; he holds a book and a crozier, and is clad early part of his stay in Florence. 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 Flemishlike 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 Palazzo 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.1 The many studies and preliminary sketches 2 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 Bartolomeo, 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 paint ings, 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 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

Third or Roman Period, 1508-20.-In 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.* 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's, the foundation-stone of which had been laid by Julius II. on 18th 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.5 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.

1 See Symonds, Sketches in Italy, the chapter on Perugia, mainly taken from the contemporary chronicle of Matarazzo.

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 abortcomings of this picture.

A series of rooms in the Vatican, over the Appartamenti Borgia, were already decorated with frescos by Bonfigli, 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

G.

E.

F.

GUARD ROOM.

COURT OF THE SISTINE
CHAPEL.

17.

17. 16.

15.

8.

3. 5. 4.

E.

7. B. 10 2. A.

C. 13

12,

D.

J.HM.

FIG. 3.-Plan showing position of Raphael's frescos in the stanze,
A. Stanza della Segnatura (1509-11): 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
Saracens at Ostia; 13, Coronation of Charlemagne by Leo III. in St Peter's;
painted by pupils: 11, Burning of the Borgo; 12, Victory of Leo IV. over the
14, Oath of Leo III. before Charlemagne. D. Sala di Costantino, painted by
pupils (1520-24): 15 and 16, oil-paintings of Comitas and 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.

all away and re-cover the 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 frescos. One vault, that of the especially difficult, as in so many cases the strong individuality of the 3 To judge of the authorship of a portrait from internal evidence is person represented obscures that of the painter.

Malvasia, Felsina pittrice, Bologna, 1678, was the first to publish this letter; see also Müntz, Raphaël, sa Vie, &c., p. 315, Paris, 1881. Minghetti (Nuova Antologia, 1883) throws doubt on the date of this

letter.

5 Müntz, "Michel-Ange et Raphaël à la cour de Rome," Gaz des B. Arts, March and April 1882, and Les Arts à la cour des Papes, vol iii., Paris, 1884.

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 frescos
of Piero della Francesca before they were destroyed.1
Fig. 3 shows the positions of Raphael's frescos 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 cross light from opposite windows.2

FIG. 4.-Diagram to show main

lines of the Disputa, suggest-
ing an apse, with mosaic de-
coration.

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 commencement of transition from
his Florentine to his "Roman manner"; as a decorative work it
is very superior to the other frescos; 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 treat-
ment of a wall-surface. In its religious sentiment too it far excels
any of the later stanze paintings,
retaining much of the sacred charac-
ter 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 frescos have little or none.
The subject of this magnificent paint-
ing 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 de-
coration; 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 show-
ing 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
Dürer's treatment of that subject, though only vaguely. Much
mutual admiration existed between Raphael and Dürer 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
Dürer'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. In this and the succeeding frescos all notion of decora-
tive 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 surround-
ings. The subject of this noble fresco, in contrast to that opposite,
1 How fine these portrait-heads probably were may be guessed from Piero's
magnificent frescos at Arezzo, in the retro-choir of S. Francesco.

5

2 See Brunn, Die Composition der Wandgemälde Raphaels im Vatican, Berlin, and Gruyer, Les Fresques de Raphaël au Vatican, Paris, 1859.

3 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 estab lished 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, Ueber Rafael's Schule von Athen, Berlin, 1843, and Richter (same title), Heidelberg, 1882; the title "School of Athens" is comparatively modern."

5 He has shown great skill in the way in which he has fitted his end frescos into the awkward spaces cut into by the windows, but they are none the less treated in a purely pictorial manner.

is Earthly Knowledge, represented by an assembly of those great
philosophers, poets, and men of science of ancient Greece who were
admitted by the church to have been not wholly without inspira-
tion from Heaven, and by their labours to have prepared the way
for the clearer light of Christianity. 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. 133-144), and a number of other
leaders of thought, selected in a way that shows no slight acquaint-
ance with the history of philosophy and science among the ancient
Greeks. In this selection we may fairly suppose that Raphael was
aided by Bembo, Ariosto, Castiglione, Bibbiena, or others of the
crowd of scholars who at this time thronged the papal court.
Many interesting portraits are introduced-Bramante 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
Perugino 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.) be-
fore his face was spoiled by getting too stout. This painting shows
the influence of Melozzo da Forli. On the other side Justinian
presents his code to Trebonianus (No. 3); this is inferior in exe-
cution and appears to have been chiefly painted by pupils.

The next room (B), called La Stanza d'Eliodoro, was painted in
1511-14; it is so called from the fresco (No. 7 in fig. 3) represent-
ing 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 want-
ing 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-IO. 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. 10) is that of the Repul-
sion 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
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
Ariosto visited Rome twice about this time, as ambassador from the duke
of Ferrara to Julius II.,-the first time in 1509.

7 Compare his fresco of Sixtus IV., now in the picture-gallery of the Vatican.
8 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 ultra-
marine into emerald green.

9 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.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

------

« EelmineJätka »