the success of Raffaello. As the contest between Zeuxis and Parrhasius
was beneficial to them both, so the rivalship of Bonarruoti and Sanzio
aided the fame of Michelangiolo, and produced the paintings of the
Sistine chapel; and at the same time contributed to the celebrity of
Raffaello, by producing the pictures of the Vatican, and not a few
others. Michelangiolo disdaining any secondary honours, came to the
combat, as it were, attended by his shield bearer; for he made drawings
in his grand style, and then gave them to F. Sebastiano, the scholar of
Giorgione, to execute; and by these means he hoped that Raffaello would
never be able to rival his productions either in design or colour.
Raffaello stood alone; but aimed at producing works with a degree of
perfection beyond the united efforts of Michelangiolo and Sebastian del
Piombo, combining in himself a fertile invention, ideal beauty founded
on a correct imitation of the Greek style, grace, ease, amenity, and an
universality of genius in every department of the art. The noble
determination of triumphing in such a powerful contest animated him
night and day, and did not allow him any respite. It also excited him to
surpass both his rivals and himself in every new work which he produced.
The subjects, too, chosen for these chambers, aided him, as they were in
a great measure new, or required to be treated in a novel manner. They
did not profess to represent bacchanalian or vulgar scenes, but the
exalted symbols of science; the sacred functions of religion; military
actions, which contributed to establish the peace of the world;
important events of former days, under which were typified the reigns of
the Pontiffs Julius and Leo X.: the latter the most powerful protector,
and one of the most accomplished judges of art. More favourable
circumstances could not have conspired to stimulate a noble mind. The
eulogizing of Augustus was a theme for the poets of his age, which
produced the richest fruits of genius. Propertius, accustomed to sing
only of the charms or the disdain of his Cinthia, felt himself another
poet when called on to celebrate the triumphs of Augustus; and with
newborn fervour invoked Jove himself to suspend the functions of his
divinity whilst he sang the praises of the emperor.[38] It is certain
that such elevated subjects, in minds richly stored, must excite
corresponding ideas, and thus both in poets and painters, give birth to
the sublime.
Raffaello, on his arrival in Rome, says Vasari, was commissioned to
paint a chamber, which was at that time called La Segnatura, and which,
from the subject of the pictures, was also called the chamber of the
Sciences. On the ceiling are represented Theology, Philosophy, Poetry,
and Jurisprudence. Each of them has on the neighbouring facade a grand
historical piece illustrative of the subject. On the basement are also
historical pieces which belong to the same sciences; and these smaller
performances, and the caryatides and telamoni distributed around, are
monocromati or chiaroscuri, an idea entirely of Raffaello, and
afterwards, it is said, continued by Polidoro da Caravaggio. Raffaello
commenced with Theology, and imitated Petrarch, who in one of his
visions has assembled together men of the same condition, though living
in different ages. He there placed the evangelists, whose volumes are
the foundation of theology; the sacred writers, who have preserved its
traditions; the theologists, S. Thomas, S. Bonaventura, Scotus, and the
rest who have illustrated it by their arguments; above all, the Trinity
in the midst of the beatified, and beneath on an altar the eucharist, as
if to express the mystery of that doctrine. There are traces of the
ancient style in this piece. Gold is made use of in the glories of the
saints, and in other ornamental parts; the upper glory is formed on the
plan of that of S. Severo, which I have already noticed: the composition
is more symmetrical and less free than in other pieces; and the whole,
compared with the other compositions, seems too minute. Nevertheless,
whosoever regards each part in itself, will find it of such careful and
admirable execution, that he will be disposed to prefer it to all other
works. It has been observed, that Raffaello began this piece at the
right side, and that by the time he had arrived at the left side
portion, he had made rapid strides in the art. This work must have been
finished about the year 1508: and such was the surprise and admiration
of the Pope, that he ordered all the works of Bramantino, Pier della
Francesca, Signorelli, l'Abate di Arezzo, and Sodoma (though some of the
ornamental parts by this last are preserved) to be effaced, in order
that the whole chamber might be decorated by Raffaello.
In the subsequent works of Raffaello, and after the year 1509, we do not
find any traces of his first style. He had adopted a nobler manner, and
henceforth applied all his powers to the perfecting of it. He had now to
represent, on the opposite side, Philosophy. In this he designed a
gymnasium in the form of a temple, and placed the learned ancients, some
in the precincts of the building, some on the ascent of the steps, and
others in the plain below. In this, more than on any other occasion, he
was aided by his favourite Petrarch in the third capitolo of his Fame.
Plato, "_che in quella schiera ando piu presso al segno_," is there
represented with Aristotle, "_piu d'ingegno_," in the act of
disputation; and they possess also in the composition, the highest place
of honour; Socrates is represented instructing Alcibiades; Pythagoras is
seen, and before him a youth holds a tablet with the harmonious
concords; and Zoroaster, King of Bactriana, appears with an elementary
globe in his hand. Diogenes is stretched near on the ground, with his
wooden bowl in his hand, "_assai piu che non vuol vergogna aperto_:"
Archimedes is seen "_star col capo basso_," and turning the compasses on
the table, instructs the youth in geometry; and others are represented
meditating, or in disputation, whose names and characters it would be
possible, with careful observation, to distinguish more truly than
Vasari has done. This picture is commonly called the School of Athens,
which in my judgment is just as appropriate, as the name of the
Sacrament bestowed on the first subject. The third picture, representing
Jurisprudence, is divided into two parts. On the left side of the window
stands Justinian, with the book of the Civil Law; Trebonian receives it
from his hand with an expression of submission and acquiescence, which
no other pencil can ever hope to equal. On the right side is seen
Gregory IX. who delivers the book of the Decretals to an advocate of the
Consistory, and bears the features of Julius II., who is thus honoured
in the character of his predecessor. In the concluding picture, which is
a personification of Poetry, is seen Mount Parnassus, where, in company
of Apollo and the muses, the Greek, Roman, and Tuscan poets are
represented in their own portraitures, as far as records will allow.
Homer, seated between Virgil and Dante, is, perhaps, the most striking
figure; he is evidently gifted with a divine spirit, and unites in his
person the characters of the prophet and the poet. The historical pieces
in chiaroscuro contribute, by their ornaments, to charm the sight, and
preserve the unity of design. Beneath the Theology, for instance, is
represented S. Augustine on the borders of the sea, instructed by the
angels not to explore the mystery of the Trinity, incomprehensible to
the human mind. Under the Philosophy, Archimedes is seen surprised and
slain by a soldier, whilst immersed in his studies. This first chamber
was finished in 1511, as that year appears inscribed near the Parnassus.
Vasari, until the finishing of the first chamber, does not speak of the
improvement of his manner; on the contrary, in his life of Raffaello, he
says, "although he had seen so many monuments of antiquity in that city,
and studied so unremittingly, still his figures, up to this period, did
not possess that breadth and majesty which they afterwards exhibited.
For it happened, that the breach between Michelangiolo and the Pope,
which we have before mentioned in his life, occurred about this time,
and compelled Bonarruoti to flee to Florence; from which circumstance,
Bramante obtaining possession of the keys of the chapel, exhibited it to
his friend Raffaello, in order that he might make himself acquainted
with the style of Michelangiolo;" and he then proceeds to mention the
Isaiah of S. Agostino, and the Sibyls della Pace, painted after this
period, and the Heliodorus. In the life of Michelangiolo, he again
informs us of the quarrel which obliged him to depart from Rome, and
proceeds to say, that when, on his return, he had finished one half of
the work, the Pope suddenly commanded it to be exposed; "whereupon
Raffaello d'Urbino, who possessed great facility of imitation,
immediately changed his style, and at one effort designed the Prophets
and Sibyls della Pace." This brings us to a dispute prosecuted with the
greatest warmth both in Italy and other countries. Bellori attacked
Vasari in a violent manner, in a work entitled: "_Se Raffaello ingrandi
e miglioro la maniera per aver vedute le opere di Michelangiolo_,"
(Whether Raffaello enlarged and improved his style on seeing the works
of Michelangiolo). Crespi replied to him in three letters, inserted in
the Lettere Pittoriche,[39] and many other disputants have arisen and
stated fresh arguments.
It is not, however, our province to engage the reader in these
disputations. It was greatly to the advantage of Michelangiolo's fame to
have had two scholars, who, while he was yet living, and after the death
of Raffaello, employed themselves in writing his life; and a great
misfortune to Raffaello not to have been commemorated in the same
manner. If he had survived to the time when Vasari and Condivi wrote, he
would not have passed over their charges in silence. Raffaello would
then have easily proved, that when Bonarruoti fled to Florence, in 1506,
he himself was not in Rome, nor was called thither until two years
afterwards; and that he could not, therefore, have obtained a furtive
glance of the Sistine chapel. It would have been proved too, that from
the year 1508, when Michelangiolo had, perhaps, not commenced his work,
until 1511, in which year he exhibited the first half of it,[40]
Raffaello had been endeavouring to enlarge his style; and as
Michelangiolo had before studied the Torso of the Belvidere, so
Raffaello also formed himself on this and other marbles,[41] a
circumstance easily discoverable in his style. He might too have asked
Vasari, in what he considered grandeur and majesty of style to consist;
and from the example of the Greeks, and from reason herself, he might
have informed him, that the grand does not consist in the enlargement of
the muscles, or in an extravagance of attitude, but in adopting, as
Mengs has observed, the noblest, and neglecting the inferior and meaner
parts;[42] and exercising the higher powers of invention. Hence he would
have proceeded to point out the grandeur of style in the School of
Athens, in the majestic edifice, in the contour of the figures, in the
folds of the drapery, in the expression of the countenances, and in the
attitudes; and he would have easily traced the source of that sublimity
in the relics of antiquity. And if he appeared still greater in his
Isaiah, he might have refuted Vasari from his own account, who assigns
this work to a period anterior to 1511, and therefore contemporary as it
were with the School of Athens: adding, that he elevated his style by
propriety of character, and by the study of Grecian art. The Greeks
observed an essential difference between common men and heroes, and
again between their heroes and their gods; and Raffaello, after having
represented philosophers immersed in human doubts, might well elevate
his style when he came to figure a prophet meditating the revelations of
God.[43] All this might have been advanced by Raffaello, in order to
relieve Bramante and himself from so ill supported an imputation. As to
the rest, I believe he never would have denied, that the works of
Michelangiolo had inspired him with a more daring spirit of design, and
that in the exhibition of strong character, he had sometimes even
imitated him. But how imitated him? In rendering, as Crespi himself
observes, that very style more beautiful and more majestic, (p. 344). It
is indeed a great triumph to the admirers of Raffaello to be able to
say, whoever wishes to see what is wanting in the Sibyls of
Michelangiolo, let him inspect those of Raffaello; and let him view the
Isaiah of Raffaello, who would know what is wanting in the prophets of
Michelangiolo.
After public curiosity was gratified, and Raffaello had obtained a
glimpse of this new style, Bonarruoti closed the doors, and hastened to
finish the other half of his work, which was completed at the close of
1512, so that the Pope, on the solemnization of the Feast of Christmas,
was enabled to perform mass in the Sistine chapel. In the course of this
year, Raffaello was employed in the second chamber on the subject of
Heliodorus driven from the Temple by the prayers of Onias the high
priest, one of the most celebrated pictures of the place. In this
painting, the armed vision that appears to Heliodorus, scatters
lightnings from his hand, while the neighing of the steed is heard
amidst the attendant thunder. In the numerous bands, some of which are
plundering the riches of the Temple, and others are ignorant of the
cause of the surprise and terror exhibited in Heliodorus, consternation,
amazement, joy, and abasement, and a host of passions, are expressed. In
this work, and in others of these chambers, Raffaello, says Mengs, gave
to painting all the augmentation it could receive after Michelangiolo.
In this picture he introduced the portrait of Julius II., whose zeal and
authority is represented in Onias. He appears in a litter borne by his
grooms, in the manner in which he was accustomed to repair to the
Vatican, to view this work. The Miracle of Bolsena was also painted in
the lifetime of Julius.
The remaining decorations of these chambers were all illustrative of the
history of Leo X., whose imprisonment in Ravenna, and subsequent
liberation, is typified by St. Peter released from prison by the angel.
It was in this piece that the painter exhibited an astonishing proof of
his knowledge of light. The figures of the soldiers, who stand without
the prison, are illuminated by the beams of the moon: there is a torch
which produces a second light; and from the angel emanates a celestial
splendour, that rivals the beams of the sun. He has here, too, afforded
another proof how art may convert the impediments thrown in her way to
her own advantage; for the place where he was painting being broken by a
window, he has imagined on each side of it a staircase, which affords an
ascent to the prison, and on the steps he has placed the guards
overpowered with sleep; so that the painter does not seem to have
accommodated himself to the place, but the place to have become
subservient to the painter. The composition of S. Leo the Great, who
checks Attila at the head of his army, and that of the other chamber,
the battle with the Saracens in the port of Ostium, and the victory
obtained by S. Leo IV., justify Raffaello's claim to the epic crown: so
powerfully has he depicted the military array of men and horse, the arms
peculiar to each nation, the fury of the combat, and the despair and
humiliation of the prisoners. Near this performance, too, is the
wonderful piece of the Incendio di Borgo (a city enveloped in fire),
which is miraculously extinguished by the same S. Leo. This wonderful
piece alternately chills the heart with terror, or warms it with
compassion. The calamity of fire is carried to its extreme point, as it
is the hour of midnight, and the fire, which already occupies a
considerable space, is increased by a violent wind, which agitates the
flames that leap with rapidity from house to house. The affright and
misery of the inhabitants is also carried to the utmost extremity. Some
rush forward with water, but are driven back by the scorching flames;
others seek safety in flight, with naked feet, robeless, and with
dishevelled hair; women are seen turning an imploring look to the
Pontiff; mothers, whose own terrors are absorbed in fear for their
offspring; and here a youth, who bearing on his shoulders his aged and
infirm sire, and sinking beneath the weight, collects his almost
exhausted strength to place him out of danger. The concluding subjects
refer to Leo III.; the Coronation of Charlemagne, by the hand of that
Pontiff, and the Oath taken by the Pope on the Holy Evangelists, to
exculpate himself from the calumnies laid to his charge. In Leo, is
meant to be represented Leo X., who is thus honoured in the persons of
his predecessors; and in Charlemagne is represented Francis I., King of
France. Many persons of the age are also figured in the surrounding
group, so that there is not an historical subject in these chambers that
does not contain the most accurate likenesses. In this latter department
of art, also, Raffaello may be said to have been transcendant. His
portraits have deceived even persons the most intimately acquainted with
the subjects of them. He painted a remarkable picture of Leo X., and on
one occasion the Cardinal Datary of that time, found himself approaching
it with a bull, and pen and ink, for the Pope's signature.[44]
The six subjects which relate to Leo, elected in 1513, were finished in
1517. In the nine years which Raphael employed on these three chambers,
and also in the three following years, he made additional decorations to
the Pontifical Palace; he observed the style of ornament suitable to
each part of it, and thus made the Pope's residence a model of
magnificence and taste for all Europe. Few have adverted to this
instance of his merit. He superintended the new gallery of the palace,
availing himself in part of the design of Bramante, and in part
improving on him. "He then made designs for the stuccos, and the various
subjects there painted, and also for the divisions, and he then
appointed Giovanni da Udine to finish the stuccos and arabesques, and
Giulio Romano the figures." The exposure of this gallery to the
inclemencies of the air, has left little remaining besides the squalid
grotesques; but those who saw it at an early period, when the unsullied
splendor of the gold, the pure white of the stuccos, the brilliancy of
the colours, and the newness of the marble, rendered every part of it
beautiful and resplendent, must have thought it a vision of paradise.
Vasari, in eulogizing it, says, "It is impossible to execute, or to
conceive, a more exquisite work." The best which now remain are the
thirteen ceilings, in each of which are distributed four subjects from
holy writ, the first of which, the Creation of the World, Raffaello
executed with his own hand as a model for the others, which were painted
by his scholars, and afterwards retouched and rendered uniform by
himself, as was his custom. I have seen copies of these in Rome,
executed at great cost, and with great fidelity, for Catherine, Empress
of Russia, under the direction of Mr. Hunterberger, and from the effect
which was produced by the freshness of the colours, I could easily
conceive how highly enchanting the originals must have been. But their
great value consisted in Raffaello having enriched them by his
invention, expression, and design, and every one is agreed that each
subject is a school in itself. It appears certain too, that he was
desirous of competing with Michelangiolo, who had treated the same
subject in the Sistine chapel; and of appealing to the public to judge
whether or not he had equalled him. To describe in a suitable manner the
other pictures in chiaroscuro, and the numerous landscapes and
architectural subjects, the trophies, imitations of cameos, masks, and
other things which this divine artist either designed himself or formed
into new combinations from the antique, is a task, says Taja, far above
the reach of human powers. Taja has however himself given us a
delightful description of these works.[45] It confers the highest honour
on Raffaello, to whom we owe the fifty-two subjects, and all the
ornamental parts.
Nor were the pavements, or the doors, or other interior works in the
palace of the Vatican, completed without his superintendence. He
directed the pavements to be formed of _terra invetriata_, an ancient
invention of Luca della Robbia, which having continued for many
generations as a family secret, was then in the hands of another Luca.
Raffaello invited him to Florence to execute this vast work, employed
him in the gallery, and in many of the chambers, which he adorned with
the arms of the Pope. For the couches and other ornaments of the Camera
di Segnatura he brought to Rome F. Giovanni da Verona, who formed them
of mosaic with the most beautiful views. For the entablatures of the
chambers, and for several of the windows and doors, he engaged Giovanni
Barile, a celebrated Florentine engraver of gems. This work was executed
in so masterly a manner, that Louis XIII., wishing to ornament the
palace of the Louvre, had all these intaglios separately copied. The
drawings of them were made by Poussin, and Mariette boasted of having
them in his collection. Nor was there any other work either of stone or
marble for which a design was required, which did not come under the
inspection of Raffaello, and on which he did not impress his taste,
which was consummate also in the sister art of sculpture. A proof of
this is to be seen in the Jonah, in the church of the Madonna del
Popolo, in the Chigi chapel, which was executed by Lorenzetto under his
direction, and which, Bottari says, may assume its place by the side of
the Greek statues. Among his most remarkable works may be mentioned his
designs for the tapestry in the papal chapel, the subjects of which were
from the lives of the Evangelists, and the Acts of the Apostles. The
cartoons for them were both designed and coloured by Raffaello; and
after the tapestries were finished in the Low Countries, the cartoons
passed into England, where they still remain. In these tapestries the
art attained its highest pitch, nor has the world since beheld anything
to equal them in beauty. They are exposed annually in the great portico
of S. Peter, in the procession of the _Corpus Domini_, and it is
wonderful to behold the crowds that flock to see them, and who ever
regard them with fresh avidity and delight. But all these works of
Raffaello would not have contributed to the extension of art at that
period, beyond the meridian of Rome, if he had not succeeded in
extending the fruits of his genius, by the means of prints. We have
already noticed M. A. Raimondi, in the first book, and we have shewn
that this great engraver was courteously received, and was afterwards
assisted by Sanzio, whence an abundance of copies of the designs and the
works of this master have been given to the world. A fine taste was thus
rapidly propagated throughout Europe, and the beautiful style of
Raffaello began to be justly appreciated. In a short time it became the
prevailing taste, and if his maxims had remained unaltered, Italian
painting would probably have flourished for as long a period as Greek
sculpture.