sublimity, costume, and erudition; for which it is sufficient to refer
to those delightful poetical pieces, with which he adorned the gallery
of Leo X., and which were engraved by Lanfranco and Badalocchi, and are
called the Bible of Raffaello. In the Return of Jacob, who does not
immediately discover, in the number and variety of domestic animals, the
multitude of servants, and the women carrying with them their children,
a patriarchal family migrating from a long possessed abode into a new
territory? In the Creation of the World, where the Deity stretches out
his arms, and with one hand calls forth the sun and with the other the
moon, do we not see a grandeur, which, with the simplest expression,
awakes in us the most sublime ideas? And in the Adoration of the Golden
Calf, how could he better have represented the idolatrous ceremony, and
its departure from true religion, than by depicting the people as
carried away by an insane joy, and mad with fanaticism? In point of
erudition it is sufficient to notice the Triumph of David, which Taja
describes and compares with the ancient bassirelievi, and is inclined to
believe that there is not any thing in marble that excels the art and
skill of this picture. I am aware that on another occasion he has not
been exempted from blame, as when he repeated the figure of S. Peter out
of prison, which hurts the unity of the subject; and in assigning to
Apollo and to the muses instruments not proper to antiquity. Yet it is
the glory of Raffaello to have introduced into his pictures numberless
circumstances unknown to his predecessors, and to have left little to be
added by his successors.
In composition also he is at the head of his art. In every picture the
principal figure is obvious to the spectator; we have no occasion to
inquire for it; the groups, divided by situation, are united in the
principal action; the contrast is not dictated by affectation, but by
truth and propriety; a figure absorbed in thought, often serves as a
relief to another that acts and speaks; the masses of light and shade
are not arbitrarily poised, but are in the most select imitation of
nature; all is art, but all is consummate skill and concealment of art.
The School of Athens, as it is called, in the Vatican, is in this
respect amongst the most wonderful compositions in the world. They who
succeeded Raffaello, and followed other principles, have afforded more
pleasure to the eye, but have not given such satisfaction to the mind.
The compositions of Paul Veronese contain a greater number of figures,
and more decoration; Lanfranco and the machinists introduced a powerful
effect, and a vigorous contrast of light and shade: but who would
exchange for such a manner the chaste and dignified style of Raffaello?
Poussin alone, in the opinion of Mengs, obtained a superior mode of
composition in the groundwork, or economy of his subject; that is to
say, in the judicious selection of the scene of the event.
We have thus concisely stated the perfection to which Raffaello carried
his art, in the short space allotted him. There is not a work in nature
or art where he has not practically illustrated his own axiom, as handed
down to us by Federigo Zuccaro, that things must be represented, not as
they are, but as they ought to be; the country, the elements, animals,
buildings, every age of man, every condition of life, every affection,
all was embraced and rendered more beautiful by the divine genius of
Raffaello. And if his life had been prolonged to a more advanced period,
without even approaching the term allowed to Titian or Michelangiolo,
who shall say to what height of perfection he might not have carried his
favourite art? Who can divine his success in architecture and sculpture,
if he had applied himself to the study of them; having so wonderfully
succeeded in his few attempts in those branches of art?
Of his pictures a considerable number are to be found in private
collections, particularly on sacred subjects, such as the Madonna and
Child, and other compositions of the Holy Family. They are in the three
styles which we have before described: the Grand Duke has some specimens
of each. The most admired is that which is named the Madonna della
Seggiola.[52] Of this class of pictures it is often doubted whether they
ought to be considered as originals, or copies, as some of them have
been three, five, or ten times repeated. The same may be said of other
cabinet pictures by him, particularly the S. John in the desart, which
is in the Grand Ducal gallery at Florence, and is found repeated in many
collections both in Italy and in other countries. This was likely to
happen in a school where the most common mode was the following:--The
subject was designed by Raffaello, the picture prepared by Giulio, and
finished by the master so exquisitely, that one might almost count the
hairs of the head. When the pictures were thus finished, they were
copied by the scholars of Raffaello, who were very numerous, and of the
second and third order; and these were also sometimes retouched by
Giulio and by Raffaello himself. But whoever is experienced in the
freedom and delicacy of the chief of this school, need not fear
confounding his productions with those of the scholars, or of Giulio
himself; who, besides having a more timid pencil, made use of a darker
tint than his master was accustomed to do. I have met with an
experienced person, who declared that he could recognize the character
of Giulio in the dark parts of the flesh tints, and in the middle dark
tints, not of a leaden colour as Raffaello used, nor so well harmonized;
in the greater quantity of light, and in the eyes designed more roundly,
which Raffaello painted somewhat long, after the manner of Pietro.
On this propitious commencement was founded the school which we call
Roman, rather from the city of Rome itself, than from the people, as I
have before observed. For as the inhabitants of Rome are a mixture of
many tongues, and many different nations, of whom the descendants of
Romulus form the least proportion; so the school of painting has been
increased in its numbers by foreigners whom she has received and united
to her own, and who are considered in her academy of S. Luke, as if they
had been born in Rome, and enjoyed the ancient rights of Romans. Hence
is derived the great variety of names that we find in the course of it.
Some, as Caravaggio, derived no assistance from the study of the ancient
marbles, and other aids peculiar to the capital; and these may be said
to have been in the Roman School, but not to have formed a part of it.
Others adopted the principles of the disciples of Raffaello, and their
usual method was to study diligently both Raffaello and the ancient
marbles; and from the imitation of him, and more particularly of the
antique, resulted, if I err not, the general character, if I may so
express it, of the Roman School: the young artists who were expert in
copying statues and bassirelievi, and who had those objects always
before their eyes, could easily transfer their forms to the panel or the
canvas. Hence their style is formed on the antique, and their beauty is
more ideal than that of other schools. This circumstance, which was an
advantage to those who knew how to use it, became a disadvantage to
others, leading them to give their figures the air of statues,
beautiful, but isolated, and not sufficiently animated. Others have done
themselves greater injury from copying the modern statues of saints; a
practice which facilitated the representation of devout attitudes, the
disposition of the folds in the garments of the monks and priests, and
other peculiarities which are not found in ancient sculpture. But as
sculpture has gradually deteriorated, it could not have any beneficial
influence on the sister art; and it has hence led many into mannerism in
the folds of their drapery, after Bernino and Algardi; excellent
artists, but who ought not to have influenced the art of painting, as
they did, in a city like Rome. The style of invention in this school is,
in general, judicious, the composition chaste, the costume carefully
observed, with a moderate study of ornament. I speak of pictures in oil,
for the frescos of this later period ought to be separately considered.
The colouring, on the whole, is not the most brilliant, nor is it yet
the most feeble; there being always a supply of artists from the
Lombards, or Flemings, who prevented it being entirely neglected.
We may now return to the original subject of our inquiry, examine the
principles of the Roman School, and attend it to its latest epoch.
Raffaello at all times employed a number of scholars, constantly
instructing and teaching them; whence he never went to court, as we are
assured by Vasari, without being accompanied by probably fifty of the
first artists, who attended him out of respect. He employed every one in
the way most agreeable to his talent. Some having received sufficient
instruction, returned to their native country, others remained with him
as long as he lived, and after his death established themselves in Rome,
where they became the germs of this new school. At the head of all was
Giulio Romano, whom, with Gio. Francesco Penni, Raffaello appointed his
heir, whence they both united in finishing the works on which their
master was employed at his death. They associated to themselves as an
assistant Perino del Vaga, and to render the connexion permanent, they
gave him a sister of Penni to his wife. To these three were also joined
some others who had worked under Raffaello. On their first establishment
they did not meet with any great success, for, as Vasari informs us, the
chief place in art being by universal consent assigned to Fra
Sebastiano, through the partiality of Michelangiolo, the followers of
Raffaello were kept in the back ground. We may also add, as another
cause, the death of Leo X., in 1521, and the election of his successor,
Adrian VI., a decided enemy to the fine arts, by whom the public works
contemplated, and already commenced by his predecessor, remained
neglected; and many artists, in consequence of the want of employment,
occasioned by this event, and by the plague, in 1523, were reduced to
the greatest distress. But Adrian dying after a reign of twenty-three
months, and Giulio de' Medici being elected in his place under the name
of Clement VII., the arts again revived. Raffaello, before his death,
had begun to paint the great saloon, and had designed some figures, and
left many sketches for the completion of it. It was intended to
represent four historical events, although the subjects of some of them
are disputed. These were the Apparition of the Cross, or the harangue of
Constantine; the battle wherein Maxentius is drowned, and Constantine
remains victor; the Baptism of Constantine, received from the hands of
S. Silvester; and the Donative of the city of Rome, made to the same
pontiff. Giulio finished the two first subjects, and Giovanni Francesco
the other two, and they added to them bassirelievi, painted in imitation
of bronze under each of the same subjects, with some additional figures.
They afterwards painted, or rather finished the pictures of the villa at
Monte Mario, a work ordered by the Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, and
suspended until the second or third year of his papal reign. This villa
was afterwards called di Madama, and there still remain many traces,
although suffering from time, of the munificence of that prince, and the
taste of the school of Raffaello. Giulio meanwhile, with the permission
of the pope, established himself in Mantua, Il Fattore went to Naples;
and some little time afterwards, in 1527, in consequence of the sacking
of Rome, and the unrestrained licence of the invading army, Vaga,
Polidoro, Giovanni da Udine, Peruzzi, and Vincenzio di S. Gimignano left
Rome, and with them Parmigianino, who was at this time in the capital,
and passionately employed in studying the works of Raffaello. This
illustrious school was thus separated and dispersed over Italy, and
hence it happened that the new style was quickly propagated, and gave
birth to the florid schools, which form the subjects of our other books.
Although some of the scholars of Raffaello might return to Rome, yet the
brilliant epoch was past. The decline became apparent soon after the
sacking of the city, and from the time of that event, the art daily
degenerated in the capital, and ultimately terminated in mannerism. But
of this in its proper place. At present, after this general notice of
the school of Raffaello, we shall treat of each particular scholar and
of his assistants.
Giulio Pippi, or Giulio Romano, the most distinguished pupil of
Raffaello, resembled his master more in energy than in delicacy of
style, and was particularly successful in subjects of war and battles,
which he represented with equal spirit and correctness. In his noble
style of design he emulates Michelangiolo, commands the whole mechanism
of the human body, and with a masterly hand renders it subservient to
all his wishes. His only fault is, that his demonstrations of motion are
sometimes too violent. Vasari preferred his drawings to his pictures, as
he thought that the fire of his original conception was apt to
evaporate, in some degree, in the finishing. Some have objected to the
squareness of his physiognomies, and have complained of his middle tints
being too dark. But Niccolo Poussin admired this asperity of colour in
his battle of Constantine, as suitable to the character of the subject.
In the picture of the church dell'Anima, which is a Madonna, accompanied
by Saints, and in others of that description, it does not produce so
good an effect. His cabinet pictures are rare, and sometimes too free in
their subjects. He generally painted in fresco, and his vast works at
Mantua place him at the head of that school, which indeed venerates him
as its founder.
Gianfrancesco Penni of Florence, called Il Fattore, who when a boy was a
servant in the studio of Raffaello, became one of his principal
scholars, and assisted him more than any other in the cartoons of the
tapestries: he painted in the gallery of the Vatican the Histories of
Abraham and Isaac, noticed by Taja. Among other works left incomplete by
his master, and which he finished, is the Assumption of Monte Luci in
Perugia, the lower part of which, with the apostles, is painted by
Giulio, and the upper part, which abounds with Raffaellesque grace, is
ascribed to Il Fattore, although Vasari assigns it to Perino. Of the
works which he performed alone, his frescos in Rome have perished, and
so few of his oil pictures remain, that they are rarely to be found in
any collection. He is characterised by fertility of conception, grace of
execution, and a singular talent for landscape. He was joint heir of
Raffaello with Giulio, and wished to unite himself with him in his
profession; but being coldly received by Giulio in Mantua, he proceeded
to Naples, where he, as we shall see, contributed greatly to the
improvement of art, although cut off by an early death. Orlandi notices
two Penni in the school of Raffaello, comprehending Luca, a brother of
Gianfrancesco, a circumstance not improbable, and not, as far as I know,
contradicted by history. We are also told by Vasari, that Luca united
himself to Perino del Vaga, and worked with him at Lucca, and in other
places of Italy; that he followed Rosso into France, as we have before
observed; and that he ultimately passed into England, where he painted
for the king and private persons, and made designs for prints.
Perino del Vaga, whose true name was Pierino Buonaccorsi, was a relation
and fellow citizen of Penni. He had a share in the works of the Vatican,
where he at one time worked stuccos and arabesques with Giovanni da
Udine, at another time painted chiaroscuri with Polidoro, or finished
subjects from the sketches and after the style of Raffaello. Vasari
considered him the best designer of the Florentine School, after
Michelangiolo, and at the head of all those who assisted Raffaello. It
is certain, at least, that no one could, like him, compete with Giulio,
in that universality of talent so conspicuous in Raffaello; and the
subjects from the New Testament, which he painted in the papal gallery,
were praised by Taja above all others. In his style there is a great
mixture of the Florentine, as may be seen at Rome, in the Birth of Eve,
in the church of S. Marcello, where there are some children painted to
the life, a most finished performance. A convent at Tivoli possesses a
S. John in the desart, by him, with a landscape in the best style. There
are many works by him in Lucca, and Pisa, but more particularly in
Genoa, where we shall have occasion again to consider him as the origin
of a celebrated school.
Giovanni da Udine, by a writer of Udine called Giovanni di Francesco
Ricamatore, (Boni, p. 25,) likewise assisted Sanzio in arabesques and
stuccos, and painted ornaments in the gallery of the Vatican, in the
apartments of the pope, and in many other places. Indeed, in the art of
working in stucco, he is ranked as the first among the moderns,[53]
having, after long experience, imitated the style of the baths of Titus,
discovered at that time in Rome, and opened afresh in our own days.[54]
His foliage and shells, his aviaries and birds, painted in the above
mentioned places, and in other parts of Rome and Italy, deceive the eye
by their exquisite imitation; and in the animals more particularly, and
the indigenous and foreign birds, he seems to have reached the highest
point of excellence. He was also remarkable for counterfeiting with his
pencil every species of furniture; and a story is told, that having left
some imitations of carpets one day in the gallery of Raffaello, a groom
in the service of the Pope coming in haste in search of a carpet to
place in a room, ran to snatch up one of those of Giovanni, deceived by
the similitude. After the sacking of Rome he visited other parts of
Italy, leaving wherever he went, works in the most perfect and brilliant
style of ornament. This will occasion us to notice him in other schools.
At an advanced age he returned to Rome, where he was provided with a
pension from the Pope, till the time of his death.[55]
Polidoro da Caravaggio, from a manual labourer in the works of the
Vatican, became an artist of the first celebrity, and distinguished
himself in the imitation of antique bassirelievi, painting both sacred
and profane subjects in a most beautiful chiaroscuro. Nothing of this
kind was ever seen more perfect, whether we consider the composition,
the mechanism, or the design; and Raffaello and he, of all artists, are
considered in this respect to have approached nearest to the style of
the ancients. Rome was filled with the richest friezes, facades, and
ornaments over doors, painted by him and Maturino of Florence, an
excellent designer, and his partner; but these, to the great loss of
art, have nearly all perished. The fable of Niobe, in the Maschera
d'Oro, which was one of their most celebrated works, has suffered less
than any other from the ravages of time and the hand of barbarism. This
loss has been in some measure mitigated by the prints of Cherubino
Alberti, and Santi Bartoli, who engraved many of these works before they
perished. Polidoro lost his comrade by death in Rome, as was supposed,
by the plague, and he himself repaired to Naples, and from thence to
Sicily, where he fell a victim to the cupidity of his own servant, who
assassinated him. With him invention, grace, and freedom of hand,
seem to have died. This notice of him as an artist may suffice for the
present, as we shall again recur to him in the fourth book, as one of
the masters of the Neapolitan School.
Pellegrino da Modena, of the family of Munari, of all the scholars of
Raffaello, perhaps resembled him the most in the air of his heads, and a
peculiar grace of attitude. After having painted in an incomparable
manner the history of Jacob, before mentioned, and others of the same
patriarch, and some from the life of Solomon, in the gallery of the
Vatican, under Raffaello, he remained in Rome employed in the decoration
of many of the churches, until his master's death. He then returned to
his native place, where he became the head of a numerous succession of
Raffaellesque painters, as we shall in due time relate.
Bartolommeo Ramenghi, or as he is sometimes named, Bagnacavallo, and by
Vasari Il Bologna, is also included in the catalogue of those who worked
in the gallery. There is not however any known work of his in Rome, and
we may say the same of Biagio Pupini, a Bolognese, with whom he
afterwards united himself to paint in Bologna. Vasari is not prodigal of
praise towards the first, and writes with the most direct censure
against the second. Of their merits we shall speak more fully in the
Bolognese School, to which Bagnacavallo was the first to communicate a
new and better style.
Besides these, Vasari mentions Vincenzio di S. Gimignano, in Tuscany, to
whom, as a highly successful imitator of Raffaello, he gives great
praise, referring to some facades in fresco by him, which have now
perished. After the sacking of Rome he returned home, but so changed and
dispirited, that he appeared quite another person, and we have no
account of any of his subsequent works. Schizzone, a comrade of
Vincenzio, a most promising artist, shared the same fate; and we find
also, in the Bolognese School, Cavedone losing his powers by some great
mental affliction. Among the subjects of the Vatican we do not find any
ascribed to Vincenzio, but we may perhaps assign to him the history of
Moses in Horeb, which Taja, on mere conjecture, ascribes to the bold
pencil of Raffaele del Colle, who was employed by Raffaello in the
Farnesina, and in the Hall of Constantine, under Giulio. Of this artist
and his successors we have spoken in the first book, where we have made
some additions to the account of Vasari.
Timoteo della Vite, of Urbino, after some years spent at Bologna in
studying under Francesco Francia, returned to his native city, and from
thence repaired to the academy which his countryman and relation
Raffaello had opened in the Vatican. He assisted Raffaello at the Pace,
in the fresco of the Sybils, of which he retained the cartoons; and
after some time, from some cause or other, he returned to Urbino, and
there passed the remainder of his days. He brought with him to Rome, a
method of painting which partook much of the manner of the early
masters, as may be seen in some of his Madonnas, at the palace
Bonaventura, and the chapter of Urbino; and in a Discovery of the Cross
in the church of the conventuals of Pesaro. He improved his style under
Raffaello, and acquired much of his grace, attitudes, and colour, though
he always remained a limited inventor, with a certain timidity of touch,
more correct than vigorous. The picture of the Conception at the
Osservanti of Urbino, and the Noli me Tangere, in the church of S.
Angelo, at Cagli, are the best pieces that remain of Timoteo. Pietro
della Vite, who is supposed to have been his brother, painted in the
same style, but in an inferior manner. This Pietro is, perhaps, the
relative and heir of Raffaello, whom Baldinucci mentions in his fifth
volume. The same writer affirms, at the end of his fourth volume, that
the artists of Urbino included amongst the scholars of Raffaello one
Crocchia, and assign to him a picture at the Capuchins in Urbino, of
which I have no further knowledge.