_Raphael_ (Urbino: 1483-1520). _See 1171._
"In the same city (says Vasari)--[the city of Perugia, for which also
the Ansidei Madonna was painted]--Raphael was commissioned to paint a
picture of Our Lady by the nuns of Sant' Antonio of Padua; the Infant
Christ is in the lap of the Virgin and is fully clothed, as it pleased
those simple and pious ladies that he should be; on each side of Our
Lady are figures of saints, San Pietro, namely, with San Paolo, Santa
Cecilia, and Santa Catarina. To these two holy virgins the master has
given the most lovely features and the most graceful attitudes; he has
also adorned them with the most fanciful and varied head-dresses that
could be imagined--a very unusual thing at that time. In a lunette
above this picture he painted a figure of the Almighty Father, which is
extremely fine, and on the predella are three scenes from the history
of Christ, in very small figures.... The whole work is without doubt
very admirable; it is full of devout feeling, and is held in the utmost
veneration by the nuns for whom it was painted. It is very highly
commended by all painters likewise."
The small scenes which formed the predella have been dispersed;[263]
for the rest, the picture thus described by Vasari is before us. Vasari
dates the work 1505, but it is now commonly ascribed to the years
1507-8, after Raphael had experienced the influence of Fra Bartolommeo;
it would thus be a little later than the Ansidei Madonna.
The history of the picture is long and eventful. In 1677 the nuns
obtained permission to sell it, "to pay their debts and because the
surface was in some parts flaking away." The central panel and the
lunette (forming the picture as it now is) were bought by Antonio
Bigazzini, a nobleman of Perugia, for a sum of about £500. Shortly
afterwards, the picture passed into the hands of the great Colonna
family at Rome, and it is often called "The Colonna Raphael." The
fortunes of the picture now became part of those of modern Italian
history. In the last century, the picture had been bought by Francis
II., King of Naples. It was a great favourite of his, and was always
kept in his bedroom in the Royal Palace. When the revolution of 1860
came, and the king was driven out of Naples, the Raphael accompanied
him on his wanderings, and the king succeeded in conveying it in
safety to the fortress of Gaeta. When Gaeta fell in 1861, and the
king went into exile, he again took the picture with him, and it was
safely transported to Spain. The king was accompanied in his flight
by the financier and factotum, formerly Spanish Minister at Naples,
upon whom he had conferred the title of Duke of Ripalda. To him the
king in some way pledged the picture, and for a time it became known
as the Ripalda Raphael. Its history next becomes connected with the
secular jealousies of England and France. In 1867 Sir J. C. Robinson
saw the picture at Madrid, and received a hint that it might possibly
be for sale. Sir William Boxall, the Director of our Gallery, went to
inspect the picture, which was then in fine condition; and Disraeli
authorised the trustees to buy it. Negotiations were commenced on the
basis of £20,000; but the Duke of Ripalda was a friend of the Empress
Eugénie, and the knowledge that England was in the market inspired a
counter-bid of £40,000 from France. The outbreak of the Prussian War
caused a hitch in the negotiations; and the picture, which had been
sent to Paris, underwent rigorous "restoration." The Colonna Raphael,
wrote Sir William Gregory (May 1870), "was, a few months ago, one of
the most perfect and important pictures of that master. In an evil
moment it had been submitted to the cleaner, and a piteous spectacle
it now is in the eyes of gods and men. It is said that on the old
frame being removed, the picture fell to the ground in three pieces.
This is confirmed by the extraordinary winking appearance of the eye
of one of the female saints, through which unfortunately one of the
cracks runs, and which therefore had to be repainted by a modern hand."
Ruskin, perhaps unaware of these repaintings or believing that they
could be removed, strongly urged the acquisition of the picture for the
nation (_Works_, xxii. 140, xxxiv. 512). But the authorities would not
entertain the idea, and the picture, refused both by the Louvre and by
the National Gallery, returned, unpurchased and unhonoured, into the
hands of the Duke. In 1886 it was lent to the South Kensington Museum
and there it remained for several years, until Mr. Martin Colnaghi
bought it from the representatives of the late King of Naples. The
Parisian repaintings were removed, and the picture was restored to much
of its pristine beauty. Ultimately it passed into the possession of Mr.
Pierpont Morgan (at the price, it is said, of £100,000), and by him it
is for the present lent to the National Gallery.