At the end of the fifteenth century the rule of the Duke Federigo of
Montefeltre, an enlightened prince who devoted the best of his energy
and such time as he could spare from his duties on the battlefield to
the patronage of the arts, to the adornment of his noble palace, and to
the collecting of priceless manuscripts, paintings, antiques, and works
of art of every description, had raised the old city of Urbino to one
of the centres of culture and learning, and made the ducal court a
gathering-place for the distinguished painters, architects, poets, and
humanists who were attracted by the wealth and liberality of this great
patron. Among the less distinguished satellites attracted by the sun
of Montefeltre was one Giovanni Santi, who had come to Urbino in the
middle of the fifteenth century. Though a painter of considerable
skill, trained perhaps by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, he found it necessary in
the early days of his sojourn at Urbino to supplement his modest income
by trading in oil and corn and other commodities, as his father had
done before him. But his varied accomplishments soon brought him into
prominence and secured him a position as court painter and poet. More
important than any of the pictures that have come to us from his brush
is his famous rhyming chronicle of 23,000 verses in Dantesque measure,
in which he glorifies the virtues and exploits of his patron. He was a
special favourite of Elisabetta Gonzaga, the youthful spouse of
Federigo's son Guidobaldo, whose high esteem for Giovanni is expressed
in a letter in which she informs her sister-in-law of the court
painter's death.
To this Giovanni Santi and to his wife Magia Ciarla was born on Good
Friday, the 28th of March[1] 1483, a son who was destined in the
comparatively short span of his life to rise to fame such as has been
the share of few mortals. An elder brother and sister of Raphael had
died in infancy, and his mother followed them to the grave before he
had reached his eighth year. Her place in the paternal home was taken
by Bernardina Parte, a goldsmith's daughter, whom Giovanni wedded soon
after his first wife's death. From Giovanni Santi's great poem it would
appear that he was on terms of friendship and intimacy with some of the
greatest masters of the time, such as Melozzo da Forli, Mantegna, Pier
dei Franceschi, and Verrocchio; and it is reasonable to assume that
Raphael's earliest art education under his father's guidance tended
towards the development of that peculiar faculty which enabled him
later on to seize and assimilate the excellences in the style of the
various masters with whom he came in contact.
Footnote 1: The wording of Raphael's epitaph, which states that he
died on the same day (of the year) on which he was born, has led some
writers to the assumption that he was born on April 6, whereas it is
merely meant to signify that he was born and died on Good Friday.
The ease with which his precocious talent absorbed the teaching of his
masters became evident when, soon after his father's death, in 1494,
from fever contracted in the malarial air of the Mantuan marshland,
whither he had gone in the service of Elisabetta Gonzaga, he entered
the bottega of Francia's pupil Timoteo Viti (or della Vite), who
settled at Urbino in 1495, and whose eminent position among the
painters of that city must have suggested to Raphael's guardian--his
maternal uncle Simone Ciarla--the desirability of placing the youth
under such competent tuition. And so thoroughly did Raphael acquire
not only his first master's style, but even such of his mannerisms as
the broad shape of hands and feet and the languid turn of the heads,
that from such internal evidence Morelli, the originator of the modern
method of criticism, was able after more than three centuries of error
to disprove Vasari's assertion that Raphael passed straight from his
father's workshop into that of Perugino. Timoteo's influence is
apparent even in works painted by Raphael at a time when he had come
under the spell of the more powerful personality of Perugino, like the
"Sposalizio" or "Betrothal of the Virgin," of 1504, in the Brera
Gallery in Milan; but it is unmistakably in evidence in the three
earliest pictures that bear Raphael's name: the "Vision of a Knight,"
at the National Gallery, the "St. Michael," at the Louvre, and the
"Three Graces," at Chantilly. Not only the features which connect this
group of pictures with the style of Timoteo Viti, but the timid
meticulous execution and the naïve stiffness of the figures, mark them
as works of Raphael's immature youth. The turn of the century, as we
shall see, found Raphael at Perugia, so that the three pictures
mentioned must have been painted before he had attained the age of
seventeen. The panel of the "Three Graces," which, by the way, was
obviously inspired by an antique cameo, was bought in 1885 by the Duc
d'Aumale from Lord Dudley's collection for £25,000--surely a price
without parallel for a work painted by a lad of sixteen! A portrait in
chalk of the marvellously gifted, winsome boy by the hand of his first
master is preserved at the University Galleries in Oxford.
The records of a lawsuit between some members of his family prove that
Raphael was still at Urbino in 1499, since in the summer of this year
he appeared as a witness in court. When the verdict was given in the
following year, he had already left for Perugia to continue his studies
as an assistant of Perugino. Again we find him before long assimilating
the style of his new master so successfully and completely that, to use
Vasari's words, "His copies cannot be distinguished from the original
works of the master, nor can the difference between the performances of
Raphael and those of Pietro be discerned with any certainty."
Plagiarism in those days did not trouble the artistic conscience, and
it is easy to trace in Raphael's pictures of that period entire groups
that are borrowed from the elder master. Thus the "Crucifixion,"
painted about 1501 for a church in Città di Castello, and now in the
collection of Dr. Ludwig Mond, is obviously based on Perugino's version
of the same subject at St. Augustine's, Siena, whilst the whole upper
part of the Vatican "Coronation of the Virgin" is "lifted" from an
"Assumption" by Pietro. But this almost literal imitation was only a
passing phase, whilst the great lesson of space-composition and the
typically Umbrian gift of almost religious fervour in stating the
peaceful glory of the Umbrian hill-land, which had been imparted to
Raphael at Perugia, remained permanent acquisitions to his art.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.--LA BELLE JARDINIÈRE
(In the Louvre)
"La Belle Jardinière" is a magnificent example of Raphael's Florentine
style, which came from his being influenced by Leonardo da Vinci when
at Florence (see the triangular composition). The Virgin's mantle was
probably finished by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio; other parts--the hands and
the feet--are hardly finished; nevertheless it is one of the finest,
most expressive, and touching Madonnas by the Master.]
In 1502 Perugino went back to Florence, and Raphael probably joined
Pinturicchio's staff of assistants, though Vasari's statement that he
furnished the designs for the latter master's frescoes in the
Piccolomini Library at Siena may be dismissed as a fable. During this
time Raphael painted his first Madonna pictures, notably the
"Conestabile Madonna" (now at St. Petersburg), which is based entirely
on Perugino's "Virgin with the Pomegranate," and two panels at the
Berlin Museum. The Milan "Sposalizio," in which the young master's
personality already asserts itself through the very marked Ferrarese
and Peruginesque influences, was painted in 1504 for the church of St.
Francesco at Città di Castello. His early mastery in portraiture is
illustrated by his portrait of Perugino at the Borghese Gallery, which
is so firm in character and perfect in execution that it could pass for
many years as the handiwork of Holbein.
Meanwhile Duke Guidobaldo had returned to Urbino after the death of his
enemy, Pope Alexander VI., and thither Raphael proceeded in 1504. The
little "St. George" at the Louvre is a memento of this short visit
which terminated in October of the same year, when Raphael, armed with
a letter of warmest recommendation from Guidobaldo's sister Giovanna
della Rovere to the Gonfaloniere Pier Soderini, left his native town
for Florence, then the centre of artistic life, astir with the rivalry
between the giants Michelangelo and Lionardo da Vinci.
The young man must have been fairly bewildered at the multitude of new
impressions that crowded upon him in the glorious city on the banks of
the Arno, with its imposing palaces and churches, its seething life and
its art so much more virile and monumental than the dreamy, almost
effeminate art engendered by the soft balmy atmosphere of Umbria. How
he must have revelled in the contemplation of Masaccio's noble frescoes
in the Brancacci Chapel--the training school of generations of
painters--which ten years later were echoed in his tapestry cartoons
for the Sistine Chapel! How he must have stood in wonder and amazement
before Michelangelo's "David," and have resolved forthwith to devote
himself to a more intimate study of the human form and movement! The
fascination exercised upon him by the genius of Lionardo found
expression in some of the earliest fruits of Raphael's sojourn in
Florence--the portraits at the Pitti Palace known as "Angelo Doni" and
his wife Maddalena Strozzi, who, however, could not possibly have been
the model for this reminiscence of Lionardo's "Mona Lisa," since it is
known that she was baptized in 1489, whereas Raphael's portrait of 1504
represents a woman of ripe age.
In the workshop of the architect Baccio d'Agnolo, which was then a
favourite social resort of the younger artists of Florence, the youth
from Urbino met on terms of equality such masters as Ridolfo
Ghirlandajo, Antonio da Sangallo, Sansovino, and Fra Bartolommeo, who
again had a considerable share in the formation of Raphael's style, as
may be seen from the "Madonna di Sant'Antonio," now lent to the
National Gallery by Mr. Pierpont Morgan who is said to have paid for it
the enormous price of £100,000. This picture, and the "Ansidei
Madonna," which was bought for the National Gallery from the Duke
of Marlborough's collection for £70,000, were painted during a visit to
Perugia towards the end of 1505--the former for the nuns of St. Antony
of Padua, in Perugia, and the other for the Ansidei Chapel in the
church of San Fiorenzo of the same city.
[Illustration: PLATE V.--THE MADONNA OF THE TOWER
(In the National Gallery, London)
This beautiful painting, which the National Gallery owes to the
generosity of Miss Eva Mackintosh, who presented it to the nation in
1906, was at one time in the collection of the Duc d'Orléans. The late
owner was fortunate in securing this unquestionably genuine masterpiece
at the Rogers' sale in 1856 for 480 guineas. It was painted about 1512;
and a copy of it by Sassoferrato is in the Leichtenburg collection in
St. Petersburg.]
The records of Raphael's movements between 1504 and 1508, when he
finally left Florence, are scanty and unreliable. Certain it is that,
besides his visit to Perugia, he spent some time at Urbino in 1506,
when he painted for Guidobaldo the "St. George" which figured among the
gifts taken by Castiglione to Henry VII. of England, from whom the Duke
of Urbino had received the insignia of the Garter two years previously.
The picture is now at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The majority of
those exquisite Madonna pictures, which have contributed more than
anything else to Raphael's undying fame and popularity, date from his
Florentine period--the "Madonna del Granduca" at the Pitti Palace, the
"Casa Tempi Madonna" at Munich, the Chantilly "Madonna of the House of
Orleans," the "Madonna of the Meadow" in Vienna, the "Madonna of the
Goldfinch" at the Uffizi, the "Madonna of the Lamb" at Madrid, Lord
Cowper's famous picture at Panshanger, and the "Belle Jardinière" at
the Louvre.
To the same period belongs the portrait of himself, in the Painter's
Hall of the Uffizi, and the portrait of a youth in the Budapest
National Gallery. On the occasion of his visit to Perugia, Atalanta
Baglione, the mother of Grifonetto Baglione who had fallen a victim to
the bloody family feud that turned Perugia into a slaughter-house in
1500, commissioned from Raphael an altar-piece in memory of that
event--the "Entombment" which the master finished in Florence in 1507,
and which is now at the Borghese Gallery. It was Raphael's first
attempt at dramatic composition, the art of which he had yet to
master--its forced, unnatural emotion lays it more open to criticism
than any other work from his own hand.
A law-case in connection with the payment of 100 crowns due by him for
a house he had purchased from the Cervasi family, necessitated
Raphael's presence at Urbino once again in October 1507. In April of
the following year Guidobaldo died; and a letter from Raphael to his
uncle Simone Ciarla, who had informed him of this sad event, proves
that the master was then back again in Florence. After expressing his
grief at the news of the Duke's death ("I could not read your letter
without tears"), Raphael appeals in this letter to his uncle to procure
him another letter of recommendation to the Gonfaloniere of Florence
"from my Lord the Prefect," since it was in the power of the chief
magistrate of Florence to place an important commission for the
decoration of a certain apartment.
But a better fate was in store for the youthful applicant, who was to
be called to a wider field of action. According to Vasari it was
Raphael's kinsman, Bramante of Urbino, who drew Pope Julius II.'s
attention to the rare gifts of Raphael, and caused him to be summoned
to Rome. And the voice of Bramante, who stood in high favour with the
Pope, and was engaged on the scheme of rebuilding the Cathedral of St.
Peter, would certainly have commanded attention. But on this, as on
many other points, Vasari is not wholly trustworthy. First of all,
Bramante was not connected with Raphael by any family ties; and, then,
it is far more probable that the thought of calling Raphael to Rome to
assist in the decoration of the papal apartments in the Vatican was
suggested to Julius II. by the Prefetessa Giovanna della Rovere, who
had always been a staunch supporter of the Urbinate, or by her son
Francesco, the nephew and successor of Duke Guidobaldo Montefeltre.
Bramante, who was on terms of friendship with his fellow-artist and
fellow-townsman, may well have supported the recommendation. However
this may be, Raphael received the Pope's command, and journeyed to
Rome, whither he had already been preceded by Michelangelo.