"In the history of Italian art Raphael stands alone, like Shakespeare in
the history of our literature; and he takes the same kind of rank--a
superiority not merely of degree, but of quality.... His works have been
an inexhaustible storehouse of ideas to painters and to poets.
Everywhere in art we find his traces. Everywhere we recognize his forms
and lines, borrowed or stolen, reproduced, varied, imitated,--never
improved.
[Illustration: RAPHAEL OF URBINO.]
"Some critic once said, 'Show me any sentiment or feeling in any poet,
ancient or modern, and I will show you the same thing either as well or
better expressed in Shakespeare.' In the same manner one might say,
'Show me in any painter, ancient or modern, any especial beauty of form,
expression, or sentiment, and in some picture, drawing, or painting
after Raphael I will show you the same thing as well or better done, and
that accomplished which others have only sought or attempted.'
"To complete our idea of this rare union of greatness and versatility as
an artist with all that could grace and dignify the man, we must add
such personal qualities as very seldom meet in the same individual--a
bright, generous, genial, gentle spirit; the most attractive manners,
the most winning modesty."
Thus writes Mrs. Jameson of the man of whom Vasari said, "When this
noble artist died, well might Painting have departed also, for when he
closed his eyes, she too was left, as it were, blind.... To him of a
truth it is that we owe the possession of invention, coloring, and
execution, brought alike, and altogether, to that point of perfection
for which few could have dared to hope; nor has any man ever aspired to
pass before him."
Raphael of Urbino was born at Colbordolo, a small town in the Duchy of
Urbino, April 6, 1483. His father, Giovanni Santi, was a painter of
considerable merit, and was possessed also of poetic ability, as he
wrote an epic of two hundred and twenty-four pages, in honor of Federigo
of Montefeltro, then Duke of Urbino. This duke was a valiant soldier,
and a patron of art and literature, who for years kept twenty or thirty
persons copying Greek and Latin manuscripts for his library.
The mother of Raphael, Magia, the daughter of Battista Ciarla, a
merchant at Urbino, was a woman of unusual sweetness of disposition and
beauty of character. Unfortunately she died when Raphael was eight years
old. Her three other children died young.
These years must have been happy ones to the gentle, loving child. Their
home was in the midst of the snowy peaks of the Apennines, looking
towards the blue Adriatic. It is not strange that he became a worshipper
of the beautiful. Nature soon grows to be an inspiring companion to
those who love her. She warms the heart with her exquisite pictures of
varied earth and sky; she caresses us with the glow of sunlight and the
fragrance of flowers; she sings us to rest with the melody of the sea
and the murmur of the trees and the brooks.
Giovanni Santi married for his second wife Bernardina, the daughter of
the goldsmith, Pietro di Parte, a woman of strong character, but lacking
the gentleness of Magia. Two years after this marriage he died, leaving
Raphael doubly orphaned at eleven years of age. What prospect was there
that this boy, without father or mother, without riches or distinguished
family, would work his way to renown?
The will of Giovanni left the Santi home to Bernardina as long as she
remained a widow, and the child to her care and that of his brother, a
priest, Don Bartolomeo. The latter does not appear to have been a very
saintly minister, for he and Bernardina quarrelled constantly over the
property, quite forgetting the development of the boy left in their
charge. Finally Magia's brother, Simone di Battista Ciarla, came to an
understanding with the disputants, and arranged that the lad, who had
worked somewhat in his father's studio, should be placed under some
eminent painter.
Pietro Perugino was chosen, an artist who had one of the largest
schools in Italy, and who was noted especially for his coloring and
profound feeling. It is said that when he examined the sketches of the
boy, he exclaimed, "Let him be my pupil: he will soon become my master."
Perugino had been a follower of Savonarola, but after he had seen that
good man put to death, he gave up his faith in God and man. When he was
on his death-bed, he refused to see a confessor, saying, "I wish to see
how a soul will fare in that Land, which has not been confessed."
For nine years Raphael worked under Perugino at Perugia, studying
perspective and every department of art, and winning the love of both
master and pupils. When he was seventeen, Passavant, in his life of
Raphael, says, the young artist painted his first works, his master
being in Florence: a banner for the church of the Trinita of Citta di
Castello, and the "Crucifixion." The banner has the "Trinity" on one
sheet of canvas, and the "Creation of Man" on the other. The
"Crucifixion" was bought by Cardinal Fesch at Rome, and at the sale of
his paintings, in 1845, was purchased for about twelve thousand five
hundred dollars. It is now in Earl Dudley's collection.
About this time the "Coronation of the Virgin" was painted for Madonna
Maddalina degli Oddi, a lady of great influence, who obtained for
Raphael several commissions, concerning which he expresses great joy in
his letters. How many are willing to employ an artist after he is
famous; how few before! A woman had the heart and the good sense to help
him in these early years, and she helped the whole art world thereby.
This picture was kept in the Franciscan church at Perugia until 1792,
when it was sent to Paris, but was restored to Italy by the treaty of
1815, and is now in the Vatican.
For a friend of Perugia he painted the beautiful Connestabile Madonna.
"The mother of the Saviour," says Passavant, "a figure of virginal
sweetness, is walking in the country, in early spring, when the trees
are still bare, and the distant mountains are covered with snow. She is
walking along pensively, reading in a little book, in which the child in
her arms also looks attentively. Nothing could be found more exquisite.
Everything in it shows that Raphael must have devoted himself to it with
especial ardor."
This picture, only six and three-fourths inches square, was sold in 1871
to the Emperor of Russia for sixty-six thousand dollars.
Raphael left the studio of Perugino in the beginning of 1504, before he
was twenty-one, and painted for the Franciscans, at Citta di Castello,
the "Marriage of the Virgin," now the chief ornament of the Brera
gallery at Milan, and called the "Sposalizio." "The Virgin is attended
by five women, and St. Joseph by five young men who were once Mary's
suitors. The despair of the lovers is shadowed forth by the reeds they
hold; they will never flower; and the handsomest youth is breaking his
across his knees."
Grimm says of this picture, "Next to the Sistine Madonna, it may be
considered Raphael's most popular work. In the figures of this
composition we recognize types of all the different ages of man, which
allow every one who stands before it, whether young or old, to feel as
if the artist had been the confidant of all the thoughts and feelings
appropriate to his period of life.... Raphael's elegance obtrudes itself
nowhere, as with other artists is so often the case. Beside this, the
harmony of his colors, which, although hitting against one another
almost sharply, still have the effect of a bed of flowers whose varied
hues combine agreeably. A youthful delight in the brilliancy of color is
apparent, which later yielded to a different taste. Like Duerer, Raphael
might have confessed, in his ripest years, that while young he loved a
certain garishness of coloring, such as he had afterward renounced."
Raphael now returned to Urbino, where he painted for the reigning duke,
"St. George slaying the Dragon" and "St. Michael attacking Satan." He
made many friends among the noted people of the court, but, full of
ambition, and having heard of the works of Da Vinci and Michael Angelo
at Florence, he was extremely anxious to go to that city. A lady, as
previously, took interest in the boyish artist, and wrote to Pietro
Soderini, the Gonfaloniere of Florence, the following letter of
introduction:--
"_Most magnificent and powerful lord, whom I must ever honor as a
father_,--
"He who presents this letter to you is Raphael, a painter of Urbino,
endowed with great talent in art. He has decided to pass some time in
Florence, in order to improve himself in his studies. As the father, who
was dear to me, was full of good qualities, so the son is a modest young
man of distinguished manners; and thus I bear him an affection on every
account, and wish that he should attain perfection. This is why I
recommend him as earnestly as possible to your Highness, with an
entreaty that it may please you, for love of me, to show him help and
protection on every opportunity. I shall regard as rendered to myself,
and as an agreeable proof of friendship to me, all the services and
kindness that he may receive from your Lordship.
"From her who commends herself to you, and is willing to render any good
offices in return.
"JOANNA FELTRA DE RUVERE, [_sic._]
"Duchess of Sora, and Prefectissa of Rome."
With this cordial letter from the sister of the Duke of Urbino, he
entered the City of Flowers. He was now a youth of twenty-one, slight in
figure, five feet eight inches tall, with dark brown eyes and hair,
perfect teeth, and the kindest of hearts. He was received into the homes
of the patricians, and was asked to paint pictures for them. Meantime
he used every spare moment in study. Especially did the works of
Masaccio and Leonardo da Vinci, says Passavant, "reveal to Raphael his
own wonderful powers, until then almost concealed. Awakened suddenly,
and excited with the inspiration that seemed all at once to flow in on
him from every side, he pushed forward at once towards the perfection he
was so soon to attain."
He copied the horsemen in Da Vinci's battle of Anghiari; made sketches
from life of the children of the Florentines, in his book of drawings,
now to be seen in the Academy of Venice; stood entranced before the
gates of Ghiberti, and that marvel of beauty, the Campanile of Giotto.
Raphael now painted for his friend, Lorenzo Nasi, the "Madonna della
Gran Duca," now in the Pitti Palace. Until the end of the last century
this picture was in the possession of a poor widow, who sold it to a
bookseller for twelve scudi. Finally the Grand Duke Ferdinand III. of
Tuscany bought it, and carried it with him through all his journeys,
praying before it night and morning. "The bold, commanding, and luminous
style," says Passavant, "in which the painting stands out from the
background, makes the figure and divine expression of the head still
more impressive. Thanks to all these qualities united, this Madonna
produces the effect of a supernatural apparition. In short, it is one of
the masterpieces of Raphael."
Another Madonna on wood, thirty-five inches in diameter, owned by the
Terranuova family until 1854, was purchased for the Berlin Museum, for
thirty-four thousand dollars.
After some other works, Raphael went back to Urbino and Perugia, but,
eager and restless for Florence, he soon returned to that city and was
cordially welcomed. His enthusiasm inspired every artist, and his modest
deference to the opinions of others won him countless friends; "the only
very distinguished man," as Mrs. Jameson says, "of whom we read, who
lived and died without an enemy or a detractor!" Between 1506 and 1508,
besides the Temfi Madonna now of Munich, and the Colonna Madonna at
Berlin, the Ansidei Madonna was painted for the Ansidei family of
Perugia as an altar-piece in the church of S. Fiorenzo. It represents
the Virgin on a throne, with Jesus on her right knee, and an open book
on her left, from which mother and child are reading. The painting was
purchased in 1884 by the National Gallery for the Duke of Marlborough
for the enormous sum of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
On the marriage of his patrician friend, Lorenzo Nasi, he painted for
him the "Madonna with the Goldfinch," called also the "Madonna del
Cardellino," now in the Uffizi. The Virgin is seated holding a book,
while St. John is offering to the infant Saviour a goldfinch, which the
child is about to caress. Another picture, painted for his intimate
friend Taddeo Taddei, a learned Florentine, "The Holy Family under the
Palm Tree," round, and forty-two and three-fourths inches in diameter,
was purchased by the Duke of Bridgewater, for sixty thousand dollars,
and is now in the possession of Lord Ellesmere, in London.
Again Raphael returned to the court of Urbino, always winning to himself
the most educated and the noblest among the distinguished men and women.
Pietro Bembo, secretary to Leo X. and a cardinal under Paul III., one of
the most celebrated writers of the time, was very fond of Raphael; Count
Baldassare Castiglione, a writer and diplomatist, was one of the
artist's most loved companions; Bernardo Divizio da Bibiena, author of
"La Calandra," the first prose comedy written in Italy, loved him as a
brother; Francesco Francia and Fra Bartolomeo, the noted artists, were
his ardent friends.
Something beside genius drew all these men and scores of others to
Raphael. Vasari says, "Every vile and base thought departed from the
mind before his influence. There was among his extraordinary gifts one
of such value and importance that I can never sufficiently admire it,
and always think thereof with astonishment. This was the power accorded
to him by Heaven, of bringing all who approached his presence into
harmony; an effect inconceivably surprising in our calling, and contrary
to the nature of our artists, yet all, I do not say of the inferior
grades only, but even those who lay claim to be great personages, became
as of one mind once they began to labor in the society of Raphael,
continuing in such unity and concord, that all harsh feelings and evil
dispositions became subdued and disappeared at the sight of him.... Such
harmony prevailed at no other time than his own. And this happened
because all were surpassed by him in friendly courtesy as well as in
art; all confessed the influence of his sweet and gracious nature, which
was so replete with excellence, and so perfect in all the charities,
that not only was he honored by men, but even by the very animals, who
would constantly follow his steps and always loved him."
"We find it related that whenever any other painter, whether known to
Raphael or not, requested any design or assistance of whatever kind at
his hands, he would invariably leave his work to do him service; he
continually kept a large number of artists employed, all of whom he
assisted and instructed with an affection which was rather as that of a
father to his children than merely as of an artist to artists. From
these things it followed that he was never seen to go to court, but
surrounded and accompanied, as he left his house, by some fifty
painters, all men of ability and distinction, who attended him thus to
give evidence of the honor in which they held him. He did not, in short,
live the life of a painter, but that of a prince.
"Wherefore, O art of painting! well mightest thou for thy part, then,
esteem thyself most happy, having, as thou hadst, one artist, among thy
sons, by whose virtues and talents thou wert thyself exalted to heaven.
Thrice blessed indeed mayest thou declare thyself, since thou hast seen
thy disciples, by pursuing the footsteps of a man so exalted, acquire
the knowledge of how life should be employed, and become impressed with
the importance of uniting the practice of virtue to that of art."
Raphael allowed people to pursue their own course, without attempting to
dominate. He said to Cesare da Sesto, one of Da Vinci's most
distinguished pupils, "How does it happen, dear Cesare, that we live in
such good friendship, but that in the art of painting we show no
deference to each other." Finally, however, Cesare adopted Raphael's
methods from choice.
Raphael was modest in manner, never monopolizing the time or
conversation of others. He made the best of things, overlooking the
petty matters which some persons allow to wear and imbitter their
dispositions. He worked hard, performing an amount of labor which has
been the astonishment of the world ever since his death; he was somewhat
frail in body; he was not rich in this world's goods; sweet in nature
and refined in spirit, it is to be presumed that he kept his troubles in
his own heart, unspoken to others. He loved ardently, and was as
ardently loved in return. He was appreciative, sympathetic, tender, and
gracious.
Herrmann Grimm says, "Such men pass through life as a bird flies through
the air. Nothing hinders them. It is all one to the stream whether it
flows through the plain smoothly in one long line, or meanders round
rocks in its winding course. It is no circuitous way for it, thus to be
driven right and left in its broad course; it is sensible of no delay
when its course is completely dammed. Swelling easily, it widens out
into the lake, until at length it forces a path for its waves; and the
power with which it now dashes on is just as natural as the repose with
which it had before changed its course.
"Raphael, Goethe, and Shakespeare had scarcely outward destinies. They
interfered with no apparent power in the struggles of their people. They
enjoyed life; they worked; they went their way, and compelled no one to
follow them. They obtruded themselves on none; and they asked not the
world to consider them, or to do as they did. But the others all came of
themselves, and drew from their refreshing streams. Can we mention a
violent act of Raphael's, Goethe's, or Shakespeare's?
"Goethe, who seems so deeply involved in all that concerns us, who is
the author of our mental culture, nowhere opposed events; he turned
wherever he could advance most easily. He was diligent. He had in his
mind the completion of his works. Schiller wished to produce and to gain
influence; Michael Angelo wished to act, and could not bear that lesser
men should stand in the front, over whom he felt himself master. The
course of events moved Michael Angelo, and animated or checked his
ideas. It is not possible to extricate the consideration of his life
from the events going on in the world, while Raphael's life can be
narrated separately like an idyl."
Raphael, while still under Perugino, had received from Donna Atalanta
Baglioni the order for an "Entombment" for the Church of the
Franciscans. This he painted in 1507. A century later the monks sold it
to Pope Paul V., who had it removed to the Borghese Palace in Rome.
The body of Christ is being borne to the tomb by two men. The weeping
Magdalen is holding his hand, and the Virgin is fainting in the arms of
three women.
Grimm says, "The bearers of the body move along, conscious of carrying a
noble burden. And Christ, himself, beauty, serenity, and mercy dwell in
him in fullest measure, as if his spirit still both informed his body
and glorified it. Only Raphael could undertake to paint this. No one
before or after him could so simply and naturally picture the earthly
form, irradiated with heavenly light."
"St. Catherine of Alexandria," painted at this time, now in the National
Gallery of London, says Passavant, "is one of the works which nothing
can describe; neither words nor a painted copy, nor engravings, for the
fire in it appears living, and is perfectly beyond the reach of
imitation."
"La Belle Jardiniere," in the Louvre, considered one of the best and
most beautiful of Raphael's works, represents the Virgin in the midst of
rich landscape, the ground covered with grass and flowers, while the
infant Christ looks up to her with great tenderness. It is said that the
model was a lovely flower-girl to whom the painter was much attached.
While finishing this picture he was called to Rome by the famous Pope
Julius II., and went to the Eternal City with great hope and delight.
He was now twenty-five, and the most important work of his life lay
before him. Julius II. had refused to take possession of the rooms in
the Vatican which had been used by the depraved Alexander VI. He said,
when it was suggested to remove the mural portraits of that pope, "Even
if the portraits were destroyed, the walls themselves would remind me of
that Simoniac, that Jew!"
Michael Angelo was already at work upon the great monument for Julius.
Now the pope desired to enlarge and beautify the Vatican, and make that
his monument as well. He received Raphael with the greatest cordiality.
It is said that when Raphael knelt down before him, his chestnut locks
falling upon his shoulders, the pope exclaimed, "He is an innocent
angel. I will give him Cardinal Bembo for a teacher, and he shall fill
my walls with historical pictures." Julius commissioned him to fresco
the hall of the judicial assembly, called "La Segnatura." The first
fresco, done between 1508 and 1509, is called "Theology" or the "Dispute
on the Holy Sacrament" (_La Disputa_).
"In the upper part appear the three figures of the Holy Trinity, each
surrounded by a glory. Above all is the Almighty Father, in the midst of
the seraphim, cherubim, and a countless host of angels, who sing the
'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.' Below the Father, amidst the
saints of the celestial kingdom, the Saviour is enthroned; a little
lower, the Holy Spirit is descending on men.
"At the right of the Saviour, the Virgin is seated, bending towards him
in adoration; and at her left is St. John the Baptist, who is pointing
towards him. On a large half-circle of clouds, which extends to the
extreme limits of the picture, are seated patriarchs, prophets, and
martyrs, representing the communion of saints. Commencing at the extreme
point to the right of Christ, we see the apostle St. Peter, holding the
Holy Scriptures and the two keys.... At his side, in the expectation of
mercy and pardon, is Adam, the father of the human race. Near Adam is
St. John, the apostle loved by Christ, writing down his divine visions;
afterwards, David, the head of the terrestrial family of our Lord, the
sweet psalmist who sang the praises of God; then St. Stephen, the first
martyr; and lastly, a saint half concealed by the clouds.
"On the other side, at the right of the spectator, is St. Paul, holding
a sword in remembrance of his martyrdom, and also as a symbol of the
penetrating power of his doctrine. By his side is Abraham, with the
knife to sacrifice Isaac, the first type of the sacrifice of Christ;
then the apostle St. James, the third witness of the transfiguration of
the Saviour, the religious type of hope, as St. Peter is of faith and
St. John of love. Moses follows with the tables of the law. St. Lawrence
corresponds to St. Stephen; and lastly we perceive a warlike figure,
which is believed to be St. George, the patron saint of Liguria; in
honor, no doubt, of Julius II., who was born in that country.
"The Holy Spirit, under the form of a dove, surrounded by four cherubim,
who hold the four books of the Gospel open, is descending upon the
assembly of believers.
"This sort of council, expressing theological life, is united in a
half-circle around the altar, on which the Eucharist is exposed on a
monstrance. Nearest to the altar, on both sides, come the four great
fathers of the church, the columns of Roman Catholicism; to the left,
St. Jerome, the type of contemplative life, absorbed in profound
meditation on the Scriptures; near him are two books, one containing his
'Letters,' the other the Vulgate. Opposite is St. Ambrose, active
especially in the militant church: he is raising his eyes and hands
towards heaven, as if delighted with the angelic harmonies. St.
Augustine, whom he converted to Christianity, is beside him, and is
dictating his thoughts to a young man seated at his feet. His book on
the 'City of God' is lying by him. St. Gregory the Great, clothed in the
tiara and pontifical mantle, is opposite St. Augustine. His book on
Job, with the superscription, 'Liber Moralium,' is also on the ground
beside him."
Besides these, among the fifty or more figures, are other priests and
philosophers, all discussing the great questions pertaining to the
redemption of the world.
The pope was so overjoyed on the completion of this picture that he is
said to have thrown himself upon the ground, exclaiming, with uplifted
hands, "I thank thee, great God, that thou hast sent me so great a
painter!"
With _La Disputa_ the romance of Raphael's life begins. While he was
painting this, tradition says that he fell in love with Margherita, the
daughter of a soda-manufacturer, who lived near Santa Cecilia, on the
other side of the Tiber. Passavant says, quoting from Missirini, "A
small house, No. 20, in the street of Santa Dorotea, the windows of
which are decorated with a pretty framework of earthenware, is pointed
out as the house where she was born.
"The beautiful young girl was very frequently in a little garden
adjoining the house, where, the wall not being very high, it was easy to
see her from outside. So the young men, especially artists,--always
passionate admirers of beauty,--did not fail to come and look at her, by
climbing up above the wall.
"Raphael is said to have seen her for the first time as she was bathing
her pretty feet in a little fountain in the garden. Struck by her
perfect beauty, he fell deeply in love with her, and, after having made
acquaintance with her, and discovered that her mind was as beautiful as
her body, he became so much attached as to be unable to live without
her." She has been called "_Fornarina_," because she was long supposed
to be the daughter of a baker (_fornajo_).
On the rough studies made for the _Disputa_, now preserved in Vienna,
London, and elsewhere, three love sonnets have been found in the
artist's handwriting, showing that while he mused over heavenly
subjects, with the faces of Peter and John before him, he had another
face, more dear and beautiful than either, in his mind. Eugene Muntz,
the librarian to the _Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts_, who says of these
sonnets, "So great is his delicacy of feeling, his reserve and
discretion, that we can scarcely analyze his dominant idea," gives the
following translation:--
"Love, thou hast bound me with the light of two eyes which torment me,
with a face like snow and roses, with sweet words and tender manners. So
great is my ardor that no river or sea could extinguish my fire. But I
do not complain, for my ardor makes me happy.... How sweet was the
chain, how light the yoke of her white arms around my neck. When those
bonds were loosed, I felt a mortal grief. I will say no more; a great
joy kills, and, though my thoughts turn to thee, I will keep silence."
"Just as Paul, descended from the skies, was unable to reveal the
secrets of God," so Raphael is unable to reveal the thoughts of his
beating heart. He thanks and praises love, and yet the pain of
separation is intense. He feels like "mariners who have lost their
star."
To this love he was probably constant through life, the short twelve
years which remained. When he painted the Farnesina, the palace of the
rich banker, Agostino Chigi, years afterward, Vasari says, "Raphael was
so much occupied with the love which he bore to the lady of his choice,
that he could not give sufficient attention to the work. Agostino,
therefore, falling at length into despair of seeing it finished, made so
many efforts by means of friends and by his own care that after much
difficulty he at length prevailed on the lady to take up her abode in
his house, where she was accordingly installed, in apartments near those
which Raphael was painting; in this manner the work was ultimately
brought to a conclusion."
He painted her portrait, now in the Barberini Palace, it is believed, in
1509. It represents a girl "only half-clothed, seated in a myrtle and
laurel wood. A striped yellow stuff surrounds her head as a turban, and
imparts something distinguished and charming to her features," says
Passavant. " ... With her right hand she holds a light gauze against her
breast. Her right arm, encircled with a golden bracelet, rests on her
knees, which are covered by red drapery. On the bracelet Raphael has
inscribed his name with the greatest care."
The face did not seem to me beautiful when I saw it in Rome a few years
ago, but certainly does not lack expression, making one feel that the
mind which Raphael discovered "to be as beautiful as the body" was
equally potent with the warmhearted artist.
Grimm says, "The portrait of the young girl or woman in the Barberini
Palace is a wonderful painting. I call it so because it bears about it
in a high degree the character of mysterious unfathomableness. We like
to contemplate it again and again.... Her hair is brilliantly black,
parted over the brow, and smoothly drawn over the temples, behind the
ear; the head is encircled with a gay handkerchief, like a turban, the
knots of which lie on one side above the ear, pressing it a little with
their weight.
"She is slightly bent forward. She sits there with her delicate shoulder
a little turned to the left; she seems looking stealthily at her lover,
to watch him as he paints, and yet not to stir from her position,
because he has forbidden it. It seems to him, however, to be a source of
the most intense pleasure to copy her accurately, and in no small matter
to represent her otherwise than as he saw her before him. We fancy her
to feel the jealousy, the vehemence, the joy, the unalterable
good-humor, and the pride springing from the happiness of being loved by
him. He, however, painted it all because he was capable of these
feelings himself in their greatest depth. If his pictures do not betray
this, his poems do."
Muntz says, "From a technical point of view, the work is a masterpiece.
Never, perhaps, has Raphael given such delicacy and subtlety to his
carnations; never did he create a fuller life; we can see the blood
circulate; we can feel the beating pulse. Thus the picture is a
continual source of envy and despair to modern realists."
Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their life of Raphael, speak of the "warm
tone of flesh burnished to a nicety and shaded with exceptional force,"
in this picture. "The coal-black eyes have a fascinating look of
intentness, which is all the more effective as they are absolutely open,
under brows of the purest curves.... The forehead has a grand arch, the
cheeks are broad, the chin rounded and small. The contours are all
circular. The flesh has a fulness which characterizes alike the neck,
the drooping shoulders, and the arms and extremities."
Passavant thus speaks of a portrait in Florence, which belonged to the
Grand Duke of Tuscany. "This portrait in the Pitti Palace bears a strong
resemblance to the Madonna di San Sisto (Dresden Museum), with this
difference, however, that the features of the Virgin are ennobled. The
woman in the portrait is a handsome Roman, but of quite individual
character. Her form is powerful, her costume sumptuous, her beautiful
black eyes flash, her mouth is refined and full of grace.
"If this portrait, as may well be believed, represents the same person
as that of the Barberini house, we are compelled to admit that the
countenance, always intelligent, of this young girl, had become
wonderfully animated in the time between the execution of the two
portraits. However," he adds, "it would be indeed astonishing if
constant intercourse with the author of so many masterpieces, and one of
the most perfect human organizations that nature ever produced, should
have failed to influence the facile character of a young girl. This
second portrait, to judge by the manner in which it is painted, must
belong to the last years of Raphael's life."
With this fervent and lasting love for Margherita in his heart, Raphael
painted the other three mural paintings in the Vatican hall: the
"Parnassus," Apollo surrounded by the Nine Muses, Homer singing, Dante
and Virgil conversing, with Pindar, Sappho, Horace, Petrarch, Ovid, and
others; "Jurisprudence," with Emperor Justinian and Gregory IX., the one
founding the laws of the State, the other the laws of the Church; the
"School of Athens," with the masters of ancient philosophy and science
assembled.
On the left we see the most ancient of the philosophic schools gathered
around Pythagoras. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are surrounded by
their pupils; Archimedes and Zoroaster are the central figures of the
interested group. Diogenes sits on the central steps of the grand hall
where more than fifty great men are assembled.
Passavant says, "In the 'School of Athens,' Raphael showed the full
power of his genius, and that he was completely master both of his style
and of his execution. In the part of this picture requiring great
learning, it is possible, and indeed highly probable, that Raphael
consulted the most erudite of his friends, and amongst others the Count
Castiglione, who had just come to settle at Rome.
"However this may be, to Raphael alone belongs the great honor of having
succeeded in representing, in a single living and distinct image, the
development of Greek philosophy. It was Raphael who conceived the idea
of grouping the personages according to the rank they occupy in history,
and rendered the tendencies of these philosophers apparent, not merely
by ingenious grouping, but also by their actions, their attitudes, and
countenances.
"This fresco, in which he rose to such dignity and to such a grand
style, is justly considered as the most magnificent work the master ever
produced. It does, indeed, unite the technical experience of drawing,
coloring, and touch--the conquests of the more modern schools--to the
severity bequeathed to them by the more ancient ones....
"A great era in arts, as in literature, does not always follow the
appearance of an extraordinary genius. It comes on gradually, and its
progress may be noted. It has its infancy, and with it the simplicity
belonging to that age; then its youth, with the grace and sentiments
natural to youth; afterwards maturity, with its increased power.
"Raphael was the highest expression of the art of the sixteenth century;
he attained its greatest perfection. He was a continuation of the chain
of artists in his time, and was its last and brightest link."
Eugene Muntz calls this papal hall, the Stanza della Segnatura, "the
most splendid sanctuary of modern art. The profundity of ideas, the
nobility of the style, and the youthful vitality which prevails in every
detail of the decoration, make up a monumental achievement which is
without parallel in the annals of painting, without equal even among the
other works of Raphael himself."
During the three years' work in this hall, Raphael painted several other
pictures: the magnificent portrait of Pope Julius II., now in the Pitti
Palace; the "Madonna di Foligno," now in the Vatican, a large
altar-piece for Sigismondo Conti di Foligno, private secretary to the
pope; the Virgin seated on golden clouds surrounded by half-length
angels against a blue sky. "A burning globe, with a rainbow above it, is
falling from the sky. According to tradition this globe is a bomb, and
bears reference to the danger incurred by Sigismondo at the siege of
Foligno, his native town, and the rainbow may be considered symbolical
of the reconciliation of the donor with God."
The Madonna della Casa d'Alba, round, on wood, only nine and one-half
inches in diameter, was originally in a church at Nocera de Pagani, in
the Neapolitan States, and later was owned by the Duke of Alba, at
Madrid. The Duchess of Alba gave it to her doctor, in her will, for
curing her of a dangerous disease. She died very soon, and the doctor
was arrested on suspicion of poison, but was finally liberated. The
painting came into the possession of the Emperor of Russia, for seventy
thousand dollars, and is in the Hermitage.
The "Madonna del Pesce," the gem of the Italian Gallery of the Madrid
Museum, which some persons rank equal to the Sistine Madonna, represents
the Virgin holding the Child, who rests his hand on an open book.
Tobias, holding a fish, and led by an angel, implores a cure for his
father's blindness.
Raphael also executed for the wealthy Agostino Chigi, the _protege_ of
Julius II. and Leo X., the frescos in the Church Santa Maria della Pace.
Cinelli tells this anecdote: "Raphael of Urbino had painted for Agostino
Chigi, at Santa Maria della Pace, some prophets and sibyls, on which he
had received an advance of five hundred scudi. One day he demanded of
Agostino's cashier (Giulio Borghesi) the remainder of the sum at which
he estimated his work. The cashier, being astonished at this demand, and
thinking that the sum already paid was sufficient, did not reply. 'Cause
the work to be estimated by a judge of painting,' replied Raphael, 'and
you will see how moderate my demand is.'
"Giulio Borghesi thought of Michael Angelo for this valuation, and
begged him to go to the church and estimate the figures of Raphael.
Possibly he imagined that self-love, rivalry, and jealousy would lead
the Florentine to lower the price of the pictures.
"Michael Angelo went, accompanied by the cashier, to Santa Maria della
Pace, and, as he was contemplating the fresco without uttering a word,
Borghesi questioned him. 'That head,' replied Michael Angelo, pointing
to one of the Sibyls, 'that head is worth a hundred scudi.'... 'And the
others?' asked the cashier. 'The others are not less.'
"Some who witnessed this scene related it to Chigi. He heard every
particular, and, ordering, in addition to the five hundred scudi for
five heads, a hundred scudi to be paid for each of the others, he said
to his cashier, 'Go and give that to Raphael in payment for his heads,
and behave very politely to him, so that he may be satisfied; for if he
insists on my also paying for the drapery, we should probably be
ruined.'"
From 1512 to 1514, Raphael frescoed the second Vatican hall, La Stanza
d'Eliodoro. The first mural painting was "The Miraculous Expulsion of
Heliodorus from the Temple at Jerusalem," the angels attacking him as he
is taking the money destined for widows and orphans.
The second fresco is the "Miracle of Bolsena," where, in the reign of
Urban IV., a priest, who doubted the reality of transubstantiation, saw
the blood flow from the Host while he was celebrating mass. These are
called the most richly colored frescos in the world, exceeding the
celebrated ones of Titian in the Scuola di San Antonio, at Padua.
The third fresco represents the "Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison,"
and the fourth, Attila arrested in his march on Rome in 452, by the
apparition of St. Peter and St. Paul. A frightful hurricane is raging at
the time, and the Huns are filled with terror. Leo X., who had succeeded
Julius II., desired to be immortalized instead of St. Leo, so, with a
touch of human nature not entirely spiritual, caused himself and his
court, driving the French under Louis XII. out of Italy, to be painted
in the picture. Passavant says, "A few very animated groups of soldiers
had to be sacrificed; but on the whole the composition gained by the
alteration, from the contrast of the calm gentleness of the pontiff with
the ferocity of the barbarians. In execution this fresco may be
considered as one of the most perfect by this master."
While this second room in the Vatican was being painted, Raphael, as
usual, was engaged also in other work.
In the Chigi palace, or Farnesina, he painted the beautiful fresco,
"Galatea." The subject is taken from the narrative of Philostratus about
the Cyclops. "In the fresco," says Passavant, "Galatea is gently sailing
on the waves. Love guides the shell, which is drawn by dolphins, and
surrounded by tritons and marine centaurs, who bear the nymphs. Little
cupids in the air are shooting arrows at them. All these figures form a
contrast with the beautiful Galatea, whose languid eyes are raised to
heaven, the centre of all noble aspirations.
"Galatea is an image of beauty of soul united to that of the body. It
is, indeed, a sort of glorified nature; or, rather, a goddess clad in
human form. Raphael's genius defies all comparison, and has attained in
this masterpiece a height which approaches very nearly to perfection."
This fresco won the most enthusiastic praise. His friend, Count
Castiglione, wrote him in hearty commendation, and Raphael replied,--
"As for 'the Galatea,' I should think myself a great master if it
possessed one-half the merits of which you write, but I read in your
words the love you bear to myself. To paint a figure truly beautiful, I
should see many beautiful forms, with the further provision that you
should be present to choose the most beautiful. But, good judges and
beautiful women being rare, I avail myself of certain ideas which come
into my mind. If this idea has any excellence in art I know not,
although I labor heartily to acquire it."
How modest the spirit of this letter, and how fully it shows that the
young artist lived in an ideal world, filled with exquisite things of
his own creating. Some natures always see roses instead of thorns,
sunshine behind the clouds; believe in goodness and purity rather than
in sin and sorrow; and such natures make the world lovelier by their
uplifting words and hopes.
The famous artist, now thirty-one, had become wealthy, and had built for
himself a tasteful and elegant home on the Via di Borgo Nuova, not far
from the Vatican. "The ground floor of the facade was of rustic
architecture, with five arched doors, four of which were for the
offices, and the one in the centre for the entrance to the house. The
upper story was of Doric order, with coupled columns, and five windows
surmounted by triangular pediments. The entablature which surmounted the
whole was of a severe style; imitated from the antique. This beautiful
building no longer exists. The angle of the right of the basement, which
now forms a part of the Accoramboni palace, is the only part that
remains."
Raphael's friends, with that well-meant, but usually injudicious
interference which is so common, were urging him to bring a wife into
his home. His uncle, Simone di Battista di Ciarla, seems to have been
anxious, for the artist writes him in 1514, "As to taking a wife, I will
say, in regard to her whom you destined for me, that I am very glad and
thank God for not having taken either her or another. And in this I have
been wiser than you who wished to give her to me. I am convinced that
you see yourself that I should not have got on as I have done."
Another person seemed equally anxious for his marriage. Cardinal
Bibiena, who had been Raphael's intimate friend when he lived in
Urbino, had long been desirous that he should marry Maria, the daughter
of Antonio Divizio da Bibiena, his nephew. Evidently Raphael was engaged
to her, for he writes to this uncle, Simone, "I cannot withdraw my word;
we are nearer than ever to the conclusion." As the matter was deferred
year by year--as many writers believe, because Raphael, loving
Margherita, was unwilling to marry another--he was saved from the
seeming necessity of keeping his promise, by Maria's death some time
previous to his own. She is buried in Raphael's chapel in the Pantheon,
not far from his grave. He had met and loved Margherita in 1508, six
years earlier, and possibly after his engagement to Maria. Margherita
was in his house when he died, and to her he left an adequate portion of
his property.
This year, 1514, Bramante, the architect of St. Peter's, having died,
Raphael was appointed his successor. Perceiving that the four columns
which were to support the cupola had too weak a foundation, the first
work was to strengthen these. He executed a plan of the church, which
some think superior to that which Michael Angelo carried out after
Raphael's death. He studied carefully the architectural works of
Vitruvius, and planned several beautiful structures in Rome.
Raphael also had the oversight of all the excavations in and around
Rome, so that pieces of antique statuary, which were often found, might
be carefully preserved. "To this end," wrote Leo X., "I command every
one, of whatever condition or rank he may be, noble or not, titled or of
low estate, to make you, as superintendent of this matter, acquainted
with every stone or marble which shall be discovered within the extent
of country designated by me, who desire that every one failing to do so
shall be judged by you, and fined from one hundred to three hundred gold
crowns."
The third hall of the pope, called the Stanza del Incendio, was painted
from 1514 to 1517. The first fresco is "The Oath of Leo III.," who,
brought before the Emperor Charlemagne for trial, was acquitted through
a supernatural voice proclaiming that no one had the right to judge the
pope.
The second fresco is "The Coronation of Charlemagne by Leo III.," thus
signifying that the spiritual power is above the temporal power. The two
principal portraits are, however, Leo X. and Francis I., who formed an
alliance in 1515.
The third and finest picture is "The Conflagration of the Borgo Vecchio
at Rome." The other pictures were executed in part by the pupils of
Raphael. This was by his own hand. In 847 a fire broke out in Rome,
which extended from the Vatican to the Mausoleum of Adrian. The danger
from the high wind was very great, when Pope Leo IV. implored divine
aid, and at once the flames assumed the form of a cross, and the fire
was quenched. "Several of the figures," says Passavant, "are considered
as perfect and inimitable, amongst others the two beautiful and
powerful women who are bringing water in vases, and whose forms are so
admirably delineated under their garments agitated by the wind."
The last fresco shows the "Victory of Leo IV. over the Saracens at
Ostia." The pope, Leo IV., with the face of Leo X., is on the shore,
engaged in prayer.
At this time Raphael made sepia sketches for the Loggie leading to the
apartments of the pope; thirteen arcades, each arcade containing four
principal pictures. Forty-eight of these scenes are taken from the Old
Testament, and four from the life of Christ. Taken together, they are
called "Raphael's Bible." Vasari said of the decorations in the Loggie,
"It is impossible to execute or to conceive a more exquisite work."
Catherine II. of Russia had all these Loggie paintings copied on canvas,
and placed in the Hermitage, in a gallery constructed for them, like
that in the Vatican. This gallery cost a million and a half of dollars.
In these busy years, 1515 to 1516, the famous cartoons for the Sistine
Chapel were made. Sixtus IV. had built the chapel. Michael Angelo, under
Julius II., had painted in it his "History of the Creation," and
"Prophets and Sibyls." And now Raphael was asked to make cartoons for
ten pieces of tapestry, to be hung before the wainscoting on high
festivals. The cartoons are, "The Miraculous Draught of Fishes,"
"Christ's Charge to Peter," "The Martyrdom of St. Stephen," "The
Healing of the Lame Man," "The Death of Ananias," "The Conversion of
St. Paul," "Elymas struck with Blindness," "Paul and Barnabas at
Lystra," "St. Paul Preaching at Athens," and "Saint Paul in Prison." The
cartoons were sent to Arras, in Flanders, and wrought in wool, silk, and
gold. Brought to Rome in 1519, they were hung in St. Peter's, on the
feast of St. Stephen.
The enthusiasm of the Romans was unbounded. Vasari says this work "seems
rather to have been performed by miracle than by the aid of man." These
tapestries, after many changes, are now in the Vatican, much soiled and
faded. Of the cartoons, twelve feet by from fourteen to eighteen feet,
with figures above life-size, seven of them are to be seen in the South
Kensington Museum. They were purchased at Arras by Charles I., on the
recommendation of Rubens. They are yearly studied by thousands of
visitors. Grimm calls the cartoons "Raphael's greatest productions." He
considers the "Death of Ananias" "as the most purely dramatic of all his
compositions."
"Compared with these," says Hazlitt, "all other pictures look like oil
and varnish; we are stopped and attracted by the coloring, the
pencilling, the finishing, the instrumentalities of art; but _here_ the
painter seems to have flung his mind upon the canvas. His thoughts, his
great ideas alone, prevail; there is nothing between us and the subject;
we look through a frame and see Scripture histories, and are made actual
spectators in miraculous events.
"Not to speak it profanely, they are a sort of a revelation of the
subjects of which they treat; there is an ease and freedom of manner
about them which brings preternatural characters and situations home to
us with the familiarity of every-day occurrences; and while the figures
fill, raise, and satisfy the mind, they seem to have cost the painter
nothing. Everywhere else we see the means; here we arrive at the end
apparently without any means."
Raphael was now overwhelmed with orders for pictures. He had shown
worldly wisdom--a thing not always possessed by genius--in having his
works engraved by men under his own supervision, so that they were
everywhere scattered among the people.
In 1516 he decorated the bath-room of his friend Cardinal Bibiena, who
lived on the third floor of the Vatican. The first sketch represents the
Birth of Venus; then Venus and Cupid, seated on dolphins, journey across
the sea; she is wounded by Cupid's dart; she pulls out the thorn which
has pierced her. The blood, falling on the white rose, gives us,
according to tradition, the rich red rose. These paintings were
certainly of a different nature from the others in the Vatican, and,
while Passavant thinks it strange that a spiritually minded cardinal
should have desired such pictures, they were nevertheless greatly
admired and copied.
This same year, 1516, one of Raphael's most celebrated Madonnas was
painted, the one oftener copied, probably, than any other picture in
the world, "The Madonna della Sedia," now in the Pitti Palace. The
Virgin, with an uncommonly sweet and beautiful face, is seated in a
chair (_sedia_), with both arms encircling the infant Saviour, his baby
head resting against her own. Grimm says, "Mary has been painted by
Raphael in different degrees of earthly rank; the Madonna della Sedia
approaches the aristocratic, but only in outward show, for the poorest
mother might sit there as she does. Gold and variegated colors have been
used without stint.... The dress of the mother is light blue; the mantle
which she has drawn about her shoulders is green, with red and
willow-green stripes and gold-embroidered border; her sleeves are red
faced with gold at the wrists. A grayish brown veil with reddish brown
stripes is wound about her hair; the little dress of the child is
orange-colored, and the back of the chair red velvet. The golden lines
radiating from the halo around the head of the child form a cross, and
over the mother's and John's float light golden rings. All the tones are
flower-like and clear.... A harmonious glow irradiates it, which,
partaking of a spiritual as well as a material nature, constitutes the
peculiarity of this work, and defies all attempts at reproduction.
Pictorial art has produced few such works which actually in their beauty
exceed nature herself, who does not seem to wish to unite so many
advantages in one person or place....
"Raphael's Madonnas have the peculiarity that they are not
distinctively national. They are not Italians whom he paints, but women
raised above what is national. Leonardo's, Correggio's, Titian's,
Murillo's, and Rubens's Madonnas are all in some respects affected by
their masters' nationality; a faint suggestion of Italian or Spanish or
Flemish nature pervades their forms. Raphael alone could give to his
Madonnas that universal human loveliness, and that beauty which is a
possession common to the European nations compared with other races.
"His Sistine Madonna soars above us as our ideal of womanly beauty; and
yet, strange to say, despite this universality, she gives to each
individual the impression that, owing to some special affinity, he has
the privilege of wholly understanding her. Shakespeare's and Goethe's
feminine creations inspire the same feeling....
"All Raphael's works are youthful works. After finishing the Sistine
Madonna, he lived only three years. At thirty-five years of age (and he
did not survive much beyond this), the largest portion of human life is
often still in the future. The events of each day continue to surprise
us, and to seem like adventures. Raphael was full of these fresh hopes
and anticipations when a cruel fate snatched him away. His last works
betray the same youthful exhilaration in labor as his first. His studies
from nature made at this time have a freshness and grace which, regarded
as personal manifestations of his genius, are as valuable as his
paintings. He was still in process of development.... What in our later
years we call illusions still enchanted him. The easy, untrammelled life
at the court of the pope wore for him, to the last, a romantic glamour,
and the admiration of those who only meant to flatter sounded sweet in
his ears, even while he saw through it. Everything continued to serve
him; with the gospel of defeat his soul was still unacquainted."
The Sistine Madonna, with the Virgin standing on the clouds in the midst
of myriads of cherubs' heads, St. Sixtus kneeling on the left, and St.
Barbara on the right, was painted in 1518 for the Benedictine Monastery
of San Sisto, at Piacenza, from which it was purchased in 1754 by
Augustus III., Elector of Saxony, for forty thousand dollars. It was
received at Dresden with great joy, the throne of Saxony being displaced
in order to give this divine product of genius a fitting home. It is
said that the famous Correggio, standing before this picture, exclaimed
with pride, "I too am an artist!"
Passavant says, "It was the last Virgin created by the genius of
Raphael; and, as if he had foreseen that this Madonna would be his last,
he made it an apotheosis."
It is interesting to sit in the Dresden gallery alone, before the
Sistine Madonna, which has the face of the beloved Margherita, and note
the hush that comes upon the people when they pass over the threshold.
They seem to enter into the feelings of the artist. It is said that many
a poor and lonely woman, bent with years, has wept before this
painting.
The eyes of the Virgin look at you, but they do not see you. The eyes
are thinking--looking back into her past with its mysteries; looking
forward perchance into a veiled but significant future. These eyes, once
seen, are never forgotten, and you go again and again to look at them.
Raphael's "Christ Bearing the Cross" (_Lo Spasimo_) is considered a
masterpiece, from its drawing and expression. Some think it equal to
"The Transfiguration." The ship which was carrying it to Palermo was
lost with all on board. Nothing was recovered save this picture, which,
uninjured, floated in a box into the harbor of Genoa. It is now in
Madrid.
Another well-known work of Raphael is "St. Cecilia," listening to the
singing of six angels, her eyes raised to heaven in ecstasy. A musical
instrument is slipping from her hand while she listens, entranced, to
playing so much more wonderful than her own. On her right are St. Paul
and St. John; on her left Mary Magdalene, with St. Augustine. Cecilia
was a rich and noble Roman lady who lived in the reign of Alexander
Severus. She was married at sixteen to Valerian, who, with his brother
Tiburtius, was converted to Christianity by her prayers. Both these men
were beheaded because they refused to sacrifice to idols, and Cecilia
was shortly after condemned to death by Almachius, Prefect of Rome. She
was shut up in her own bath-room, and blazing fires kindled that the
hot vapor might destroy her; but she was kept alive, says the legend,
"for God sent a cooling shower which tempered the heat of the fire."
The prefect then sent a man to her palace, to behead her, but he left
her only half killed. The Christians found her bathed in her blood, and
during three days she still preached and taught, like a doctor of the
church, with such sweetness and eloquence that four hundred pagans were
converted. On the third day she was visited by Pope Urban I., to whose
care she tenderly committed the poor whom she nourished, and to him she
bequeathed the palace in which she had lived, that it might be
consecrated as a temple to the Saviour. She died in the third century.
This masterpiece of color was sent to Bologna, having been ordered by a
noble Bolognese lady, Elena Duglioni, for a chapel which she built to
St. Cecilia. Raphael sent the picture to his artist friend Francesco
Francia, asking that he "make any correction he pleased, if he noticed
any defect." It is stated that Francia was so overcome at the sight of
this picture that he died from excessive grief because he felt that he
could never equal it.
Shelley wrote concerning this work, "Standing before the picture of St.
Cecilia, you forget that it is a picture as you look at it, and yet it
is most unlike any of those things which we call reality. It is of the
inspired and ideal kind, and seems to have been conceived and executed
in a similar state of feeling to that which produced among the ancients
those perfect specimens of poetry and sculpture which are the baffling
models of succeeding generations. There is a unity and a perfection in
it of an incommunicable kind. The central figure, St. Cecilia, seems
wrapt in such inspiration as produced her image in the painter's mind;
her deep, dark, eloquent eyes lifted up, her chestnut hair flung back
from her forehead: she holds an organ in her hands; her countenance, as
it were, calmed by the depth of her passion and rapture, and penetrated
throughout with the warm and radiant light of life. She is listening to
the music of heaven, and, as I imagine, has just ceased to sing, for the
four figures that surround her evidently point, by their attitudes,
towards her, particularly St. John, who, with a tender, yet impassioned
gesture, bends his countenance towards her, languid with the depth of
his emotion. At her feet lie various instruments of music, broken and
unstrung. Of the coloring I do not speak; it eclipses Nature, yet it has
all her truth and softness."
Raphael was now loaded with honors. Henry VIII. urged him to visit
England and become attached to his court. Francis I. was eager to make
him court painter of France. Often the artist shut himself up in his
palace, and applied himself so closely to his books and pictures that
people said he was melancholy. He was so deeply interested in history
that he thought of writing some historical works. He had planned and
partially completed a book on ancient Rome, which should reproduce to
the world the city in its former grandeur. He left a manuscript on art
and artists, which Vasari found most valuable in his biographies. He
sent artists into all the neighboring countries to collect studies from
the antique. He loved poetry and philosophy.
Several artists lived in his home, for whom he provided as though they
were his children. Among others in his house lived Fabius of Ravenna,
concerning whom Calcagnini, the pope's secretary, wrote, "He is an old
man of stoical probity, and of whom it would be difficult to say whether
his learning or affability is the greater. Through him Hippocrates
speaks Latin, and has laid aside his ancient defective expressions. This
most holy man has this peculiar and very uncommon quality of despising
money so much as to refuse it when offered to him, unless forced to
accept it by the most urgent necessity. However, he receives from the
pope an annual pension, which he divides amongst his friends and
relations. He himself lives on herbs and lettuces, like the
Pythagoreans, and dwells in a hole which might justly be named the tub
of Diogenes. He would far rather die than not pursue his studies....
"He is cared for as a child by the very rich Raphael da Urbino, who is
so much esteemed by the pope; he is a young man of the greatest
kindness and of an admirable mind. He is distinguished by the highest
qualities. Thus he is, perhaps, the first of all painters, as well in
theory as in practice; moreover, he is an architect of such rare talent
that he invents and executes things which men of the greatest genius
deemed impossible. I make an exception only in Vitruvius, whose
principles he does not teach, but whom he defends or attacks with the
surest proofs, and with so much grace that not even the slightest envy
mingles in his criticism.
"At present he is occupied with a wonderful work, which will be scarcely
credited by posterity (I do not allude to the basilica of the Vatican,
where he directs the works): it is the town of Rome, which he is
restoring in almost its ancient grandeur; for, by removing the highest
accumulations of earth, digging down to the lowest foundations, and
restoring everything according to the descriptions of ancient authors,
he has so carried Pope Leo and the Romans along with him as to induce
every one to look on him as a god sent from heaven to restore to the
ancient city her ancient majesty.
"With all this he is so far from being proud that he comes as a friend
to every one, and does not shun the words and remarks of any one; he
likes to hear his views discussed in order to obtain instruction and to
instruct others, which he regards as the object of life. He respects and
honors Fabius as a master and a father, speaking to him of everything
and following his counsels."
A rare man, indeed, this Raphael; not proud, not envious, but
confiding, learning from everybody, sincere and unselfish.
For the fourth hall in the Vatican, the Sala di Costantino, Raphael made
the cartoon for "The Battle of Constantine." In the centre of the
picture Constantine is dashing across the battle-field on a white horse,
with his spear levelled at Maxentius, who, with his army, is driven back
into the Tiber. The whole picture is remarkable for life and spirit.
Raphael now undertook the paintings in the Loggie of the Farnesina, for
Agostino Chigi,--the fable of Cupid and Psyche, from Apuleius. "A
certain king had three daughters, of whom Psyche, the youngest, excites
the jealousy of Venus by her beauty. The goddess accordingly directs her
son Cupid to punish the princess by inspiring her with love for an
unworthy individual. Cupid himself becomes enamoured of her, shows her
to the Graces, and carries her off. He visits her by night, warning her
not to indulge in curiosity as to his appearance. Psyche, however,
instigated by her envious sisters, disobeys the injunction. She lights a
lamp, a drop of heated oil from which awakens her sleeping lover. Cupid
upbraids her, and quits her in anger. Psyche wanders about, filled with
despair. Meanwhile Venus has been informed of her son's attachment,
imprisons him, and requests Juno and Ceres to aid her in seeking for
Psyche, which both goddesses decline to do. She then drives in her
dove-chariot to Jupiter, and begs him to grant her the assistance of
Mercury. Her request is complied with, and Mercury flies forth to search
for Psyche. Venus torments her in every conceivable manner, and imposes
impossible tasks on her, which, however, with the aid of friends, she is
enabled to perform. At length she is desired to bring a casket from the
infernal regions, and even this, to the astonishment of Venus, she
succeeds in accomplishing. Cupid, having at length escaped from his
captivity, begs Jupiter to grant him Psyche; Jupiter kisses him, and
commands Mercury to summon the gods to deliberate on the matter. The
messenger of the gods then conducts Psyche to Olympus, she becomes
immortal, and the gods celebrate the nuptial banquet. In this pleasing
fable Psyche obviously represents the human soul purified by passions
and misfortunes, and thus fitted for the enjoyment of celestial
happiness."
Raphael had time only to make cartoons for the greater part of this
work, while his pupils executed them. The paintings were criticised, and
it was said that the talent of Raphael was declining.
Hurt by such an unwarrantable opinion, Raphael gladly accepted an order
from Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici for a "Transfiguration" for the
Cathedral of Narbonne. At the same time the cardinal ordered the
"Raising of Lazarus" from Sebastiano del Piombo. Michael Angelo made the
drawings for this picture, it is said, so that this work might equal or
surpass that of Raphael. When the latter was apprised of this, he
replied cheerfully, "Michael Angelo pays me a great honor, since it is
in reality himself that he offers as my rival and not Sebastiano."
The "Transfiguration," now in the Vatican, is in two sections. In the
upper portion Christ has risen into the air above Mount Tabor, and has
appeared to Peter, James, and John, on the mount. At this moment the
voice is heard saying, "This is my beloved Son: hear him."
At the foot of the mount, an afflicted father, followed by a crowd of
people, has brought his demoniac boy to the Apostles, to be healed. The
disciples point to the Saviour as the only one who has the power to cast
out evil spirits.
Vasari says, "In this work the master has of a truth produced figures
and heads of such extraordinary beauty, so new, so varied, and at all
points so admirable, that among the many works executed by his hand
this, by the common consent of all artists, is declared to be the most
worthily renowned, the most excellent, the most divine. Whoever shall
desire to see in what manner Christ transformed into the Godhead should
be represented, let him come and behold it in this picture.... But as if
that sublime genius had gathered all the force of his powers into one
effort, whereby the glory and the majesty of art should be made manifest
in the countenance of Christ: having completed that, as one who had
finished the great work which he had to accomplish, he touched the
pencils no more, being shortly afterwards overtaken by death."
Before the "Transfiguration" was completed, Raphael was seized with a
violent fever, probably contracted through his researches among the
ruins of Rome. Weak from overwork, he seems to have realized at once
that his labors were finished. He made his will, giving his works of art
to his pupils; his beautiful home to Cardinal Bibiena, though the
cardinal died soon after without ever living in it; a thousand crowns to
purchase a house whose rental should defray the expense of twelve masses
monthly at the altar of his chapel in the Pantheon, which he had long
before made ready for his body; and the rest of his property to his
relatives and Margherita.
He died on the night of Good Friday, April 6, 1520, at the age of
thirty-seven. All Rome was bent with grief at the death of its idol. He
lay in state in his beautiful home, on a catafalque surrounded by
lighted tapers, the unfinished "Transfiguration" behind it.
An immense crowd followed the body to the Pantheon; his last beautiful
picture, its colors yet damp, being carried in the procession.
His friend Cardinal Pietro Bembo wrote his epitaph in Latin: "Dedicated
to Raphael Sanzio, the son of Giovanni of Urbino, the most eminent
painter, who emulated the ancients. In whom the union of Nature and Art
is easily perceived. He increased the glory of the pontiffs Julius II.
and Leo X. by his works of painting and architecture. He lived exactly
thirty-seven years, and died on the anniversary of his birth, April 6,
1520.
"Living, great Nature feared he might outvie
Her works, and, dying, fears herself to die."
Count Castiglione wrote to his mother, "It seems as if I were not in
Rome, since my poor Raphael is here no longer." The pope, Leo X., could
not be comforted, and, it is said, burst into tears, exclaiming, "_Ora
pro nobis._" The Mantuan Ambassador wrote home the day after Raphael's
death, "Nothing is talked of here but the loss of the man who at the
close of his three-and-thirtieth year [thirty-seventh] has now ended his
first life; his second, that of his posthumous fame, independent of
death and transitory things, through his works, and in what the learned
will write in his praise, must continue forever."
Three hundred and thirteen years after his death his tomb was opened, in
1833, and the complete skeleton was found. After five weeks, the
precious remains were enclosed in a leaden coffin, and that in a marble
sarcophagus, and reburied at night, the Pantheon being illuminated, and
the chief artists and cultivated people of the city bearing torches in
the reverent procession.
Dead at thirty-seven, and yet how amazing the amount of work
accomplished. He left two hundred and eighty-seven pictures and five
hundred and seventy-six drawings and studies. Michael Angelo said
Raphael owed more to his wonderful industry than to his genius. When
asked once by his pupils how he accomplished so much, Raphael replied,
"From my earliest childhood I have made it a principle never to neglect
anything."
Passavant says, "He was the most ideal artist that God has ever
created." His maxim was, "We must not represent things as they are, but
as they should be."
Says Charles C. Perkins of Boston, "Throughout all his works there is
not an expression of face, or a contour, whether of muscle or drapery,
which is not exactly suited to its end; nor in the thousands of figures
which he drew or painted can we recall an ungraceful or a mannered line
or pose. This was because of all artists since the Greeks, he had the
most perfect feeling for true beauty. The beautiful was his special
field, and hence he is first among his kind. Leonardo had more depth,
Michael Angelo more grandeur, Correggio more sweetness; but none of them
approached Raphael as an exponent of beauty whether in young or old, in
mortals or immortals, in earthly or divine beings.
"Raphael was in truth the greatest of artists, because the most
comprehensive, blending as he did the opposing tendencies of the mystics
and the naturalists into a perfect whole by reverent study of nature and
of the antique. Bred in a devotional school of art, and transferred to
an atmosphere charged with classical ideas, he retained enough of the
first, while he absorbed enough of the second, to make him a painter of
works Christian in spirit and Greek in elegance and purity of form and
style."
Raphael will live, not only through his works but through the adoration
we all pay to a lovable character. The perennial fountain of goodness
and sweetness in Raphael's soul, which "won for him the favor of the
great," as Giovio said, while living, has won for him the homage of the
world, now that he is dead. He had by nature a sunny, kindly
disposition: he had what every person living may have, and would do well
to cultivate: a spirit that did not find fault, lips that spoke no
censure of anybody, but praise where praise was possible, and such
self-control that not an enemy was ever made by his temper or his lack
of consideration for others. He was enthusiastic, but he had the
self-poise of a great nature. True, his life was short. As Grimm says,
"Four single statements exhaust the story of his life: he lived, he
loved, he worked, he died young." He helped everybody, and what more is
there in life than this?