After working for four years in Florence, Raphael went in the summer of
1508 to Rome, where he achieved such a vast amount of work for Popes
Julius II. and Leo X. His work was increased by his appointment,
on the death of Bramante in 1514, as Architect of St. Peter’s and
Inspector of Antiquities.
About 1515-16 Raphael delighted to paint the _Portrait of Baldassare
Castiglione_ (No. 1505, Plate VIII.), who was his lifelong friend and
adviser as well as the author of _Il Cortegiano_. This picture, which
is eloquent testimony to Raphael’s skill as a portrait painter, was
originally on wood, but it was long ago transferred to canvas, which
has unfortunately abraded, the paint having peeled off the hands. After
the death of Castiglione in Spain, this picture which he had taken with
him passed into the possession of the Duke of Mantua, and thence into
the collection of Charles I., where it seems to have been copied by
Rubens. It subsequently became the property of a Dutch amateur named
Van Asselen, and was copied by Rembrandt. Later, it was sold for 3500
florins to Don Alfonso Lopez, a collector at Amsterdam, and after
figuring in the collection of Mazarin was acquired by Louis XIV.
The _Holy Family of Francis I._ (No. 1498) was commissioned by Lorenzo
de’ Medici and presented to the Queen of François I. by Pope Leo X. It
was originally painted on wood, and was forwarded to Lyons on April 19,
1518. During the reign of Louis XIV. it hung in the _grand appartement_
at Versailles, and having been placed near a fireplace had to be
relined. It then had wings, but they were destroyed at the time of the
Revolution. Although it is very ostentatiously signed