The Demon is not shown, as in the early and small picture of the same
subject (No. 1502), as a dragon, but as a half-human monster with
horns and tail. The foreshortening is undoubtedly clever, but the
picture is too instantaneous in its dramatic action. In the course of
time the high lights have gone down and the shadows darkened in the
metallic-looking figure of the Archangel.
The _Virgin with the Blue Diadem_ or the _Virgin with the Veil_ (No.
1497) is one of at least ten pictures in this collection which were
carried out by Giulio Romano (1492?-1546). It is here credited to
Raphael. It has been repeatedly restored. A very large number of
replicas, variants, and old copies of this panel exist. The following
“Raphaels” may be regarded as the work of Giulio: the _Small Holy
Family with St. Elizabeth_ (No. 1499); the much restored _Saint
Margaret_ (No. 1501); the _Portrait of Joan of Arragon_ (No. 1507),
whom Raphael apparently never saw; and the _Portraits of Two Men
seen to the Bust_ (which has been called _Raphael and his Fencing
Master_) (No. 1508). Giulio certainly painted the _Triumph of Titus
and Vespasian_ (No. 1420), the _Venus and Vulcan_ (No. 1421), and the
_Portrait of a Man_ (No. 1422), which are catalogued under his name,
and in all probability the three large Cartoons entitled _A Triumph_,
_The Triumph of Scipio_, and _The Taking and Burning of a City_, which
hang on the Escalier Daru. The _Circumcision_ (No. 1438) which figures
officially under the name of the Bolognese painter Bartolommeo Ramenghi
(Il Bagnacavallo) (1484-1542) is by Giulio Romano.
The fresco painting of _The Eternal Father_ (No. 1512), which is now
inserted over the door of the Salle des Primitifs (Room VII.), was
certainly executed during the lifetime of Raphael, and probably under
his supervision. It was painted for the chapel attached to the Villa
Magliana, a favourite hunting-box of Pope Leo X., who commissioned it.
It was purchased in 1873 for the large sum of £8280.
From the hand of Giannicola Manni (fl. 1493-1544) come the _Baptism of
Christ_ (No. 1369), the _Assumption_ (No. 1370), the _Adoration of the
Magi_ (No. 1371), and a _Holy Family_ (No. 1372), while a fully signed
_Dead Christ supported by Two Angels_ (No. 1400) is by the mediocre
Umbrian artist Marco Palmezzano (fl. 1456-1538). The latter’s pupil,
Zaganelli da Cottignola (1460?-1531), may have painted the _Christ
bearing His Cross_ (No. 1641) which is catalogued as an unattributable
Italian work.
[Illustration:
PLATE VIII.—RAPHAEL
(1483-1520)