Giovanni Sanzi of Urbino--His son the immortal
Raffaele--Early influences on his mind--Paints at Perugia,
Città di Castello, Siena, and Florence--His visits to
Urbino, and works there.
With GIOVANNI SANZI[*161] we have already made acquaintance
as an epic poet. The patient labour of the Abbé Pungeleoni, and
the critical acumen of Passavant, have amply refuted Malvasia's
spiteful, and Lanzi's careless but often quoted assertions, that
the father of Raffaele was an obscure potter, or, at best, an
indifferent artist, from whom his son could learn little.[162] Those
only who have traced out his pictures in the remote townships and
villages of his native duchy, and who estimate his works by coeval
productions, can appreciate his real merits. Giovanni Sanzi was of
a humble family in the village of Colbordolo, a few miles east of
Urbino, for whose fictitious ancestry of artists there has been
substituted by his painstaking but most puzzle-headed eulogist, a
pedigree of peasantry from the middle of the fourteenth century. The
son of one Sante, he assumed the patronymic Santi or Sanzi, which
was subsequently euphonised by Bembo for his son into Sanzio. His
grandfather Peruzuolo, after his losses by the Malatesta forays
already alluded to,[163] had sold the petty holdings he possessed at
Colbordolo, and removed his family to Urbino, where Sante became a
retail dealer in various wares, and where he seems to have died in
easy circumstances in 1485, nine years before his son. The inquiries
of Pungeleoni have failed to ascertain the time of Giovanni's birth,
but it was probably to these losses that the poet thus touchingly
alludes, in his dedication,[164] as the impulse under which he
became a painter:--"It would be tedious to relate the many straits
and headlong precipices through which I have steered my life since
fate devoured in flames my paternal nest, wherein was consumed all
our substance; but arriving at the age when perhaps inclination
would have led me to some more useful exercise of talent, of the
many lines by which I might have gained a living, I devoted myself
to the marvellous art of painting, which indeed (in addition to the
round of domestic cares, of all human concerns the most ceaseless
torment) imposes a burden heavy even to the shoulders of Atlas,
and in which distinguished profession I blush not to be enrolled."
Neither are we enabled to throw any light upon the lessons to which
Giovanni resorted for instruction in the calling which he thus, at
some sacrifice of material interests, had adopted. The catalogue of
contemporary artificers introduced into his Chronicle, including
all that was eminent from Gentile da Fabriano to Leonardo da Vinci,
shows a most extensive acquaintance with their respective styles, as
well as their names.[165] Mantegna is one of them whom he specially
extols; there is, however, no similarity between their productions.
Yet, though we know nothing of Sanzi's artistic education, the
works which Nelli, Gentile da Fabriano, and Piero della Francesca
left in Urbino must have influenced his early impressions; and it
is singular that nothing is said by them of these, and others who
painted in the duchy, beyond the passing notice bestowed with little
discrimination on all his contemporaries. The marked exclusion
from this list of Justus of Ghent is plausibly conjectured by
Passavant to indicate a professional jealousy of one who treasured
as his secret the so-called oil painting brought by him from
Flanders, and certainly never attained by Giovanni. Sanzi's manner
partakes generally of the Umbrian character,--grave, reflective,
self-possessed, without aiming at dramatic effect or artificial
embellishment, yet not deficient in variety, or graceful expression.
More severe than Perugino, he approaches the serious figures of
Melozzo da Forlì, but subdues their naturalism by an infusion of
devotional sincerity and simple feeling. He is partial to slender
forms and delicately drawn feet and hands, but the contours are dark
and hard, the flesh-tints dull and heavy, tending to cold gray in the
shadows, and generally deficient in middle tints and reflections.
His female faces are oval, often of a dusky complexion, and their
foreheads singularly full. In the nude, he was in advance of his
age, and in landscape he attained great proficiency. Pungileone
enumerates about twenty of his pictures, many of them still in their
original sites, and exhibiting considerable inequality of merit.
But his _capo-d'opera_, and one of the most important monuments of
Umbrian art, is the fresco in the Tiranni chapel, at S. Domenico
of Cagli. In the recess over the altar is the Madonna, enthroned
between two angels, in one of whom is understood to be portrayed
the young Raffaele, then a child of eight or nine years old. At the
sides stand Saints Peter, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, and
John Baptist. On the lunette above, Christ has just emerged from his
tomb in the mountain rock: a glorious Deity, the conqueror of death,
he bears in his left hand the banner of salvation, while his right
is raised to bless a redeemed world, and scattered around lie six
guards asleep, foreshortened in various and difficult attitudes. The
vaulted roof displays a choir of angelic children, sounding their
instruments and chanting songs of glory to the Saviour, who occupies
its centre, holding the book of life: and on the external angles
are small medallions of the Annunciation. There is, perhaps, no
contemporary painting superior to this in grandeur of composition and
stately pose of the figures; nor is it less admirable for novelty of
composition and variety and ease of movement. The design is at once
correct and flowing, and the expression, though fervid, oversteps not
truth and nature. Passavant well observes that the breadth, vigour,
and dexterous treatment of this painting proved its author to have
been well practised in fresco, although but one other such work of
his has escaped destruction or whitewash. In his house at Urbino,
there is a small mural painting, removed many years since from the
ground-floor to the first story, which tradition fondly claims as a
boyish production of Raffaele, but which Passavant ascribes to Sanzi,
conjecturing it to represent his wife and child. It is impossible to
pronounce a satisfactory judgment as to the master, from the load of
over-painting in oil. Though called a Madonna and Child, it seems
rather a gentle mother, who, having hushed her babe to sleep upon
her knee, reads from the breviary on a stand by her seat, and the
composition and attitudes present a charming naïveté and natural
expression. Connoisseurs agree in rejecting its claims as a work of
Raffaele; nor does it quite resemble his father's usual type, though
it is difficult to substitute any more plausible theory for the
conclusion of Passavant. The reader may form his own judgment from
the accompanying outline, bearing in mind that much of the drapery
belongs to the pencil of a merciless restorer.
[Footnote *161: See works quoted p. 138, note *1 _supra_.]
[Footnote 162: _Elogio Storico di Giovanni Santi_; Rafael von Urbino.
The few facts of importance which the Abbé's microscopic researches
have ascertained are scarcely extricable from the confusion that
prevails in his eulogy and its accompanying, or rather darkening,
notes. The catalogue of Sanzi's works is useful to travellers, though
sadly deficient in judicious criticism. The good Padre was more able
to appreciate a mouldering MS. than a fine painting.]
[Footnote 163: See vol. I., p. 94.]
[Footnote 164: See it already described at p. 138.]
[Footnote 165: See Appendix III.]
[Illustration: Rafaello Sanzi di Anni Sei nato il dì 6 apr. 1483
Sanzi Padre dipinse
_Gio. Sanzi pinx._ _L. Ceroni sculp._
RAPHAEL, AGED SIX YEARS
_From a picture once in the possession of James Dennistoun_]
* * * * *
Such was the father to whom there was born at Urbino, on the 6th of
April, 1483,[*166] a son RAFFAELE[167]; the superiority of
whose qualities to those of preceding artists, and to ordinary men,
has been acknowledged in several languages by the epithet "divine."
Although ever the object of pride and popularity to all Italy, the
incidents of his life have, until of late years, been comparatively
neglected, and more ample justice has been rendered to his fame by
ultramontane than by native biographers. Vasari's narrative, though
compiled with more than his usual pains, and lavish in laudatory
epithets, is far from satisfactory. Its author was the partial
historian of a rival school, the favourite pupil of its jealous head.
As a Florentine, moreover, he was bound by Italian usage to keep in
shadow the merits of all "foreign" competitors and teachers. Raffaele
he never saw, whose best pupils had left Rome ere Vasari visited the
eternal city: with his Apennine home, its records and memorials, the
latter had probably no personal acquaintance. While, therefore, we
own our obligations to the writer of Arezzo for many important facts
and valuable criticisms, we feel surprised that during above two
centuries no attempt was made to supplement his obvious deficiencies.
[Footnote *166: The works on Raphael would fill a library. In
addition to the usual sources of information, see--
BRANCA, _L'ingegno l'arte e l'amore di R. e la nevrosi del
suo genio_ (Firenze, 1895).
CAMPORI, _Notizie ined. di R. tratte da docum. dell.
archivio palatino di Modena_ (Modena, 1862).
CAMPORI, _Notizie e docum. per la vita di Giov. Santi e di
R._ (Modena, 1870).
CROWE & CAVALCASELLE, _Raphael: His Life and Works_ (London,
1882-1885).
FUA, _Raffaello e la Corte di Urbino_, in _Italia
Artistica_, An. IV., p. 178 _et seq._
MUNTZ, _R. sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps_ (Paris, 1881).
MUNTZ, _Raphael: His Life, Works, and Times_. Edited by Sir
W. Armstrong (London, 1896).
ALIPPI, _Un nuovo documento int. a R._ (Urbino, 1880).
ROSSI, _La casa e lo stemma di R._, in _Arch. St. dell'arte_
(Roma), An. I., fasc. I.
ANON., _La Casa di R. in Roma_, in _Arte e Storia_
(Firenze), An. VI., No. 17.
RICCI, _La Gloria d'Urbino_ (Bologna, 1898).
ANON., Notice of a portrait of R. in the collection of James
Dennistoun (Edinburgh, 1842).]
[Footnote 167: We have already accounted for the change of his
surname to Sanzio, at p. 216. His Christian name, in modern Italian
Raffaello, seems to have been spelt by himself Raphællo and Raffaele.
*Raphael was born on Good Friday, 28 March, 1483.]
[Illustration: _Anderson_
RAPHAEL
_After the portrait by himself in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence_]
Another meagre life of Raffaele, composed soon after his death, and
upon which Vasari seems to have drawn largely, was published by
Comolli in 1790, from an anonymous MS.
It may be well to preface these observations by borrowing a passage
of equal aptness and eloquence from an able review of Passavant's
work.[168]
[Footnote 168: _British and Foreign Review_, vol. XIII., p. 248.]
"We may doubt whether in the whole range of modern history, or
within the compass of modern Europe, one moment or one spot could
be found more singularly propitious than those which glory in
Raffaele's birth. He was happy in his parentage and in his patrons,
in his master and in his pupils, in his friends and in his rivals:
the first misfortune of his life was its rapid and untimely close.
He was late enough to profit by the example, early enough to feel
the living influence of four of the greatest masters of his art, of
Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Giorgione, and Fra Bartolomeo. The
art of painting in oil had been introduced into Italy barely half a
century before his birth; its technical difficulties were already
mastered, but it still awaited a master's hand to develop its latent
capabilities. His short life included the Augustan age of papal Rome,
the age of its splendour and magnificence, if not of its power, and
he died almost before the far-off sound of the rising storm had
broken the religious calm, or foretold the coming miseries of Italy.
The two pontiffs whom he served out-shone the most illustrious of
their predecessors in their luxurious tastes and lavish patronage
of the fine arts; and these arts still served the Church, not only
with the grateful zeal of favoured children, but with the earnest
devotion of undoubting faith.... In the age of Raffaele, while the
rich and often graceful legends of the Catholic mythology still
retained their ancient hold on the popular belief, the growing taste
among the learned of the day for the literature and philosophy of
ancient Greece had done much, by softening their early rudeness ere
it chilled their early feeling, to mould them to the higher purposes
of art. Christian art too, relinquishing at last her long attachment
to traditional types and conventional treatment, was willing to
exchange a fruitless opposition to the graces and beauties of ancient
art, for a bold attempt to enlist them in her service."
In truth, when we examine the character and the times of those men
who have left the stamp of their genius most deeply on the mind or
destinies of mankind, we generally find a providential adaptation
of the one to the other. So was it with the greatest masters of
art. Had Michael Angelo appeared a century sooner, he would have
found the public unprepared, by a gradual advance of naturalism,
for the revolution which he was destined to bring about. They would
have seen in him the terrible, without perceiving how much truth
accompanied it. Deprived of the sympathy and encouragement which no
wayward spirit ever more demanded, he would have failed to achieve
the marvellous, and might have perhaps scarcely risen above the
monstrous. Leonardo da Vinci could, in any epoch, have given sweet or
intellectual qualities to beautifully moulded features, but instead
of enlightening the world upon the theory and practice of his art,
and developing the infant powers of mathematical engineering, he
might in an earlier age have been an alchymist, in a later one the
improver of spinning-jennies. Titian, who would have been cramped by
the lessons of a Crivelli, grew to manhood ere the league of Cambray
had curbed the golden coursers of St. Mark's; and thus he formed
his beau-ideal of noble bearing ere the subjects for his pencil had
ceased to be the arbiters of Italy, the merchant-princes of the
world. A mind such as Raffaele's, would in all circumstances have
found or created materials of beauty. He might have been the purest
of devotional painters in the days of Giotto, a reformer of corrupted
taste in those of Bernini; but, placed on the confines of the old
manner and the new, it was his proud distinction to perfect them both.
Our antecedent remarks on the Umbrian masters have afforded us data
for ascertaining the state of painting in the duchy at the advent
of Raffaele. There were, indeed, few pictures within its bounds
upon which the youthful aspirant might form an exalted style, but
in his father he possessed an instructor competent to point out
all that was worthy of study among contemporary limners, as well
as to initiate him in the mechanism of his profession.[169] Too
early was he deprived of this advantage,[*170] but not before he
had been the companion of his parent's labours. Whilst we refuse to
even his precocious genius the credit of working upon the fresco at
Cagli,[171] the introduction of his portrait into it proves that he
witnessed its progress. It was perhaps on similar opportunities that
he imbibed, before the beautiful Madonnas of Romita and Forano, those
purely devotional inspirations which are believed to have influenced
his earlier and happier creations.[172]
[Footnote 169: See Appendix IV.]
[Footnote *170: Giovanni died when Raphael was eleven, in 1494.]
[Footnote 171: See above, p. 218.]
[Footnote 172: See above, p. 195-6.]
With a mind thus prepared, and with the encouraging example of the
Feltrian court, where talent and genius were sure passports to
patronage and distinction, he was sent to study at Perugia soon after
his father's death. This bereavement, which clouded his domestic
peace not less than his artistic prospects, occurred in 1494, and
was immediately followed by the loss of his maternal grandfather
and grandmother, leaving him in the hands of a selfish and litigious
stepmother. At this juncture, his guardian and paternal uncle
Bartolomeo judiciously selected as a master for him Pietro Vannucci,
called Perugino,[*173] the tender melancholy of whose candid and
unimpassioned countenances contradict Vasari's wanton libels on
his fair name, not less than a motto on his self-limned portrait,
first noted by Mr. Ruskin, which indicates his belief that the fear
of God is the foundation of artistic excellence.[*174] Whatever
difference of opinion regarding the merits of that painter may have
originated in the occasional inequality of the works attributed to
him, no contemporary sent forth more scholars of excellence, or so
faithfully maintained the integrity of Christian sentiment against
ever increasing innovations. Unfortunately we are possessed of no
authentic particulars regarding the interval which young Sanzio spent
in a studio so congenial to his nature, or the paintings in which
he had a hand; and thus those years most important to the formation
of his character and style are a blank in his biography.[*175] At
Perugia and elsewhere there are a few devotional pictures ascribed
to him, by tradition or as signed with his initials; but even were
their authenticity less doubtful, their insignificance and entire
conformity to the type of Perugino would almost remove them from
criticism. The admitted fact that Pinturicchio, a man of high genius,
and about thirty years his senior, had recourse to the beardless
Raffaele for designs, when employed to paint the cathedral-library
at Siena, establishes thus early the two leading features of his
after life, supereminent ability and conciliatory manners; and two
of these drawings remain to prove how superior were the conceptions
of the boy, to the execution of his matured comrade, excellent as
that beyond all question is. He probably attended Perugino to Fano
in 1497, when painting those lovely altar-pieces in S. Maria Nuova,
which yield to no other production of his placid and expressive
pencil, although we can scarcely accept a tradition which ascribes
to the pupil some Madonna groups in the predella, upon the ground of
their excelling his master's capacity.
[Footnote *173: This is not so. The first master of Raphael was
Timoteo Viti, who, having left home in 1490 to enter Francia's
workshop, returned to Urbino in April, 1495. Timoteo was then
twenty-six years old. There is a beautiful portrait of him by himself
in the British Museum. The first undoubted work of Raphael, probably
painted while he was a pupil of Timoteo, is the _Vision of a Knight_,
in the National Gallery. Having served his apprenticeship to Timoteo,
Raphael entered the most famous workshop in Umbria--one of a crowd of
pupils--that of Perugino.]
[Footnote *174: The suggestion that Perugino was an atheist, and died
without the Sacraments of the Church, rests on no good foundation.]
[Footnote *175: The first independent picture which he painted after
coming to Perugia was the _Crucifixion_, now in the possession of Mr.
Ludwig Mond. This was painted in 1501 or early in 1502, because the
Vitelli for whom it was painted were driven out of Città di Castello
in the latter year. I know nothing of any return to Urbino in 1499.
He went back in 1504.]
[Illustration: _Alinari_
MADONNA AND CHILD
_After the picture by Giovanni Santi, in the Pinacoteca of Urbino_]
Raffaele is supposed to have returned in 1499 to a home where he
found few attractions. The moment was unpropitious for attracting
the ducal patronage. Guidobaldo had retired from the Bibbiena
campaign invalided and dispirited; the descent of French armies upon
Italy banished from his thoughts the congenial pursuits of peace,
and he repaired to Venice to take part in the coming strife. There
was little inducement for the young Sanzio to establish himself
at the board of an ungracious stepmother, so he set forth to try
his fortunes at the neighbouring capital of Vitelli, and Città di
Castello was enriched by the first works undertaken on his own
account. One of these, S. Nicolò di Tolentino crowned by the Madonna,
has disappeared in the rapine of the French revolutionary invasion;
but another altar-picture of the Crucifixion, lately obtained
from the Fesch Gallery by Lord Ward, enables us to appreciate
this artist's extraordinary promise. But for the name RAPHAEL
URBINAS, this would probably be ranked with the works of
Perugino in which he was assisted by his pupil; and such as best
know the paintings of that master at his happiest moment, can most
appreciate the compliment of classing with them the unaided though
imitative efforts of a lad of seventeen. The Sposalizio of the
Madonna, abstracted from Città di Castello by the French, and now at
Milan, is of four years later date, being marked 1504; but it was
little more than a repetition of a similar work of his master, which,
during the same havoc, was carried across the Alps, and remains at
Caen in Normandy.[*176] The only specimen of his pencil still in the
city which was the cradle of his fame, is a processional standard of
the _confraternita de' giustiziati_ in Trinity Church, representing
on its two sides the Trinity with Christ on the Cross, and the
Creation of Eve.[*177] Though a mere wreck, it shows a novelty of
composition and a delicacy of execution already distinguishing him
from the manner of Perugino.
[Footnote *176: This work is a copy of Raphael's picture by Lo
Spagna. Cf. BERENSON, _The Study and Criticism of Italian
Art_, vol. II., p. 1-22.]
[Footnote *177: The only work of Raphael's left in Perugia is the
fresco of Christ and Saints, in St. Severo, 1505.]
The fame of these maiden efforts spread along the valley of the
Tiber, and the novice was soon recalled to Perugia, to paint for the
Oddi family an altar-piece of the Coronation of the Madonna, now with
its predella in the Vatican Gallery. In rich and varied composition,
it excels all antecedent representations of this favourite Umbrian
theme, and establishes a decided advance beyond the standard of
beauty adopted by Perugino. Now, too, he began his wonderful series
of small devotional pictures, embodying the Madonna in conceptions of
beauty which none other but the sainted limner of Fiesole has ever
approached. On this his first emancipation from Umbria, he became
acquainted with the classicism and naturalism then revolutionising
art. At Siena, his perception of beauty was gratified by an exquisite
Grecian statuary group of the Graces, which he transferred to his
tablets, and afterwards reproduced in a picture. Tempted by the
proximity of Florence, he seems to have then glanced at, rather
than examined, those new elements which Masaccio and Verocchio had
introduced, and which a host of able masters were enthusiastically
developing.[178]
[Footnote 178: The frequent contradictions of the many writers upon
Raffaele throw a doubt upon most of his movements. Our rapid sketch
has been compiled after a careful comparison of authorities, which
we cannot stay to criticise or reconcile. *In 1504 Raphael went to
Florence. The assertion that he accompanied Pinturicchio to Siena
seems a mere invention of Sienese municipal vanity.]
[Illustration: _Alinari_
ECCE HOMO
_From the picture by Giovanni Santi in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino_]
The miserable state of his native duchy, as well as his many
professional engagements, fully accounts for his prolonged absence
from it; but a better state of things was now restored, of which
he hastened to avail himself. He reached Urbino in 1504, before
midsummer of which year, the Duke had returned to enjoy a tranquil
home, for the first time during above two years. The visit was well
timed, and fraught with important results to the young painter, for,
besides sharing his sovereign's patronage, he became known to his
sister, widow of the Lord Prefect, and to her son, who was about that
time formally adopted as the future Lord of Urbino. The accession of
Julius II., uncle to this youth, and his partiality to art, opened
up a wide field of promise to one thus favourably introduced to the
Pope's nearest relatives. But these dazzling prospects, and the
charms of a cultivated court, were postponed to that professional
improvement for which he thirsted; and, after executing some minor
commissions for Guidobaldo, the young Sanzio hastened back to
the banks of the Arno, where the muse of painting was rewarding
the worship of her ardent and talented votaries with revelations
of high art rarely before or since vouchsafed. The favour he had
already earned from the Prefectress is testified by the following
recommendation, which he received from her on setting out.
"To the magnificent and lofty Lord, regarded with
filial respect, the Lord Gonfaloniere of Justice of the
distinguished republic of Florence.[179]
"Magnificent and lofty Lord, respected as a father! The
bearer hereof will be Raffaele, painter of Urbino, who,
having a fine genius for his profession, has resolved to
stay some time at Florence for study. And knowing his
father to be very talented, and to possess my particular
regard, and the son to be a judicious and amiable youth, I
in every way love him greatly, and desire his attainment
in good proficiency. I therefore recommend him to your
Lordship, in the strongest manner possible, praying you,
as you love me, that you will please to afford him every
assistance and favour that he may chance to require; and
whatever such aids and obligations he may receive from
your Lordship, I shall esteem as bestowed on myself, and
as meriting my special gratitude. I commend myself to your
Lordship.
"From Urbino, 1st October, 1504.
"JOANNA FELTRIA DE RUVERE, Ducissa Soræ et Urbis
Prefectissa."
[Footnote 179: Pietro Sodarini, Gonfaloniere for life. The original
in Latin is printed in BOTTARI'S _Lettere sulla Pittura_,
I., 1. A loose expression might lead to the conclusion that Giovanni
Sanzi was still alive, though he died in 1494; and on the strength of
it, Rosini raises doubts as to the authenticity of the letter, or the
identity of the painter, in which we cannot join.]
This letter probably obtained him more civility than substantial
benefit; as his various Florentine works attributed to this period
were commissioned by private parties. Among these was Taddeo Taddei,
correspondent of Bembo, and a well known friend of letters, for whom
he painted the Madonna del Cardellino and another Holy Family, and of
whose hospitalities and many favours he expresses a deep sense, in
recommending him to his uncle's good offices at Urbino, whither the
Florentine probably repaired to visit its famed court. Other kind
friends and patrons were Lorenzo Nasi and Angelo Doni; but his chief
object seems to have been the society and instructions of the best
painters, which the acquaintance of his early master Perugino with
Florence, as well as his own winning manners, must have facilitated.
Leonardo da Vinci, whom Giovanni Sanzi couples with Perugino, as
"Two youths of equal years and equal love,"
was then at the height of his fame, and in direct competition with
Michael Angelo, the eventual rival of Raffaele, whose energetic
genius was already striding forward on his ambitious career.
Fra Bartolomeo was adapting their new and advanced style to the
devotional feeling which hung around his cloister in the frescoes
of Beato Angelico. Domenico Ghirlandaio was dead, but his mantle
had fallen on a son Ridolfo, whom the young Sanzio selected as
his favourite associate, to the mutual advantage of both. In such
companionship did Raffaele study the grand creations of preceding
painters; borrowing from them, or from living artists, ideas and
expedients which his fertile genius reproduced with original
embellishments. The influence of Da Vinci may be distinctly detected
on some of his Madonnas and portraits of this period,--that of the
Dominican monk on others, and on his general colouring; but the
fresco of the former at S. Onofrio, and many works of the latter,
prove that they reciprocated the obligation, by freely adopting
his design. Early prepossessions as yet kept him exempt from the
contagion of mythological compositions; but in portraiture he found
a new and interesting field, and several admirable heads, produced
at Florence, attest his great success, as a naturalist of the most
elevated caste.
[Illustration: _Alinari_
S. SEBASTIAN
_After the picture by Timoteo Viti in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino_]
In an æsthetic view, the paintings and drawings executed by Raffaele
at Florence are of infinite importance, but it would lead us much too
far to examine the progressive development and naturalist tendencies
which they display. We have not attempted to separate his various
residences there from 1504 to 1508; for during these three years and
a half, that city may be regarded as his head-quarters, varied by
visits to Perugia, Bologna, and Urbino, which we shall now notice.
In 1505, he was summoned to the first of these cities to execute
three altar-pictures; one of which, at Blenheim, has been beautifully
engraved by Gruner[*180]; another adorns the Museo Borbonico; the
third, representing the coronation of the Madonna, is in the Vatican.
Of the last commission some curious particulars are preserved.
The nuns of Monte Luce having selected the young Sanzio, on the
report of several citizens and reverend fathers, who had seen his
performances, agreed to give him for the picture 120 golden ducats,
and to another artist, Berto, 80 more for the carved framework and
cornice, including three predella subjects; 30 ducats of the price
being paid in advance. Raffaele's impatience to return to his studies
soon carried him again to Florence, and a new contract for execution
of the work was made in 1516; but death had removed both the abbess
and the artist ere it was fulfilled, and ten years more elapsed
before the picture was terminated by his pupils. The earliest attempt
of Raffaele upon fresco, in the church of S. Severo, at Perugia,
is dated 1505; its chief interest arises from being a first and
incompleted idea of the grand composition which, originating with
Orcagna and Fra Angelico, he developed in the Disputa of the Vatican
Stanze. Two years later he revisited Perugia, to paint for the
Baglioni one of his noblest and most elaborate altar-pictures, which,
indeed, may be regarded as his first important dramatic composition.
Its subject was the Entombment; the many extant sketches for which,
prove the care exercised upon the cartoon, which he prepared at
Florence. It is now the chef-d'oeuvre of the Borghese Gallery, and
its beautifully pure predella is preserved in the Vatican. The
same subject was treated by Perugino, in, perhaps, the finest of his
panel pictures, which now ornaments the Pitti Gallery.
[Footnote *180: Now in the National Gallery.]
[Illustration: _Alinari_
MARGHERITA "LA FORNARINA"
_After the picture by Raphael called La Donna Velata in the Pitti
Gallery, Florence_]
We shall not discuss whether Raffaele's acquaintance with Francia
was formed by correspondence, or during a visit to Bologna, but
one letter addressed by him to that charming artist is preserved,
referring to much previous intercourse, and to a friendly interchange
of drawings, and of their respective portraits. Their works, at all
events, were mutually well known to each other, partly no doubt
through Timoteo Viti, the pupil of both. It is worthy of note that
Sanzio, writing to this friend after quitting Florence, the hotbed of
classicism and naturalism, commends his Madonnas as "unsurpassed in
beauty, in devotion, or in execution," thus showing the comparative
value he attached to these respective excellences, among which
"truth to nature," the favourite test of Vasari and later critics,
has no place; and it is only when he comes to speak of the artist's
own portrait, that he lauds it as "most beautiful, and life-like
even to deception." It was this common sentiment that linked these
master-minds: Raffaele was in the main a devotional painter, Francia
was almost exclusively so.
The year 1506 was momentous to Urbino. In the spring Guidobaldo
returned, after a long absence from his capital, occasioned by
pressing solicitations of his brother-in-law the Pope, that he would
remain near him. The following autumn brought the Pontiff in person
to visit his relation, at whose court his Holiness spent four days.
During part of this year, Raffaele is supposed by Passavant to have
resided in his native city, and possibly he may there have been
presented to Julius; at all events he must have become known to
several members of the polished circle at Urbino, whose acquaintance
ere long proved useful and honourable to him at Rome, and who
were able to forward his interests, both with that Pope and his
successor. Such were Giuliano de' Medici, Castiglione, Bembo, and the
Cardinal Bibbiena, while the high tone of intellect and taste, which
prevailed in that select society, was calculated to improve as well
as gratify his noble nature. Nor was his pencil idle in the Duke's
service. Our information does not enable us absolutely to decide what
of his Urbino works were produced on this occasion, and which of them
are referable to his former visit, but we willingly adopt Passavant's
classification of the pictures he is supposed to have painted for
Guidobaldo, the first three being ascribed by that author to the year
1504.
1. Christ in the Garden, with three disciples sleeping in the
distance, No. VIII. of Passavant's Engravings, a Peruginesque
picture, "of miniature finish" as described by Vasari, before whose
time it had passed to the Camaldolese Convent at Urbino, having been
gifted by Duchess Leonora to two members of that fraternity at her
son's baptism. Long subsequently, a prior of the Gabrielli is said
to have alienated it to his own family; and in 1844 it was purchased
from the Roman prince of that name by Mr. William Coninghame, at the
sale of whose interesting collection in 1849, it was acquired by Mr.
Fuller Maitland of Stansted in Essex.
2. and 3. Two small pictures which, unless commissioned as _ex voto_
offerings, belong rather to the class of romantic than devotional
compositions. They represent St. George and St. Michael subduing
their respective monsters, allegories of their triumphs over sin. The
former of these is supposed to have been executed for Guidobaldo, and
presented by him to the French King, by whom the latter was ordered
as its companion. Both remain in the Louvre.
4. Another St. George slaying the Dragon with a lance, while the
former one uses a sword. This picture, signed on the horse trappings
RAPHELLO V., is of especial interest to our countrymen,
the Knight's knee being encircled by the Garter of England, as patron
of that order: it was painted by the Duke's command in commemoration
of his receiving this distinction; and in all probability was
carried as a present to Henry VII. by Castiglione, in 1506, when
he went to London as proxy at his master's installation. There it
graced the palace of the Tudors and Stuarts until sold for £150 by
the Commonwealth to Lord Pembroke. It was subsequently purchased
by Catherine of Russia from the Crozat Collection, in which it is
engraved.
[Illustration: _Anderson_
MARGHERITA LA FORNARINA
_After the spoiled picture by Raphael in the Galleria Barberini in
Rome_]
5. and 6. Two easel pictures of the Madonna, stated by Vasari to have
been commissioned for the Duke of Urbino, are traced by Passavant
to the Imperial Gallery at St. Petersburg, and to M. Nieuwenhuys of
Brussels.
7. The portrait of Raffaele by himself, now in the Florence Gallery,
is understood to have been executed at Urbino in 1506, whence it was
carried to Rome by Federigo Zucchero, and placed in the academy of
St. Luke, until obtained thence by the influence and gold of Cardinal
Lorenzo de' Medici. Passavant considers that the hair and eyes have
been darkened by restorations, and corrects a mistake of the Canonico
Crespi, who has occasioned some confusion by mistaking an old copy of
it still in the Albani Palace at Urbino for a fresco, and by writing
to Bottari in 1760 as if he had there discovered an original likeness
of Sanzio.[*181]
[Footnote *181: None of these pictures save the last seems to be from
Raphael's hand.]
The Holy Family and St. John in the Ellesmere Collection, called the
Madonna del Passeggio, is alleged to have been presented by a duke of
Urbino to Philip II., and by him to the Emperor. Thence it is traced
through Queen Christina to the Odescalchi and Orleans Galleries.
Passavant appears to consider the Penshanger Madonna to have also
been painted in the duchy. To the same period are ascribed missing
portraits by Sanzio of Duke Guidobaldo I. and his Duchess, as well
as of Bembo, Giuliano de' Medici, and others of their court.
Though somewhat out of chronological order, we may here mention
the portrait of a duke of Urbino, with those of Julius II., and a
Magdalene, all said to have been from his easel, and to have belonged
to the ducal family, particulars of which will be found in the list
of Urbino pictures in the Appendix to our third volume. It, however,
seems doubtful if he ever did portray either of his successive
legitimate sovereigns; but a half-length of Lorenzo de' Medici, the
usurping Duke, was purchased in Florence by the late M. Fabre about
twenty-five years ago, and is now in the museum bequeathed by him to
Montpellier. It is ascribed to Raffaele, and there is a good copy of
it in the hall of Baroccio at the Uffizi of Florence. We have not
connected any other works of his with Urbino, which, after the visit
of 1506, he was not destined again to see.
Writing from Florence to his maternal uncle, on the 21st of April,
1508, he expresses his regrets for the recent death of Guidobaldo, in
brief and somewhat common-place terms; and, passing to other matters,
begs that the Duke's nephew and heir may be requested to recommend
by letter his services to the Gonfaloniere, for employment on some
frescoes then in contemplation at Florence. He desires that the
favour may be asked in his own name, as essentially advantageous to
his views, specially commending himself to the young Prefect as an
old servant and follower. Yet it would seem that he had already made
for himself a better title to such patronage, in a mural painting of
the Last Supper in the refectory of S. Onofrio. The recent discovery
of this precious work, after centuries of oblivion, restores to him
the credit of his most important Tuscan production, and adds another
to the many attractions of Florence.[*182]
[Footnote *182: This is not by Raphael.]