RAPHAEL THE ILLUSTRATIONS CONTAINED IN THIS WORK HAVE BEEN ENGRAVED ON WOOD FROM DRAWINGS BY MM. R. BALZE, S. BARCLAY, G. BELLANGER, H. CHARTIER GOUTZWILLER, RONJAT AND THIRIAT, OR REPRODUCED BY THE PROCESSES OF MM. BRAUN, DUJARDIN, GILLOT, GUILLAUME AND QUINSAC. TL.Sanz.io, del? RAPHAEL FROM THE FRENCH ; OF EVG fcNE MUNTZ, LIBRARIAN TO THE ECOLE NATIOXALE DES BEAUX-ARTS. ILLUSTRATED WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR ENGRAVINGS IN THE TEXT, AND FORTY-THREE FULL-PAGE PLATES. EDITED BY WALTER ARMSTRONG, B.A. Oxon., AUTHOR OF " ALFRRD STEVENS," ETC. fjtnfeon : C H A P M A N A N D H A L L. Limited. 11, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1882. LONDON : I!. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL, E.C. THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM LIBRARY PBEBACE. No apology is needed for offering to the English-speaking public a new biography of Kaphael Sanzio. The great work of Passavant, complete though it was for the period at which it was written, can no longer be held to be a conclusive account of the life and life's work of the Roman painter. The researches made by himself and others among the documentary records of Italian history have enabled M. Muntz to correct the narrative of the German savant in several important particulars ; while the general advance in our critical knowledge of Italian art has helped him to form judgments upon disputed points of connois- seurship which will, perhaps, be more acceptable than those of previous biographers. The illustrations comprise nearly every work of great importance by the master, and by the courtesy of Mr. Louis Fagan, we have been enabled to give, as a frontispiece, an engraved facsimile of one of the most exquisite of his drawings, the study, now in the British Museum, for the heads of the Virgin and Child in the small picture formerly belonging to Mr. Samuel Rogers, and now in the possession of Mr. R. J. Macintosh. The woodcut on page 376, of the com- position known as the Madonna di Loretto is taken from an old but poor copy in the Louvre. Another and far finer example of the same composition has been recently deposited in the South Kensington Museum by Dr. Axell Lamm, of VI Preface. Stockholm. . In most qualities of design and execution this latter work is not unworthy of the master, and, in spite of a certain lack of depth and intensity in the expression, which betrays the hand of a pupil, it is much the most satisfactory example of this Madonna which we have been able to discover. In this English version of M. Muntz's work, we have made no attempt to follow any rigid law in the matter of names either of places, of individuals, or of works of art. We have given them in the colloquial forms which custom has sanctioned, some being anglicised, others left in the original Italian, and a few, by an oversight for which the editor is not responsible, in their French disguise. W. A. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PACK The town of Urbino and the Montefeltro dynasty. — The Santi family. — Giovanni Santi. — Birth of Raphael. — First impressions and earliest efforts. — Death of Giovanni Santi. — Departure of Raphael for Perugia 1 — 24 CHAPTER II. Raphael at Perugia. — Perugino and the Umbrian School. — The Cambio Frescoes.— Joint works of Perugino and Raphael. — Return of Perugino to Florence 25 — 51 CHAPTER III. The earliest original productions of Raphael. — His works at Perugia and at Citta di Castello. Madonnas and Holy Families. — The Coronation of the Virgin. — The Sposalizio 53 — 82 CHAPTER IV. Journey of Raphael to Siena. — Pinturicchio's Frescoes in the Dome Library. — The group of the Three Graces. — First contact with Antiquity. — The old Siena School and Sodoma. — The Vision of a Knight 83— 98 CHAPTER V. Return of Raphael to Urbino in 1504. — Guidobaldo's Court. — The St. Michael and St. George in the Louvre. — The Book of Studies in the Venetian Academy ' 99 — 120 Vlll Contents. CHAPTER VI. PAGE Raphael at Florence. — The Florentine Republic and the Arts. — Models, Old and New. — Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Fra Bartolommeo. — Protectors, friends, and rivals of Raphael . . 121 — 153 Raphael at Florence (sequel). — -Madonnas and Holy Families . . . 155—200 Raphael at Florence (sequel) : portraits. — Return to Perugia in 1505 : the Fresco of San Severo ; the retable of St. Anthony ; the Ansidei Madonna. — Visit to Urbino in 1506 : portraits ; the Three Graces. — J ourney to Bologna. — Return to Florence : Apollo and Marsyas ; St. Catherine ; the Entombment. — Return to Urbino in 1507. — Departure for Rome 201 — 252 CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. Raphael at Rome. — The Eternal City in the beginning of the sixteenth century. — Julius II. and the Pontifical Court : prelates, scholars, great nobles, and bankers. — The world of Artists 253—302 CHAPTER X. Raphael in the service of Julius II. — The Camera della Segnatura. Raphael's poetry 303—355 CHAPTER XI. Raphael in the service of Julixis II. (continued). — Chamber of Heliodorus. — Pictures for Private Individuals. — Madonnas and Holy Families. — The IsaiaJi. — Portraits. — First Engravings of Marc-Antonio 357 - 392 CHAPTER XII. Leo X. and the New Pontifical Court .... 393—418 Contents. IX CHAPTER XIII. PAGE Painting in the Vatican under Leo X. — Completion of the Chamber of Helioclorus. — The Chamber of the Incendio del Boryo. — The Loggia. — The Bathroom of Bibbiena. — Frescoes of the Magliana. — The Hall of Constantine 419—454 CHAPTER XIV. Raphael's Cartoons. — Decorative Designs 455 — 485 CHAPTER XV. Raphael and Agostino Chigi ; the Galatea.— The Sibyls. — The Planets. —The Story of Psyche 487—510 CHAPTER XVI. Cil Paintings executed under Leo X. : the Madonna della Sedia, the Pearl, the Holy Family of Francis J., the Madonna di San Sisto. — The Vision of Ezekiel. — Christ bearing His Cross. — St. Cecilia, St. Margaret, St. John in the Desert, St. Michael. — The Transfiguration. — Portraits 511 — 541 CHAPTER XVII. Raphael as Architect and Sculptor 543 — 564 CHAPTER XVIII. Raphael and the Antique • 565 — 594 CHAPTER XIX. Last years of Raphael. — His Pupils. — The Fornarina. — His Palace and Home Life.- His Will and Death.— Conclusion . ....... 595—621 b LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Heads of Madonna and Child (Drawing in the British Museum) Frontispiece View of Urbino . ' 1 Raphael's House 7 Picture of Raphael and his Mother (a Fresco by Giovanni Santi, preserved in the House of Raphael at Urbino) 11 The Massacre of the Innocents (Drawing preserved at the Venice Academy) 19 Portrait of Raphael (Drawing at the University of Oxford) 23 View of Perugia '27 Portrait of Perugino, by himself ' 48 A Study for " The Resurrection " — The Watchers at the Tomb of Christ to face 48 Study for " The Coronation of the Virgin " (Drawing in the Wicar Museum) 60 Study for one of the Angels in " The Coronation of the Virgin " (Drawing in the Wicar Museum) 63 The Coronation of the Virgin (in the Vatican) 65 Cartoon of the Annunciation (in the Louvre Museum) 71 Study for "The Presentation in the Temple " (Drawing in the University of Oxford) 74 The Marriage of the Virgin (in the Brera Museum, Milan) 79 Siena at the Time of the Renaissance 85 The Group of the Three Graces (Cathedral Library at Siena) 90 Two of the Three Graces.- — Drawing by Raphael (in the Venetian Academy) 91 The Vision of a Knight (National Gallery, London) 97 Study for the St. George in the Louvre (Uffizi Museum) Ill Portrait of a Girl (Drawing in the Academy of Pine Arts, Venice J . . . 116 Portrait of a Girl (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) . . . 117 Portrait of a Girl (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) . . . 118 Portrait of Virgil, from the painting in the ducal palace of Urbino (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) 119 View of Florence at the end of the Fifteenth Century (after a contemporary picture) 123 xii PAGE Sketch of a Fight (Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) 140 Study for the Portrait of Maddalena Doni (Museum of Louvre) . . . . 141 Study for a Madonna (University of Oxford) .165 The Mother and Child (Drawing in the Louvre) 166 Children at Play (on the reverse sheet of the Drawing on page 166) . . . 167 Study for a Virgin (Malcolm Collection) 168 The Virgin of the Grand Duke (Pitti Gallery) 169 The Tempi Madonna (Munich) . . . . . . . ....... . . . . 171 Study for a Madonna (University of Oxford). ... . 1 172 The Little Orleans Madonna (in the Due d'Aumale's Collection) . . . . 173 The Colonna Virgin (Berlin Museum) 175 Study for the Madonna in the Meadow (Albertina Collection) 177 The Madonna in the Meadow (in the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna) . . . . 179 The Madonna del Cardellino (Uffizi Museum) 181 Study for the Madonna del Cardellino (Albertina Collection, Vienna) . . . 182 Study for the Madonna del Cardellino (University of Oxford) 183 Study for the Belle Jardiniere (in M. C. Timbal's Collection) 187 La Belle Jardiniere (Louvre Museum) to face 188 Study for the Madonna in the Bridgewater Gallery (Louvre Museum) . . . 189 The Holy Family of the Casa Canigiani (in the Gallery at Munich) . . . 192 Study for the Holy Family of the Casa Canigiani (in the Due d'Aumale's Collection) 193 Sketch for a Holy Family (Wicar Museum) 195 The Madonna del Baldacchino (Pitti Gallery) 197 Study for the Esterhazy Madonna (Uffizi Museuni) 199 Portrait of Angelo Doni (Pitti Palace) 202 Portrait of Maddalena Doni (Pitti Palace) 203 Head of a Female — Study for the Portrait of a Young Girl (Wicar Museum) to face 204 Study for the Portrait of a Young Girl (Wicar Museum) 205 The Holy Family of the Convent of St. Anthony at Perugia (National Gallery, London) ...207 Portrait of Eaphael (Uffizi Museum) 219 Portrait of a Woman (Uffizi Museum) 221 Study for the St. George at St. Petersburg (Uffizi Museum) ...... 223 Apollo and Marsyas (Mr. Moore's Collection) 226 Study of a Naked Man (Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) 227 St. Catherine of Alexandria (National Gallery, London) 229 Study for a Female Saint (University of Oxford) 231 Study for the Entombment (University of Oxford) ..." 233 Study for the Entombment (Mr. V. Gay's Collection) . -235 Study for the Entombment (Louvre Museum) 238 Study for the Entombment (Mr. Malcolm's Collection) 239 List of Illustrations. xiii PAGE Study for the Entombment (Uffizi Museum) 241 The Entombment (Borghese Gallery, Rome) 243 Faith (Vatican Pinacoteca) 247 Hope (Vatican Pinacoteca) 248 Charity (Vatican Pinacoteca) 249 View of the Vatican in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century (after an old Engraving) 259 Portrait of Julius II. (Uffizi Museum) , 263 Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena (Pitti Palace) 275 Portrait of Inghirami (Pitti Palace) . . . 277 Portrait of Bindo Altoviti (Munich) .........290 Study for the Portrait of Bramante (Louvre Museum) 294 The Camera clella Segnatura (Vatican) . , . . . . 313 First Study for the Dispute of the Sacrament (Windsor Castle Collection) . 318 Study for the Dispute of the Sacrament (Stsedel Museum, FranMort-on-the Maine) 321 Study for the Dispute of the Sacrament (Collection of the Due d'Aumale) to face 322 Study for the Dispute of the Sacrament (Louvre Museum) 325 The Dispute of the Sacrament (Vatican) . to face 326 Study for the School of Athens (Albertina Collection, Vienna) 329 The School of Athens (Vatican) to face 331 Portrait of Raphael and Perugino (from the "School of Athens") .... 339 Study for the Calliope in " The Parnassus " 342 Study for the Dante in " The Parnassus " (Albertina) 343 The Parnassus (Vatican) to face 344 Prudence, Force, and Moderation (Vatican) 344 Gregory IX. Promulgating the Decretals (Vatican) 345 Adam and Eve (Vatican) 346 Apollo and Marsyas (Vatican) 347 The Judgment of Solomon (Vatican) 348 Astronomy (Vatican) 349 Raphael's Autograph (British Museum) 354 Study for a Scene from the Apocalypse (Louvre Museum) 360 Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (Vatican) to face 360 The Mass of Bolsena (Vatican) to face 362 Study for Papal group in the Heliodorus (Louvre Museum) 367 St. Leo and Attila (Vatican) to face 369 The Deliverance of St. Peter (Vatican) to face 370 Commerce (Study for Caryatid in the Stanza d'Eliodoro) (Louvre Museum) . 371 Child supporting the Arms of Julius II. (Academy of St. Luke, Rome) . . 373 The Madonna with the Diadem (Louvre Museum) to face 374 Madonna di Loretto (from a copy preserved in the Louvre Museum) . . . 376 Study for the Madonna, della Casa Alba (Wicar Collection) 378 XIV Ltst of Illustrations. PAGE Study for the Madonna della Casa Alba (Wicar Collection) 379 The Aldohrandini Madonna (National Gallery, London) 380 Study for the Madonna del Pesce (Uffizi Museum) to face 38 i The Madonna di Foligno (Vatican) 383 The Madonna del Pesce (Madrid Museum) : . to face 385 The Fornarina (Barberini Palace) 388 Lucretia (facsimile of the Engraving by Marc-Antonio) 390 The Massacre of the Innocents (facsimile from the Engraving by Marc- Antonio) to face 390 Portrait of Leo X. (Pitti Palace) 400 Study for one of the Groups in the " Incendio del Borgo " (Albertina Collection) to face 422 Study for one of the Figures in the " Incendio del Borgo " (Uffizi Museum) to face 424 The Incendio del Borgo (Vatican) to face 426 Study for a Group in the Battle of Ostia (Albertina Collection) . . to face 428 The Loggia of Raphael 431 God Dividing Light from Darkness (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) .... 434 Joseph Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) . . . 435 Adam and Eve driven from Paradise (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) .... 436 Adam and Eve (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) 437 The Deluge (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) 438 Abraham and the Three Angels (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) 439 The Flight of Lot (Collection of M ; Armand) to face 440 Jacob and Rachel (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) 440 Joseph's Dream (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) 441 The Burning Bush (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) . 442 The Finding of Moses (Loggia, or Raphael's Bible) 443 Raphael's Pupils (from a stucco relief in the Loggia) 444 Pilasters in the Loggia 446 Pilasters in the Loggia 447 The Bathroom of Cardinal Bibbiena (Vatican) 448 The Eternal Father Blessing the World (Louvre Museum) 452 The Battle of Constantine (Vatican) to face 453 The Fates (one of the Tapestry Borders) 456 Faith, Hope, and Charity (one of the Tapestry Borders) 457 The Seasons (one of the Tapestry Borders) 458 The Hours (one of the Tapestry Borders) 459 The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (South Kensington Museuni) . to face 460 Christ's Charge to Peter (South Kensington Museum) to face 462 Study for the Figure of Christ in " The Charge to Peter" (Louvre Museum) 467 Peter and John Healing the Lame Man at the Gate of the Temple (South Kensington Museum) „ .. , „ to face 468 List of Illustrations. xv PAGE The Death of Ananias (South Kensington Museum) to face 470 Elymas the Sorcerer Struck witb Blindness (South Kensington Museum) to face 472 Arms of Leo X. (one of the Tapestry Borders) 473 The Gonfalonier Ridolfi addressing the Florentines (one of the Tapestry Borders) . w 474 Cardinal Giovanni da Medici at the Battle of Ravenna (one of the Tapestry Borders) 475 • The Sacrifice at Lystra (South Kensington Museum) ..... to face 476 Entry of Cardinal Giovanni da Medici into Florence (one of the Tapestry Borders) 476 Study for the Coronation of the Virgin (Oxford University Gallery) . . . 477 St. Paul preaching at Athens (South Kensington Museum) . . . to face 478 Loves Playing in a Wood (facsimile of an Engraving by the Master of the Die) 480 Design for a Bronze Dish (Dresden Gallery) 482 Model for a Perfume Yase (facsimile of Marc -Antonio's Engraving) . . . 483 The Triumph of Galatea (Farnesina) to face 488 Study for the Phrygian Sibyl (University of Oxford) ........ 492 The Sibyls (Santa Maria della Pace) 493 The Dome of the Chigi Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo) 495 The Planet Jupiter (Chigi Chapel) . . .v 496 The Creation of the Stars (Chigi Chapel) 497 Study for one of the Angels in the Chigi Chapel (University of Oxford) to face 498 Love and the Birds (Farnesina) 500 The Psyche Saloon (Farnesina) 501 Venus, Juno, and Ceres (Farnesina) 504 Venus and Jupiter (Farnesina) 505 The Car of Venus (Farnesina) 506 Study for Venus and Psyche (Farnesina) to face 506 Mercury and Psyche Ascending to Olympus (Farnesina) 507 Jupiter and Love (Louvre Museum) to face 508 Mercury in Search of Psyche (facsimile of an Engraving by Marc- Antonio) 509 The Madonna della Sedia (Pitti Palace) to face 512 The Madonna di San Sisto (Dresden Museum) to face 514 The Holy Family of Francis I. (Louvre Museum) 515 Study for the Holy Family of Francis I. (Uflizi Museum) 516 Study for the Holy Family of Francis I. (Uflizi Museum) 517 The Five Saints (Louvre Museum) to face 518 Pieta (or the Dead Christ and his Mother) (Louvre Museum) to face 520 The Vision of Ezekiel (Pitti Palace) 521 Study for Horseman in the Spasimo di Sicilia (Albertina Collection) to face 522 The Spasimo di Sicilia (Madrid Museum) to face 524 XVI List of Illustrations. Pag ft St. Cecilia (Gallery of Bologna): 526 St. Cecilia (facsimile of an Engraving by Marc-Antonio) 527 St. Michael overthrowing Satan (Louvre Museum) to face, 530 The Violinist (Sciarra Palace, Rome) 532 Portrait of Joanna of Aragon (Louvre Museum) 533 Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (Louvre Museum) 534 Portrait of Timoteo della Viti (British Museum) to face, 536 The Transfiguration (Vatican Pinacoteca) to face 540 The Palazzo dell' Aquila (facsimile of an old Engraving) 553 The Pandolfini Palace, Florence 555 Statue of Jonah (Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome) 563 The Judgment of Paris (facsimile of an Engraving by Marc- Antonio) to face 576 Venus at the Bath (facsimile of an Engraving by Marc- Antonio) . . . . 577 The Palace of Raphael and Bramante (facsimile of an old Engraving, . . . 609 CATALOGUE OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF RAPHAEL. FRESCOES. PERUGIA. The Trinity : Convent of San Severo (1505), 211, 213, 214 ROME. VATICAN. The Camera della Segnatura (1508-1511), 310, 312 n. 313, 315, 316, 345, 346, 355, 357, 358, 361, 372, 373, 392, 403, 426, 427, 484, 572, 574 The Dispute of the Sacrament, 127, 144, 157, 174, 213, 283, 296, 306, 311, 316-327, 331, 340, 350, 353, 392, 466, 520, 524, 572 The School of Athens, 51, 224, 296, 302, 311, 316, 327, 329, 331, 333, 337, 339, 340, 341, 351, 392, 466, 472, 565, 572, 573, 575 The Parnassus, 311, 316, 317, 342, 343, 466, 493, 565, 572, 575, 576 Prudence, Force, and Moderation, 311, 317, 344 Justinian Promulgating the Pandects (the Consecration of Civil Law), 311, 344 Gregory IX. Promulgating the Decretals (the Consecration of Canon Law) 311, 344, 345, 359 Adam and Eve, 346, 350 Apollo and Marsyas, 224, 226, 228, 311, 347, 350, 575 The Judgment of Solomon, 311, 348, 350, 391, 443, 523, 573 Astronomy, 311, 349, 350 Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Justice, 174, 311, 316, 317, 350 Alexander Depositing Homer's MS. on the Tomb of Achilles, 311, 575 Augustus Preventing the Friends of Virgil from Purning the yFneid, 311, 575, 576 c xviii Catalogue of the Principal Works of Raphael. The Stanza d'Eliodoro (1511-1514), 312, 357, 359, 361, 362, 364, 370, 372, 373, 392, 573, 574 Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, 268 n. 336, 360, 362, 364, 423, 427, 469 The Mass of Bolsena, 306, 358, 359, 362, 392 The Meeting of St. Leo and Attila, 358, 364-368, 372, 423, 427, 454 The Deliverance of St. Peter, 364, 366, 368, 369, 370, 513 God appearing to Noah, 370 Abraham's Sacrifice, 370, 439 Jacob's Dream, 370, 512 The Burning Bush, 370, 442, 512 Caryatides, 371, 372 Paintings in Camaien, 372, 373 Child supporting the Arms of Julius II. (now in the Academy of St. Luke, at Pome), 373 Paintings of the Belvedere (destroyed), 372 The Chamber of the Stanza dell' Incendio del Borgo (1514-1517), 305 n. 308, 310, 351, 359, 424, 426, 459, 573 The Incendio del Borgo, 305 n. 308, 310, 351, 359, 424, 426, 459, 576 The Battle of Ostia, 139, 424-427 The Coronation of Charlemagne, 358, 411, 425, 427 The Oath of Leo III., 425, 427, 428 Ideal Portraits of Constantine, Charlemagne, Lothaire, Astolpho, Godfrey of Bouillon and Ferdinand the Catholic, 428 The Hall of the Pope's Pages— Christ and the Apostles, 445-447, 459-462 The Bathroom of Cardinal Bibbiena (1516)— History of Venus and Cupid, 446-449, 576 Elephant painted on a Tower of the Vatican (1516), 404 The Loggie (finished in 1519) — History of the Old and New Testaments, 429 et seq., 459-462, 489, 574 The Hall of Constantine (finished after the death of Raphael), 310, 358, 359, 452-454 The Battle of Constantine, 139, 453, 454, 573 The Baptism of Constantine, 453 The Apparition of the Cross, 453 The Donation of Constantine, 453 Portraits of the Popes, 452 Portrait of Bramante, 294 CHURCH OF ST. AUGUSTINE. The Prophet Isaiah, 280, 372, 385 CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DELLA PACE. The Sibyls, 57, 290, 300, 415, 491-493 THE VILLA FARNESINA. The Triumph of Galatea, 290, 300, 352, 489, 490, 575 The History of Psyche, 290, 499-510, 576 Catalogue of the Principal Works of Eaphael. xix THE VILLA MAGLIANA. The Eternal Father Blessing the World (now in the Louvre). The School of Eaphael, 451, 452 The Martyrdom of St. Cecilia (now in the Lourve), 230, 412, 451 MOSAICS. The Creation of the Planets (finished in 1516), in the Chigi Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo), at Rome, 47, 290, 491, 494-498, 575, 576 EASEL PICTURES. SUBJECTS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. The Trinity ; Adam and Eve ; Banner in the Church at Citta di Castello (1503 1), 76 The Vision of Ezekiel. Pitti Palace, 258, 519-521 SUBJECTS FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST. The Resurrection of Christ (partly by Perugino). Museum of the Vatican, 49, 520, 537 Christ on the Cross. In the Collection of the Earl of Dudley, London, 76, 78 The Adoration of the Magi. Predella in the Vatican, 70-75, 88, 443 The Presentation in the Temple. Vatican, 74, 75 Christ in the Garden of Olives (Predella of the Holy Family of St. Anthony). In the Collection of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, London, 115, 172 n. 210 Christ bearing His Cross. In the Collection of Sir Philip Miles, at Leigh Court, near Bristol, 172 w. 209, 210, 243, 246, 363, 365, 522 Pieta. In the Collection of Mrs. H. Dawson, London, 133, 172, 211, 519, 522, 524 The Nativity, or Adoration of the Shepherds, painted for the Bentivoglio family at Bologna. Lost, 443, 476, 478 The Entombment. Borghese Gallery, 29, 62, 151, 206, 224, 230, 233, 234-246, 249, 523 Christ bearing his Cross. (Lo Spasimo di Sicilia.) Madrid Museum, 363 The Transfiguration. Vatican, 374, 382, 411, 415, 512, 520, 523, 537-539, 541, 565 MADONNAS, HOLY FAMILIES, ETC. UMBKIAN PERIOD. Madonna of the Solly Collection. Berlin Museum, 58, 59 The Alfani-Fabrizi Madonna. At Terni, 58, 59 The Virgin between St. Jerome and St. Francis. Berlin Museum, 58, 59 The Conestabile Madonna. St. Petersburg Museum, 58, 59 The Coronation of the Virgin. Vatican, 61-69, 151, 475-478, 512, 524, 539, 544 The Annunciation (Predella of the Coronation of the Virgin), 70-74 The Marriage of the Virgin, Sposalizio (1504). Brera Museum, Milan, 79-82 xx Catalogue of the Principal Works of Raphael. FLORENTINE PERIOD. The Virgin of the Grand Duke. Pitti Palace, 163, 165-169 Lord Cowper's Small Madonna, at Panshanger, 169, 170 The Madonna della Casa Tempi. Pinacoteca of Munich, 146, 170-172 The Little Madonna of the Orleans Family. In the Collection of the Duke d'Aumale, 171-174 Lord Cowper's Larger Madonna, at Panshanger (1508), 164 The Madonna di Casa Colonna. Berlin Museum, 175, 176 The Terranuova Madonna. Berlin Museum, 142, 158, 176 The Madonna in the Meadow. In the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna, 142, 151, 158, 177-180, 191 The Madonna del Cardellino. Uffizi Gallery, 152, 180-185, 191 The Belle Jardiniere. Louvre, 149, 163, 164, 185-188, 514 The Holy Family with the Lamb. Madrid Museum, 142, 164, 188 The Holy Family under the Palm-tree. Bridgewater Gallery, 188, 191 n. 375 The Holy Family of the Casa Canigiani. Pinacoteca of Munich, 191-193 The Madonna del Baldacchino. Pitti Palace, 150, 164, 196-200, 279 The Holy Family with the beardless Joseph (attributed to Raphael). St. Peters- burg Museum, 200, 201 The Esterhazy Madonna. Pesth, 199-201 The Madonna of the Pink. Lost, 200 The Madonna with the Sleeping Jesus. Lost, 200 The Holy Family of St. Anthony of Perugia. Lent to the National Gallery by the Duke of Ripalda, 196, 205 The Ansidei Madonna. In the Collection of the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, 150, 206, 214, 215 ROMAN PERIOD. The Virgin with the Diadem. Louvre, 373, 375 The Madonna di Loretto. Supposed to be lost, 270, 372, 375, 376 The Madonna of the Bridgewater Gallery, 375, 512 The Madonna della Casa Alba. St. Petersburg Museum, 194, 250 n. 373, 375, 377 379 The Aldobrandini Madonna. National Gallery, 373, 375, 377, 380 The Madonna di Foligno. Vatican, 278, 373, 375, 377, 378, 380, 381, 383, 512, 524 The Madonna della Pesce. Madrid Museum, 375, 381, 382 The Madonna dell' Impannata. Pitti Palace, 291, 511, 513 Holy Family of Naples. Naples Museum, 375, 511 The Madonna della Tenda. Pinacoteca, Munich, 511 The Holy Family under the Oak. Madrid Museum, 511 The Madonna with the Rose. Madrid Museum, 511 The Madonna with the Candalabra. Munro Collection, London, 511, 512 The Holy Family of the Louvre, 511 The Repose in Egypt. Lost, 511 The Madonna del Passeggio. Lost, 511 The Madonna della Sedia. Pitti Palace, 512 The Pearl. Madrid Museum, 276, 513 Catalogue of the Principal Works of Kaphael. xxi The Visitation. Madrid Museum, 412, 476, 518 The Madonna di San Sisto. Dresden Gallery, 67, 374, 512, 518, 519, 536 The Holy Family of Francis I. (finished in 1518). Louvre, 374, 382, 411, 512, 517, 531 The Coronation of the Virgin (finished by Giulio Romano and Penni). Pinacoteca of the Vatican, 88, 121, 194, 206 MALE AND FEMALE SAINTS. The Archangels Michael and Raphael in the Certosa Altarpiece. Attributed to Raphael by Passavant. National Gallery, London, 50 Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino. Lost, 62, 76-78 St. George with a sword. Louvre, 110-115, 133, 215, 218, 220 St. Michael with a sword. Louvre, 110-115, 220, 411, 512 St. George with a lance. St. Petersburg Museum, 130, 133, 218 St. Francis of Assisi. (Fragment of the Predella of the Holy Family of St. Anthony of Perugia.) Dulwich Museum, 172, 209 St. Anthony of Padua. Dulwich Museum, 209 Preaching of John the Baptist (Predella of the Ansidei Madonna). In England, 215 St. Catherine of Alexandria. National Gallery, London, 224, 229, 230 St. Cecilia. Bologna Museum, 412, 451, 512, 524-5 '2 9 St. Margaret. Louvre. Another copy in the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna, 230» 512, 524, 529, 530 St. John the Baptist. Uffizi Gallery. There is an ancient replica in the Louvre, 288, 530 St. Michael overthrowing Satan (1548). Louvre, 512, 530, 531 MYTHOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, AND ALLEGORICAL SUBJECTS. The Vision of a Knight. National Gallery, London, 95-98 The Three Graces. In the Collection of the Earl of Dudley, London, 92, 94, 130, 132, 220-222, 228, 575 Apollo and Marsyas. The property of Mr. Morris Moore, Rome, 129, 132, 573, 575 Faith, Hope, and Charity. (Predella of the Entombment.) Pinacoteca of the Vatican, 246-250 PORTRAITS. Angelo Doni. Pitti Palace, 217 Maddalena Doni. Pitti Palace, 141, 142, 217 La Donna Gravida. Pitti Palace, 204, 217 Elizabetta, Duchess of Urbino. Lost, 216 Portrait of Raphael, by himself. Uffizi, 219 Portrait of a "Woman (name unknown). Uffizi, 221 Julius II. Uffizi Museum, 263-269, 386 Bindo Altoviti. Pinacoteca of Munich, 290, 386, 387 La Fornarina. Barberini Palace, 386-388, 390, 536 Federigo Gonzaga. Lost, 386, 390 Cardinal Bembo. Lost, 271-273, 533, 535 Cardinal Bibbiena. Madrid Museum. There is an old copy in the Pitti Palace, 275, 386, 533, 535 xxii Catalogue of the Principal Works op Raphael. Ingkirami. There are two examples of this, the one in the Pitti Palace, and the other in the residence of the Inghirami family at Volterra, 277, 386, 535 Navagero and Beazzano. Lost, 386, 535 Leo X. Pitti Palace, 386, 400 Giuliano da Medici. There was, in 1867, an old copy in the Collection of the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, 386, 535 Lorenzo da Medici. Lost, 386, 535 Baldassare Castiglione. Louvre. There is another copy, dated 1519, in the Torlonia Palace at Rome, 386, 390, 534, 535 Tebaldeo. Lost, 386, 533, 535 Portrait of a Young Man. Louvre, 386 Joanna of Aragon (1518). Louvre, 386, 533, 535, 597 The Violinist (1518). In the Sciarra-Colonna Palace at Rome, 386, 532, 536 Beatrice of Ferrara. Lost, 535 n La Donna Yelata (the Yeiled Lady). (Attributed to Raphael.) Pitti Palace, 536 TAPESTRIES. The Acts of the Apostles. The cartoons are in the South Kensington Museum, the tapestries themselves in the Yatican, 466, 476, 478, 479 The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, 457, 461, 466, 467, 574 Christ's Charge to Peter, 457, 461, 466, 467 Peter and John healing the Lame Man at the Gate of the Temple, 461, 466, 468, 574 The Death of Ananias, 466, 469, 574 The Martyrdom of St. Stephen, 457, 461, 464, 466, 469, 472, 574 The Conversion of St. Paul, 270, 457, 461, 464, 466, 469, 472 Elymas the Sorcerer struck with blindness, 461, 462, 466, 469, 470 The Sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, 461, 466, 470, 472, 574 St. Paul Preaching at Athens, 135, 463 n. 465, 466, 472 St. Peter in Prison, 466 St. Paul in Prison, 464, 472, 574 The Coronation of the Yirgin. In the Yatican, 475-478 Scenes from the Life of Christ. Tapestries in the Yatican, 374, 477-479 Children at Play (attributed by Yasari to Giovanni da Udine), 479 Loves (Cupids) playing in a Wood, 479-481 WORKS IN ARCHITECTURE. The Church of St. Aloysius at Rome, 546, 558 The Chigi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 547, 562 The Church of the Navicella (attributed to Raphael), Rome, 547, 558 Continuation of St. Peter's, Rome, 543, 548-552 Completion of the Loggie, Rome, 543, 551, 552, 559, 563, 574 The Stalle Chigiane (Chigi Stables), at Rome, 488, 554, 558 The Yilla Madama, Rome, 543, 558, 559 The Aquila Palace, Rome, 553, 558 The Coltrolini-Stoppani-Yidoni Palace, Rome, 557-559 The Palace of Jacopo da Brescia (attributed to Raphael), Rome, 557 The Pandolfini Palace, Florence, 556-559 Catalogue of the Principal Works of Raphael, xxiii SCULPTURE. Child and Dolphin (attributed to Raphael). St. Petersburg Museum, 560, 561 and n The Prophet Jonah. Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome (Small model at the South Kensington Museum), 563 DRAWINGS. 1 SUBJECTS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT. The Massacre of the Innocents. Academy of Fine Arts at Venice, 19, 374, 391 The Entombment (from an Engraving by Mantegna). Venice, as above, 117, 240 The Adoration of the Shepherds. Lost, 443 The Massacre of the Innocents. Albertina Collection, 374 Scene from the Apocalypse. Louvre, 360 The Five Saints. Louvre, 520 Pieta. Louvre, 522, 523 The Resurrection. In Collections at Oxford, Windsor, Lille, etc., 537, 538 MADONNAS. Study for a Madonna. University Gallery, Oxford, 164, 165 Another. Louvre Museum, 164, 166 Another. Malcolm Collection, 164, 168 Another. University Gallery, Oxford, 172 Another. Berlin Museum, 175 Sketch for a Holy Family. Wicar Museum, 174, 194-196 SAINTS. St. Martin of Tours. Stsedel Museum, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 49 Study for a Saint (attributed to Raphael). University Gallery, Oxford, 230 MYTHOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, AND ALLEGORICAL SUBJECTS. Departure of JEneas Sylvius for the Council of Basle. Uffizi, 86, 87 Betrothal of the Emperor Frederick III. to Eleanor of Portugal. Baldeschi Collection, Perugia, 86, 87 Audience granted to iEneas Sylvius by Pope Eugene IV. In the Duke of Devonshire's Collection at Chats worth, 87 n ./Eneas Sylvius proclaimed Poet-Laureate by the Emperor Frederick III. Study for a Group of Soldiers. University Gallery, Oxford, 87 n. 88 The Three Graces, from the Siena group. In the Venetian Academy, 88 n. 91, 565 Drawing after the Cartoon of the Battle of Anghiari. University Gallery, Oxford, 139 Sketch for a Fight. Academy of Fine Arts, Venice, 139, 140 Children at Play. Louvre Museum, 167 The Marriage of Alexander and Roxana (painted in fresco, by a pupil of Raphael's, in the old Villa Raphael, attached to the Villa Borghesi). In the Albertina Collection, 576 1 This list only mentions drawings unconnected with any particular fresco or picture. A description of the others will be found in the paragraphs devoted to the works for which they were studies. xxiv Catalogue of the Principal Works of Raphael. The Rape of Helen. University Gallery, Oxford, 576 The Calumny of Apelles. Louvre, 576 II Morbetto. Uffizi, 576 The Triumph of Bacchus in India. Lost, 596 Project for a Tomb. Lost, 599 PORTRAITS. Portrait of Raphael by himself. University Gallery, Oxford, 23, 24 n Portraits of Young Girls. Academy of Fine Arts, Venice, 116-118 Portraits of Ancient Poets and Philosophers, from painting in the ducal palace of Urbino. Academy of Fine Arts, Venice, 118-220 Study for the Portrait of a Young Girl. Wicar Museum, 204 Another. In the same Collection, 205 Pietro Bembo. Lost, 216 Timoteo della Viti. British Museum, 535 VARIOUS. View of Urbino. Academy of the Fine Arts, Venice, 120 n Design for Bronze Dish (1540). Dresden Gallery, 41, 482, 489 Another. University Gallery, Oxford, 483 COMPOSITIONS ENGRAVED FROM LOST DESIGNS. Lucretia, 374, 389, 391, 576 Model for a Perfume Vase, 483 The Judgment of Paris, 576 Quos Ego, 576 Venus at the Bath, 576, 7 7 VARIOUS WORKS. Scenery for the "Suppositi" (1548), 404, 405 Designs for Medals for Baldassare Castiglione, 563 WORKS WRONGLY ATTRIBUTED TO RAPHAEL. San Sebastiano. Bergamo Museum, 41 The " Maries." St. Peter's Church, Perugia, 50 Portrait of Csesar Borgia. Borghese Gallery, 100 n Christ in the Garden of Olives. National Gallery, London, 115, 209, 216 The Last Supper. Monastery of San Onofrio, Florence, 150 n Portraits of Blasio and Baldassare. Academy of Fine Arts, Florence, 224 Madonna della Prefetissa, 250 and note Portrait of a Female known as the Fornarina. Uffizi, 606 The Madonna of St. Luke. Academy of St. Luke, Rome, 511 The Uguccioni Palace, Florence, 557 Project for the Facade of San Lorenzo. Albertina Collection, 557 Fountain of the Tortoises, Rome, 563 n The Wax Head, in the Wicar Museum, 563 n ERRATA. Page 1, note, for " Original projects, tfcc," read " Projets primitifs pour Saint-Pierre de Rome." ,, 2, line 6, for "Riccinino," read " Piccinino." id. note, for "Studies, &c," read "Etudes sur les Beaux-Arts en France et en Italie." „ 3, line 15, for "proving," read "proves." ,, 4, ,, 4, before "let," insert "to." ,, 5, ,, 6 from foot, for "Gonzagua," read " Gonzaga." 7, note, for "Contrado," read " Contrada." ,, 8, line 20, delete "and." ,, 16, ,, 13, for " Lucas," read " Luca." ,, id. ,, 4 from foot, for " Stances, '\read "Stanze." ,, 20, ,, 3, for " liumanitists, " read " humanists." ,, 23, ,, 4, for " on Italian stone," read " in Italian chalk." 24, ,, 7, for "stone," read "chalk." ,, id. „ 12, for "Uffizzi," read " Uffizi." ,, id. note 4, for " Ronald," read "Ruland." ,, 27, line 1, for "rockwork," read "rococo." ,, id. ,, 5, for " ogive," read " pointed." ,, id. ,, 6, for "Palimpsest," read "palimpsest." ,, 28, 15, for " Perugini," read " Perugino." ,, 29, ,, 2 from foot, for " Lucas," read " Luca." ,, 30, ,, 4, for "Lucas," read "Luca." ,, id. ,, 16 from foot, for "Lucas," read "Luca." ,, 33, ,, 12 from foot, for "work," read "works." ,, 39, ,, 5 from foot, for "Giulio," read "Giuliano." 45, note 2, for " Andrew of Pisa," read "Andrea Pisano." ,, 60, in title of woodcut for "drawn," read " drawing." ,, 100, note, delete "he." ,, 114, ,, for " Le," read "the." ,, 189, after "Madonna," insert "under the Palm-tree." ,, 216, note 3, for "Liphard," read " Liphart." ,, 299, for " Buonarotti," read " Buonarroti." ,, 307, 3, line 2, for "Le," read "II." ,, 312, line 11 from foot, for "Amalio," read "Amelia." ,, 431, for "Loggie," read "Loggia." ,, 459, note, for Michieli," read " Michiel." ,, 464, ,, for " Lafenstre," read " Lafenestre." VIEW OF URBINO'. CHAPTER I. The town of Urbino and the Montefeltro dynasty. — The Santi family. — Giovanni Santi. — Birth of Raphael. — First impressions and earliest efforts. — Death of Giovanni Santi — Departure of Raphael for Perugia. The little duchy of Urbino, which had the honour of giving birth at a few years' interval to the greatest of modern architects and to the greatest of modern painters, to Bramante 1 and to Raphael, is situated in the centre of the Apennines, at the point where Tuscany and Umbria meet. Few Italian provinces have more varied scenery, for fertile and smiling hills suddenly sheer up into abrupt mountains, and while in one place the horizon is shut in by grotesque peaks, a little further the eye can embrace the vast panorama of the Adriatic. 1 There has been some dispute as to the birthplace of Bramante, but thanks to the able researches of M. de Geymiiller, we now know that the illustrious architect of St. Peter's was born in the villa da Monte Asdrualdo, near Fermignano, three miles from Urbino. [Original Projects for the Basilica of St. Peter, Rome. Paris, 1875—80, pp. 18—20.) B Kapha el. In the second half of the fifteenth century, the duchy of Urbino was governed by the valiant and enlightened dynasty of the Montefeltros. Duke Frederick, who died in 1482, a year before the birth of Raphael, had fascinated all Italy by his exploits and his splendour. He was a commander of the highest order, the worthy pupil of Eiccinino, and the almost invariably successful adversary of Sigismund Malatesta, who was so detested that he was styled the enemy of God and of men. The Montefeltros made no secret of the fact that they were mercenaries, 1 or condottieri, and the title of Gonfalonier of the Church, conferred in later years upon the son of Duke Frederick by Pope Julius II., was only a complimentary one. But no one could have carried out his engagements with more chivalrous fidelity and dignity than Frederick, whose court was frequented by the young Italian noblemen who wished to become familiar with all that appertains to a soldier's calling, and to fit themselves for the duties of statesmanship. Frederick of Urbino's chief claim, however, to the regard of his contemporaries and of posterity was the protection which he extended to literature and art. His was the golden age of the Renaissance. After a long eclipse classic antiquity made her appearance rejuvenated and radiant in her eternal beauty. Warriors and statesmen, financiers and prelates, were moved to admiration, while princes and republics rivalled one another in their endeavours to re-establish in her rights the goddess who was not dead but sleeping. But deep as was the enthusiasm, there was not, in the first place, anything exclusive about it ; on the contrary, it seemed to develop the faculty of admiration for the works which were the very opposite of ancient genius, for in perusing the catalogues of the libraries formed at Urbino, Florence, Rome, Pavia and Naples, it is impossible not to be struck by the readiness with which their founders associated Christian antiquity, and even the Middle Ages, with pagan antiquity. Dante and Petrarch were to be found side by side with Homer and Virgil ; while Aristotle 1 This fact is made very clear by Viscount Delaborde in his treatise on arts and letters at the court of Urbino. (Studies on the Fine Arts in France and Italy. Paris, 1864, vol. i. p. 145.) Duke Frederick of Urbino. 3 and Cicero had their place in juxtaposition to the Fathers of the Church. Nothing due to the brush of Giotto was effaced to make room for paintings more in harmony with modern taste, and the triumph of a new style of architecture did not lead to the demolition of a single Gothic cathedral. Far from causing; a brusque rupture with the past, the early Eenaissance had a distinctly conciliating tendency, its programme being not to destroy as a preliminary to construction, but to take classic antiquity as a starting-point, and so to favour the expansion of all noble and generous feelings. It was when the Eenaissance put a ban upon what stood outside antiquity that it killed the national aspirations and condemned itself to barrenness ; the history of Italian art from the second half of the sixteenth century — or, to speak more accurately, its long and painful agony — proving what a penalty such narrow-mindedness brings with it. The sincerity of his enthusiasm and the great sacrifices which he made have won for Duke Frederick of Montefeltro a place beside the two noblest champions of the early Renaissance, Pope Nicholas V. and King Alfonso V. of Naples. M. Eio, in his work on Christian Art, puts the Urbino prince even above the Medicis, than whom he was more disinterested ; for it is difficult to believe that the encouragement given to new ideas by those financiers who were so eager to place their country under the yoke of despotism . could have been exempt from selfish calculations, while the Duke of Urbino had no need to resort to any extraneous devices to secure the affections of his subjects, whose cry of " God preserve our good Duke," came from the bottom of their hearts. Vespasiano de' Bisticci, the biographer of Frederick, relates several facts which prove very clearly the fondness of the duke for literature, science, and art. He spent thirty thousand gold ducats upon the formation of a library ; but it is worthy of note that he shared the prejudices of many of his contemporaries with regard to printed works, which were just beginning to circulate in Italy, and nothing would have induced him to admit one of them into Lis library. His manuscripts were encased in splendid 4 Raphael. bindings, and they now form what is known as the Urbino section. Differing in that respect from many other book-collectors, 'Frederick was not content to fill his shelves with rare and precious volumes and there let them stay ; he either read them himself or had them read to him. Plutarch's Lives and the works of Xenophon, soldier and savant like himself, had an equal attraction for him, and he paid particular attention to the treatises on the art of government by Aristotle, being always read to during his meals. 1 The interest which Frederick took in art was not less thorough than that which he felt in literature, and according to his biographer it was the duke in person who superintended the construction of the palace at Urbino and gave the dimensions of it to his architect Luciano di Martino da Lauranna. He was also very well up in sculpture, and to hear him talking with a sculptor one would have imagined that he had used the chisel himself. He had his own ideas, too, about painting ; and as the masters who then peopled Umbria, Tuscany, the Marches of Mantua, and many other Italian provinces, did not please him, he sent for a Flemish painter, one Justus, from Ghent. Proofs of this indomitable will and varied knowledge are to be found in the smallest details of the decoration of his palace. The duke insisted that the tapestries which he had expressly woven at Urbino by artists brought from Flanders, the woodwork and the moulding, should alternate in the decorations of the different rooms or mutually complete each other. Whether by chance or deliberately, Raphael, in his decoration at the Vatican sub- sequently, resorted to the same three methods. Inlaid wood gave the beautiful doors which were executed by Brother John of Verona and John Barile ; stucco-work and frescoes alternate in the decoration of the Loggia, and tapestry completed the vast cycle of paintings in the Sistine chapel. In addition to all these marvels of contemporary art were 1 The eclecticism of Frederick shows itself in the choice of philosophers, poets, savants, prophets, or fathers of the church, whose portraits he had painted for his sttidy. These portraits embraced Moses and Solomon, Homer, Solon, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Cicero, Virgil, Seneca, Boethius, St. Jerome, St. Augustin, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory the Great, Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Petrarch, Pius II., Bessarion, Sixtus IV., etc. Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino. 5 added various collections of priceless value. Besides the richly illumined manuscripts of the ducal library, referred to above, there was a splendid picture gallery, one of the gems in which was a small picture by Jan van Eyck, representing women bathing, which Fazio, 1 in 1456, declared to be a masterpiece of finish. Castiglione 2 expressly states, however, that the ancient masters were well represented, though the Venus which was so much admired in the Urbino palace, and which in 1502 became the property of the Marchioness Isabella of Mantua, was not acquired until long after the death of Frederick. Like the Cupid of Michael Angelo, it was a present made to Guidobaldo, about the year 1496, by Caesar Borgia, 3 who, when he captured the capital of the Montefeltros in 1502, as a matter of course took back its presents, together with many other artistic treasures valued at 150,000 gold ducats. Frederick's son, Guidobaldo, born in 1472, carried on the glorious traditions of his father. Brought up by the learned Martinengo, he displayed from his earliest days a very marked fondness for study, and both literature and art found in him a hearty patron. His courage and his good sense further endeared him to his subjects, while his wife, Elizabeth Gonzagua, daughter of the Marquis of Mantua, helped, by her beauty and grace, to consolidate his hold upon the affections of his subjects. The inhabitants of Urbino showed how attached they were to their prince when they rose, in 1503, against the tyranny of Caesar Borgia and recalled him. 1 Be Viris Illustribus, edition of 1745, p. 47. I have no hesitation in identifying this picture, which, in the time of Fazio, was in the possession of Cardinal Octa- vianus, with the one which Vasari mentions as belonging to Duke Frederick II. (read Frederick I. of Urbino), and which he calls the stufa (warm bath). (Le Vite de' piit eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architetti, vol. i. p. 163.) — All the quotations of Vasari refer, except there is a mention to the contrary, to the edition published at Florence by Lemonnier, 1846 — 70. 2 " Per ornamento v' aggiunse una iniinita di statue antiche di marmo e di bronzo, pitture singularissime, instrumenti musici d' ogni sorte, ne quivi cosa alcuna volse se non rarissima ed eccellente." (Cortegiano, book i. p. 15 of the edition of 1733.) 3 Gaye, Carteggio, vol. ii. p. 53. See also Herr Richter's interesting article in the Zeitschrift fiir bildende Kunst, 1877, p. 132 and following. 6 Raphael. It was amid associations so well calculated to develop lofty sentiments and brilliant qualities that Raphael was born. It is true that if he had been a native of Florence he would from his youth have been within the influence of a more intense artistic movement, and have, at an earlier period of life, been in full possession of the secrets of his profession, as he would also have had a fuller knowledge of classic antiquity, the fruitful source of progress. But it seems to me, that, taking everything into account, his intellectual development lost nothing by his having been born at Urbino. It was important for him to spend his youth amid peaceful surroundings, and to gain an appreciation of the beauties of nature while he was learning the rudiments of drawing. Urbino offered him — and that was the essential point — very excellent models, upon which was impressed the mark of the Renaissance, so that when the time came these germs fructified and gave a more vigorous impulse to his genius. The patient researches of a scholar of Urbino, Father Louis Pungileoni, have procured for us a very complete acquaintance with the family history of Raphael. 1 His family belonged to a large village called Colbordolo, situated some few miles from the capital, and a person named Santi is known to have lived there in the fourteenth century. One of his descendants, the great-grandfather of Raphael, Pietro or Peruzzolo, was a merchant at Colbordolo a century later, and after the pillage of his house and lands by Sigismund Malatesta, in 1446, the fear of a second attack induced him to go and live in Urbino. He came to Urbino in 1450, and died there seven years later, and his son carried on his business, also opening a shop for the sale of grocery, hardware, and so forth. His trade seems to have prospered, and he had saved enough money by 1463 to buy for 200 ducats 2 a house, or rather two houses situated close together, 1 Elogio storico di Raffaelo Santi da Urbino. Urbino, 1829. 2 It is very difficult to ascertain the relative value of moneys in the fifteenth century. At Rome, the gold ducat of the Apostolic Chamber (consisting of seventy-two Bologna pieces) weighed about 3^ grammes, so that it would be now worth about Qs. 6d., barring the difference in the purchasing power of moneys. This difference, according to competent judges, is in the proportion of one to four, or even to five. The Roman ducat would, therefoie, he worth now about 21. The Ancestors of Raphael. 7 in one of those steep streets, of which there are so many at Urbino, the Contrada del Monte. 1 This modest dwelling was I) Raphael's house. destined to become very famous, for it was here that Raphael was born ; and in the seventeenth century, an architect of Urbino, (it has been put as high as £2 8s. by one authority). At Urbino, the custom was to count as a rule by ducats or florins of forty Bologna pieces, that is, of about only half as much. 1 The street is now called Contrado di Eaffaello. 8 Eaphael. Muzio Oddi, having purchased one of the two houses, put up a tablet with the following Latin inscription, in which the humble aspect of the house is compared with the majestic souvenirs associated with it : NVNQVAM MORITVRVS EXIGVIS HISCE IN jEDIBVS EXIMIVS ILLE PICTOR RAPHAEL NATVS EST OCT. ID. APR. AN. MCDXXC1II YENERARE 1G1TVR HOSPES NOMEN ET GENIVM LOCI NE MIRERE LVDIT IN HVMANIS DIVINA POTENTIA REBVS ET SjEPE IN PARVIS CLAVDERE MAGNA SOLET. The birthplace of Raphael now belongs to the Academy of Urbino, which purchased it, in 1873, with the money resulting from a subscription started by the late Count Pompeo Gherardi, and to which Mr. Morris Moore contributed 200 guineas. 1 In a letter addressed to Duke Guidobaldo, Giovanni Santi the son of Sante and the father of Raphael, dwells in some detail upon the difficulties of his early life, beginning with the destruction of his home by Sigismund Malatesta, 2 and going on to speak of the hard work he had to earn a livelihood. He ultimately selected the noblest of careers, that of an artist, and the worthy Giovanni becomes enthusiastic when he speaks of the marvellous and very famous art of painting (la mirabile, la clarissima arte de piclura). Notwithstanding the anxieties arising from the maintenance of his family, he did not regret his decision, though he often found very heavy the burden which, to use his own words, would have appalled Atlas himself. At what date Giovanni Santi began to work on his own account 1 The total cost was 8001. Ingres, who had the utmost veneration for all that related to his favourite master, made a drawing of Raphael's house, which was published in the Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1861, vol. ii. p. 45. 2 Giovanni Santi would seem, therefore, to have been born previous to that event, that is before 1446. Giovanni Santi. 9 is uncertain, but we know that by the year 1469 he had his studio at Urbino, and in that year he was intrusted with the duty of receiving as a guest Piero della Francesca, one of the most famous representatives of the Florentine School, who had been summoned by the Brotherhood of the Corpus Domini to execute a retablo. Thinking that he would be more comfortable at the house of a fellow artist than at an inn, they asked Santi to lodge him, and though the latter's pride must have suffered at finding a stranger selected in preference to himself, he received the Florentine with a good grace, and afterwards praised his talents in his Rhymed Chronicle of Urbino } Giovanni Santi was past his youth when he married Magia Ciarla, the daughter of a well-to-do tradesman of Urbino, who brought him a dowry of 150 florins, which is equivalent to £150 or £200 of our money. 2 From this marriage was born on the 28th of March, 1483, 3 the 1 This was not the only time that Giovanni Santi had the mortification of seeing strangers intrusted in his native town with works which he could have himself executed with credit. In the month of June, 1494, the Brotherhood of the Holy Ghost at Urbino instructed Lucas Signorelli to paint a banner for them. (Pungileoni, Elogio Storico di Giovanni Santi, pittore e poeta, padre del gran Raffaello di Urbino. Urbino, 1822, p. 77.) 2 The following figures will give some idea of the relative value of this sum. At Florence, about 1480, the amount of the dowry in the artistic world varied between 150 and 300 gold florins, and it was about the same in most of the other Italian towns. At Mantua, for instance, we find Andrea Mantegna giving his daughter a dowry of 200 ducats in 1499. There is an exception in the case of Perugino, whose wife, Clara Fancelli, brought him 500 florins, which was a very large sum for the time ; for the wealthiest patricians of Florence, Jean Ruccellai and Lorenzo the Magnificent, did not give their daughters more than 2000 florins. 3 The reader will excuse us for going into some detail as to the date, which is not generally accepted. Several authors, notably Passavant, arguing from the funeral inscription of Raphael, which says that the artist, who died on Good Friday, April 6th, 1520, was thirty-seven years of age to-day, give the date of his birth as April 6th, 1483. The evidence of Vasari is, however, very positive. Raphael, he says, was born in 1483, on Good Friday, at three o'clock in the night (that is, according to our reckoning, at a quarter to ten in the evening). He adds that his death occiirred on his birthday, Good Friday of 1520. At this period, when astrology and the horoscopes were thought so much of, people paid a good deal more attention to any remarkable events which occurred at the time of a birth than to the actual date. So that what struck contemporary writers the most was that Raphael was born and died on a Good Friday. We should add that the latest editors of Yasari, as well as Messrs. Robinson, Springer, Commander Paliard, and others, declare in favour of the date of March 28th. C 10 Raphael. boy who was destined to shed such lustre on the name of Santi. His father, says Passavant, gave him the name of an archangel, as if he had foreseen the celestial splendour which his son was destined to attain, and Vasari adds that he would not allow the child to be taken from its mother's breast and put out to nurse. Two other children, a boy and a girl, died in infancy. One likes to fancy Eaphael surrounded from his cradle with the smiling faces of Madonnas contemplating with tenderness the divine " bambino," and of cherubs being wafted upon purple clouds, and in this case the reality agrees with the fancy. The first picture which Giovanni Santi painted after the birth of his son was well calculated to strike the imagination of the child, and to fix in his memory certain types of ineffable grace and tenderness. Giovanni received in 1483 the order for a retablo which was to be placed in the Church of Gradara, and in this work, which was completed on the 10th of April, 1484, when Raphael was only a year old, the face of J esus, who is represented as sitting on his mother's knee, is very beautiful. His countenance, his figure and attitude all remind one of the " putti " which are to be found in so many of Raphael's composi- tions, and which are the most perfect expression of infancy. Another painting, a fresco still preserved in the house of the Santis, represents a young woman sitting in front of a desk upon which is placed a book, and holding on her knees a child asleep with his head resting on his right arm (see engraving on opposite page). Much injured as this picture is, it still retains traces of its primitive beauty, and the marked individuality of the features, coupled with the absence of a halo, justifies the belief that this is a picture not of the Virgin and Child but of the painter's wife and son. 1 Magia doubtless sat very often like this beside her husband while he was at work, and though the house of the Santis was 1 This opinion is held by the most competent judges, such, for instance, as Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. {History of Italian Painting. German edition, vol. iii. p. 370.) Family Affliction. 11 a very modest one, Raphael as a child could not have grown amid more perfect artistic surroundings. Illness and death soon cast a shadow over the happiness of his father and mother, for in 1485 Giovanni Santi lost, at a few weeks' interval, his father and one of his sons, probably older than Raphael ; and the archives of Urbino give us some idea as to the pecuniary position of the family at this period. The father of Giovanni left his two daughters a hundred ducats each, to his son PICTURE OF RAPHAEL AND HIS MOTHER. Bartolommeo, who was a priest, seventy ducats, and the remainder of his fortune, including his house, to Giovanni himself. His widow, Elizabeth, continued to live with her son Giovanni, who also found room for his sister Santa when she lost her husband, who was a tailor by trade. Santa had a little money of her own. and as Giovanni earned a certain amount, their position was relatively prosperous. But fresh trouble was in store for Giovanni, •as his mother died on the 3rd of October, 1491, her death being- followed at an interval of only four days by that of his beloved 12 Raphael. wife, while on the 25th of the same month his daughter, aged only a few months, also died. Raphael at that time was only eight years old. Giovanni found a solitary life unendurable, and a few months later, on the 25th of May, 1492, he contracted a new marriage, his second wife, Bernardina Parte, daughter of a goldsmith at Urbino, bringing him a dowry of 200 florins. From the disputes which afterwards occurred between her and her husband's family it is to be inferred that she was not of so gentle a disposition as Magia, and that she was anything but a mother to Raphael. The union, however, was not of long duration, for Giovanni died two years after his second marriage, on the 1st of August, 1494. For his w T ill, dictated two days before his death, he appointed his brother Bartolommeo guardian of Raphael and of the child which his second wife was delivered of shortly afterwards, providing that she should have the use of the house as long as she remained a widow. The total amount of his property was 860 florins. Some documents recently discovered by the Marquis J. Campori, of Modena, throw some fresh light upon the history of Raphael's father during the last* years of his life, showing that he was in communication with the princely family, 1 and that the Duchess Elizabeth had employed him to paint her portrait and that of some one attached to the Court of Gonzaga, probably Bishop Louis of Mantua. His death prevented him from completing these two works, and the letter by which the Duchess announced the sad news to her sister-in-law, the Marchioness of Mantua (August 19th, 1494), proves that he was no stranger to her, 1 If the conjecture of the Inventaire des autographes et des documents Mstoriques composant la collection de M. Benjamin Fallow, series ix. et x. (Paris, 1879, p. 125) is correct, Giovanni Santi must have been attached in 1483 to the household of Duke Guidobaldo. As a matter of fact, the physician of the duke, Antonio Braccaleone, in a letter from Urbino, dated May 10th, 1483, speaks of a portrait painted by the duke's painter, " who is a disciple of the Muses," and we know that Giovanni cultivated poetry as well as painting, for he is the author of some Chronicles in Rhyme. It was probably to him, therefore, that Braccaleone alluded. We may mention, by the way, that the father of Raphael had already painted a portrait of Duke Frederick, and this portrait, which is on a white ground, is in the Christ Church collection at Oxford. (Robinson, A critical account of the drawings by Michael Angelo and Raphael in the University Galleries, Oxford. Oxford, 1870, p. 314.) Death of Giovanni Santi. 13 for she writes, " Giovanni de' Santi, painter, succumbed about three weeks ago • he died in full possession of his senses, and at peace with all men. May God have mercy on his soul ! " 1 A letter written seven weeks later (October 13th, 1494), gives some further details. This letter is written by the Duchess to her brother, the Marquis of Mantua, and she says : "In reply to the despatch which Your Excellency sent me, I write to inform you that when Giovanni Santi was with you he was too ill to complete the portrait, and the same reason prevented him from going on with mine. If Your Excellency will send me a plate like the others, I will have my portrait painted upon it by a skilful artist whom I am expecting here, and send it to you as soon as it is finished. ... I have ordered the companion of the said Giovanni to make a search for it diligently, but he tells me that he can find nothing." 2 When, ten years later, the sister-in-law of Duchess Elizabeth, Jeanne de Montefeltro, spoke in a letter of introduction which she gave Raphael for the Gonfalonnier Pietro Soderini, of Florence, of her regard for his father, it was not a mere formality, but the expression of her real sentiments. This, as will be seen hereafter, explains much that was hitherto obscure in Raphael's history. Giovanni Santi may be considered as the type of those excellent 1 " Ell' e circa vinti di, che Giovanni de' Sancti depinctore passo di questa vita presente et o morto cum bono intellecto et optima dispositione, a la cui anima el N. S r Dio habbia concesso verace perdono." (Campori, Notizie e Documenti ]Jer la vita da Giovanni Santi e di Rqfaello Santi da Urbino. Modena, 1870, in quarto, p. 4.) 2 " Per lo presente cavallaro recevi la lettera de Y. Ex. a la qual rispondo che quando Giovanni de Sancte fo la, quantunque cominciasse el ritracto de Mons r essendo seguita la sua infirmita, non lo poddi finire et dapoi chel fo tornato, continuando nel suo male non poddi ne anche attendere col mio, per il che V. Ex. si contentera mandarmi un tondo eguale agli altri, dove io me faro retrare per un maestro bono quale aspecto qui, et finito che sia le mandero subbito a la V. Ex. Io sto bene insieme con lo ill" 10 S. mio consorte, dal quale son di continuo advisata, et a la prefata V. Ex. infinite volte mi racomando. Urbino xiii Octobris, 1494. " Post scritta : Ho facto cum diligentia cerchare il gharzone de dicto Giovanni : me dice non si trova niente. " Soror Elizabeth de Gonzaga, Ducissa Urbini." (Campori, loc. cit., see also the Gazette des Beaux- Arts, November, 1872.) 14 Raphael. provincial painters of whom Italy possessed so many in the fifteenth century. They were not artists entirely independent and ranking, by the omnipotence of genius, upon an equality with warriors and statesmen, prelates and authors, but they were modest and orderly burghers, ready to accept any order which was w T ell paid, and on the best of terms with their relatives or neighbours belonging to other corporations ; with the draper, the tailor, and the druggist. Judged by their current occupations, one might take them for artizans rather than artists, as ready to paint a banner for a pro- cession, to colour an escutcheon, to gild a candelabrum, or even to paint a door or a window. But for all that these modest workers had travelled and studied the works of the most famous masters, so that they were fully versed in the principles of their art. It- would be a mistake to suppose that their knowledge stopped short at painting, for they had observed and read, being familiar with the writings of Francesco Filelfo, Campano, Porcellio, and Cristoforo Landino. Some of them could write, too, as proved by the Rhymed Chronicles of Giovanni Santi, composed in honour of the Montefeltro dynasty, wdiich showed ability if not talent. The artists of the sixteenth century were very fortunate to have been preceded by these hardy workers, who prepared the land so well to yield a rich harvest, of which they did not themselves reap all the benefit they might have done. Some people think that Raphael, Michael Angelo, and their fellow artists of the Renaissance invented and created all the marvels we admire, but in reality they, in many instances, only developed and transfigured the ideas of the previous generation. The town of Urbino and the neighbouring cities, as well as several public galleries, notably the Lateran at Rome, the Brera at Milan, and the Berlin Gallery, still contain pictures by Giovanni Santi. They are, for the most part, Annunciations, Madonnas, and Holy Families, or, in some instances, likenesses of apostles or saints. There are a few portraits, too, but the originals are not as a rule known. Santi's art moved in a rather narrow groove, but the spirit of his work and the qualities which he displayed are worthy of respect. He showed, too, that he had acquired The Works of Santi. 15 familiarity with the tendencies and methods of Paolo Uccello, who was painting at Urbino in 1468 ; of Piero della Francesca, who, as already mentioned, came there in the following year ; of Andrea Mantegna ; of Melozzo da Forli, and of Peruzio ; that is to say, of men who were all in one way or another original artists. The influence of the two latter is to be traced in nearly all his pictures, for Giovanni borrowed from the one his precision of outline, accuracy of perspective and skill in composition, while from the other he derived much of his exquisite grace and mystic tendencies. He showed great skill in fusing these aspirations, which may seem at first sight impossible to harmonize, and secured in the ranks of the Umbro-Florentine school a very high standing. His works are full of body and well balanced, and what they are mainly deficient in is a w r armth of tone. There is a good deal of grace, and in some cases no little energy, in his faces, and the whole work has about it an indefinable air of sincerity, while here and there may be discerned a touch which reminds one of his son- — • a part of the head or an attitude which the latter may have unconsciously reproduced years afterwards. His children's faces were particularly calculated to make an impression on his son, whose artistic instinct, to say nothing of his filial affection, led him to profit by these excellent models. This sketch of the character and talents of Giovanni Santi would be incomplete if we did not say something about the poet as well as the painter. The Rhymed Chronicle, which is now in the Vatican Library, has been published, and part of it, at least, by Passavant, and it provides us with some interesting evidence as to the erudition and eclecticism of Eaphael's father. In this poem, devoted to the glorification of his sovereign, Duke Frederick, and dedicated to the latter's son, Duke Guidobaldo, 1 the writer celebrates the achievements of his hero in the field, and his literary and artistic liberalities. Santi is very prone to digressions, but this is a fault upon which we are not inclined to be severe, for they enable us to form a very good idea of his tastes and views. There is notably a dissertation entitled Una 1 The poem must therefore have been written after the accession of that prince, September 10, 1482. 16 Eaphael. disputa della Pittura, in which he discusses the merits of the principal artists of the fifteenth century. Giovanni Santi has heard of the famous John of Bruges (Jan van Eyck), and of his pupil, Kogier van der Weyden. They were, he says, such gifted artists that they often outdid nature herself in the beauty of their tones. He speaks too of good King Rene, who, like Scipio and Caesar, cultivated at once the art of painting and that of war. Of the Italians, his greatest admiration is for Mantegna, and more or less flattering references are made to Gentile da Fabriano, Fra Angelico, Pisanello, Filippo Lippi and his son Filippino, Masaccio, Melozzo da Forli (Melozzo a me si caro), Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandajo, Sandro Botticelli, Lucas Signorelli, Antonello of Messina, Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, and Cosimo Tura; He speaks well, too, of many sculptors, such as Donatello, Desiderio di Settignano, Rossellino, Ghiberti, Verrocchio, and Antonio Eiccio. This collective mention of names which are so opposed to one another in appearance, shows that Giovanni Santi was as impartial as his son afterwards proved to be. At the time of his father's death, Raphael was not twelve years old, so that he scarcely knew what paternal affection was, and his heart, so full of tenderness, was deprived of the joys of family life, just when they would have been so precious to him. In spite of the premature death of Giovanni Santi, competent judges are of opinion that there is much affinity of style between the works of father and son. The Annunciation in the Brera Museum, that at Cagli, the St. Jerome in the Lateran Museum, to mention only a few well-known works, are remarkable for a certain charm, and a purity and a harmony of lines which dimly foreshadow the immortal painter of the Stances. It is probable, moreover, that Raphael received some lessons from his father, as at that time painters went through an apprenticeship of fifteen years, 1 while during the Renaissance they reached maturity much 1 Nothing can be more instructive in this respect than Cennino Cennini's Treatise on Painting. This venerable Gothic painter had been for twelve years the pupil of Angelo Gaddi, whose father, Faddeo Gaddi, had himself passed Education of Raphael. 17 more quickly, most of the artists of the latter epoeh being of very precocious talent. Mantegna was only seventeen years old when he painted the Virgin in the Church of St. Sophia at Padua ; Michael Angelo, who was born in 1475, and who in 1488 entered the studio of Gliirlandajo, sculptured the following year, when scarcely fifteen, the face of the faun which struck the attention of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Fra Bartolommeo, born a year or two earlier, was taken into Cosimo Rosselli's studio in 1484, and he was only fifteen when he set up on his own account. Perugino, too, entered on his apprenticeship at the age of nine, and Andrea del Sarto was but seven when he was put as apprentice to a goldsmith. Allowing three or four years for the regular apprenticeship, and as much for the journeyman stage, by sixteen a young man might thus have completed his studies. Supposing Raphael to have been no exception to this rule, he may very well have begun to draw and have received a few lessons from his father before the latter's death. But it is impossible to accept Vasari's statement that the son assisted the father in the execution of his later works, for he was only eleven years old when his father died, and rapid as was the development of his talent, that would have been simply miraculous. We would rather see him as he was, not exempt from the painful efforts and hesitations by which the greatest of artists have to work their way upwards. It is probable that the remarkable drawing in the Academy twenty-four years in Giotto's studio. To use his own words : " You must devote the following time to learning your art : First you must give a year to ele- mentary drawing upon tablets. To remain with your master in his studio, acquire familiarity with all the branches, beginning by pounding colours, preparing the size, and kneading the plasters, and to become adept in the preparation and finish of panels, and to know how to lay on gold, and to do the stippling, will take six years more. Then, to study colour, do gold draperies and become proficient in wall-work will need another six years, with continuous application to your studies in drawing. In this way natural talents are brought by constant use into good practice. In no other way can you hope to reach perfection. Don't believe those who tell you that they have learnt art without being under the tuition of masters. Take for example this book. If you were to study it day and night without going to practice under some master you would never succeed in painting anything which would bear comparison if placed beside a really fine picture/' [Treatise on Painting, translate! into French by Mottez, chap. civ. p. 102.) D 18 Raphael. at Venice, the Massacre of the Innocents, was executed by Raphael under his fathers superintendence. Amid much that is quite childlike in its inexperience, one can detect a force of inspiration and a purity of taste which shows how great was Raphael's promise from his earliest years, and how much he had benefited by his father's teaching. M. Charles Blanc, in an interesting criticism on this work, says : — " It is impossible to imagine anything more simple and charming. The murderers are as innocent-looking as the victims. The children are pretending to cry, and the mothers are not much more in earnest in their grief. The sword-thrusts are not very dangerous. The painter is at the age when children draw fancy figures on the wall, but whereas others do not get beyond the A B c of art, Raphael is secretly guided by an infused science, and follows instinctively a certain ideal. As he knew nothing of Perugino, he could not imitate him, and as he had never seen any one killed he represents the massacre as being carried out by soldiers in cold blood. But there is a world of elegance in their automatic gestures. How graceful is the head-dress of the soldier who stands erect, and it might be copied from an Athenian bas-relief, so like is it to a sketch of Alcibiades done by a Greek We shall presently see Raphael in full possession of his powers, and then this little drawing, compared to the frescoes of the school of Athens or of Parnassus, will give one the same impression as do the marbles of iEgina when compared to the works of Phidias." 1 What we have said as to the tastes of Giovanni Santi renders it certain that his son received, in addition to careful artistic teaching, a sound literary education. The Italian artists of the fifteenth century were, as a rule, less ignorant than is generally supposed, and it would be difficult to name one who could not read or write. Bramante himself, whose education had been very much neglected, and who was called " illiterate " by his contem- poraries, wrote excellent sonnets, and this will show what was the extent of knowledge possessed by those who had been able 1 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1859, vol. iv. p. 202. Education of Raphael. L,9 to complete their studies. In looking over the collection of auto- graphs of the Italian artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance published by Messrs. Milanesi and Pini, 1 one sees that the writing is in some instances clumsy, and the spelling incorrect ; but there is a vast difference between awkwardness and complete ignorance. Compared with that of his contemporaries Raphael's writing is THE MASSACKE OF THE INNOCENTS. (Drawing preserved at the Venice Academy.) remarkable for its elegance and correctness, and there is nothing gothic in the elongated letters at once so full of pride and grace. One can see that he was accustomed to wield the pen as well as the pencil. He also learnt beyond doubt the rudiments of Latin ; and the study of that language, which the Italians have never 1 La Scrittura di artisti italiani reqyrodotta con la fotograjia e corredata d'ilhts- trazioni. Secolo xiv. — xvii. Florence, 1873. 3 vols, in quarto. 20 Raphael. ceased to cultivate, and which they hold in almost as much honour as their own, was not confined in the fifteenth century to the narrow circle of the humanitists. In the time of Duke Frederick, the whole court, including his second wife, Battista Sforza, employed it to carry on the interminable discussions which took place every day upon the gravest subjects — the remedies for love, the superiority of Cicero's style over that of St. Thomas Aquinas, &c. ; 1 not to mention such scholars as L. B. Alberti, Fra Giocondo, &c, there was hardly an artist who had not retained a smattering of it. Mantegna almost unconsciously employs Latin phrases in his Italian letters, 2 and Giuliano da San-Gallo composed a special alphabet by means of the epigraphic letters which he had found on the monuments of Ancient Rome. 3 Leonardo da Vinci is continually quoting Latin ; and Perugino, who was notoriously unlettered, made a point of signing and dating his works in Latin, and, strange to say, never made a mistake. 4 Even the addresses on letters and the headings and endings were usually given in Latin, so it is very certain that Raphael must have used the Latin grammar which Venturi published at Urbino itself in 1494. It will be objected, perhaps, that in after years he got his friend Fabio Calvi of Ravenna to translate Vitruvius for him ; but there is a great difference between having a general knowledge of a language and being well up in the technical terms which abound in the Treatise on Architecture. We may, therefore, assert that Raphael knew as much Latin as the bulk of his contemporaries, and it will not be rash to surmise that Dante, and perhaps the Golden Legend, found their place in his subjects of study, just as hereafter we shall find him making himself acquainted with the Morgante of Pulci. 1 Delaborde, Etudes sur les Beaux-Arts en France et en Italie, vol. i. p. 147. 2 Lettere pittoriche, Ticozzi edition, vol. viii. p. 2 2. 3 See his Note-book, preserved in the Sienna Library. 4 The same cannot be said of all his contemporaries. The medallist Peter, of Milan, inscribed upon the reverse of the medal representing King Rene, Opus Petrus de Mediolano. (A kind friend pointed out to him the solecism which he had committed, for his medal of Queen Jeanne of Laval bears the inscription, correct in this instance, Opus Petri de Mediolano.) The upholsterer Benedict of Milan wrote still worse Latin, Ego Beneditus de Mediolani hoc opus fecit con sociis suvis. Yet these very mistakes show how general was the use of Latin. Education of Raphael. 21 By his father's death, Raphael not only lost an instructor and guide, but was compelled to listen to mercenary discussions about money. Dom Bartolommeo, his uncle and guardian, and his step-mother, to whom had been born a daughter called Elisabetta, so frequently quarrelled about money that the law had to intervene, and without laying the whole blame upon the widow of Giovanni Santi, it is to be noted that Raphael, when once he had left them, did not keep up any very intimate communication with her or her daughter, and never alludes to them in his letters. Fortunately, he was much liked by his mother's family, and his uncle Simone Ciarla showed, him kindness, for which he never failed to express his gratitude. When in his letters he speaks of his uncle as being as dear as a father (carissimo in loco di padre) it was more than one of those formal expressions, such as were used at that time, and his aunt Santa, his father's sister, who continued to reside in the house after his father's death, also took much interest in his welfare. Raphael in after years gave one of his dearest friends, the Florentine Taddeo Taddei, who proposed to pay a visit to Urbino, a letter of recommendation to her, and it is pleasant to find that the great painter, amid all his greatness and with his mind occupied with such lofty enterprises, never forgot his humble relatives and friends. Vast as was the gulf between them from an intellectual point of view, he never ceased to keep a corner for them in his heart. If the money quarrels which followed his father's death left a painful impression upon his early youth he was at all events exempt from privation. It is true that his inheritance was not large enough to admit of his studying art as a, mere amateur, and that he had to fight his way to independence and wealth. But he must none the less have appreciated the advantage which his position, modest as it was, gave him over most of his comrades. It was something to be able to pursue his studies without being compelled to think of the morrow, as is illustrated by the position of his future teacher, Perugino, who, according to Vasari, was so poor that for many months he had no bed but a wooden chest. So acutely did he feel the pangs of poverty that he braved fatigue and privations of every kind to become rich, and he acquired a 22 Raphael. name for being mercenary to the last degree ; so true is it that poverty often lowers the noblest talents, even when it does not crush out energy and degrade the character. There has never, until quite recently, been any doubt that Raphael entered the studio of Perugino in 1495, but this date is incorrect, for Perugino, between 1493 and 1499, while making- several excursions to various parts of Italy, resided chiefly at Florence, and not at Perugia. 1 Though he may have come to the latter town now and again, he did not stay long, and only took up his residence there towards the end of 1499, just as he began the frescoes of the famous Sala di Cambio. Upon the other hand, we know that Raphael was recorded in the registers of Urbino as being present in his native town on June 5th, 1499, and that in the following year the registrar wrote the word " absent " against his name. His admission into the studio of Perugino must, therefore, have been four or five years later than was generally supposed, that is to say, when he was about sixteen years old. 2 But if upon this point preconceived views are erroneous, there is ample confirmation of what has previously been said with regard to his debut at Perugia in which town he received his first lessons and became familiar with the methods of the Umbrian School. How the interval between the death of Giovanni Santi and Raphael's departure for Perugia was passed we do not know, but perhaps — though it is only a guess — he received lessons in his native town from Timoteo Viti, who returned to Urbino in 1495, after having studied for some time at Bologna in the studio of Francia, and this is the more likely as they were very intimate friends. 1 In 1494, we find hhn at Cremona and Venice; in 1496 at Florence, Perugia, and the neighbourhood of Milan (letter written by Ludovic the Moor to Father Arcimboldo, asking the latter to send him Perugino, Milan, June 8th, 1496, pub- lished in the Indayini. . . . sulla libreria Visconteo-Sfurzesca del castdlo di 1'avia, by the Marquis G. d'Adda, Milan, 1875, vol. i. p. 168); in 1497 at Florence and at Fano; in 1498 and 1499 at Florence, where he was received (September 1st) as a member of the corporation of painters. (See edition of Vasari, recently published by Signor G. Milanesi, vol. iii. pp. 611, 612.) 2 The credit of proving this is due to Herr A. Springer, who first put the facts together in an article of the Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst, 1873, pp. 67, 68. Education of Raphael. 23 When Raphael rose to greatness he did not forget the friend of his youth, and sent for him to Rome to assist in the painting PORTRAIT OF RAPHAEL. (Drawing at Oxford University.) of the Sibyls in the Pace. Ho also perpetuated his memory by the beautiful portrait on Italian stone which is preserved in the 24 Raphael. British Museum. After the return of Viti to Urbino, he was more than once asked by Raphael to pay him a second visit, as we learn from Vasari, who saw the letters which Raphael wrote to him. 1 It may be added that Viti, who imitated Raphael's style very well, owned a fine collection of drawings given him by the latter, and the finest Raphaels in the Crozat collection were derived from that which was kept intact until 1714 by Viti's descendants. 2 There is a fine drawing in black stone touched up with white :f which, according to Passavant and other good judges, 4 represents Raphael at the age of fifteen or sixteen, that is to say, just as he was about to leave Urbino ; and there is a striking likeness between this and the famous portrait painted in 1506, and now in the Uffizzi Gallery. So that if Raphael could at that age use the pencil with such effect, he was more than a student, he was rather an assistant of Perugino when he entered his studio. 1 Vol. vii. p. 152. 2 This piece of information has been handed down to us by one of the most gifted amateurs of the last century, P. J. Mariette. Speaking of Timoteo Viti, he says : — " There are many pen and ink drawings which one would attribute to Raphael if one did not know that they were by Timoteo Yiti. . . . Raphael had so much regard for him and he had so much admiration for Raphael, that he never parted with a very fine series of drawings which the latter had given him. They were still in the possession of his descendants at Urbino when M. Crozat saw them there, and purchased them for his collection." — Abecedario, vol. vi. p. 86. 3 Oxford collection. Robinson, A Critical Account of the Drawi/iys by Michael Angelo and Raffaello in the University Galleries, Oxford, p. 140, 141. 4 Raphael of Urbino, vol. ii. p. 498. Ronald, Th,e Works of Raphael Santi da Urbino, as represented in the Royal Library in Windsor Castle ; London, 1870, No. III. p. 5. Gruyer, Les Portraits de Raphael par lul-meme ; Paris, 1876, pp. 2, 3. Mr. Robinson, however, is inclined to attribute this drawing to the period when Raphael was at Florence. CHAPTER II. Raphael at Perugia. — Perugino and the Umbrian School. — The Carabio Frescoes. — Joint works of Perugino and Raphael — Return of Perugino to Florence. If in some respects Raphael's new residence was less desirable than the town which he had left, he was at all events much better off as regards the beauty of the surrounding scenery and the varied nature of the impressions to be derived from it. Here, too, he was able to inhale the bracing mountain air and to gaze upon sites full of poetic beauty. Situated in the heart of Umbria and overlooking the plain, Perugia, the ancient Augusta Perusia, forms as it were the centre of an immense amphitheatre. A good road winds up to the summit of the eminence upon which the town is built, and the view, at an elevation of 1,600 feet above the level of the sea, is a very fine one. There are few grander panoramas all Italy over, than that which is to be seen at a short distance from the plantation of thick evergreen-oaks on the Piazza di San-Pietro outside the walls. The view extends without a break on three sides, being only limited in the direction of the town. In the distance is to be seen a sea of undulating mountains, rising the one above the other so that they form a vast rampart upon the horizon. When the sun lights up these gigantic masses, the eye ean detect the smallest undulations of ground and almost count the infrequent spots of greenery upon the rocky and arid soil. But towards evening, the landscape is veiled with those misty tints which lend so much charm to Perugino's pictures — especially to the frescoes of the Cambio — and to the earlier productions of Raphael. At the feet of the spectator, and much nearer to him, extend winding hills, covered with fig- trees, olive-trees, and vines, climbing around the stems of the E 26 Raphael. elms. White and dusty roads are to be seen winding amidst foliage which is in places dark-green and in others iron-grey, contributing, with the houses in the distance, to animate and soften the tones of the whole picture. Looking towards Perugia, the view, though a different one, is not less picturesque. Houses, palaces, and churches, rise the one above the other upon the incline, the highest standing against a background of mountains, the general effect being finer than that which the most skilful architect could have produced. In the fifteenth century, as now, the traffic was almost entirely confined to the square in front of the municipal palace, the Corso. The principal buildings, of which the inhabitants are so justly proud, are all crowded into a very small compass. First of all there is the Cambio, the seat of the ancient corporation of money- changers, made famous by the frescoes of Perugino. By the side of this edifice, modest in its proportions, rises the Seignorial Palace, with its battlements, its long rows of ogive windows divided in half by mullions of red granite and surmounted by white marble copings. In spite of its irregular facade, few Italian buildings are more imposing in appearance ; and among the notable features of the interior is the grand staircase with its two lions in white marble at the foot, emblematic guardians of the public liberties, and at the head its griffin and she-wolf in bronze to perpetuate the memory of the victory won by Perugia over her ancient rival Siena, Recollections of victory in the field are also evoked by the Loggia of the merchants, which was built in 1423 by one of Perugia's bravest sons, the famous condottiere Braccio Fortebraccio. Then there is the beautiful fountain carved in 1277 by Jean of Pisa, while at the cathedral, which forms the western boundary of the square, may still be seen the balcony from which St. Bernardin of Siena harangued the vast crowds which flocked in from all parts of Umbria, and who, finding the interior of the building too small, stood outside, as in the time of the Crusades, to listen to the popular preacher. These memories were still fresh when Raphael came to live at Perugia, and they must have taken some root in his mind. The palaces on the opposite side of the square seem at first sight to Peeugia. 27 be out of keeping with the rest, but in spite of the rockwork style in which they are decorated, they are of somewhat ancient date. Examined closely, it will be seen that eighteenth-century windows have replaced those of the Eenaissance, which in their turn had taken the place of ogive embrasures, the outlines of which are still easily traced. These buildings are like Palimpsest manuscripts. Owing to the absence of all rough-cast on the out- side, the eye can follow in the least detail all the modifications which the walls have undergone for over 400 years and ascertain the addition of styles. Thus, while each epoch has made its VIEW OF PERUGIA. mark, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are predominant ; and so Perugia retains the aspect of a city of the Middle Ages in which the Renaissance has left but a faiut trace. Going down to the lower town and passing in front of the Triumphal Arch, which is buried, so to speak, amidst these build- ings so different in style, the Middle Ages are still before our eyes. Nothing can be at once more irregular and picturesque than the steep and winding streets, which seem an insult to modern architects with their passion for symmetry and order At each turn, the broken nature of the ground produces the 28 Raphael. most singular contrasts. Turning one corner, a vast panorama unfolds itself, and a little further is to be seen a small plot of ground, encircled by ancient houses and bathed in sunlight. Pots of flowers, fastened by iron hoops driven into the walls, are suspended, near the windows, against the reddish grey walls, the bright hues of pinks and wallflowers coming out well against the brick and stone of the wall. Here and there, too, as at Assisi and other towns in Umbria, an old fresco with a likeness of the Virgin is to be seen under the cover of a ruined pent-house, adding a further touch of soft melancholy to the scene. The physiognomy and character of the inhabitants are quite in keeping with the humble aspect of the these populous quarters, in which the only important buildings are the few churches and palaces due to the public spirit of the citizens. The general type is rather delicate, like that of the Madonnas of the Perugini school, which captivate attention by the beauty of their expression more than by their regularity of feature. One sees that this is not the land of lofty inspirations, but of meditation and fervour ; but the presence of a fervent believer like St. Francis of Assisi will extract treasures of tenderness and devotion from those who are to all external appearance so cold. These feelings, which found their highest expression in the Umbrian school of painting, formed a singular contrast at the period of which we are treating with the ferocity of a few nobles who kept the town in a state of alarm by their lawlessness. The honest and peace- loving burghers who formed the vast majority of the population had nothing but religious faith in common with those nobles whose hands were being constantly dipped in blood. It would be difficult to say on which side there was the greatest display of religious zeal, for the nobles made their show of repentance proportionate to the magnitude of their offences. In 1461, one of the most celebrated representatives of the aristocracy of Perugia, Braccio Baglioni, was compelled to do penitence in pubhc for the murder of two of his cousins, and for a week was to be seen, day by day, just before vespers, walking barefoot between his j>alace and the churches of St. Dominic and St. Peter. 1 But 'Rio, De Vart chretien, vol. ii. p. 172. Perugia. 29 his violent nature soon got the better of him again, and the city was thrown into consternation by fresh deeds of blood. So it was that during the fifteenth century the Popes, who were the legitimate sovereigns of Perugia, exercised only a nominal authority in that city, which had always been celebrated for its attachment to the cause of the Guelphs, and which in the thirteenth century had afforded a refuge to several pontiffs. The real masters were the Baglioni and the Oddi families, whose long rivalry was the cause of interminable bloodshed. Expelled in 1488, the Oddis returned three years later, only to be driven out a second time, and their rivals, when left to themselves, began to quarrel with each other. The tragedy of the year 1500 had a sinister pre-eminence in the annals of crime, one faction of the family swooping down upon the other faction and cutting them to pieces under cir- cumstances of unexampled cruelty. The recollections of this family, whose history is a long record of crime — it was very rarely, that a Baglioni died in his bed — are, however, very closely con- nected with Baphael, who painted for them one of his most famous pictures — The Entombment. The Oddis also gave several orders to Baphael, but it is probable that these pictures, all of which were on religious subjects, were ordered more as expiatory works than as works of art. Considering the rough manners of the aristocracy and the attachment of the middle classes to the customs and beliefs of another age, the intellectual resources of Perugia must have appeared to the young painter as very inferior to those of Urbino, where poetry, science and art were held in such high esteem. It would be a mistake, however, to regard the old Umbrian city as being altogether outside the sphere of the ideas which were then stirring the whole of Italy. Its university had a well-deserved reputation, and in the fifteenth century it included amongst its professors one Pope, Sixtus IV., and two others, Pius III. and Julius II., among its students. A disciple of Piero della Francesca and of C. B. Alberti, a friend of Leonardo da Vinci, Lucas Pacioli, the author of the Treatise on Proportions, occupied the chair of Mathematics 30 Raphael. there at about the time of Raphael's arrival, having been at Perugia in 1476 and 1486, and returned there in 1500, 1 but only to go on to Florence in September of the same year. Perugino must certainly have known him, for Lucas Pacioli, as member of the Milan Academy, would have been able to tell him and his pupils of the marvellous creations of Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci in Lombardy. It was at Milan, too, that a famous writer born at Perugia, Jacopo Antiquario, took up his residence, and in letters written to his compatriots 2 he must often have told them about the literary and artistic movement to which Ludovico il Moro attached his name. From an artistic point of view the difference between Urbino and Perugia was equally great, for while the former was ruled by high-minded princes who exercised an irresistible influence over the whole population, the latter was inhabited by turbulent and bloodthirsty nobles, and by a middle-class population at once laborious and austere. The Montefeltros, moreover, were very tolerant in their views on art, having employed in turn painters of such different schools as Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Justus of Ghent Giovanni Santi, Lucas Si^norelli and Timoteo Viti, while at Perugia, there was something like a close body of painters all belonging to one school, In spite of his long residence at Florence and Rome, Pietro Perugino was deeply attached to the Umbrian school, into which, however, he introduced several fresh elements. The science of colouring and that of perspective were carried by him to a higher pitch of perfection than ever before. But these after all were but changes of detail, and he still continued to be in the main the painter of soft and tender scenes, of Madonnas and of Saints. The influence which a great realist painter, Buonfigli, exercised over him was not lasting in its effects, and the religious tendencies of his patrons and of his own talent soon brought him back to the mystic banner of St. Francis of Assisi. There is no need to inquire whether Vasari was right in declaring him to be a sceptic ; it is enough for us to know that no painter ever represented with 1 Mariotti, Lettere pittoriche Perugine, Perugia, 1787, p. 127. 2 Vermiglioli, Memorie di Jacopo Antiquario, p. 112, and following. The Umbrian School. 31 more tenderness and suavity the religious sentiment. There was something very exclusive and absorbing about Umbrian art, for excursions into the secular world, and above all into the ancient classics, were forbidden ground for its adepts, not more because of their religious scruples than of their want of knowledge : Perugino's attempts in this line were unqualified failures, and in his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel the composition of the triumphal arches shows that he knew nothing of Eoman architecture. So, again, w T ith the frescoes in the Sala di Cambio, though another of his compositions from the antique, the Combat of Love and Chastity, would, in spite of the traces of hasty work which it betrays and its complete lack of historic colour, attract more admiration if it had not the disadvantage of being hung in the Louvre next to Andrea Mantegna's Parnassus} There are few types of the portrait in the Umbrian school, and Perugino, as M. Eio as shown, did not paint more than two or three. It was but rarely that he or his predecessors would consent to introduce even the donor of a picture on a religious subject in an attitude of prayer while historical compositions, so far as they were intended to hand down the recollection of con- temporary events, seem to have been, like portraits, excluded from the narrow and sacred domain of Umbrian art. 2 Upon the other hand, the artist could be certain that his work would, if executed in good faith, be favourably received in a society so profoundly attached to its religious creed. He knew that the least valuable of his Madonnas, and of his pictures representing Christ on the cross, would touch many a heart, and the poorest villages and monasteries found the money for one of these saintly symbols. Humble peasants found an ample reward for a long life of labour and privation if they could present their village 1 Towards the close of his life, Perugino painted another mythological compo- sition. His widow, in a letter addressed to the Marchioness of Mantua, in 1524, speaks of a picture representing Mars and Venus being discovered together by Vulcan (la storia quando Vulcano cuopre con la rete Venus et Marti). It was not known what became of this picture, which Claia Fancelli offered the Marchioness for sale. Braghirollo, Notizie e Documenti inediti intorno a Pietro Vannucci detto il Perugino; Perugia, 1874, p. 51. 2 De Vart chretien, vol. ii. pp. 179, 180. 32 Raphael. church with some picture which would stimulate the piety of their neighbours ; and a striking instance of this is afforded by the following anecdote : In 1507, a humble shoemaker of Perugia gave Pietro Perugino the order to paint a picture of the Madonna standing between St. Francis and St. Jerome, and the forty-seven ducats which the painter asked were paid without hesitation. This picture is still to be seen in the Penna Gallery at Perugia, and in looking at this masterpiece I was irresistibly reminded of the Gospel parable about the poor widow. Examples such as these were calculated to elevate the mind of the young artist, and though his subsequent achievements at Rome were more splendid they scarcely touch the heart as do his earlier efforts. M. Rio, in a passage which is well worth notice, brings out the practical character of Umbrian painting and its close connection with the creed of the people. He tells us how Perugino first painted at Cerqueto, near Perugia, some scenes commemorating the deliverance of the inhabitants from a plague which had been scattering terror through the district for several years. " It was then," to use the words of M. Rio, " that the miraculous Madonna of duomo acquired such a high aesthetic value in his eyes ; and this picture, which, under the name of Madonna delta Grazia, was held in great veneration by the people, became, with certain modifications in detail, his favourite type. In some cases he reproduced it with scrupulous accuracy, as in the fresco in the convent of St. Agnes at Perugia, and in other cases he took it as a model for Madonnas which he painted upon the banners, the altars, and even in the public squares. It was in the open air that he painted the famous Madonna delta Luce, before which, according to the popular legend, a man who had spoken blasphemously of it, stood blind for four days, and which having become, on account of this miracle, the resort of pilgrims and preachers, was transferred in 1518 to a small chapel built with the produce of a popular subscription.''" 1 There is a great deal too much uniformity and a decided lack of imagination about all these Virgins and Holy Families, painted as they are upon the same plan ; but this, as Bayet says, is because, 1 Le I' art chretien, vol. ii. p. 192. The Umbrian School. 33 "as in Byzantine art, the popular feeling was that it would be profane for artists to vary their types according to individual fancy, and it was only when religious faith faded that they were free to exercise their own judgment." 1 The wars and disturbances of various kinds which marked the close of the fifteenth century, so far from arresting the progress of art, favoured its development by exciting the religious feeling of the people. Ever and again Perugino is coming over from Florence to paint some new masterpiece for his native city. Thus in 1495 the church of San Domenico got the Madonna which is now preserved in the gallery of Perugia, and in the following- year the chief magistrate renewed a contract with him for decorating the chapel of the town-hall. In the same year, he was entrusted by the church of San Pietro de' Monaci Cassinensi with the painting of the Ascension, now in the Lyons Museum, and he began the Marriage of the Virgin or the Sposalizio, which was not completed until long afterwards. Perugino then did some work for Santa Maria Nuova, de Fano, while the delegates from Orvieto were imploring him to fulfil his promise and complete the chapel which had been begun by Fra Angelico. It is to this exuberance of patriotism and piety that we owe what is perhaps the most celebrated of Perugino's work, as it is certainly the most important he ever painted in the Umbria, viz. the Cambio frescoes, which occupy in his career the same place which the Vatican rooms do in that of Eaphael. The corporation of money changers at Perugia (L'arte del Cambio) had long been anxious to decorate their council-room with exceptional splendour. They began by some wood panelling along the lower part of the walls and by the raised platform upon which the council and rectors took their seats. This work was entrusted to one of the most skilful workers in inlaid wood from Florence, Domenico del Tasso, who completed his task in 1493 to the general satisfaction. 2 In 1496, it was resolved 1 See Bayet's Recherches pour servir a V Histoire de la peinture et de la sculpture chretiennes en Orient avant la querelle des iconoclastes (Paris, 1879, p. 134). 2 A. Rossi, Storia artistica del Cambio di Perugia (Perugia, 1874, p. 7), and Maestri e favori di legname in Perugia nei secoli XV°. e XVI°. (Perugia, 1873, pp. 17, 18). F 34 Raphael. to decorate the roof and the upper part of the wall, and at a meeting of thirty members, held on the 26th of January, Perugino was unanimously selected. A committee of six members was appointed to settle the matter with Perugino, who was at that time busy on the Ascension, and he agreed to the proposal on the condition that he should be allowed first to finish the work which had been ordered of him at Florence and other places. He agreed, however, to finish the work by the year 1500, and the price was to be 350 ducats payable in ten years. 1 In this instance, the painter was punctual, for by the end of 1499 the work was so far advanced that the corporation of the Cambio were able to look for its completion in a few months time. It was at this period, according to all probability, that Raphael entered the studio of the Perugian painter. Pietro Vannucci, surnamed Perugino, though as a matter of fact he was born at Citta della Pieve, was then at the zenith of his fame and talent. He had a host of pupils and followers, while princes and free cities rivalled each other in their efforts to secure him. The Duke of Milan, the Venetian Republic, and the authorities of Orvieto, simultaneously tried in vain to obtain a monopoly of his services. When some ten years before Giovanni Santi in his Rhymed Chronicles spoke so warmly of the Umbrian painter he was only anticipating the popular verdict of a later day, and if he had lived there can be no doubt that he would have selected Perugino as the master for his son, who must often have thought of his lines Due giovin par d'etate e par d'onori, Leonardo da Vinci e'l Perusino, Pier della Pieve ch'e un divin pittore. 1 Rossi, loc. cit. It would be very interesting to know whether this contract contained clauses such as those which Perugino had allowed to be inscribed a few years before with regard to the dome at Orvieto. In this latter contract he under- took to paint himself all the figures, especially the faces and upper parts of the bodies. He further agreed to use only good and hard colours, and to make the composition as perfect as possible. Perugia. 35 The conditions of apprenticeship at the time when Raphael entered the studio of Perugino are well known to us, and the parents of the apprentice incurred very heavy obligations. Thus when the father of Sodoma, in 1490, apprenticed his son, then ten years old, to a painter of no great celebrity, Martino de Spanzettis, he had to pay a sum of fifty ducats for the term of seven years. The latter, for his part, undertook to lodge, board, and instruct his pupil ; and, what is characteristic of the times, to find him in clothes. \ The conditions of the journeymen painters were of course much more favourable for beginners, and when Raphael's compatriot, Timoteo Viti, placed himself under the famous Bologna painter and goldsmith, Francesco Francia, it was agreed that he should work the first year for nothing, that during the second he should receive sixteen florins a quarter, and that afterwards he should work by the piece, with the power of leaving if he pleased. We know, too, that Francia had two separate studios, one for the goldsmith apprentices and the other for the painters. This is how he writes of the departure of Timoteo Viti : " 1495, 4th April. Departure of my dear Timoteo. May God pour upon him all manner of good things." 2 A very touching proof of the good feeling which existed in most of the Italian studios. They were sanctuaries of art — it may almost be said of good morals — and most of the masters treated their pupils as if they were their own children. 3 1 I omit several clauses of no great interest, such as the obligation upon the part of the father to let his son have, on entering the studio, a tunic " of good length," two waistcoats, and three pairs of boots, plenty of linen, and to pay for washing it. 2 " 1495. A di 4 Aprile, partito il mio caro Timoteo, e Dio le dia ogni bene e fortuna." (Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice. Vie de G. Francia.) 3 The memoirs (Libro di ricordi) of a Florentine, painter of the last half of the fifteenth century, Neri di Bicci, give some very curious evidence as to this. He shows to what an extent the feeling of benevolence went hand in hand with the care for their material interests among the artists of the Renaissance, and how much trouble the masters took about the moral and religious education of their pupils. Recording the entrance into his household of a lad whose mother, a poor widow, could not provide for the artist, he declares that he adopts him as his son with the desire to make him virtuous and godly. " E per fare questa limosina, e a lui questo bene, lo tolsi per mio ispirituale figliuolo, con animo e desiderio di farlo virtuoso e obbidiente, e insegnargli vivere col temore di Dio." To these senti- mental declarations are appended clauses by which Neri undertakes to board and 36 Raphael. Timoteo Viti was about twenty years of age when he entered Francia's studio, and Raphael was about seventeen when he was taken in hand by Perugino, so that both knew the rudiments of art, and what they wanted from their teachers was rather advice and direction than elementary instruction. Bearing in mind their age, they must have been companions (garzoni) rather than pupils (discepoli) to employ the terms then in use. Perugino's house is still in existence, and is. of course, an object of great interest to travellers. It is situated in one of the steep streets, of which there are so many at Perugia — the Via Deliziosa, No. 18 — near the church of San Antonio. 1 On entering, the following inscription, which shows how skilled the Italians of the present day are in the lapidary art, and which has never been published before, greets the eye : — IN Q VESTA CASA DOVE E CONSTANTE TRADIZIONE CHE AVESSE ABITATO PIETRO VANNVCCI PERVGINO Dl DOMICILIO, DI AFFETTO, DI NOME ANNI 341 DOPO LA MORTE DEL GRAN PITTORE NEL NOVEMBRE 1865 FV A CVRA DEL COMVNE POSTA UNA LAPIDE PERCHE ANCOR ESSA TESTIMONIASSE ALLE GENTI LA VENERAZIONE DI PERVGIA AL FONDATORE DELLA SVA SCVOLA AL MAESTRO DI RAFFAELLO. Although the house has been very much, altered, one can still form a fair idea of its original distribution. 2 The main building is clothe the lad, who, in return, is to give his services without remuneration. (Vasari, vol. ii. p. 262.) 1 See Marotti's Lettere pittoriche Perugine, o sia ragguaglio di alcune memorie istoriche risguardanti le arti del disegno in Perugia (Perugia, 1788, p. 15). Mezza- notte, Delia vita e delle opere di Pietro Vannucci (Perugia, 1836, p. 172 and follow- ing). Rossi Scotti, Guida illustrata di Perugia (Perugia, 1878, p. 92). 2 There is a rough sketch of the house in the Umrisse by Ramboux. (Cologne, 1858, plate 87.) Perugia. 37 situated at the foot of a very sunny courtyard, flanked on each side by old houses. A low flight of stone steps leads to the entrance door, above which is placed a head in marble. Inside the door is a sort of hall, the arcades of which formerly opened on to the courtyard, and even now that the space between the columns has been walled up, one can distinguish the columns themselves. The following inscription has been placed on the panel where there was formerly a picture of St. Christopher, said to have been painted by Perugino : — Q VESTA FV LA CASA DI PIETRO VANNVCCI DETTO IL PERVGINO E QVI VEDEVASI PINTO VN S. CRISTOFORO CH'EI CONDVSSE DI SVA MANO PER AMOROSA RIVERENZA AL NOME DEL PADRE PERCHE COLL' OPERA DA VII LVSTRI TRASFERITA A ROMA NON PERDASI LA MEMORIA DEL MODESTO ALBERGO OVE EBBE SEDE IL FONDATORE DELLA SCVOLA VMBRA IL MAESTRO DEL SANZI, DELLO SPAGNA, DEL MANNI I PROPRIETARI PARIS E MVZIO TRONI CCCXXXVII A. DOPO LA MORTE DEL SOVRANO ARTEFICE PP. Q. M. Leading off from the hall are several small rooms, all of them vaulted and decorated with sculptured medallions, representing foliage and lions' heads, from the spring of the arch. The principal room, now divided into two, was probably used as a studio, and next to it are several smaller rooms now converted into bedrooms. The first story is arranged in just the same way as the ground floor, and here too the open arcades looking on the courtyard have been walled up. The back windows look out upon a narrow lane. Small as it is, the house has something remarkably original and striking about it, and one can well fancy oneself in the residence, at once simple and comfortable, of an artist of the fifteenth century. The chief defect is the absence of a garden, 38 Raphael. for a few flowers and some greenery would lend an additional charm to the scene. When Raphael came to Perugia, the beautiful Clara Fancelli, daughter of the famous architect of the Marquis of Mantua, was still alive to gladden the household of her husband, who had married her only five or six years before, and who was so deeply in love with her, that amid all his occupations, he would not leave to a second person the choice of her wedding ornaments. 1 The portrait of Clara Fancelli may, in the opinion of competent judges, be seen in the Madonna of Pavia, which is one of the gems of the National Gallery. 2 Perugino and his wife were in very comfortable circumstances, for though the latter's father complains of being poor in his letters to the Marquis of Mantua, 3 he had given his daughter a dowry of 500 gold ducats, while Perugino owned houses at Florence, Perugia, and Citta della Pieve. He had also plenty of ready money, which he had the improvidence to carry about him ; and Vasari tells us that he was waylaid on one occasion and robbed. But the love of money seemed to grow with him in proportion as he got rich, and few even of the greatest painters set a higher value upon their talents. In 1489, when asked to complete the decoration of the chapel at Orvieto begun by Fra Angelico, he stipulated for 1,500 gold ducats, the scaffolding, the lime and the sand to be thrown in ; but the committee, unable to comply 1 " Tolse per moglie una bellissima giovane, e n' ebbe figliuoli; et si dilett6 tanto che ella portasse leggiadre acconciature e fuori ed in casa, che si dice che egli spesse volte l'acconciava di sua mano." (Vasari.) 2 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting, vol. iv. p. 235. 3 Braghirolli, Luca Fancelli, scultore, architetto e idraulico del secolo XV. (Milan, 1876, pp. 16, 30, 31). This seems to prove that one must not take all the complaints of the artists of the fifteenth century too literally; for whenever they are writing or speaking to the great they are full of lamentations over the precarious state of their finances. The numerous letters given in Gay's Carteggio, from those of Fra Filippo Lippi to those of Mantegna, nearly all speak of penury, if not of absolute want. And yet these same people could give their daughters a dowry of 500 florins, or nearly a fourth of what constituted the dowry of a daughter of the wealthiest Florentine patrician. This is why I am disposed to think that the letter in which Raphael complained of poverty to a noble who probably owed him money, may not be a forgery. (Fassavant, Raphael, vol. i. p. 551. The letter is dated, Florence, July 8th.) Perugia. 39 with this demand, offered 200 ducats for the painting of the roof alone, they undertaking to supply the materials and pay for his board and lodging. Perugino accepted this proposal, but he seems to have regretted having done so, and did not carry out his engagement. When the Venetian Senate in 1491 asked him to paint for their council-room the Flight of Pope Alexander III. and the Battle of Legnano, they thought that 400 florins would be a liberal offer, but the painter asked double the amount, and the negotiations were not carried any further. Five and twenty years later Titian himself accepted with alacrity the offer which Perugino had declined. Pietro Perugino had neither the culture nor the vast intelligence of Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, or Michael Angelo. His letters show that he knew very little of orthography or style, and a report which he prepared at Florence in 1492, after making a valuation in the company of three other artists, is a tissue of blunders ; even from an artistic point of view his abilities did not take a wide sweep. He was a painter and nothing more, whereas most of his contemporaries were more or less proficient as gold- smiths, architects, and sculptors. 1 He had, however, travelled a great deal and been in the society of the most remarkable men of the day, so that he was a pleasant companion for young men such as those he had around him. He nmy have told them about the evangelic but unscrupulous Pope Sixtus IV., whose indomitable activity had transformed Rome ; of Innocent VIII., who had always made great changes in the external aspect of the city ; of Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, afterwards Julius II., who also left his mark on the architecture of Rome. At Florence he must have seen Lorenzo the Magnificent, perhaps Charles VIII. as well, and he made the acquaintance of Savonarola, whose doctrines he embraced. Ho must have talked to his pupils, too, on artistic subjects, telling 1 The Umbrian school set very little store by sculpture. For an explanation of this, see the sensible observations of M. Rio (Be Vart chretien, vol. ii. p. 179). When the inhabitants of Perugia wished to decorate the St. Bernardin church and the Porta Urbica with sculptures in 1461 and 1475, they were obliged to apply to a Florentine artist, Agostino di Duccio. (Yriarte, Les Arts d la cour des Malatesta : Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1879, vol. i. pp. 459, 460.) 40 Raphael. them of his apprenticeship in the studio of Verrocchio, where he had been a comrade of Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo di Credi, and of how they made experiments with a view of enlarging the laws of perspective and finding out secrets about the art of colour- ing. Then there was the celebrated work in the Sistine Chapel to talk of — so his pupils must have listened with rapture to his descriptions of this brilliant epoch in the history of art. Vasari states — and we have no reason for doubting what he says — that Raphael from the very first became a favourite with his master for his amiable manners and the early promise of ability which he showed, while the pupil on his part displayed an almost filial affection for Perugino. His fellow pupils might have been inclined to be jealous of his superior talents, but he was so frank and so unaffected, thanks in some degree to the influence exercised upon him by his stay at Urbino, that he quite won their hearts, and his native good disposition and excellent education soon gained him as many admirers as friends. The artist's colony at Perugia consisted at that time of some fifteen painters, more or less rivals or imitators of Perugino, of several goldsmiths and architects, and of a few sculptors and carvers. Their number was very small compared to the total of the population, at that time not far short of 40,000. They did not all move in the some high region of art, and some of them did work of a very unpretentious kind. Their predecessors, how- ever, had formed themselves into corporations, one of which, the corporation of painters (L'arte dei pittori), dated from 1366, and another, the goldsmiths' company, from 1296. The miniature painters (L'arte dei miniatori) corporation was also of great antiquity. 1 Among the most eminent painters must be mentioned Fiorenzo di Lorenzo and Pinturicchio, both the founders of a school of painting. Then came Andrea Luigi, surnamed the " Ingegno," an artist very famous in his time, though it is not known now what was his exact line ; Berto di Giovanni, who was entrusted 1 Marchesi, II Cambio di Perugia (Prato, 1853, pp. 188, 189), and Giornale di erudizione artisiica (1873), vol. ii. pp. 89, 305, 350. The Artists of Perugia. 41 in 1516 with the execution of the ornaments intended for the " Coronation of the Virgin," which Raphael was to paint for the nuns of Monteluce ; Bartolommeo Caporali and his son. Giovanni Battista, the translator of Vitruvius ; Eusebio di San Georgio, whose San Sebastian was long believed to be the work of Raphael ; 1 Mariano di ser Eusterio ; Ludovico Angeli ; Assalone di Ottaviano ; Lattanzio di Giovanni ; Giannicola Manni, the painter of the frescoes in the chapel next to the " Sala del Cambio." 2 Raphael probably also made about this time the acquaintance of the goldsmith Cesarino di Francesco Rossetti, of Perugia, for whom he afterwards sketched, while at Rome, the drawings of some dishes intended for Agostino Chigi, and in a letter written to Domenico Alfani in 1508, the painter speaks of him in very friendly terms. 3 To these painters, whom we know to have been at Perugia while Raphael was studying there, that is to say, between 1499 and 1502, must be added the pupils attracted to the place by the fame of Perugino, and those whose acquaintance Raphael afterwards made either at Perugia or in its suburbs ; such, for instance, as Giovanni di Pietro, surnamed Lo Spagna, w T hose works betoken the influence which Perugino and his fellow T -pupil had exercised, and who afterwards came to Rome and swelled the phalanx of Raphael's assistants, or as Girolamo Genga da Urbino, who also was with Raphael at Rome, 4 or Domenico di Paris Alfani. Raphael became especially intimate with Pinturicchio, whose presence at Perugia during the year 1501 is attested by authentic documents. 5 He afterwards followed him to Siena, and Pin- turicchio, it may be added, though inferior to Perugino as regards 1 This picture, described by Passavant under No. 16 of Raphael's works (vol. ii. p. 20), is now in the Bergamo Museum. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their History of Italian Painting (vol. iv. p. 360), unhesitatingly attribute it to Eusebio. Herren Burckhardt and Bode, on the contrary, are inclined to credit it to Lo Spagna. 2 We have made out this list by means of the valuable documents of which an analysis is given in the Lettere pittoriche Perugine, by Mariotti. 3 Giornale di erudizione artistica, vol. ii. pp. 104, 105. 4 Vasari, vol. xi. p. 87. 5 Vermiglioli, Di Bernardino Pinturicchio, Pittore Perugino dei secoli XV. e XVI. Perugia, 1837, p. 99. 4-3 Raphael. colour and expression, had more imaginative power. He repre- sented the narrative style so much neglected by all the other Umbrian masters, with the exception of Buonflgli ; but though he did not cultivate the true historical style of painting, his influence contributed in no small degree to open to Raphael wider horizons than those unfolded to him by Perugino. It was his delight to paint brilliant processions and to accumulate a mass of decorations in his pictures. But if Raphael owed him some good advice, he soon repaid the debt with interest, as we shall see by and by. Domenico Alfani, of Perugia, had a still warmer admiration for the young artist of Urbino, and one of his Madonnas, still pre- served in his native town, is an exact reproduction of a drawing by Raphael. After the departure of his friend, Domenico acted as correspondent for him and represented his interests in Umbria, deeming himself amply rewarded when Raphael sent him some sketch or drawing. 1 Thus we see how this budding genius, on his first coming to Perugia, exercised a great fascination, not only over his comrades, but over artists much older than himself, and it is pleasant to find several of those who had encouraged him at first gathered around him when he went to Rome. The most competent judges, notably Messrs. Crowe and Caval- caselle, admit that Raphael took part in the execution of the Cambio frescoes. Perugino, as we have seen, devoted himself exclusively to this work in 1499 and 1500, when there can be no doubt as to Raphael being with him ; and this should suffice to remove all doubt as to the latter's participation in the work, of which a summary description may be given. The Cambio has not the gigantic proportions of many of the palatial buildings in which the Italian municipalities of the Middle Ages were so often lodged. The council -room is not above forty feet long by twenty wide, and it opens direct upon the street, so that there is no loss of time in entering or leaving — an important consideration this for the business men who had the Cambio built. The decoration as a whole is at once chaste and elegant, as befits 1 Among the other fellow-pupils of Raphael has been included Gaudenzio Ferrari, but no authentic proof of this has ever been given. The Paintings of the Cambio. 48 a building for the use of merchants, and its principal feature is the harmonious contrast between the paintings of the upper part and the brown inlaid woodwork of the lower part of the walls. This latter is one of the best of such works in the Kenaissance, 1 and the painter could not possibly have had a better framework for bringing out his skill in colouring. The following are the subjects of the frescoes : for the roof, the personifications of the sun, the moon, and the planets ; for the left side, the most illustrious representatives of Justice, Prudence, Moderation, and Courage ; for the right side, God the Father, the Prophets, and the Sibyls ; for the lower end, the Nativity and the Transfiguration ; while near the entrance was to be depicted Cato, the father of lawgivers. The probability is that this project, combining as it did the dogmas of Christianity with the recollections of classic antiquity, was, at the request of the Corporation, drawn up by some man of letters, and this was not the first time that literature had been the handmaid of art, for Dante inspired Giotto, and Petrarch had suggested subjects to his friend Simone Memmi. At Florence, in the early part of the fifteenth century, Leonardo d'Arezzo, a celebrated writer, and Chancellor of the Eepublic, was entrusted with the choice of the Old Testament scenes which Ghiberti was to model ; and in the contract made by Perugino in 1490 for the decoration of the dome of Orvieto, it was stipulated that the president should supply him with the programme of the com- position. 2 Eaphael himself, as w T e know, often resorted to the 1 This is a convenient opportunity for speaking of the interesting art of inlaying in wood [tarsia, intarsiatura in legno), of which so much is to be seen in the churches of Perugia. Two shades, one light and the other dark, suffice to produce very fine effects in decoration. One of these shades was used for the background and the other for the arabesques, which, even at this early period, were of great elegance, and very classic in design. The most celebrated painters did not think it beneath their dignity to compose designs for these incrustations, which were to be found in the most sumptuous edifices. Thus, in 1502, Perugino undertook to furnish models for the wood-work which had been ordered for the church of St. Augustine, Perugia, from Baccio d'Agnolo Baglioni. 2 " Promisit pingere . . . . de figuris et istoriis dandis et consignandis ac deliber- andis per .... Camerarium " (Luzi, II Duomo di Orvieto, p. 456). It appears from the correspondence exchanged between Perugino and the Marchioness Isabella Gonzaga of Mantua, that the latter specially pointed out to him all the faces 44 Kaphael. advice of his literary friends, so it is no wonder that Pemgino, whose inventive powers were very limited, was glad to receive detailed instructions. They were prepared by Francisco Maturanzio, professor of rhetoric at the University of Perugia ; and in a manu- script containing his works may be found the Latin inscriptions which are placed beneath the frescoes. 1 The choice of personages is characteristic, as showing the intro- duction of antique elements into Umbrian art, which had hitherto been devoid of all admixture, for the artist takes the heroes of Greece or of Rome rather than of the Middle Ages to represent the virtues especially dear to the corporation of the Cambio, Tem- perance, Courage, Justice, and Prudence. It should be noted, on the other hand, that the three virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, always regarded as emblematic of Christianity, were not repre- sented. Francisco Maturanzio must have been very conversant with ancient history and literature, for as types of Temperance he gave to the artist, P. Scipio, Pericles, and Cincinnatus ; of Courage, L. Licinius, Leonidas, and Horatius Codes ; of Justice, Camillus, Pitticus, and Trajan ; and of Prudence, Fabius Maximus and Numa Pompilius. As these names conveyed no meaning to Perugino, he wrote them by the side of each figure, but for which it would be no easy matter to recognise them. The prophets and the sibyls face the Greek and the Roman heroes, and here again Perugino has given a distorted version of the truth, for he represents the sibyls as young and elegant women, while his figures of the prophets are so strange that one wonders whether he ever read a Bible. In only one respect has he con- formed to tradition, his sibyls, like those of Pinturicchio in the Borgia rooms and of others of his predecessors, having their prophecies written on long scrolls which are wound round their bodies. It was reserved for Michael Angelo to suppress these last vestiges of the art of the Middle Ages a few years only after the decoration of the Cambio. And yet when one compares which she wished to be painted in his picture "Love and Chastity" (Braghirolli, JYotizie e Documenti intorno a Pietro Vannucci detto il Perugino, pp. 22, 23. 1 Mariotti, Lettere pittoriche Perugine, p. 158 ; Marchesi, II Cambio di Perugine p. 356 et seq. Arrangement of the Figures. 45 Perugirio's sibyls with those in the Sistine Chapel, one would think that there was an interval of centuries between them. All these figures have the good points and the defects peculiar to the masters of the Umbrian School. The colouring is always strong and yet soft, and there is a striking expression of fervour or of reflection in the portraits of the men and women who, with their eyes lifted heavenward, their heads bent downwards, their grace and youth and poesy, lack nothing which earned Michael Angelo his great reputation save the energy and manly tone which would have transformed these pale Greeks and Romans into heroes, have made the prophets representatives of an avenging God, and have given a more vivid idea of the Sibyl. At, Plicebi nondum patiens, immanis in antro Bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit Excussisse deum. 1 As M. Rio has very truly remarked, the tribune Licinius is neither more nor less than an Archangel Michael, Horatius Codes a Mary Magdalene, and Publius Scipio a martyred Virgin. In this arrangement of figures may be noticed all the weak points in Perugino's talent, for instead of forming an animated and living whole, the different personages are placed beside each other, standing badly and not knowing what to do with their hands. 2 They look at each other in a vacant sort of way as if they had nothing to say to each other, and there is a want of the conviction and logic which go to make up a chef d'ceuvre. But if the artist had placed them in different attitudes the compo- sition would have been neither better nor worse, and here is the difference between Perugino and his pupil, for all the creations of Raphael are by necessity what they are. The least change in them would destroy the whole symmetry and pervert the artist's meaning. 1 Virgil, Mneid, book vi., lines 76 and following. 2 Thus it is that Leonidas quietly puts back his sword into its scabbard, just like the beautiful figure of Temperance, carved by Andrew of Pisa on the door of the Baptistery at Florence. "What movement could be less in keeping with the character of the personage % 46 Kaphael. There is little to be said about the two pictures placed at the lower end of the room, the Nativity and the Transfiguration. Pietro Vannucci had often treated the former of these two subjects, notably in his picture at the Villa Albani (1491), and the only difference he made at the Cambio w r as to substitute two shepherds for the two angels placed between the Virgin and St. Joseph, and to add three seraphim. Having but little initiative, Perugino made no effort to create an ideal superior to that of the public, and when once he had lighted upon what he deemed satisfactory types and groupings, he adhered to them and repeated them over and over again, like most of the artists of the Middle Ages. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle show us how, whenever he had to treat one of the traditional subjects, he selected from his portfolio some of the studies made for previous compositions and copied them without scruple. His fellow citizens in Umbria did not grumble, but the people of Florence were more exacting, as Perugino found out to his cost ; for when in the Assumption, which he painted for the church of Santa-Maria dei Servi, he repeated in almost exactly the same form the picture of the Ascension, now in the Lyons Museum, there was a general outburst of indignation, and he lost all his prestige in that city. Tendencies of this kind, amounting to a lack of intellectual probity, might have been expected to exert an evil influence upon the pupils w T hom he had around him, but Kaphael was in no wise affected by it, and his whole life was one of laborious effort. He never repeated himself, and of all his countless Madonnas there are no two exactly alike. Three times he represented the Temptation of Adam and Eve, and each time he devised a new composition, though they were only for decorative paintings. No wonder, therefore, that Raphael should have died in the prime of his manhood, worn out by work, while Perugino lived on long after the death of his pupil. The decoration of the ceiling of the Cambio is more interesting than that of the walls, for the painter there has to carry on a struggle with the Renaissance, the principles of which he could never quite assimilate. There is no little elegance about his arabesques, nor have we any objection to raise to the griffins, Arrangement of the Paintings. 47 satyrs, nymphs, meanders, &c., which make up the ornamentation of the composition. But the stunted thrones upon which the divinities of Olympus are seated do not belong to any particular style, and the drawing of the chariots is also very defective, as they are much too small for the people seated in them. First, with regard to the way in which the paintings are arranged. The ceiling is divided into nine compartments of very different dimensions. The ornaments, which are painted on a blue or a golden ground, cover the whole of the space, with the exception of the seven medallions which comprise the personifi- cations of the sun, the moon, and the planets. Each of these divinities, whose attributes and characteristics are faultless (for here Maturanzio superintended the work), is placed upon a car drawn by eagles, doves, horses, the Hours, or by a dragon, and on the wheels of the cars are the signs of the zodiac. Among the happiest strokes of painting may be mentioned Jupiter seated on his throne and taking the cup from Ganymede, who is kneel- ing before him ; the figure of the cup-bearer not being unworthy of Eaphael himself. Then there is Apollo urging on his steeds by voice and gesture, and leaping in impatience out of his car, which does not travel fast enough for him. The figure of Venus too is wonderfully graceful, whereas Mars, Mercury, Diana, and Saturn are lifeless and uninteresting. To pass a fair opinion upon the Cambio ceiling w r e must carry our minds back to the time at w T hich the work was executed, for even but ten years later the mythological paintings of Perugino wxmld have been deemed old-fashioned in no matter what Italian town, and Eaphael must have thought with good-natured contempt of these simple designs when he painted the famous Planets in the Chigi Chapel. Even in 1500 there were several painters, both in Florence and Mantua, who w T ould have been capable of giving a far better idea of the antique. But given the tempera- ment and education of Perugino, it would be unfair not to credit him with having attempted in this work to strike out a fresh line. All that remains to be said about the Cambio frescoes is to notice the striking portrait of the artist which completes the 48 Raphael. decoration of the chamber. Perugino, at that time fifty-four years of age, is in the full flush of health and strength, and his countenance is expressive at once of reflection and self- content. The portrait represents rather the active, well-to-do, and practical- minded burgher than the artist, whose qualities, however, are dwelt upon in very eulogistic terms in the inscription at the foot of the portrait, due no doubt, like the rest, to Maturanzio. PETRVS PERVSINVS EGREGIVS PICTOR. PERDITA SI FVERAT PINGENDI : HIC RETTVLIT ART EM SI NVSQVAM INVENTA EST HACTENVS IPSE DEDIT ANNO SALVT. Ml). In giving himself the place of honour upon the most prominent part of the walls, between the heroes of Greece and Rome, Perugino was not obeying the traditions of humility associated with the Umbrian school, but at Perugia, just then, he was very celebrated. He occupied, moreover, important municipal duties, so we need not be too severe in criticising an act of seeming vanity. The frescoes of the Cambio were, in all probability, completed in 1500, 1 and in the same year Perugino painted the beautiful picture of the Assumption, which is in the Academy of Fine Arts at Florence, but he did not return at once to the capital of Tuscany. 1 It is true that the account was not settled until 1507 (Mariotti, Lettere pittor- iche Perugine, p. 158). But as the corporation had stipulated in the original contract for ten years time (Rossi, Storia artistica del Cambio di Perugia, p. 9), there is nothing surprising about this delay, nor does it justify us in believing, with M. Rio and several other writers, that the frescoes were not finished until 1507. STUDY FOR THE WATCHERS AT THE TOMB OF CHRIST. (University Gallery, Oxford.) Perugino and his Pupil. 49 During the first two months of 1501 we find him holding at Perugia the office of municipal prior, and in September, 1502, he was working at Siena ; 1 while at Perugia, on the 10th of September, he agreed to paint for the Convent of San-Francesco at Monte the Coronation of the Virgin, and the Saints and Angels which were to stand around an image of Christ. Upon the 10th of October he became surety, at Perugia, for Baccio d'Agnola Baglioni, to whom he also supplied drawings for the stalls at St. Augustine's Church. In the same year he accepted for the same church an order for the Nativity ; and it was about this period too (after 1500, and not in 1495, as generally believed), that he executed for the cathedral at Perugia the celebrated Marriage of the Virgin, or Sposalizio, now in the museum at Caen. In the last weeks of 1502 he returned to Florence, where he settled himself again in the last half of October. 2 It is important to fix all these dates, for it is during the period between 1499 and 1502 that the intimacy between Perugino and Raphael was greatest, and it is during this period that there are the greatest number of authentic documents to prove the co- operation of the two artists. In some cases we find the pupil copying with respectful fidelity the works of his master ; in others we find them painting together ; and in others Perugino does him the honour of consulting him and asking him for sketches. Thus a drawing in the Frankfort Museum has on one side a St. Martin executed by Raphael, and on the other a Baptism of Christ by Perugino. 3 The Resurrection of Christ, in the Vatican Mu- seum, is considered by competent judges as the joint work of the two artists ; 4 and the soldier asleep near the tomb is thought by many to be the portrait of Raphael, while the one who is running away is believed to be meant for Perugino. With regard to the respective parts taken by master and pupil, it is 1 Braghirolli, Notizie e documenti inediti intorno a Pietro Vannucci, p. 17. 2 Braghirolli, ib., p. 18. 3 Passavant, Raphael, vol. i. p. 51. 4 Passavant, Raphael, vol. ii. p. 4 ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting, vol. iv. p. 231. The Oxford collection, which is so rich in drawings by Raphael, has two sketches for the figures of the Keepers of the Sepulchre, both of which are very different from the picture of the same subject. H 50 Raphael. supposed that the former executed the drawings and the latter painted them ; but what is at all events certain is that the composition, taken as a whole, has all the defects peculiar to Perugino (want of ponderation and too great distance between the figures), while the plenitude of the forms and the grace discernible in the persons is characteristic of the pupil. 1 The latter, doubtless, had a share, too, in the execution of the Madonna which, from the Carthusian Convent at Pavia, has found its way to the National Gallery of England. Passavant credits him with the two side-wings of this picture, one representing St. Michael, and the other the archangel Raphael with the youthful Tobias. 2 In short, when Raphael left Perugino in 1502, he had learnt all that the latter had to teach him. He was perfectly familiar with the principle both of oil and fresco painting, and though he subse- quently acquired much more power and freedom in the use of the brush, he was even then equal to any colourist of the Umbrian school. In regard to drawing, his very timidity was an element of progress, for it led him to be always consulting nature, and a few weeks' contact with the Florentine school sufficed to correct and polish any defects in regard to outline or proportion. In respect to composition, Raphael could not have learnt much from one so little endowed with imagination as Perugino, but the very nature of his talent served to awaken and to fortify in Raphael those qualities of grace, tenderness, 1 The writer of an article in the German review, Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst (p. 382 and following), in 1873, attributes to Raphael another picture of the Resurrection, which is preserved in the Trinity Convent at La Cava dei Tirreni, near Naples. 2 Passavant, Raphael, vol. ii. p. 4. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle are loth to admit this. They consider the whole altar piece to be the work of Perugino (vol. iv. p. 236). Passavant (vol. ii. p. 3) includes among the works executed by Raphael under the direction of his master the copy in distemper (preserved in the vestry of St. Peter Major at Perugia) of a section of the picture representing the " Marys " of Holy "Writ, with their children. But this picture, now in the Museum at Mar- seilles, is in Perugino's latest style (1512-1517), so that it must have been painted after Raphael had left him. (Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting, vol. iv. pp. 251-255. Burckhardt and Bode, Cicerone, p. 649, note.) The Two Names Inseparable. 51 and fidelity to nature which have delighted succeeding ages. So that we may well speak kindly of him as did his pupil, who, in the School of Athens, placed his portrait beside his own. 1 Their two names are inseparable in the history of art, and it should not be forgotten that the one was for the other not merely a kind teacher and skilful exponent of art principles, but a model who, had he died earlier, would have been looked upon as one of the glories of the Italian school. He would, to use the words of Tacitus, 2 have been "felix opportunitate mortis," if he had died when Raphael left him. 1 A distinguished Italian connoisseur, Signor J. Morelli, attributes to Raphael another portrait (Borghese Gallery, Flemish room, No. 35), which he believes to be that of Perugino (Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunsi, 1876, p. 170. See also Frizzoni, V 'Arte Italiana nela Galleria nazionale di Londra, Florence, 1880, p. 25). 2 Tacitus, Life of Agricola. CHAPTER III. The earliest original productions of Raphael. — His works at Perugia and at Citta di Castello. Madonnas and Holy Families. — The Coronation of the Virgin.— The Sposalizio. When Perugino returned to Tuscany, Raphael was nineteen years of age, and old enough, therefore, to begin work on his own account. His master, who was at that time overwhelmed with orders, was glad to let him have the benefit of the popularity which attached to what was so well called the Peruginesque style, and doubtless recom- mended him strongly to his friends and patrons in Umbria, which had become a second country for Raphael. While he underwent the influence due to the beauty of its sites and the mystic tendencies of its inhabitants, the Umbrians themselves became much attached to him, and it was owing to their spirit of generous piety that he was able to execute some of his most admired pictures. These encouragements were necessary to preserve him from the sufferings which, after the departure of his master, he would have under- gone, and Raphael showed his gratitude by remaining amid the Umbrian mountains until he went to reside at Rome in 1508. Notwithstanding his lofty intelligence and distinguished manners we must fancy Raphael leading all this time the essentially modest and prosaic life of his master and comrades. It is incumbent upon modern research to clear away the obscurity which surrounds one half of the lives of the artists of the Renaissance ; and to give any- thing like a faithful picture of that movement, so subtle and so varying in its phases, one must penetrate their inmost thoughts, and see them in their daily lives. This will be done at the cost of a few illusions, perhaps, but what is that compared to getting at the truth ? This was a happy period, moreover, when the artist 54 Raphael. could, amid pre-occupations of a very different kind, retain an illimitable freedom of mind and a wealth of poetic fancy, and it cannot too often be repeated that the Renaissance at last set :he seal upon the emancipation of the architect, the painter, and the sculptor. Until the beginning of the sixteenth century the most celebrated artists are being continually classed in the same category as artizans, or, to speak more accurately, there was no distinction between the two. It needed all the force of the genius of Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Raphael, and the tenacious will of Julius II. and Leo X., to overcome deep-rooted prejudices and to raise this class of disinherited ones to the same rank as that occupied by other representatives of thought. In a very short time, third-rate artists assumed the titles of professor, cavalier, and academician, and there were no honorary distinctions which " Messire " George Vasari and his comrades in the second half of the sixteenth century deemed above them. It was not so in Umbria, and the greatest of painters was content to be known as Master Raphael of Urbino. 1 The mercenary ways of Perugino were not calculated to force on a revolution of this kind. It would have been different if he had been in the habit of using the noble language in which he addressed the Marchioness of Mantua, when he wrote to her that honour was of more account than money, 2 but his noble patrons were accustomed to receive appeals of another kind, and it is not surprising 1 We may mention by way of curiosity the epithet of arch-master (archimagister) given to Michael Angelo (document of 17th of April, 1518, published in Michael Angelo's Letters, Milanesi edition, p. 678). 2 " Mio onore, et quale sempre ho preposto a ogni utilita." Almost identical words are to be found in the oldest autograph extant of any painter, a letter of Taddeo Gaddi, in 1342 : — " Renditi sicuro," writes the pupil of Giotto, " che solo per onore avere io voglio dipignere la tavola, e renditi sicuro che cosi sara " (Pini and Milanesi, La Scrittura di artisti Italiani, No. 1). But what was, from the artist of the fifteenth century, the expression of a real feeling was a mere form of politeness on the part of Perugino. The Marchioness of Mantua had been obliged to reproach him for neglecting to execute the picture which was to be placed beside those of Mantegna : — " Quando fusse stato finito (el quadro) cum magior diligentia havendo a stare appresso quelli del Mantinea, che sono summa- mentenetti, seria stato magior honore vostro et piii nostra satisfactione " (Letter of June 30th, 1505). There is something very happy in the way in which the Mar- chioness refers to the word " honour," so imprudently pronounced by the painter. Condition of Sixteenth-Century Artists. 55 that they should have treated with disdain men whose characters were not as lofty as their talents. They were wont to treat them in a most cavalier way, making them wait years for payment, and compelling them to sue in the most abject terms for an advance upon the sum due for a picture or a statue, while they heaped their liberalities upon men of letters. Many poet laureates and philologists received hundreds of ducats for the dedication of volumes, and this because they knew how to make themselves respected, and even feared. Before showing how Raphael received numerous orders from the patrons of art in Umbria and entered into agreements with them, it may be well to see what were the respective relations of artist and buyers. Some of the rules may seem to us now strange and even humiliating, while others, which have since become obsolete, were very well calculated to protect the independence and dignity of the artist. In most cases the price of the work was fixed in advance, and the artist undertook to supply all the materials with the exception of the gold and the ultramarine, which two colours, so much used in the pictures of the early Renaissance, were nearly always provided by the person who had ordered the picture. This arrangement was always giving rise to disputes, as when Sixtus IV. complained that the painters of the Sixtine Chapel had not used enough of these colours, 1 and when the committee for the decoration of the dome of Orvieto complained that Pinturicchio was using too much of them, and so brought on a quarrel which led to the work being suspended. 2 Another peculiarity which deserves notice is that pay- ment was often made in kind. Perugino several times received wheat on account of his Cambio frescoes, and Pinturicchio was obliged to consent to buy from the steward of Cardinal Piccolomini the corn and oil and wine which he wanted during his decoration of Siena Cathedral. It may be added that the contracts sometimes contained a stipulation that a supplementary sum should be paid, at pleasure, by the person who had given the order in the event of his being satisfied. Thus Giovanni Tornabuoni promised to give 1 Vasari, vol. i. p. 30. 2 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting, vol. i. p. 274. 56 Raphael. Domenico Ghirlandajo 200 ducats over and above the 1,200 which were to be paid for painting the choir of Santa-Maria Novella, if he was pleased with the work. Ghirlandajo did it so well that Tornabuoni was obliged to confess that he had been successful, but he did not pay him the extra sum ; and the artist consoled himself with the reflection that honour is above riches. 1 Yet, — so strange a medley of meanness and generosity were the habits of that day, — Tornabuoni hearing some years afterwards that Ghirlandajo was ill, sent him a hundred ducats as a present. 2 In some cases, the most celebrated artists worked by the month, or even by the day, and when they lost a few hours the time was deducted from their wages. Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo, for instance, received a fixed wage of fifteen ducats a month while they were working at the cartoons of the Battle of Anghiari and the War of Pisa. But here, too, it was customary to make distinctions which are very much in contrast with modern usages. In many cases the artists were lodged and boarded, and they then received a lower wage. The fare with which they were provided was agreed upon in writing, and from some of the bills of fare which are still in existence, we see that the masters of the fifteenth century liked to live well. Thus in 1430, the tapestry worker, Jean Hosemant of Tournai, who was employed at Avignon by the Pope, had for his daily allowance three measures of wine, six loaves of bread, a dish of meat, fish, eggs, and vegetables. 3 Though Fra Angelico at Orvieto 1 Vasari, vol. v. p. 72. 2 Vasari, vol. v. p. 81. 3 See M. Muntz's work, Les Arts a la cour des Papes, vol. ii. p. 310. The monks of San Miniato did not feed Paolo Uccello so well, for he got so tired of eating nothing but cheese, that he went away, and only returned upon the express con- dition that he should be provided with a greater variety of food (Vasari, vol. iv. pp. 90, 91). Domenico and David Ghirlandajo also had to complain of how they were fed by the monks of Passignano, and David, on one occasion, got so angry that he threw the dishes at the monk who brought them, and wounded him severely in the head (Vasari, vol. v. p. 81). We may also refer as a curiosity to the agree- ment made between the heirs of Agostino Chigi in 1520, and the Venetian artist, Luigi de Pace, who had undertaken to finish the mosaics in the chapel of Santa-Maria del Popolo : — " The master shall receive (during the four years he is employed upon this work) bread, wine, oil, and salt ad libitum, for himself and his assistant, and also two ducats a month. He shall be provided once a year with a Condition of Sixteenth-Century Artists. 57 was only allowed bread and wine, and three ducats a month to buy other things, he was being paid a salary of sixteen florins a month, which is equivalent to £400 per annum at the present value of money. There was another mode of payment which has gone out of fashion, obvious as are the advantages which it offers, when the contracting parties, being unable to say beforehand what the exact value of a work would be, agreed to leave it to experts to decide after its completion what it was worth. This enabled the artist to work with perfect freedom, assured as he was that a fair valuation would be put upon his labours, and Raphael was one of those who had a great liking for this system. In a letter to his uncle Simon in 1508, he mentions not having fixed any price for one of his pictures, preferring that it should be valued when finished. After he had completed the Sibyls for the Church of the Pace, he requested that the work might be valued ; and the expert selected, as we shall hereafter see, was Michael Angelo, who ful- filled the same functions at the request of Cardinal Giuliano de Medicis and Sebastiano del Piombo, after the latter had painted the Resurrection of Lazarus. There can be no doubt that Raphael had, from his earliest years, given proof of the singularly delicate feelings which distinguished him from the great majority of his contemporaries, and especially from his master. He did not despise money, but he knew how to employ it aright ; and when he might have sold the most trivial of his sketches for its weight in gold, he was always ready to make a present of it to a friend or patron. A Florentine noble received from him as a wedding gift the Madonna del Cardellino. Some time afterwards, there was a regular dual of liberality between Raphael and the wealthy patron of art at Siena, Agostino Chigi. Raphael commenced, of course, with pictures of small dimensions, new suit of clothes by the Chigi family, who, on the completion of the work, shall also make over to him a house of the value of 200 gold ducats. The Chigi family shall also supply all the materials, only the salary of the assistant being borne by Master Luigi." (Archivio della Societa Roviana di storia paWia, vol. iii. 1880, pp. 444-445.) I 58 Raphael. and with subjects which did not require a very high degree of knowledge. His earliest efforts were a series of Madonnas, drawn at half-length and in timid attitudes, for in most of them the Virgin, who is drawn full face, is standing with her eyes looking down upon her child. Among these are the Madonnas of the Solly collection (in the Berlin Museum), that in the gallery of the Countess Alfani at Perugia, 1 the Virgin betwee?i St. Jerome and St. Francis (in the Berlin Museum), and the Conestabile Mado?ma 2 (in the St. Petersburg Museum). We need not stop to examine in detail these works, which mark the stages in the artistic development of Raphael, but which were soon to be put into the shade by the admirable Madonnas of his Florentine period. A description of them will be found in Passavant's Raphael, and the Vierges de Raphael by M. Gruyer. What is noteworthy in these works is the sincerity of the efforts made by the young artist to strike out a line for himself instead of adhering to a servile imitation of his master, after the manner of too many of his fellow-pupils. Thus it was that he succeeded in gradually giving more amplitude to his design, while the innate taste which he possessed supplied the force necessary for correcting the mannerism which disfigures so much Peruginesque work, and for giving a better balance to his compositions. The influence of his master, as of his father, 3 gradually declined from year to year, one may almost say from month to month, until at last he had created a style of his own. If he still adhered to the types peculiar to the Umbrian school, especially in the Madonnas, it was because Umbria itself supplied him with a number of these soft and pensive counte- nances in which the depth of religious contentment stood instead of beauty. For a spiritualist like him, the painting of the soul was a nobler task than the painting of the body. There is already a 1 This picture is now at Terni, in the house of Countess Beatrix Fabrizi, the heiress of the Countess Anna Alfani. 2 As to the vicissitudes of this picture, see the Giornale di erudizione artistica, vol. vi. The Perugia Gallery (Sala del Pinturicchio, No. 20) contains a copy of the Madonna Conestabile, originally belonging to the Congregation of Charity. 3 There is notably a great likeness between the Alfani Madonna and the paint- ings of Giovanni Santi at Cagli (see the Vierges de Raphael, by M. A. Gruyer, vol. iii. pp. 9-11). Raphael's First Madonnas. 59 good deal of landscape in these pictures, and in the background of the Conestabile Madonna, the chain of mountains was painted from nature in the neighbourhood of Perugia. Raphael had, perhaps, been to visit Lake Trasimene, for in the perspective may be seen a broad expanse of water upon which fishermen are rowing a boat. In his first landscape efforts, Raphael, like Perugino, endeavours to substitute simplicity of outline and breadth of design for the minuteness and the aridity of the Umbrian painters, especially of Pinturicchio, whose manner, as Vasari has already pointed out, reminds one so much of the Flemish school. In studying this relatively slow evolution, some critics may be tempted to evoke the recollection of Michael Angelo, and to contrast the assured position which he at once acquired with the laborious progress made by Raphael. The contrast is, as a matter of fact, very striking, but it would, in my opinion, be erroneous to deduce from it the superiority of Michael Angelo, for it was only natural that Raphael, being of less abstract genius than his rival, should emancipate himself more slowly. The sentiment of Nature had taken deeper root in him, so that it took more time for him to extricate himself from its trammels ; but upon the other hand, his principles were much more productive, and if his pupils had adhered to them instead of succumbing to the influence of Michael Angelo, the decadence of Italian art would have been put back for many years. Eaphael, during all this early period, was, moreover, compelled to take into account the exigencies of the Umbrian public, for the costume, the attributes, and even the attitude of the personages were not allowed to differ from what they had been before. For a Madonna or a Holy Family to awaken feelings of sympathy among these primitive populations it was necessary that they should be of the same type as those which had been painted before. Thus, in one of the pictures in the Berlin Museum, the Virgin between St. Jerome and St. Francis, the Virgin's head is covered with a mantle, as in the Byzantine compositions. Moreover, under the blue mantle is a white veil, hiding part of the forehead, an arrangement which is seen in the mosaics and frescoes of the first ages of Christianity. The golden star placed upon the left shoulder t 60 Raphael. of the Virgin is also borrowed from the traditions of the primitive Church. We shall have an opportunity, when we come to speak of the Holy Family of San Antonio of Perugia, to mention other reminiscences not less characteristic, and these details have their importance, for they show us to what an extent Raphael was compelled to take into account the habits of his Umbrian patrons. They wanted him to paint them simple pictures on religious subjects, while at Florence he was allowed complete liberty of action and the choice of his own subjects. Taken separately, any one of the pictures to which we have re- ferred has so many points of contact with the works of Perugino STUDY FOR THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. (Drawn in the Wiear Museum.) that one hesitates to pronounce between the master and the pupil. But if we consider the early productions of Raphael as a whole, we find that they have, as mentioned above, a quite distinct personality from those of his master, and much more delicacy of finish. These qualities are as yet only latent, but in the course of time they will manifest themselves very plainly. Raphael soon had more important work entrusted to him ; for soon after the departure of his master, a lady belonging to one of the most powerful families of Perugia, Maddalena degli Oddi, The Coronation of the Virgin. (>l instructed him to mint for the church of St. Francis the Coronation 17 of the Virgin. As the Oddis were banished after the fall of Caesar Borgia, in August 1503, this work, vast in its dimensions, must have been executed in the early part of that year. Upon the 10th of September of the preceding year, Perugino had received an order for a picture on the same subject for the church of St. Francesco al Monte. These two works are still exant, that of Raphael in the Pinacoteca of the Vatican, and that of his master in the gallery at the town hall of Perugia (Sala di Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, No. 24). This is an excellent opportunity for drawing a comparison between master and pupil. Many drawings which are preserved in the collections at Venice, Lille, and Oxford, show us with what care Raphael prepared his work, and a very interesting account of this is given by M. Gruyer in Les Vierges de Raphael. He says : " The Lille Museum contains the drawing for the principal group of the Coronation of the Virgin. At that time the women of Umbria were not often seen in public, and though they might have sat for a celebrated painter like Perugino, Raphael did not venture to ask this favour, and was obliged to take his comrades for his models of the Virgin. He selected then two of them, arid placing them opposite each other made the silver-point drawing now in the Wicar collection [see previous page]. These two youths, with their beard- less countenances, and attired in the tight-fitting hose which shows off their well-shaped bodies, entered into the spirit of the work, and their attitudes are not only candid and ingenuous, but full of religious fervour. The one meant for the Virgin bends before the other, not so much perhaps as in the picture itself, and he shows rather too full a face, but the arms are in the right position, and the hands respectfully joined together, while the legs, when they come to be covered with drapery, will retain the movement which they have here ; and even the feet, which will be bare in the ideal picture, will be in the same position as those of the living model. In the same way, there will be no change in the position of the figure which is to represent Jesus; the attitude of the arms and hands, the postures of the body and of the legs, being definite, and the only change which 62 Raphael. will be required being to slightly raise the head and draw it rather less in profile. This simple sketch carries with it a fresh- ness inexpressibly charming, and Nature is questioned so sincerely that she seems to have been loth to keep back any of her secrets." 1 This profound respect for Nature is, as cannot too often be repeated, one of the distinctive traits of Raphael's genius. It is the bond which unites him to the primitive and quattrocentist artists, whereas in so many other respects he shows himself free from all prejudices, and obeys no law but that of his own taste. He puts all his heart into the copying of a leaf or a flower, and there never was an artist more enthusiastic about the beauties of creation. Given his prodigious facility and his unfailing memory, he could soon have clone without models and have painted pictures out of his own head, but he is continually falling back upon reality, and, like Antseus, gaining fresh strength by his contact with the ground. Before composing those figures, which seem to us the most remarkable triumph of the ideal — those Virgins radiant with beauty, those Christs, some of them so full of majesty and others of tenderness — he placed the living model before him, in the dress of the period, and familiarized himself with the make of the body and the laws of motion. For the Coronation of St. Nicolas of Tolentino and for the Coronation of the Virgin he first drew his characters from Nature, with their close-fitting garments, their caps and their cropped hair. It was only after he had done this that he proceeded to arrange the draperies, and to give the required expression to the faces — in short to compose the picture. We find him, too, making studies from a skeleton for the figure of the Virgin in the Entombment. In a red-chalk drawing in the Lille Museum (No. 740) he made use of a man model to prepare the Virgin of 1 Les Vierges de Raphael, vol. ii. pp. 553, 554. A fact pointed out to us by Com- mander Paliard shows how closely Raphael at that time copied Nature. In one of his studies for the Angels in the Coronation of the Virgin (see engraving at page 63) he, while drawing a portrait of one of his comrades, reproduced a slight physical defect, which any one else would have omitted. If the right eye is examined, it will be seen that there is a reversal of the lower eyelid, known to modern science as "ectropion." The Coronation of the Virgin. 63 the Casa Alba; and in another red-chalk drawing (Louvre Museum, Drawing No. 314), a man in his shirt-sleeves and not at all idealized is the model for the beautiful figure of Christ entrusting His Hock to St. Peter. These changes are very remarkable, and show that the artist had a wonderful power of self-abstraction, for while his pencil reproduced with scrupulous fidelity the model placed before him, lie was foreseeing the 64 Raphael. harmonious and divine figure which was to take its place in the final composition. To go back to the Coronation of the Virgin : the picture is composed of two distinct parts. The one, which may be called the terrestrial portion, comprises the Apostles assembled around the tomb of the Virgin, just as in pictures of the Assumption. The other shows us Christ seated upon the clouds, amid a glory of angels, and placing a crown upon His mother's head. Several of the Apostles are looking upwards, and see Christ and His mother above them. This action suffices to connect the two scenes and to give complete unity to the whole. The moment selected by Raphael is that at which the Apostles have reached the tomb of the Virgin. Several of them are astonished to find that the tomb is empty, and they look into the sarcophagus in which lilies and roses have taken the place of the body. Raphael, in selecting these flowers, had in his mind, as M. Gruyer has observed, the lines of Dante : Quivi e la rosa in che '1 Verbo divino Carne si fece ; e quivi sono i gigli, Al cui odor s'apprese '1 buon cammino. While some of the Apostles, among them St. Paul, are over- come with astonishment, others, especially those who are stand- ing at the two ends, as well as St. Thomas, who is holding the Virgin's belt, are looking heavenwards for an explanation of the mystery, and their eyes beam with delight at the joyful spectacle which meets their gaze. It was not, assuredly, an easy task for a follower of the Umbrian school to render with the necessary force and precision the impression produced by this spectacle upon all these men of such varying origin and age, to pourtray twelve times upon twelve different physiognomies, and without repeating himself, a feeling almost identical. Such a problem called for an effort of dramatic power greater than could have been expected from a young man of twenty. Perugino himself, in his pictures of the Ascension and the Assumption, hnd never quite succeeded in overcoming THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. (In the Vatican.') The Coronation of the Virgin 67 obstacles, which, indeed, were almost insurmountable for a contem- plative nature such as his. No wonder, therefore, that there are traces of hesitation and inexperience in the work of his pupil. Thus, the figures of some of the Apostles express but feebly the admiration or the fervour which they are supposed to feel, and it would be impossible to define what expression there is on the faces of the two Disciples who are standing at the two extremities right and left. Then ao-ain there is something' stilted in ihe attitudes, and in the grouping of the figures there is not so much ease and harmony as Raphael displays in his later com- positions. But it would be ungracious to insist upon these defects when one reflects upon the transcendent beauties of the composition ; and several of the figures, notably those of Christ and His mother, are of a marvellously pure and rounded type. Some of the heads are remarkable for their grace and juvenile freshness, and others for their majesty. The arrangement of the draperies is excellent, and the landscape deserves high praise, being more picturesque than in any of his previous works. There is a pleasing alternation of wooded hills and pleasant dwelling- places, the general effect produced being one of delightful tranquillity. Lastly, there are the Angels who form the escort of Christ and His mother, and their expression is one of mingled grace and pride, which reminds one more of the Florentine than of the Umbrian school, and would not have been disowned by Botticelli. The one who is placed beneath Christ, 'his eyes lifted to heaven with an expression of undefinable melancholy, is a prototype of the Angels which Raphael painted in the Madonna di San Sisto. There was a vast difference between this Coronation and the one which Perugino painted about the same time. In the work of the pupil we are struck by the vigour of conception and the exuberance of life and poetry, and in placing the Apostles round the Virgin's tomb Raphael introduced an element of interest which was lacking in Perugino's picture. In the latter, the Apostles, divided into two groups, merely express by their gestures their admiration for the spectacle which they have before them. 08 Eaphael. But the heads are poor and inexpressive compared to those of Raphael, and they, as we have seen, are in many respects open to criticism. There is a great monotony about the outstretched necks and ecstatic looks, with the exception of the Apostle on the right, who, with his body violently thrown back, and his arms stretching towards the ground, gives eloquent expression to the fervour which animates him. This was an idea which Perugino had previously employed in his Ascension, now in the Lyons Museum, and which he had doubtless borrowed from Giotto, the dramatic painter par excellence. In the upper part of the picture he also shows his attachment to previous models, and he did well to retain the almond-shaped halo — the " mandorla " 1 — which is so well calculated to bring into relief the brilliancy or solemnity of the composition. This large circle, studded with cherubim, forms an appropriate framework for the figures of Christ and of the Virgin, and brings out the beauties of the group, the attitude and expression of which are really excellent. I should even be tempted to say that in his picture there is more majesty about the Son and a more reflective expression about the Virgin, and that the whole composition has a more religious character. Upon the other hand, he has failed in the drawing of the four Angels who are hovering about the divine couple and holding over them a garland of flowers. This is where some novelty of design was required. The move- ments of the Angels have not sufficient unity or cadence, for those beneath ' are flitting in the opposite direction to those above. This detracts from the effect of the whole composition instead of improving it, and Raphael took care to avoid a similar mistake. We have compared Perugino's work with that of his pupil, but there is another comparison which one cannot avoid making. At a few paces from Raphael's picture, and in the same room, is another Coronation, painted at about the same period by one of his most intimate friends, who disputes with Perugino the leadership of the Umbrian school, viz., Bernardo Pinturicchio. This picture, as might 1 The Ascension in the Lyons Museum also has a " mandorla." The Coronation of the Virgin. 69 be expected, is painted more in conformity with the traditions of the Middle Ages, and in many points possesses a hierarchical character which is not to be found in that of Raphael. In the one case we have an artist who is anxious to free himself of all trammels, and in the other an artist who seeks the elements of strength in his attachment to the rules traced by his predecessors. In Pinturicchio's picture, the Virgin, instead of being seated by the side of her Son, is kneeling in front of Him. 1 The Mother and Son are seen upon the edge of a " mandorla " with a gold ground studded with cherubim. There is a preponderance of gold, too, in the halos, which form solid discs, while in Raphael's picture they are mere circles. As a composition the inferiority is very marked. The two parts are kept quite distinct. There is a want of expression about the faces of the Apostles, or rather they express only ennui and indifference. It is only in the left group that there are a few juvenile and pleasant faces, and even here the artist does not display more warmth of tone. There is the same imperfection in the colouring — yellow, blue, red, and light-green alternating in the draperies without due proportion — and one might imagine that Pinturicchio had never heard of tonality and scale. There is nothing in the landscape background to make up for these defects ; it is inferior, not only to those of Raphael, but even to those of Perugino, which, in spite of their weakness always have a certain amount of warmth and luminosity. It must have been grievous to be wanting both in science and inspiration ; still worse to be eclipsed by a youth of twenty, after having been the favourite painter of the Borgias. Underneath the Coronation of the Virgin there was formerly a sort of ledge, or " predella," to use the correct term, upon which were traced, in much smaller dimensions, scenes in the lives of the Virgin and of Christ, which supplemented the principal picture. This predella, though separated from the main part of the work, is still in existence, and is preserved in the Vatican, in the room which leads to the picture gallery. Raphael's predella represents 1 Fra Angelico, who knew and adhered to the rules of sacred iconography more closely than any other painter of the fifteenth century, has painted the Virgin in both postures, sitting and kneeling. 70 Raphael. in three compartments divided by red arabesques on a black ground, the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation in the Temple. 1 These, as we know, were very familiar subjects in the Umbrian school, but in this more limited space the artist has given a looser rein to his own fancy. Raphael is quite himself in this picture, with his infallible surety of hand, his ex- quisite taste, his force and vivacity. He might there and then have inaugurated a new art, but he did not know the full extent of his own powers, and he was ever and again falling back beneath the banner of Perugino. The scene in which Mary receives from the heavenly messenger the assurance of her future greatness takes place beneath a lofty and elegant portico, supported by Corinthian columns. There is an unimpeded current of air through this beautiful and harmonious piece of architecture which tells one of the Renaissance, and the quiet landscape in the background adds to the serenity and spaciousness of the composition. A framework such as this was well calculated to bring the figures into relief, so that Raphael had no need to multiply them in order to bespeak attention for them. To the right, the Virgin is seated, with a book on her knee, slightly bending the head, and full of candour and resignation ; to the left is an Angel, who is rapidly advancing towards her with extreme joy depicted on his face ; and in the background, soaring in the air, is God the Father, confirming the promise borne by His messenger ; — these are the sole actors in this scene, at once so complete and so harmonious. In the Adoration of the Magi, Raphael has made use of more varied resources, it being a subject which lends itself more fully to a display of luxury and a multiplication of episodes. There was much in such a subject both to tempt and to intimidate a beginner, but Raphael was not to be stopped by the latter consideration, and set to work upon it with unflinching courage. For a picture of the Umbrian school, as full of life and movement, of grace and of force, we must go back to the Adoration of the Magi painted 1 The cartoon of the Annunciation is on view in the Louvre, Salle des Boites, No. 1606. The sketch of the Presentation in the Temple is at Oxford (Robinson, p. 122). Both are reproduced here. The Coronation of the Virgin. 73 in 1423 for Palla Strozzi by Gentile da Fabriano, which, as soon as it appeared, excited the warmest admiration among the artists of Florence. These two pictures, painted at an interval of eighty years, have the same fire and exuberant life in the male figures, the same exquisite grace in the figure of the Virgin, and the same vivacity in action — which last-named quality is, however, more concentrated in the case of Raphael, who reduced the number of personages from seventy to fifteen, and who, by more simple means, produced as striking an effect. To the right, near a ruined hovel, the Virgin is seated with her Son upon her knees, to whom one of the kings is offering rich presents. 1 The Virgin is radiant with joy, while the attitude and visage of the Child express both curiosity and surprise. Behind the principal group, Raphael, by one of those bold inspirations for which he is remarkable, has placed three Shepherds, who, by the simplicity of their costume and the modesty of their offering (a lamb), contrast with the splendour of the three kings. Hitherto, the two scenes — the Adoration of the Magi and that of the Shep- herds — had always been represented separately. By putting them into one, the artist showed how thoroughly he had mastered the meaning of the Gospel, and how well he had learnt to bring out the human and touching side of its pages. We shall have more than one opportunity of referring to his biblical knowledge, which was proved even thus early to be far in advance of that displayed by all other artists of the period. The remainder of this com- position is in keeping with its commencement, though framed in a different spirit, as the two other kings and their suite, made up of dashing horsemen, are gazing in pensive admiration at the spectacle before their eyes, while the scene is completed by some splendidly-drawn horses. The left group is put together with consummate art, and Raphael, outdoing his master, has hit upon 1 Here, it must be admitted, Gentile has the better of his young rival. In his picture, the senior of the Magi, prostrate before the Infant Jesus, humbly kisses His feet, while the Child gravely lays His hand upon the worshipper's head. This scene, which is made more brilliant by the richness of the costumes, has about it a solemnity which is wanting in Raphael's work, and is, as it were, a final echo of the pomp of the Middle Ages. 74 Raphael. a How of line, a balance of masses, and a freedom and correctness of movement to which Perugino could never attain. For the third and last division, the Presentation in the Temple, Raphael has selected, as for the Annunciation, an architectural framework, at once simple and imposing, of the Ionic order. Thus STUDY FOR THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. (Drawing in Oxford University.) the Adoration of the Magi, which forms the centre of the predella, and in which landscape plays an important part, has very pic- turesque surroundings ; and this fact deserves notice, for it testifies to Raphael's superior taste, details of this kind having been much Raphael at Cttta di Castello. 75 neglected by the school of Perugino. In the centre of the composition stands the aged Simeon, who is the only personage with a halo, and he takes the new-born Child from Mary with a gesture full of grace and modesty. But the Child is afraid of the stranger, and turns towards His mother, stretching out His little arms as if to implore her help. This is one of those touches of nature which testify to Raphael's wonderful powers of observation. St. Joseph, reserved and thoughtful as usual, completes this group, the arrangement of which is perfect. At the two extremities of the picture are the men to the left and the women to the right, one of the women carrying the traditional turtle-doves as a gift. The costumes are those of the fifteenth century, red, black, or green shoes, felt head-dresses of fantastic shapes, and long mantles, yet this anachronism and want of local colour do not spoil this work, which may be regarded as a sure presage of future merit. Perugia was not the only town in Umbria which assisted at the debut of Raphael, for he received very cordial hospitality from Citta, di Castello, where Luca Signorelli and Pinturicchio had already been employed. 1 The Vitelli family, then the leading family in the city, were the allies of the Dukes of Urbino, and on one occasion (in December, 1502) Raphael's legitimate sovereign, Duke Guido'baldo, took refuge with them from Csesar Borgia, 2 This fact, which Raphael's biographers do not seem to have noticed, explains to some extent how it was that he soon felt himself at home. It is probable that he did not come till after the visit of Duke Guido- baldo, or even until after the town, having been captured by Caesar Borgia, regained its liberty on the death of Alexander VI. (August 18th, 1503). Upon the strength of an assertion made on very insufficient evidence by Lanzi, it has been said that all the works executed at Citta, di Castello dated, with the exception 1 It was thought that Bramante also had done some work at Citta di Castello, but M. de Geyniuller, whose opinion carries great weight, attributes the construc- tion of the dome to the architect Elia di Bartolommeo Lombardo (les Projets primitifs pour la basilique de Saint-Pierre de Rome, p. 105). Pontani, in his Opere architettoniche di Raffaello Sanzio (Borne, 1845, p. 6), has built up a regular romance upon the imaginary meeting of Bramante and Raphael at Citta di Castello. 2 Ugolini, Storia dei conti e duchi d' Urbino, vol. ii. p. 110. Guidobaldo took only a day to travel between Urbino and Citta di Castello. 76 Raphael. of the Sposalizio, from the year 1500. 1 But as the Sposalizio was painted in 1504, the other pictures were probably painted about the same time, for in 1500 Raphael, as we have seen, had only just entered Perugino's studio, while three or four years later his reputation was firmly established throughout Umbria, and would have been well known to the inhabitants of Citta di Castello. The paintings executed by Raphael at Citta di Castello number four — viz., the Banner representing on one side the Trinity and on the other the Creation of Eve; the coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino ; Christ on the Cross and the Sposalizio. The banner is still in the Trinity Church for which it was painted, and Raphael did not deem it beneath his dignity to accept this order, knowing that the most illustrious painters were glad to paint those banners w T hich held the place of honour in the processions, and which were generally as well paid as oil-paintings. The Umbrian school had, so to speak, the monopoly of them, aud Perugino had set his pupil the example by painting fourteen small standards for the Panicale Church, which wanted them for the Corpus Domini procession. 2 On one side of the banner Raphael has represented God the Father seated on a cloud of glory and holding a crucifix in both hands, while above Him hovers the Holy Ghost. At the bottom are to be seen St. Sebastian to the left and St. Roch to the right, both on their knees, and with their eyes lifted towards God. Upon the reverse side God is depicted advancing towards Adam, who is asleep, while above are the figures of two Angels. Passavant, from whom these details are taken, adds that the paintings are on slightly prepared canvas, and that they have a blue border orna- mented with gilt tracery and palms ; the letter R traced upon the hem of the garment worn by God stands for the signature, and the whole work, though conceived in the style of Perugino, has more breadth and grace, especially in regard to the landscape. 3 1 Ilistoire de la peinture en Italie, French translation, vol. ii. p. 54 : — " J'ai en- tendu dire, a Citta di Castello, qu'etant a l'age de dix-sept ans, il peignit le tableau de Saint Nicolas de Tolentino, aux Eremitani." 2 With regard to the banners in the Umbrian school, see Lettere pittoriche Perugine by Mariotti, pp. 76 and following ; and M. Rio's Lart chretien, vol. ii. p. ISO. 3 Raphael, vol. ii. p. 7. The Coronation of St. Nicholas. The Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino, executed for the church of St. Augustine, remained at Citta di Castello until 1789, when it was sold for the sum of £200 to Pope Pius VI. The picture was on panel, and difficult to move on account of its size ; and as it was only injured in the upper part, the Pope had it sawn in two, so as to make a complete picture of the lower part, while the figures in the higher part formed distinct pictures. These fragments were to be seen in the Vatican until after the entry of the French army into Rome in 1798, when they were undoubtedly sold by auction together with Raphael's tapestries and many other objects which have since disappeared. Thanks to the descriptions of Lanzi and Pungileoni, and thanks also to two drawings preserved respectively at Oxford 1 and Lille, it is possible to furnish a tolerably clear description of the picture. According to Lanzi, Raphael represented St. Nicholas as being crowned by the Virgin and St. Augustine, who are half hidden in a cloud. Beneath St. Augustine's feet is the prostrate figure of the demon, and to the right and left are two Angels holding inscriptions in honour of the saint. In the upper division is the majestic figure of the Almighty surrounded by a glory of angels. A sort of temple with pilasters charged with ornaments after the manner of Mantegna, forms a framework for the composition, and the draperies are of the period. It will be remarked in this drawing that Raphael, instead of representing the devil in all his hideousness, has given him the appearance of a negro. 2 The Lille sketch differs but very slightly from Lanzi's descrip- tion. St. Nicholas, placed in the centre, is holding a book in one hand and a cross in the other, and is naked. Above is the half- length figure of a young man in the close-fitting dress of the period, and this was a study for the figure of the Almighty, while the two nankinor figures are the Virgin and St. Augustine, both half-length. The whole is enclosed between two pilasters surmounted by a full arch ; and M. Gonse, who mentions these details, dwells with encomium upon the juvenile and Perugino 1 Robinson, A Critical Account of the Dratoings by Michel Angelo and Raffaello in, the University Galleries, Oxford, No. 4. 2 History of Italian Painting, Crowe and Cavalcaselle. 78 Raphael style of this picture and its combination of ingenuousness with skill. 1 The Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino is not at all in keeping with the traditional view, and another painter would, as Lanzi has remarked, have grouped his figures around the throne of the Virgin, and have engaged them in one of those " pious conversations " which were so much in vogue during the fifteenth century. Eaphael, on the contrary, concentrates all the interest of his picture upon the Saint in whose honour it was painted ; and his composition is, in reality, an apotheosis which celebrates both the victory of St. Nicholas over the demon, who lies prostrate at his feet, and his celestial triumph. The vigour of this con- ception should be compared with the soft outlines and general flabbiness to which Perugino and his scholars were so prone. Raphael is not content with simply carrying out an old programme with unusual skill, he distances his predecessors by his invention as well as by his style. Christ on the Cross, which from the Gavri Chapel in the Dominican church has found its way, after many vicissitudes, into Lord Dudley's gallery in London, is a less original work, for Raphael followed, perhaps too closely, in the footsteps of his master. The subject, it must be admitted, was scarcely adapted to his genius, and one can understand his taking refuge in ready- made ideas. In proportion as he displays inspiration and spirit when he has to represent grace and beauty, so does he give evidence of indecision in the portrayal of passion or grief — at all events during the early period ; so that one would fancy that the idea of evil and suffering could find no place in so ethereal a mind. While Michael Angelo astonishes and terrifies us by the spectacle of moral and physical tortures, Raphael is the interpreter of tranquil and pure feelings, and fails whenever he attempts to force his talent ; for even the Entombment, many as are its beauties, betokens too much effort. It follows, therefore, that the predominant feature in the Christ on the Cross is that of 1 Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1878, vol. i. p. 48. The Lille drawing has been photo- graphed by M. Braun, and is numbered 95. It is a black-chalk drawing upon white paper, with the upper part curved. The Marriage of the Virgin. 8 I meek resignation, without any of that poignant suffering which Giotto, Mantegna, and Signorelli put into their compositions. This brings us to the fourth, and doubtless the last, of the pictures painted at Citta di Castello, viz. the Sposalizio, or Marriage of the Virgin, which w T as painted in 1504 for the Church of St. Francis. Removed from there in 1798, it is now in the Brera Museum at Milan. 1 It is natural, when one examines this picture, to be reminded of that on the same subject painted by Perugino, for 2 there seems, at first sight, to be a striking resemblance between the two ; but it is incorrect, in my opinion, to speak of Raphael's work as a repetition or a copy. Raphael no more copied Peru- gino's picture than the latter reproduced those of his predecessors. 3 In all pictures of this subject the general arrangement is almost identical ; in the centre is the high-priest taking the hands of the betrothed to join them together, while right and left the rivals of Joseph show their disappointment by breaking the rod which has borne no flowers, and the companions of Mary are looking on with an air of satisfaction or pensiveness ; the background of I the picture is a temple in a landscape. If Raphael is to be accused of copying Perugino, many of the greatest artists and greatest poets are plagiarists in the same degree. Examining the two pictures in detail, we find that there is something very stiff and heavy about the central group in that ; of Perugino. There is a want of dignity about the high-priest, of youth about Mary, and of grace about Joseph ; and the attitudes, expression, and draperies strike one as poor and affected. Nor is he more happy in the accessory figures, for, taken individually, there is a want of character about them, while, considered as a whole, they fail to satisfy the laws of arrangement, each of them appearing 1 The Pcole des Beaux-Arts has a very good modern copy of this picture as well as of Perugino's Sposalizio. 2 We have already pointed out that Perugino's picture was painted, not in 1495, as generally alleged, but subsequent to 1500 (see Marchesi's II Cambio di Perugia, x 322 ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting, vol. iv. p. 228 ; Vasari, Milanesi edition, vol. iii. p. 611). 3 M. Gruyer, in Les Vierges de Raphael, has drawn up a list of the principal pictures painted before Raphael's time, of the Sposalizio, as of other subjects. M 82 Eaphael. to look in a different direction, and to take no interest in the principal chief events. There are as many beauties in the pupil's picture as there are defects in that of the master ; or, to speak more correctly, it is by comparing the one with the other that the defects of Perugino are brought to light. In Eaphael's picture there is a world of candour and modesty in the expression of the Virgin, the very way in which she gives her hand to the high-priest shows by itself that the work is that of a born painter, of a subtle observer, of a true poet. The companions of Mary are meet sisters of those women of Florence with whom Ghirlandajo has peopled the choir of Santa-Maria Novella. They are full of grace and distinction, and the whole group has a vivacity and picturesqueness hitherto unknown in the Umbrian school, the influence of which is, how- ever, apparent in the figures of St. Joseph's rivals, whose heads are without energ}^ of expression. This is because Raphael learnt to pourtray feminine beauty long before he knew how to embody the qualities of pride and force which are peculiar to men. He was born to paint Madonnas and Angels. From their first beginnings there was a profound opposition between his genius and that of his rival, Michael Angelo, whose figures of women — when by chance he painted any — had always something masculine about them. Nature delights in these contrasts. The background of the Sposalizio deserves special mention, for though apparently imitated from Perugino, it is original in the best sense. Only a man of genius like Raphael could thus dare to follow in the footsteps of his master, confident of overcoming the obstacles that to him had proved insurmountable. In Raphael's picture, a polygon temple, which would have done credit to any architect, takes the place of Perugino's hybrid edifice, and the whole background is full of light and air. The young artist, who here shows much in common with his compatriot Bramante, was, with good reason, proud of his work, and instead of merely signing his initials in a corner, as he had hitherto done, the words Raphael Urbinas, MDIIIL, appear in full on the facade of the temple. CHAPTEE IV. Journey of Raphael to Siena. — Pinturicchio's Frescoes in the Dome Library. — The group of Tlie Three Graces. — First contact with antiquity.- — The old Sienese School and Sodoraa. — The Vision of a Knight. The period comprised between the years 1504 and 1508 is un- doubtedly the most eventful one in Raphael's life. We find him in turn at Perugia, Citta di Castello, Siena, Urbino, Florence, perhaps at Bologna, and then again at Perugia and Urbino ; but the date of these different journeys cannot be fixed with certainty. While at Urbino he figures at all the ceremonies of a brilliant and enlightened court ; while in his peregrinations through Umbria he devotes himself with ardour to work, making lasting friendships in one place, and painting famous pictures in another. There is an equal variety in his style and his choice of subjects, for he tried his hand at sacred and profane history, and at portraits, at easel-pictures, and at fresco. At one time he is influenced by Masaccio, by Leonardo da Vinci, by Fra Barto- lommeo ; and then he suddenly goes back to the Perugino manner, so that we are puzzled to follow the apparent contradictions of his ever growing genius. These journeys had the good effect of preventing him from being paralysed by the traditions of the Umbrian school, for had he adhered to the principles of Perugino he would never have become the greatest of painters. But the evolution was gradual, as might be expected from so well balanced a mind, and, as M. Charles Clement remarks, " the transformation took place unconsciously as age and circumstances modified his impressions." 1 A sincere admirer 1 Michel-Ange, Leonard de Vinci, Raphael, fourth edition, Paris, 1878, p. 267. 84 Raphael. of the Umbrian school, lie remained faithful to it, not only long enough to penetrate all its secrets, but to make it take a long step forward. Then, feeling that greater destinies awaited him, he took service under another standard, after bidding an affectionate farewell to. his former companions in arms. The date of Raphael's visit to Siena is uncertain, for Pinturicchio, who invited him to come and advise him in the painting of the frescoes which Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini had ordered for the Library, was several years at this work off and on. 1 He began and finished the decoration of this ceiling in 1503, but he does not appear to have commenced the side-walls before 1504; and it was in the course of the same year that he painted for Andrea Piccolomini a Nativity, the predella of which was, according to a well-known savant of Siena, Father della Valle, the work of Raphael. 2 It is not, therefore, rash to conjecture that the latter came to Siena in 1504, just as his friend was about to resume work in the Library. The work entrusted to Pinturicchio by Cardinal Piccolomini, after- wards Pius III., was as interesting as any historical painter could desire. He had to reproduce in the town of Siena, so dear to the greatest of the Piccolomini family, the achievements of him 1 The text of the agreement between the cardinal and the painter is still extant. It is useful to repeat the principal clauses, for, in showing us the material con- ditions under which a work of art was produced, they give us a better understand- ing of the artistic habits of the epoch. Pinturicchio undertakes to decorate with " grottesche " the ceiling of the Library (a la foggia et di segni che oggi si chiamano grottesche), himself to draw either the cartoons or the frescoes, and to paint all the heads with his own hand. The agreement also specifies when the cardinal's armorial bearings are to be brought in, and states that there are to be ten compo- sitions illustrative of the life of Pius II. Finally, the artist undertakes to employ gold, ultramarine blue, and azure green of good quality, to use the fresco process, retouching when dry. For this immense work he is to receive a sum of a thousand ducats, two hundred of which are to be spent upon the purchase of colours. The bread and oil and wine which he may require are to be supplied him by the car- dinal's steward at market price, and their value to be deducted from the cost of the pictures, while the cardinal is to find him a free lodging. 2 Lettere pittoriche, Ticozzi edition, vol. vi. p. 393. Pungileoni, Elogio storico di Haffaello Santi da Urbino, pp. 55, 56. Pinturicchio's picture was finished by September, 1.^04. Both picture and predella were burnt in 1655. The Frescoes in the Cathedral of Siena. 85 who, after gaining celebrity in the world of letters and diplomacy under the name of tineas Sylvius, became Pius II. , and one of the lights of the Church. Siena teemed with recollections of the illustrious pontiff who had raised so many splendid monuments in the town itself, at Pienza, and other neighbouring places. The only fault which an impartial historian could find with him—that he showed too much favour to his family and his native place, to the detriment of the Church and of Eome— was an additional merit in the eyes of the people of Siena. There was no one SIENA AT THE TIME OF THE RENAISSANCE. 1 more popular in this ancient Eepublic, which so long disputed with Florence the primacy of Tuscany, and Pinturicchio was more agreeably employed than when he was acting as official painter to the Borgias. The life of Pius II. afforded ample scope for the graphic powers of Bernardino Pinturicchio. Born at Siena in 1405 of poor but noble parents, iEneas Sylvius had from the first a hard struggle for fame. 1 After M. Rohault de Flemy. 86 Raphael. In turn secretary of the Council of Basle, where he attracted notice by his attacks upon the legitimate Pope, then secretary to the Emperor Frederick III., poet laureate, amanuensis, ambassador, he made himself indispensable by means of his versatility and tact, while his erudition, his manner, and general urbanity, had made him everywhere popular. During his long stay in Germany he set him- self to study a country then very little known to his compatriots, and his letters and works of geography and history still give us not only the most correct but the most vivid picture of the German Empire in the fifteenth century. While Italy acquired from iEneas Sylvius more accurate ideas about Germany, he, upon the other hand, taught Germany those principles of the Renaissance, which were upon the point of transforming society by the substitution of modern civilization for that of the Middle Ages. On quitting Germany, iEneas Sylvius left behind him a long trail of light, and becoming reconciled to the Church, he rapidly reached the highest honours, being proclaimed Pope in 1458, after having been Bishop of Siena, and then Cardinal. His reign was brief but brilliant ; for we find him at one and the same time engaged in restoring the authority of the Church, in organizing a crusade against the Turks, in writing, under the title of Commentaries, a history of his own time, and of perpetuating his memory by the erection of vast buildings. The Congress of Mantua, the foundation of the city of Pienza, the transfer to Rome, amid signs of indescribable enthusiasm, of the relics of St. Andrew, his departure as Pope for a new Crusade — lie only got as far as Ancona, where he died of grief at seeing the breakdown of the enterprise upon which he had concentrated his efforts for a quarter of a century — were all episodes calculated to stimulate the imagination of Pinturicchio. The subjects selected by the artist or by the family for the frescoes on the walls of the Library were ten in all : — (l) Departure of JEneas Sylvius for the Council of Basle ; (2) Apneas Sylvius in the presence of King James of Scotland; (3) JEneas Sylvius proclaimed Poet Laureate at Frankfort ; (4) JEneas Sylvius taking the Oath of\ Fidelity to the Emperor before Pope Eugene IV.; (5) JEneas \ Sylvius affiancing the Emperor Frederick III. to Eleanor of\ Portugal; (6) JEneas Sylvius made Cardinal; (7) JEneas Sylvius \ The Frescoes in the Cathedral of Siena. 87 elected Pope; (8) Pius II. at the Congress of Mantua; (9) Canonization of Catherine of Siena; (10) Death of Pius II at Ancona. Commenced in 1504, this grand series was not completed until 1506. 1 The best judges are of opinion that Raphael had nothing to do with the actual execution of the frescoes in the Library, and that his share in the work was confined to giving Pinturicchio some sketches which the latter, as if to show that he was the master, modified in some minor particulars. Thus Raphael's sketch of the Departure of u^Eneas Sylvius for the Council of Basle is quite different, as regards the background, from that in the fresco ; and it will be remarked, that while in Raphael's sketch iEneas Sylvius wears a dress close-fitting at the waist, Pinturicchio has painted him in a flaming mantle. 2 In the one his right hand is resting upon his side, while in the other it is holding a letter; and Pinturicchio represents the cavalier to the left as leading a dog with a chain, which is not given in Raphael's sketch. In the Betrothal of the Emperor Frederick III (Baldeschi collection at Perugia), a view of one of the gates of Siena is substituted for the further groups, 3 and there is on the whole more freedom of composition and more life in the sketches than in the mural paintings. So that it is not too much to say that, in the case of Pinturicchio as in that of Perugino, Raphael surpassed one of the most celebrated masters of the Umbrian school when meeting him on his own ground. 1 Vasari, Milanesi edition, vol. iii. p. 523. 2 This drawing forms part of the Uffizi collection. It was photographed by Messrs. Alinari, No. 3814, and by M. Braun, No. 510. 3 Passavant, Raphael, vol. ii. p. 127; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting, vol. iv. p. 304 ; Springer, Raffaello and Michael Angelo, p. 496-497 ; Burckhardt and Bode, Cicerone, p. 573 ; Vasari, Milanesi edition, vol. iii. p. 527. Signor Milanesi has proved that the inscription on this drawing, which, it was thought, bore the name of Raphael, is simply " Questa e la quinta (storia) di papa Pio." The sketch for the Audience granted to JEneas Sylvius by Pope Eugene IV. is in the Duke of Devonshire's collection at Chatsworth. The Oxford collection also comprises a study by Raphael for the group of soldiers in the third fresco, JEneas Sylvius proclaimed Poet Laureate by the Emperor Frederick III. (Robinson, p. 127). 88 Eaphael. There are several frescoes for which Eaphael does not appear to have made designs, or for which designs have not come down to our day, but there are many analogies of style between them and his own undoubted handiwork. The fresco which represents JEneas Sylvius receiving the Poet's Grown is strikingly like the pictures which Raphael painted during his stay at Perugia. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle have with good reason compared the figure of the youth whose back is Turned on the spectator 1 with the figures in the Adoration of the Magi, which is placed, as we have already noticed, beneath the Coronation of the Virgin. There is the same easy bearing and boldness of conception in both. It may also be noted that, according to a well-authenticated tradition, Pinturicchio has painted a portrait of himself and of Raphael in the Canonization of St. Catherine of Siena, each of them being represented carrying a taper, and Pinturicchio looking at Raphael with an air of tender affection. It was during his stay at Siena that Raphael seems for the first time to have found himself in the presence of a masterpiece of antique statuary. Struck by the beauty of the Three Graces, which Cardinal Piccolomini had transferred from Rome to the Siena Library, 2 he made a copy of it, which is still preserved :n the 1 This figure is missing in the Oxford collection, which contains only a group of four soldiers. 2 In 1857, Pope Pius IX., with an excess of religious scruples, had this work removed from the cathedral itself, on the ground that it was of pagan character, to the Academy of Fine Arts. It is now placed in the small museum wLich has been formed in the chapter-house of the cathedral. The general belief is that the group of the Three Graces was discovered at Rome in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and in support of this theory tie well- known passage from Albertini's Opusculum de mirabilibus novce et veter : ,s urbis Romce (edition of 1515, folio 86 vo) has often been quoted : " Domus Re T . Fran- eisci Piccolomini cardinalis senensis non longe est (a domo Ursinorum), in qua erant statuse Gratiarum positpe." But all that Albertini, who wrote in 1509, says is, that at a certain time the group was in Cardinal Piccolomini's palace ai Rome, and it does not at all follow that it was not discovered long before. Three afferent medals of the last quarter of the fourteenth century (Maria Politiana, Giovanni Pic della Mirandola, and Giovanna Albizzi, wife of Lorenzo Tornabuoni) have on their obverse the Three Graces in exactly similar positions. It will be objected that representations of this kind were very frequent in ancient art (see lluLler's Monuments de VArt Antique, vol. ii. pi. lvii.), and that the Italian medallists may The Three Graces. 89 Academy of Fine Arts at Venice, and which, as might be expected, was full of faults due to the artist's inexperience, and, as Raphael himself found out in course of time, there was a vast distance between the Umbrian manner and the classic style. His efforts at Siena to vie with the original were fruitless, for he failed to reproduce the rounded and harmonious shapes of the marble. In Raphael's drawing there is a meagreness and poverty about the head and neck of the figure to the left, as may be seen by comparing the two engravings on pages 90 and 91. There can be little doubt that, even before this, Raphael had had opportunities of examining the products of classic art, as the passion for gems, medals, bronzes, for anything which recalled the Greek and Roman civilization, was at its zenith. There was scarcely a town in the Italian Peninsula which did not possess at least one cabinet of antiquities, and even before the Renaissance, in the early part of the fourteenth century, Venice had begun to make collections of the kind. Petrarch, who has had the credit of being the first collector of medals, was merely following an example which had been set many years before, and what struck the Italian poet in the effigy of a Greek or Roman hero were more the historic recollections which it revived than the beauty of the style or the perfection of the handiwork. He himself tells us in the letter in which he relates his interview with the Emperor Charles IV. at Mantua in 1354 that, after offering to that monarch several coins, including one which bore the effigy of Augustus, he said : " These are the sovereigns whom you should imitate. Regulate your conduct by their example ; form yourself after their image. You alone among men are entitled to this gift from me ; your greatness has induced [have taken their idea from some cameo or bas-relief discovered before the Siena group. (I myself know of a bas-relief of this kind engraved in the Epigrammata \antiquce Urbis, by Mazzocchi, Rome, 1521, folio 105 vo, as well as in a print of Marc Antonio, and representing three nymphs in precisely the same attitude as tn the Siena group.) But, as this motive was so often repeated, there must [have been some recent discovery of a rare specimen of the antique. It is [reasonable, therefore, on the whole, to suppose that the marble designed by [Raphael was discovered at Rome in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, and Ithen removed to Siena. I N 90 Raphael. me to despoil myself of so precious a treasure in your favour." In the fifteenth century there was a rapid increase in the number of collections, and regular museums were formed, not only at THE GROUP OF THE THREE GRACES. (Cathedral Library at Siena. ) Florence, Rome, and other capitals, but in the more remote towns. At Urbino, as we have already seen, the Montefeltros had several valuable specimens of ancient sculpture. The Three Graces. 91 Raphael, therefore, had the study of the antique almost forced upon him, and if he began it rather late in life, the fault doubtless TWO of THE three GRACES. — Drawing by Raphael. (In the Venetian Academy.) ay with his early education ; for Perugino was not a partizan )f the Renaissance like Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Mantegna, and 92 Raphael. never thought that a struggle was in progress between the middle ages on the one hand and antiquity on the other, in which the latter would come out victorious. So that his pupil, while admiring the works of sculpture, and the Roman edifices at Urbino and Perugia, did not think of making them his models ; and subject as he was to Umbrian influences, it was only later in life that he felt the necessity of improving his style by studying the antique, and, while never losing sight of nature, by consulting its eternal models of truth and beauty. Raphael not only rendered permanent by a few strokes with the pen his recollection of the masterpiece which had so impressed his imagination, he even attempted to restore the mutilated group, as we shall see when we come to speak of the famous little picture of The Three Graces in Lord Dudley's collection. It is somewhat singular that it should have been at Siena, the hist bulwark of the Byzantine school, that Raphael's eyes should have been opened to the crushing superiority of antique art, for he might well have learnt a different lesson from this ancient city J which was and is so full of the recollections of the middle ages. Where one would have expected to find a recrudescence of mysticism, his imagination became the prey of pagan antiquity. Siena shared the attachment of Perugia for the ideas of the Middle Ages, but this, amid many differences, was the only point! of contact. There is this peculiarity about Italian cities, that having nearly all of them been capitals and the centre of some] great intellectual movement, they have not become subject to the monotonous uniformity which pervades the rest of Europe. And if there are distinct differences of local character in our day, how much more marked must they have been at the time of the Renaissance, when political contests intensified literary and artistic rivalries, and when cruel wars were continually widening the gulf which separated neighbouring cities. Thus, though Siena and Perugia were only a few leagues apart, each had a civilization and an art of its own. The fact of there being several points of similarity in the landscape and the mediaBval physiognomy of the two towns themselves must not blind us to the fact that the inhabitants oi The Sienese School. 93 Siena were a refined and intelligent race, to whom artistic pro- duction was a vital function, while the duller Umbrians needed the excitement of religious sentiment to appreciate art at all. It may be said that every street and every house testifies to the distinguished genius of the Sienese, and there was a time when this small Republic supplied architects, painters, sculptors, and goldsmiths, not only to the neighbouring provinces, but to Rome, to Naples, and even to Avignon. During the whole of the fourteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth, Florence alone could compare with Siena for the intensity of its artistic life. In the latter city were born and worked Duccio, Simone Memmi, Andrea Vanni, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Taddeo Bartoli, Sano di Pietro, and many other famous painters : Lorenzo Maitani, the architect of the Cathedral of Oi vieto ; Antonio Federighi and Francesco di Giorgio Martini represented architecture, Giacomo della Quercia and le Vecchietta, sculpture, to mention only a few of the best known. Foreign artists — for the people of Siena took no narrow and exclusive view of patriotism — deemed it a high honour to contribute something to the brilliant concert : and so it was that Niccolo Pisano sculptured the Cathedral Pulpit that Ghiberti modelled the statues of the Baptistery, and that Bernardino Rossellino built the magnificent Palazzo Piccolomini. At a more recent epoch Michael Angelo himself carved four statues of Apostles or Saints for the chapel of this palace. 1 If Raphael had commenced his career at Siena instead of at Perugia, the whole future of painting might have been changed. But at the time of his accepting the invitation of Pinturicchio his early impressions and tendencies had been very much modified. Though he had not finally broken with the past, he seemed to see a wider horizon before him, so that the majestic pictures of the Virgin on a gold ground by Duccio di Buoninsegna, and the grand allegory of Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Charlemagne enthroned among the Virtues), made but little impression upon him. His thoughts were not for 1 These statues were delivered at the latest in 1504 (contract of the 11th of October, published by Signor Milanesi in his Lettere di Michel Angelo Buonarotti , Florence, 1875, p. 628). Raphael may therefore have seen him during his stay at Siena. 94 Raphael. tliem, and there was nothing that they could have taught him. In his eyes the group of The Three Graces eclipsed all these remains of an extinct civilization, and we may say that it prevented him from doing justice to the work of Niccolo Pisano, whose only fault was to be too far in advance of his age. The influence of the Greek marble was rivalled only by that which a young stranger — whose escapades and whose prodigious talent were beginning to be the talk of the town — exercised over Raphael. This was Antonio Bazzi, nicknamed Sodoma, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, and a few years the senior of Raphael (he was born at Vercelli in 1477) ; he had been invited to Siena in 1500 by the Spanocchi, 1 a wealthy family of bankers, and his Descent from the Cross, now in the Academy of Fine Arts, his frescoes in the refectory of Santa-Anna in Creta, and those at Monte Oliveto, soon made him celebrated. His colouring had even more suavity than that of Perugino, while his easy and voluptuous style of composition, with its feminine elegance and soft though proud distinction, seem to have fairly dazzled Raphael and given him a glimpse of the wonders done with palette and brushes by Leonardo himself. It must have taken him a considerable time to recover his head, and to make a cool and fair estimate of the style of this hardy innovator. He little thought that within a few years time lie would meet Sodoma in another arena, and take a signal revenge upon his seducer by "painting out his work at the Pope's order and substituting his own in its stead. Sodoma was, with all his brilliance, very superficial, and qualities such as his stood no chance against the serious convictions and superior genius of a Raphael. There was another painter of wdiom Raphael must have heard a good deal at this period, and whom he often met afterwards, though they were never very intimate ; this was Baldassare Peruzzi, who, born at Siena of parents who belonged to Volterra, took his line both from Sodoma and Pinturicchio. He was already very well thought of in his native town, when he determined, about 1 See, with regard to Sodoma, the vivacious essay of M. C. Timbal in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (January and February, 1878). The Vision of a Knight. 1503, to try his fortune at Rome. There he got into favour with the wealthy banker of Siena, Agostino Chigi, who was afterwards one of the best patrons both of Raphael and Sodoma. Being both a painter and an architect, he associated his name with frescoes and palaces ; and in architecture there came to be such a close analogy between his style and that of Raphael, that it is often impossible to tell one from the other. The most competent judges are at a loss to decide which of them designed the Farnesina and the Chigi Chapel at Santa- Maria del Popolo. So great, indeed, was Peruzzi's reputation as an archibect, that after Raphael's death he was ap- pointed to succeed him, in conjunction with Antonio da San-Gallo, as director of the works at St. Peter's. Yet another Sienese artist, the wood-carver, Giovanni Barile, eventually formed part of the circle gathered around Raphael at Rome, and it was he who carved and encrusted, under the direction and after the designs of Raphael, the doors of the Vatican Stanzi. Thus Raphael seemed to recruit right and left allies and rivals to take part in the great artistic tournament which was about to be held at Rome, and to become the wonder of after generations. It was upon the Eternal City that all ambitions w T ere concentrated, and many of the artists who were poor or obscure when he first knew them at Urbino, Perugia, Siena, and Florence, were destined to appear with him upon a larger stage, and to form part of the splendid cortege in which Julius II. and Leo X. march to immortality. It was at about this time, in all probability, that the charming little picture called the Vision of a Knight, now in the National Gallery of England, was painted. 1 For the first time we see Raphael painting a lay subject, and treating it w T ith a grace and an elevation worthy of the most eminent masters ; and there can be no doubt that he would have enriched the world of art with many such pictures, if he had not by the force of circumstances been brought 1 The National Gallery has been so fortunate as to be able to supplement the picture with the original sketch, a pen-drawing, pricked for copying. The Vision of a Knight was bought in 1847, and cost only a thousand guineas. 96 Kaphael. back to the more immediate service of religion. It has been argued with some show of reason, that in painting this picture he had in his mind the fable of Hercules placed between Virtue and Voluptuous- ness, 1 and the influence of antique recollections was at that period too strong for Kaphael to escape ; but, supposing for an instant that he had depicted the Grecian hero standing between the two traditional figures, there can be no doubt that, with all his talent, he would not have produced anything but an allegory more or less lifeless and hackneyed. But there is something more than this in his picture, for by a stroke of genius he put mythology on one side, and sought his inspiration in a tradition less remote and more vivid. He went for his subject to those Middle Ages so rich in poetry which Boi'ardo and Pulci had brought to life again, and he evoked that chivalry which, with its generous aspirations and knightly deeds, was worthy of comparison with the heroic episodes of antiquity. The form of a dream or vision given to the scene adds, if possible, to the delicacy and depth of the artist's conception. Exhausted by the fatigue of a long journey, a Knight, as rich in the gifts of youth as in illusions, is sleeping beneath a laurel tree. Like a true warrior, he has not taken off his armour, and he has made a pillow of his shield. During his sleep, two women appear to him, both marvellously beautiful, different as is their expression one from another. One, pensive and grave, though her features are instinct with grace and sweetness, holds out to him a sword and a book, as if to incite him to warlike deeds and study. Her yellow tunic and flowing robe of purple give additional nobility to her carriage. The other, her rival, has a more coquettish garb. The red hue of her tunic brings into relief the brilliancy of her blue dress shot with rosy tints, and she 1 In his recent work upon Raphael's study of antiquity (Beitrage zu Raphaels Studium der Antike, Leipsic, 1877, p. 13), Herr von Pulszky seeks to show that the artist really intended to represent Hercules between Virtue and Voluptuous- ness. But it is scarcely possible to admit that in the sixteenth century Raphael would have failed to give the Grecian hero his two most characteristic attributes : j the club and the lion's skin. So complete an ignorance of ancient mythology would be all the more surprising because Hercules was, of all the divinities of Olympus, the one most familiar to the Middle Ages. We shall, therefore, adhere to the recognised title of the Vision of a Knight given to this picture. The Vision of a Knight. 1)7 wears round her throat a coral necklace, and a white veil floats at the back of her head, while she holds in her hand a flower, the emblem of games, pleasures, and worldly amusements. This is Voluptuous- ness, such, at least, as it appeared to the ingenuous imagination of Raphael, the antithesis of austerity rather than of purity, and HmiszEM RAPJiAEL P1NXLT CASseyiE£il~ THE VISION OF A KNIGHT. (National Gallery, Loudon.) representing, may we not say, the genius of Antiquity in contradis- tinction to that of Christianity. Thoughts such as these must have more than once flitted through his brain when he left Umbria. Not o 98 Raphael. that lie ever hesitated as between pleasure and labour, but a new world was opening before him, and amid the profane society which he frequented at Urbino and Florence, there were many convictions which he would be called upon to sacrifice. These were the complex struggles which Raphael sought to depict in his dreaming knight, but while intending only to interpret his personal feelings, he traced a story eternally true and eloquent. Such is the privilege of genius. CHAPTER V. Return of Raphael to Urbino in 1504. — Guidobaldo's Court. — The St. Michael and St. George in the Louvre. — The Book of Studies in the Venetian Academy. Raphael, during his long stay at Umbria, had not forgotten his native town, and as soon as he had fulfilled his engagements at Perugia and Citta di Castello he resolved to go and see his own © o friends — his uncle Simone, who had always been so kind to him, and the Montefeltro family, of whom his father had been rather the friend than the subject. This journey was undertaken in 1504, probably on his return from Siena. The little Duchy had during his absence been subjected to severe trials, but they were trials which elevate rather than depress the courageous. The ambition of Alexander VI. and of his son had convulsed Italy. Guidobaldo, driven from his principality, had returned in triumph, but he was once more compelled to meet the attack of an adversary as cruel as he was insolent. This was in November of 1502. The enthusiasm of the people had risen to fever height, and it was a stirring scene when the ladies of Urbino came before their prince and cast at his feet rings, necklaces and bracelets, pearls and diamonds, begging him to accept their offerings for the salvation of the country. But what chance could a few thousand citizens have against a fierce soldiery led by a man in whom seemed incarnate the spirit of evil % Guidobaldo, it is true, had been, like his father, a " condottiere " all his life, and had often distinguished himself upon the battle-field ; but he was more valiant than he was fortunate, more gifted with knowledge than with tactical skill ; and his good qualities were not sufficient to enable him to cope with a man like Caesar Borgia. The young Duke soon saw that resistance would be hopeless, and that he would be shedding the blood of his subjects to no purpose. 100 Raphael. He preferred, therefore, to sacrifice himself rather than bring fresh misfortunes upon his country. Nevertheless, before going a second time into exile, he resorted to a measure as wise as it was generous, rasing all the fortifications of his duchy to the ground. " For," as he said, " what is the use of these ramparts ? If I keep my duchy, I have no need of fortifications to hold my subjects in obedience ; if, on the contrary, they fall into the hands of the enemy, they will enable him to hold his conquest all the longer." The people of Urbino comprehended the patriotism of this decisiou, and they set to work with such a will that towers, redoubts, and buttresses were soon level with the ground. Having secreted his treasures, Guidobaldo then set out for Citta di Castello, accompanied by a crowd of two thousand people. At Urbino, Caesar Borgia, who was as wily as he was ambitious, adopted new tactics. While he spread terror throughout the Romagna, he assumed a moderate attitude in that duchy ; but his yoke was none the less burdensome to the faithful subjects of the Montefeltros, and it was a grievous trial to the magistrates of Urbino to be compelled to do homage to one so universally detested. But there was no help for it, and the people were obliged to simulate joy. Timoteo Viti had to embellish shields with the fierce Spanish bull — the emblem of the Borgias. The children alone could not be got to conform to the new state of things, and neither promises nor threats could induce them to shout " Valentino ! Valentino ! " " Ma non ebbero tanto potere di far gridare a' putti Valentino, Valentino, ancorche vollesser salariarli." 1 The death of Alexander VI. (August 18, 1503) brought the rule of the Borgias to an end. No sooner was it known than the inhabitants of the duchy rose in a body, and the return of Guidobaldo was one long series of triumphs. Henceforward the young prince, whose health was undermined by suffering, and who was prematurely aged, was able to devote all his time to the re-establishment of public prosperity and the cultivation of literature and art. He had no 1 TJgolini, Storia dei conti e duchi d 'Urbino, vol. ii. p. 112. It is scarcely neces- sary to point out that the portrait of Csesar Borgia in the Borghese Gallery, ascribed to Baphael, was not painted by him. It is generally allowed now to be by Le Parmigianino. Intellectual Tendencies of the Court of Urbino. 101 children, but the adoption ol his nephew, Francesco-Mario della Rovere, son of his sister Jane and nephew of Pope Julius II., re- assured the people of Urbino as to the continuity of the Montefeltro dynasty, while it connected the latter still more closely with the pontifical Court. Guidobaldo was appointed grand gonfalonier of the Church, and in November, 1503, he made his triumphal entry into Rome. Since Guidobaldo's accession, the intellectual tendencies of the Court of Urbino had undergone a great change. His capital had always been the refuge of the Muses, but the enthusiasm which distinguished the early Renaissance and the passion for fresh creations felt by his father (Duke Frederick) were followed by a period of more tranquil and perhaps more refined pursuits. The artless— one eminent critic has called them pedantic — aspirations of the preceding age had been followed by a greater inde- pendence, especially in regard to literature. " While deriving inspiration from the examples of antiquity," says Viscount Delaborde, " modern requirements were taken into account ; and the ideas of the time expressed in the national language. For the first time the expression of these ideas was placed upon the stage, and the comedy of the Calandra> which is supposed to be the most ancient theatrical piece in Italy, was represented at the palace of Urbino. The new Duke of Urbino did all he could to encourage this reaction against the systematic imita- tion of classic work with which he was as familiar as pos- sible, and was constantly studying, though, less absolute than his predecessor, he did not sacrifice the furtherance of new endeavours in servile worship of the past." 1 Nowhere, perhaps, was a more earnest effort made to cultivate the rarest and highest qualities of the mind than at the Court of Urbino. There was not in all Italy a more select, a more clever, or a more refined society ; and there, as at Mantua and Ferrara, female influence predominated. Ignored and disowned by the theologians of the Middle Ages, who saw in them the auxiliaries of the evil one, women had, on the other hand, been worshipped by 1 Etudes sur Jes Beaux-Arts en France et en Italie, vol. i. pp. 168, 169. 102 Raphael. the knights of chivalry with a fervour too ardent to be lasting, and like divinities exalted to inaccessible heights, they could take no effectual part in human affairs. 1 It was reserved for the Renaissance, with its rectitude of judgment and its healthy aspira- tions, to assign to women their true place, and to give them a part in the great work of intellectual reorganization. Their beneficent in- fluence upon manners was soon apparent, and thanks to them, Italy became what is better than an educated nation — a civilized one. It would be difficult to find elsewhere great ladies speaking Latin, conducting the discussions of an Academy without falling into the errors peculiar to " blue-stockings," discussing the most delicate questions of sentiment without affectation ; kind, artless and affectionate, and yet not unmindful of the duties which their rank entailed upon them. They cared little for personal celebrity, being content, as M. Delaborde has pointed out, to influence from the retirement of their palaces the labours of the writers and artists who came to them for inspiration and advice. 2 Perhaps, as the same writer adds, the germ of that gallant sentimentalism which afterwards flourished at the Hotel de Rambouillet was to be traced to the Court of Urbino ; but there too were to be found higher literary teachings, as well as more benevolence, sprightliness and grace. It was there that one would expect to find the ideal courtier and cavalier — what the Italians called the " Cortegiano." The moving spirit of this society was the Duchess Elisabetta Gonzaga, for her husband Guidobaldo, infirm and prematurely aged, was glad to leave to her the task of directing the Court entertainments, such as theatrical representations and literary or moral discussions. One of her relatives, Emilia Pia, the widow of the Duke's illegitimate brother, assisted her in these duties. The habit was to assemble in the Duchess's apartments immediately after supper, sometimes to join in games, dancing or singing, sometimes to form a circle around the Duchess, the guests seating themselves without regard to rank, and discussing the most varied topics. 1 See the interesting treatise of Herr Janitschek, Die Gesellschaft der Renais- sance en Italian und die Kunst, Stuttgart, 1879, p. 51. 2 Etudes sur les Beaux-Arts en France et en Italie, vol. i. p. 174. Return of Raphael to Urbino. 103 We are told, by the writer who has immortalized these gatherings, that there was a flow of wit and drollery, and that by the smiles with which each face was wreathed, one would have imagined that the palace was the home of Mirth. " Nowhere else," says the same writer, " were the charms of pleasant society so potent, and we seemed bound by chains in one common affection. Nowhere could more concord or cordiality reign among brethren ; and it was the same with the ladies, for each of them was free to seat herself beside the one she liked best, and to chat, joke, and laugh with him or her. But such was the respect in which the Duchess was held by all, that this very liberty acted as a restraint." It was in the interval between the years 1.304 and 1508 that the society assembled at the ducal palace of Urbino was the most numerous and select. Among those who shone there in 1506, when Raphael returned for the second time to his native town, were Giuliano da Medicis, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent and brother of Leo X. ; the two brothers Fregoso of Genoa ; the poet Pietro Bembo, Caesar Gonzaga and Count Louis of Canossa ; Bernardino Divizio da Bibbiena, the author of the ancient comedy, the Calandra, played for the first time in 1508; Bernardino Accolti, surnamed Unico Aretino, a famous singer ; the Roman sculptor Giovanni Cristoforo, who distinguished himself in the service of the Sforzas, and in that of the Marchioness of Mantua ; and Raphael's friend, the warrior, diplomatist and poet, from whom we have derived all these particulars — Baldassare Castiglione, the author of the " Cortegiano." Most of these men were destined to attain the highest rank as commanders, diplomatists, or prelates. One of them, Giuliano da Medicis, was for a short time at the head of the Florentine Government, and afterwards his brother made him Captain-general of the Church. Fra Giocondo dedicated to him in 1513 the second edition of his Viiruvius ; Leonardo da Vinci was his travelling companion when he went to Borne in 1513 ; Raphael painted his portrait, and Michael Angelo carved his tomb. Ottaviano Fregoso became Duke of Genoa, while his brother Frederick, Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, received the purple. Louis of Canossa, in turn Papal Nuncio to Louis XII. and Francois I., Bishop of Bayeux and 104 Eaphael. ambassador of Francois I. to the republic of Venice, afterwards ordered from Eaphael the celebrated picture in the Madrid Museum, The Pearl; and it was he who built in his native towm of Verona the beautiful palace of Canossa which was the chef d'eeuvre of San- Micheli. We may pass over the host of bishops and archbishops, of generals and ambassadors, the mere mention of whose names would occupy too much space, and just add that by one of those lucky chances of which Eaphael had so many, he met here many friends and patrons who were destined to shine with him at the Courts of Julius II. and Leo X. The historian of the Court of Urbino, Baldassare Castiglione, has furnished us with the summary of some of these memorable debates, in which all these distinguished men took part. Though many of the incidents mentioned in his Cortegiano are subsequent -to the first and even to the second visit of Eaphael to his native town, 1 the general physiognomy of the Court was just as Castiglione has described it to us. One or more of the actors may have disappeared, and their places have been taken by new comers, but the main features remain the same. The reader may, therefore, be glad to peruse the passages which relate to the Fine Arts and form what Giovanni Santi would have Called "una disputa della pittura." It will be remarked that Castiglione, obedient to the custom of the classical scholars, invokes, in order to establish the dignity of the art of drawing, the testimony of the ancients, just as if the achievements of his contemporaries would not have furnished him with an abundance of unanswerable arguments : — 1 The Cortegiano was compiled soon after the death of Guidobaldo, that is to say, about 1508, but it was not printed until 1528 (II Libro del Cortegiano del conte Ikddessar Castiglione. . . . In Venezia ; nelle case d'Aldo Romano e d' Andrea d'Asola, suo suocero, nelV anno M D XX VI II, del mese d'aprile, in folio.) It was a great success from the first, and was almost at once (in 1537) translated into French. In their excellent edition of the Opere volgari e latine del conte Baldessar Castiglione (Padua, 1733, in quarto), the Volpis mention fifty editions or translations of the Cortegiano. In his edition of the Life of Castiglione, edited by Mazzuchelli (Castiglione Baldassare, articolo inedito dell' opera del conte Giammaria Mazzuclirtli intitolata : Gli scrittori d' Italia, Rome, 1879), the learned prefect of the University of Rome, Signor H. Narducci, has more than doubled this figure, showing that the Cortegiano has had 106 editions. Return of Raphael to Urbino, 1504. 105 Thus spoke Count Louis of Canossa : " Before entering upon this subject, I wish to speak to you with reference to a matter which I deem very important, and which a courtier can never afford to neglect, viz. the art of drawing and the practice of painting. You must not be surprised if I expect him to be acquainted with these arts, which are now regarded as mechanical, and which scarcely seem fit employment for a gentleman, for I remember how the ancients, notably the Greeks, made the children of noble families apply themselves in the schools to the study of painting as an honourable and noble science, which they placed first among the liberal arts. Moreover, there was an edict by which slaves were forbidden to learn it. The Romans, also, held it in very high honour, and from painting the noble house of Fabius derived its surname of ' Pictor,' the first of the family having been an accomplished painter. He had such a fondness for this art that he inscribed his name upon the walls of the small 'Templum Salutis,' which he decorated ; and though he belonged to a family illustrious in statesmanship, and was himself a distinguished writer and jurisconsult, he set the highest store by his title of ' artist.' Many other members of noble families might be mentioned who have distinguished themselves in the art of painting, which, in addition to its inherent nobility and dignity, can be made very useful, notably in time of war, when a general wants to make note of roads, rivers, bridges, citadels, &c. However well one may remember all these things oneself, it is impossible (without the help of a drawing) to communicate them to others. To fail to appreciate this art, a man must, it seems to me, be born without senses. The world itself, its vast firmament resplendent with stars, its sea-girt continents, its mountains, valleys, and streams, its trees, flowers, and plants, is but a mighty picture painted by the hands of nature and of God. Whoso is capable of imitating this seems to me worthy of the highest praise, and he can only succeed in doing so by patient study, as those who have cultivated the art of painting- know full well. That is why the ancients held art and artists in such high esteem that the former reached an extraordinary degree of nerit, as their statues in marble and in bronze still prove. And though there is a difference between painting and sculpture, both lave their origin in the same source : viz. drawing. We may p 106 Raphael. therefore admit that the paintings (of the ancients) were divine as well as the statues (which are still extant). I am all the more inclined to believe it because painting is capable of being brought to greater perfection." At the conclusion of these remarks Signora Emilia, turning towards Giovanni Cristoforo, who was seated amid the others, said, " What do you think of this theory ? Are you prepared to admit that painting can rise to a higher eminence than sculpture ? " " Madam," replied Giovanni Cristoforo, " in my opinion a piece of statuary requires more effort and is more dignified and artistic than painting." Whereupon the Count rejoined: "As statues are more durable, it may perhaps be true that they possess more nobility, and, when intended to perpetuate a memory, they answer the purpose better than paintings. But in addition to this, painting and sculpture are also intended for purposes of decoration, and in that respect the former is much the superior of the two. Although it does not last as long as a piece of statuary, a good picture has a long existence, and during that time is more beautiful than the statue." "It seems to me," answered Giovanni Cristoforo, "that your words and acts do not tally. You say what you do out of friend- ship for Raphael, and you perhaps consider his superiority as a painter to be so great that no sculptor can reach his level. But in that case you are praising an individual artist, and not an art regarded as a whole. In my own opinion, the two arts each constitute a clever imitation of reality." " It is not my friendship for Raphael which induces me to speak so," replied the Count with a laugh. " Do you think me so benighted as not to understand the excellence of Michael Angelo, and of you, and of other artists ? It is of art in general that I am speaking, and not of particular men. You are quite right in saying that the two arts are imitations of nature, but it is going too far to say that sculpture alone is a reality 1 I believe that painting reached a high pitch of perfection with the ancients, like everything else, and this we can guess from the few vestiges which 1 We leave out a long and dreary dissertation upon the respective superiority oi t be two arts. Return of Raphael to Urbino, 1504. 107 have been handed down to us, especially in the Roman catacombs, and in the writings of the ancient authors, which are so full of art and artists. They were held in high esteem by the Princes and Republics of old, and we know that Alexander had such affection for Apelles of Ephesus, that when the latter fell in love with a lady whom he had painted in the nude, at Alexander's request, he did not hesitate to make her over to him. Other instances of Alexander's benevolence to Apelles have been mentioned at various times ; the most characteristic being that he forbade any other painter to make a portrait of him. I will only add, that the perfect courtier should be versed in painting on account of the nobility and usefulness of this art, and also because of the esteem in which it was held at a time when men were much better than they are now ; and even j if it had no other merit, painting would be useful, as enabling us to judge of the excellence of ancient or modern statues, vases, build- ings, medals, cameos, and similar works ; and it also enables us to judge of the beauty of the human figure, not only as regards the delicacy of the features, but of other parts of the body. You see what pleasures this study procures, and even those who do not know how to paint are lost in admiration at the sight of a beautiful woman, while if they knew how to do so they would appreciate her beauty still more." This made Messire Caesar Gonzaga laugh, and he said : " For my part, I am no painter, but there is a certain lady the sight of whom would give me much more pleasure than if I heard that your friend Apelles had come back to life." " This pleasure," rejoined the Count, " is not due solely to her beauty, but to the affection that you perhaps feel for the lady in question. Tell us the truth : when you saw her for the first time you did not feel a thousandth part of the pleasure you do now T , though she was just as beautiful then. So you see how much imore pleasure is caused by the sense of affection than by mere beauty." " I don't deny that," rejoined Messire Csesar ; "but just as affection begets pleasure, so does beauty beget affection. We may say, therefore, that beauty is the source of pleasure." The Count : " There arc qualities, independent of beauty, which 108 Kapha el. often inflame our passions, as for instance the disposition, educa- tion, conversation, the manner, and a thousand other things, which may in a way be called beautiful. The true source of happiness is to feel that one is loved. One may therefore be passionately in love without the beauty of which you speak. But as regards love springing solely out of material beauty, the happiness which it causes will be in direct proportion to the amount of knowledge and taste possessed by the person who feels it ; and that is why, to return to the point from which we started, I am of opinion that Apelles, in contemplating the beauty of Campaspe, felt infinitely greater pleasure than Alexander. The love of both was doubtless based on the mere physical beauty of Campaspe, and this perhaps was why Alexander made her over to a better judge than he was himself. Have you not heard that the five young girls of Crotona whom Zeuxis selected as the five most perfect types of beauty among their compatriots, have been immortalized by poets as being adjudged beautiful by the man who best knew what beaut} 1 " was ? " 1 The interest displayed towards Giovanni Santi by the ducal family of Urbino justifies the supposition that they accorded a very friendly reception to his son, who returned to his native place, if not celebrated, at all events much appreciated by all those who had watched his progress. The letter of introduction given to Eaphael by Guidobaldo's sister, the Duchess Giovanna della Eovere, for Soderini, the gonfalonier of Florence, is one proof of this, while another is to be found in the title of " familiar " (in other terms, officer of the court) which was given him by her son, the future Duke Francesco Maria of Urbino. 2 Then there is the evidence of the architect Serlio, who includes the Duchess Elisabetta as being, next to Julius II. and Leo X., the warmest patron of Eaphael : " If the virtuous Duchess Isabella (sic for Elisabetta) of Urbino had not first brought Eaphael into notice while yet young, if Julius II. had not afterwards rewarded him so splendidly, as did also Leo X., the 1 Cortegiano, book i. p. 57 and following, of the 1733 edition. 2 In a letter to his uncle, Simone Ciarla, in 1508, Raphael expresses an earnest wish to be recommended to the young prince as his ancient servitor and " familiar " : " A quelle me ricomandate infinite volte come suo anticho servitore et familiare." Eeturn of Raphael to Ukbino, 1504. 109 father and patron of fine arts and of all meritorious artists, he could not have raised painting to so high a pitch of celebrity, nor have left behind him so many masterpieces of painting and architecture." 1 It is possible that Raphael may also have made the acquaint- ance at this period of Baldassare Castiglione, as we know that the author of the Cortegiano visited Urbino on the 6th of September, 1504, 2 before the departure of Raphael for Florence, which did not take place, judging by the date of the Duchess della Rovere's letter of introduction, until the beginning of September. Notwithstanding their sympathy for the fine arts, Guidobaldo and his courtiers gave but little direct encouragement to artists. Compared with the liberal endowments of Duke Federigo, those of his successor seem very poor ; and it would be difficult to name a single artist of mark attached to his house, with the exception of Timoteo Viti and Giovanni Cristoforo Romano the sculptor. Raphael, therefore, did not find in his native town the multiplicity of lessons and encouragements which he de- rived from his stay at Siena and Florence. Although the kind of instruction which he got there was altogether novel, good judges will be of opinion that it was none the less valuable, as it asso- ciated him, on leaving the modest studio of Perugino, with the intellectual refinement of the most brilliant Court in Europe, and must have had the best influence over a mind constituted like his ; and when brought into contact with this society his ideas 1 " Et se la virtuosa duchessa Isabella d'Urbino non havesse prima alzato et messo su il divin Baphaello nella sua gioventu, et poi Julio pur II che gli fu gran remuneratore, et ultimamente Leone X., padre et protettore di tutte le belle arti et di tutti i buoni operatori, certo ch' ei non harebbe potuto alzare la pittura a quel splendore ov' egli la condusse, ne havria lasciate tante opere cosi mirabil di pittura et d'architettura, come si vedono." (Regole generali di architettura, book iv., Venice, 1544, folio ii.) The Duchess Elisabetta was also very intimate with Mantegna, in proof of which we may give the following letter, written in 1511 to her brother, the Marquis Francesco Gonzaga : — " I had a special regard for the late Andrea Mantegna, whose talent your excellency may have a ppreciated, and who was much attached to our family. This regard has not ceased with his death, but extends to his son Francesco, in whom I feel all the more interest now that he is left alone in the world," &c, &c. (Gaye, Carleggio, vol. ii. p. 128.) 2 Dumesnil, Histoire des plus celebres amateurs Italiens et de leurs relations avec les artistes, Paris, 1853, p. 22. 110 Raphael. acquired an elevation and distinction which they would never have gained in Umbria. He soon made himself familiar with the highest questions of philosophy and morality, while at the same time he grew to like classic literature, and possessed him- self of the knowledge known as "the humanities." Finally — and this was an advantage of no mean kind — the association with Castiglione and so many other eminent individuals developed in him the urbane manners which afterwards won him so many friends. He, too, became the perfect courtier ; and it may be that, following his father's example, he took his part in the poetical compositions of the Court, for we know that later in life he often tried his hand at the writing of sonnets. In respect to painting, the Court of Urbino supplied Raphael with several motives of composition as varied as they were picturesque. The learned discussions conducted by the Duchess Elisabetta, the theatrical representations, the frequently invoked recollections of classic antiquity, were in turn treated by him. He was able to depict, as Mantegna did about the same time for Elisabetta's sister-in-law, the Marchioness Isabella of Mantua, Apollo on Parnassus presiding over the Dances of the Muses ; to delineate, as Perugino had done, The Combat of Love and Chastity; or, like Lorenzo Costa, whose picture is still preserved in the Louvre, to combine allegory and contemporary history, and represent the Duchess surrounded by musicians, poets, and warriors, and crowned by Love. But the hearts of the people of Urbino, after the cruel trials which they had just undergone, were stirred by deeper feelings just then, and Raphael did not fail to pourtray their patriotism. There can be no doubt that in his pictures of St. Michael and of St. George, painted for Guidobaldo, he meant to symbolize the defeat of Csesar and the triumph of the Montefeltros. These free and bold allegories are just suited to his genius. To embody in official colours the combats and the achievements of his patrons would, in his view, be unworthy of him, and he deemed it necessary that the contemporary struggles and the passions of the age should be presented in an allegorical form, which should be as enduring as the virtue of patriotism itself. The "St. George" of the Louvre. Ill Raphael had not hitherto attempted to deal with such stirring scenes. For the first time military incidents find their places in his compositions, and the painter of Madonnas becomes the composer of battle-pieces. But in all these pieces, he chooses the Christian rather than the pagan warrior, and more than that, STUDY FOR THE ST. GEOEGE IN THE LOUVRE COLLECTION. (Uffizi Museum.) all his soldiers are saints, such as in the Middle Ages personified the military clement — the archangel Michael and St. George, the Cappadocian prince who suffered martyrdom under Diocletian, after having, like another Perseus, rescued a princess from the claws of a dragon. The young knight who in the picture in the 112 Raphael. National Gallery we saw asleep beneath the laurel tree, with Virtue and Voluptuousness behind him, has awakened. Urged on by the voice of Virtue, he has seized his arms and is fighting with the spirits of darkness — the dragons, and the foul monsters with heads of dogs and tails of serpents. Vast is the change which has come over him. His air is martial ; the manly vigour of his features, and the energy with which he plies his weapons, prove that the youth has expanded into a man. I know nothing more proud and life-like than this St. George : Raphael, obeying the id junction of the poet, transports us into the very centre of action — in medias res. Mounted upon a magni- ficent white horse, with arched neck, covered with bright armour, the saint has charged the dragon and struck him full in the chest. But the shaft of the lance has broken, the j)ieces are scattered on the ground, and the monster, howling with agony and rage, rushes after his assailant, whose horse is galloping off. Like the skilled horseman that he is, St. George pulls the horse up short, and, brandishing his sword, makes ready to deal a final blow at the dragon. This is the moment of the fight which the artist has depicted. The horse is trembling, the dragon is howling and writhing : the princess, terror-stricken, takes to flight : the whole scene is full of life and passion. The St. George is a masterpiece of colouring as well as of composition, and Raphael shows us by his judicious selection of tones and by his vigorous and distinct touches that he was equally in his element as a painter and as a draughtsman. Nothing can be more delicate and harmonious than this picture, all the details of which are completely worked out. The red saddle brings out the whiteness of the horse, and in turn forms a telling contrast with the steel armour of the saint. Then, again, the red and white fragments of the lance light up the sombre tones of the landscape, and help to give the whole scene a marvellous amount of animation and spirit. The picture of St. Michael is of a different order, for while St. George is represented in the act of combat, the archangel's triumph is unchallenged. He has no need of the proud charger which would alone have sufficed to immortalize the first picture, and The " St. Michael " in the Louvre. 113 his armour is given him more as an ornament than as a means of defence. He might have dispensed with the shield and its red cross on a white ground which protects his left arm, for, coming as the messenger of divine justice, he wings his flight from heaven and puts his feet on the demon, who struggles vainly against him. He has only to bring down the sword which he holds in his right hand to terminate the unequal combat. His beauty, his tranquil mien, and the light which environs him, show that his is a purely moral victory, and in order to accentuate the supernatural character of the scene Raphael has represented it as being enacted in the middle of hell. A hideous owl, horrible dragons, figures of the damned devoured by serpents or bowed down beneath the weight of leaden capes, form the cortege of Satan, and a sinister light is cast upon the background by a town in flames. Passavant has shown that these fantastic figures are taken from Dante's description of the punishments inflicted upon hypocrites and thieves. " There in the distance," says the poet, 1 " we saw souls striding slowly around, bowed down with weeping and almost prostrated by sorrow. They were clothed in capes with very low hoods, and after the shape of those worn by the monks of Cologne. The outside, all covered with gold, dazzles one, but they are lined with lead inside, and so heavy that those of Frederick II. seemed mere straws in comparison — a mantle of crushing weight for all eternity. Let Libya no longer vaunt her sands, for the horrors which they and all Ethiopia contain are as nothing to those of hell. Amid this awful multitude of serpents flitted naked souls, filled with dread, and in despair of inding a place of refuge, or the heliotrope which will render ,hem invisible. They had their hands tied behind their backs pith snakes whose heads and tails were passed round their bodies tnd made into a knot in front. Just here a serpent darted at a pinner who was standing close to us, and stung him between the neck and the shoulders. In less time than it takes to write ' single letter of the alphabet the victim took fire and dissolved tito ashes ; and when the ashes, totally consumed, had fallen to 1 Inferno, cantos xxiii. xxiv. Q 114 Raphael. the ground, they came together and formed a fresh body like the first." Pleased as we are to record the admiration professed by Raphael for Dante, we cannot help pointing out that in these, as in many other circumstances, the poet has exercised anything but a beneficent influence upon those who have imitated him. We are speaking of artists like Giotto, Orcagna, and their school, who have put on canvas the visions of Dante, more particularly his Inferno, following the letter of his descriptions rather than the spirit of the poems. Thus, they have reproduced with painful accuracy the nine concentric arches in their turn subdivided into degrees, the triple-mouthed Lucifer, and the most refined modes of punishment, without stopping to inquire whether these conceptions would arrest the attention of the people, or form the subjects of a really pictorial composition. It is very rarely that these borrowed subjects, which are even more overdone in our day than they were in the Middle Ages, answer ; for it is a thankless task to attempt to transfer the ideas or the images which belong to literature into the domain of art, especially when they are so personal and so complex as those of the Florentine poet. The artist is embarrassed at every turn by the necessity of conforming to a programme framed from the poet's standpoint rather than that of the painter. Instead of attempting to renovate the subject by the resources! of his own imagination and of popular tradition, he concentrates all his efforts upon making a faithful copy. His inspiration is quenched and his fancy tied down, and the public remain unmoved- by a work in which they find no trace of the passion and spirit which had endeared the artist to them. Raphael's picture of St. Michael is a proof of this, for, wrapped up as we are in the struggle between the archangel and the demon, what do we card for the extraneous scenes, in which thieves are being devoured by serpents, and hypocrites are expiating their misdeeds under a weight of lead ? We should not perhaps have even understood these allegories, if Passavant had not given us the key to them by s] reference to the Divine Comedy: Lomazzo, in his Trattato delV arte della pittura 1 speaks, too, oa 1 The first edition of Le Trattato dates from 1584. Christ in the Garden of Olives. 115 the pictures St. George and St. Michael as having been painted for Guidobaldo. They afterwards became the property of Mazarin, from whose gallery they passed into the possession of Louis XIV., and are now in the Salon Carre at the Louvre. The engraving given here reproduces a sketch for the St. George, the original drawing is preserved in the Uffizi Museum at Florence. In addition to these two pictures. Vasari mentions a Christ in the Garden of Olives as having been painted for Guidobaldo, and being, when he wrote, in the possession of the Camalduli at Urbino. He says that " it was so highly finished a picture that one might have taken it for a miniature." Passavant thought that he had lighted upon it in a picture which, after having belonged to the Gabrielli family, was bought in 1849 for Mr. Fuller Maitland's collection, 1 whence it was transferred in 1878 to the National Gallery of London. But this opinion finds but little acceptance, and Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle attribute the picture in question to Lo Spagna, 2 while Sign or Frizzoni puts it down to Perugino. 3 As a matter of fact, the composition bears a very striking resemblance to a work of this master now in the Academy of Fine Arts at Florence. 4 The catalogue of the National Gallery, with what is perhaps an excess of caution, classes the Christ in the Garden of Olives among the anonymous pictures of the Umbrian school. The picture by Kaphael would seem, therefore, to have been lost ; but we shall have an opportunity, when we come to speak of the predella of St. Antony (Perugia), of examining how the young painter proposed to treat this subject, so difficult to render on canvas. It must be admitted that in eliminating this picture from the list of his works, we get rid of a very contradictory element, and that with its removal the development of his talent will appear far more logical. 1 Rajihael, vol. i. pp. 63, 64; vol. ii. pp. 20, 21. i 2 History of Italian Painting, vol. iv. p. 327. 3 L'arte Italiana nella Galleria NazionaU di Londra. Florence, 1880, p. 26. 4 Large picture chamber, No. 53. The Uffizi Museum has several fragments »f the cartoon which was used for the picture in the Academy of Fine Arts Braun, No. 512). 116 Raphael. To these pictures must be added an interesting series of drawings which also seem to have been done while he was at Urbino in 1504 ; and these drawings, which are preserved in the Academy of Fine Arts at Venice, form part of the Book of Studies commenced by him before he entered Perugino's studio (see above, The Massacre of the Innocents), and continued until 1506. About fifty sheets of this PORTRAIT OF A GIRL. (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice.) priceless volume are still in existence, but they have been cut out and separated from one another, so that no trace of the original classification remains, and it is impossible to fix the exact chrono- logy of the different drawings. 1 Such as it is, the Venice collection 1 Passavant has drawn up in his second volume a very detailed catalogue of the Book of Studies. Unfortunately, it appears certain that several drawings not by Raphael have found their way into his catalogue. Thus, for instance, M. L. Courajod has proved in V Art (May 16, 1880, p. 162), that the drawings numbered 37 and 38 in Passavant's catalogue, are the copies of a drawing by A. Pollaiuolo The Venetian Sketch Book. 117 testifies to the varied nature of ^Raphael's tastes, to his ever- vigilant habits of observation, and to the accuracy of his renderings. He has treated the most opposite subjects : portraits and studies of hands or trunks, decoration and landscape, copies of old works and new compositions, all being included in the list. Upon one of the sheets we see a Shepherd playing the bagpipe ; in another Samson rending the lion ; and then come Angels and genii, studies after Perugino ; the reproduction of a print by Mantegna (the Entomb- ment), a combat suggested by Leonardo da Vinci's famous cartoon, caricatures imitated also from Leonardo, and charming heads of young girls. in the Louvre. We may add that another drawing, the two Knights in the dress of the fifteenth century (Zanotto, Trenta disegni di Raffaello posseduti dalV Acca- demia di Venezia, Venice, 1860, folio xviii.), is unquestionably by Pinturicchio. The Venice drawings have been photographed by Messrs. Alinari, Braun, and Nay a. 118 Raphael. The origin and destination of the collection explain this diversity of subjects and the unequal merit of the drawings. Raphael evidently wished to put together in this travelling album a number of notes which he could make use of in after years. In many instances, either from pressure of time or fatigue, he has been compelled to indicate by a few lines the object which he wished to fix in his memory, while in other cases he has been able to complete his sketch. It must not be forgotten, more- over, that an interval of ten years separates the first sheets from the last. During this period Raphael had advanced with giant PORTRAIT OF A GIRL. (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice.) strides. From a timid interpretation and a scrupulous accuracy he rapidly passed to a freer and more incisive manipulation, and he soon got to sacrifice detail, and to think only of the main lines which, traced with a hasty hand, acquired in course of time extraordinary vividness and force. If any one is inclined to speak disparagingly of these early efforts, they will do well to follow the example of Raphael himself, as he compared in after years the early sheets with the later ones. Those drawings in the sketch book which relate to Urbino show us Raphael as the student of the portraits of philosophers and The Venetian Sketch Book. 119 savants in the private Cabinet of Duke Federigo. These portraits were for a long time attributed to Melozzo da Forli — an opinion which Passavant still holds ; but M. Keiset, as well as Messrs. •£ • V£R G- MARON1 • M ANTVV 140 PORTBAIT OF VIRGIL. (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice.) Crowe and Cavaleasclle, consider them, with better reason, to be the work of a Flemish painter established at Urbino, perhaps of 120 Raphael. Justus of Ghent. 1 One portion of them is now in the Louvre, and the other in the Barberini Gallery at Rome. Compar- ing them with the sketches of Raphael, one sees how faithful to the originals these latter were ; and another fact wwthy of remark is, that the young artist, having to choose between the famous men of ancient times, the prophets, the Fathers of the Church, and modern celebrities, confined his attention to the first-named category — to Homer, Anaxagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Cicero, Virgil, Quintus Curtius, and Boethius. This is a very striking sign of the revolution which had occurred in the ideas of the time. 2 We see then that Raphael, in leaving Urbino for Florence, took with him not on]y an ample stock of new ideas, but artistic properties generally of a very tangible order. 1 Notice des tableaux du Musee Napoleon III., Paris, 1867, p. 105 and following. History of Italian Painting, vol. iii. pp. 336, 337. A passage from the biographies of Vespasiano de' Bisticci, which does not seem to have been noticed, proves that Justus of Ghent was, in fact, the painter of these portraits. Vespasiano says : — " Duke Federigo summoned to Urbino a celebrated Flemish painter, who did many pictures for him. He decorated more particularly his study, in which the Duke made him paint the philosophers, poets, and doctors of the Greek and Latin Churches : they were very fine pictures." (Vita di uomini illustri del Secoh XV., Bartoli edition, p. 93.) It must not be forgotten that Vespasiano was the specially-appointed librarian of Federigo, so that his evidence is almost conclusive. 2 Passavant also mentions a view of Urbino, with the cathedral and part of the palace, taken, as he says, from the Capucins road, in front of the town. But Count P. Gherardi, who lived at Urbino, and who was therefore well up in the topography of the town, absolutely rejects this theory. " The drawing," he says, " is doubtless by Raphael, but it has nothing to do with Urbino." (Delia vita e delle opere di Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, Urbino, 1874, p. 22.) CHAPTER VI. "Raphael at Florence. — The Florentine Republic and the Arts. — Models, Old and New. — Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Fra Bartolommeo. — Protectors, friends, and rivals of Raphael. There is every reason for believing that Raphael only left Urbino to take up his permanent residence at Florence. His establishment in the latter city dates, to all appearances, from 1504, though he may possibly have paid flying visits to it before. The distance between Perugia and the capital of Tuscany is not so great but that he may have made the journey occasionally, as Perugino had done, and the desire to see a city of which he had heard so much, renders such a visit all the more probable. This would explain the Florentine influence which is apparent in many of the pictures of his Umbrian period, and notably in the Predella of the Coronation of the Virgin. However this may be, it is certain that in October of 1504 Raphael arrived at Florence, with the firm intention of tempting fortune in the art-capital of Italy. He had asked his protectress, the Duchess Giovanna della Rovere, to give him a letter of introduction for the Gonfalonier Pietro Soderini, and it was under her auspices that he came before the leader of the Florentine Republic. The letter was couched in the most eulogistic terms. The Duchess says : " The bearer of this present is the painter Raphael of Urbino. The talent which he possesses has decided him to come to Florence for some time, so as to perfect himself in his art. His father was dear to me for his many excellent qualities, and I have not less .affection for his son, who is a modest and agreeable young man, and one who will, I hope, make all possible progress. This is why I specially recommend him to your lordship, begging you to second i R 122 Raphael. him by all the means in your power. I shall look upon the services which you may render him as done to myself, and be under the greatest possible obligation to you." 1 Florence, when Raphael visited it for the first time, was not very different from what it is to-day, and most of the great buildings which are still the glory of the city which our ancestors called Fiorenza (the city of flowers) were already in existence. In coming down from the smiling hills of Fiesole, where the rose tree and the olive abound, the traveller first passed the convent of San Marco, immortalized by Fra Angelico, and then, in the Via Larga, the sumptuous palace of the Medicis, which in the eighteenth century came to be known as the Riccardi Palace. A little further on stood, and still stand, three buildings which would of themselves have sufficed to make any city famous : the Baptistery, peopled by the masterpieces of Andrea Pisano, Ghiberti, Donatello, and 1 The letter is dated October 1st, 1504. Raphael had not, therefore, at that date left Urbino. We will not stop to discuss the arguments adduced against the authenticity of this missive by a German writer, who has made confusion worse confounded as regards this part of Raphael's life. The same savant, so sceptical about the letter of the Duchess della Rovere, has, with the most delightful can- dour, published a whole series of letters and receipts by Raphael, which have been fabricated by a well-known Roman forger. Moreover, the Duchess's letter is still in existence and bears its original seal. After having belonged during the last century to the Gaddi collection at Florence, where Boltari, who first published it (in 1757), got a copy of it, this letter was offered for sale at Paris in 1856. The most competent judges of autographs were convinced that it was genuine, and it was sold for the relatively high sum of 81. We may add — and this fact has hitherto escaped the notice of Raphael's biographers — that many other letters from relatives, friends, or contemporaries of the Duchess Giovanna were sold at the same time, and collaterally affirmed the genuineness of the first. Among these autographs were those of Pietro Soderini, that is, of the very person to whom she recommended Raphael, of her father, Federigo da Urbino, and of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and his son Giuliano da Medicis. The latter, we know, resided for some time at Urbino. This is the description given of this document by the Catalogue d'une belle collection de lettres autographes provenant de divers cabinets, dont la vente aura lieu le lundi 2\ janvier 1856 et jours suivantes, Paris, Lavordet, 1856. "No. 1168 Ubaldini (Jeanne Felicia Feltria de la Rovere), duchesse de Sora, femme du prefet de Rome. L. a. s. en Italien, a Pierre Soderini, gonfalonier de Florence. Urbin, ler Oct., 1504, 1 p. in-fol., cachet. Belle et precieuse lettre." Then follows an analysis of the piece. These proofs, let us hope, will allay suspicions which are not justified either by the shape or the tenour of this interesting missive. Florence at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century. 125 Verrocchio ; the Cathedral, and the Campanile. The whole group is completed by the beautiful little Loggia di Bigallo, the frescoes of which have withstood the action of the air and the ravages of time. Continuing his course, the traveller passed in front of Or' San-Michele, and came out on the Piazza della Signoria, the two principal buildings on which, the Palazzo Veechio and the Loggia dei Lanzi, excited the admiration of all who saw them — the one for its massive proportions, the other for its elegance. Only a few steps further ran the Arno, which, with its bridges covered with shops, looked picturesque enough ; while in the distance stood, raised high above the river, the venerable basilica of San Miniate >, its facade bright with marbles and golden mosaics. It is true that since then many souvenirs of the Middle Ages, such as towers like enormous sentry-boxes, and palaces built after the model of fortresses, have been demolished. But the general physiognomy of the city was very like what it is to-day. In all directions were to be seen straight streets, forming a striking contrast with the tortuous streets of the mountainous towns of Perugia, Citta di Castello, Siena, and Urbino, from which Raphael had last come ; lofty and spacious houses built with the fine grey stone on which the ages leave no mark ; and palaces, the rugged masonry of which reminds one of what is called cyclopean architecture. Slender mullions, open arcades supported by delicately carved columns, and doors, crowned with some bas-relief in terra-cotta, or some piece of sculpture by Donatello, Dcsiderio or Mino, proved that the Renaissance was having a mollifying effect upon manners, and that an era of pleasure was about to succeed one of conflict. Nevertheless the general aspect of the city was still stern and proud, and this impression was heightened by the absence of any gardens or greenery within the ramparts. The mind reverted to the fraternal divisions which had so long distracted Florence, for jthere was not a street in which blood had not been shed, scarcely a house which had not been converted into a fortress and [conquered and defended by Guelphs and Ghibellines in turn. These sombre reflections rapidly disappeared, however, before phe extraordinary bustle of the city, and upon contact with its 126 Raphael. active and lively inhabitants. Industry and trade had been successfully developed, and at the close of the fifteenth century Florence contained forty-four goldsmiths' shops. The old aristo- cracy, with its belief in the supremacy of the sword, had been succeeded by a wealthy, enlightened, and polished middle-class, which combined the love of intellectual pursuits with that of gain. If Florence had been a little less turbulent and less addicted to change, she would have been a model for all Europe. In no city was to be found a genius more lively, subtle and brilliant, a more ardent patriotism, or a more kingly generosity whenever a grand idea was in question. But all these good qualities were neutralised by the fickle humour which was so bitterly deplored by the poet who signed himself " Dante Alighieri, Florentine by birth but not in manners." When Raphael arrived, Florence had had the time to indulge in melancholy reflections upon the vicissitude of human affairs. The expulsion of the Medicis, the entry of Charles VIII., the triumph and then the punishment of Savonarola, the war against Pisa, the campaigns of Louis XII., and the incessant plots of the Medicis' partisans had so exhausted the finances and unsettled men's minds as to compromise the future of the Renaissance. One of these events must have had a specially great influence upon Raphael, for all Florence was still full of the recollections of Savonarola, whose powerful eloquence had so stirred the people when he instilled into their minds the love of virtue and of freedom. An ardent champion of religion and a bold reformer of ecclesi- astical abuses — burnt as a heretic by the order of Alexander VI., and worshipped as a saint and a prophet by the masses — Girolamo Savonarola left a deep impress upon a society which was, as a rule, inclined to frivolity. They might kill the man, but still his ideas lived on, and they must often have been in the mind of Raphael, who was still under the influence of the mysticism of Umbria. Perugino must have often spoken to him about the preacher whose doctrines he had embraced, and one of his new friends, Fra Bartolommeo, had been an earnest adherent of the great reformer. Raphael, doubtless, visited in his company the cell in which an admiring posterity has collected the works of the Florence at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century. 127 painter and the relics of the martyr, and in which Savonarola was confined. The figure of the reformer was before him when he painted the Dispute of the Sacrament, and he did not hesitate to place, above the chamber of Alexander Borgia, in the very Vatican itself, and among the Fathers of the Church, the hapless Dominican monk who had been burnt a few years before by order of the Papal Commissions. In spite of all these drawbacks, the arts had more than held their own at Florence, and it even seemed as if the public calamities had given to the works of painters and sculptors a gravity and elevation which was too often lacking during the peaceful but enervating dominion of the Medicis. The Republic was not content with appealing in its military enterprises to the science of such engineers as Giuliano and Antonio da San- Gallo, and Leonardo da Vinci, 1 but it encouraged efforts of a more disinterested character, and did not scruple to make great sacrifices in order to maintain the ancient reputation of the Florentine school. At a few years' interval we find the Republic giving orders for the David of Michael Angelo, the twelve statues in the cathedral, and the two famous cartoons, the Battle of Anghiari and the Cartoon of Pisa, to mention only the works of exceptional interest. The Gonfalonier of the Republic, Pietro Soderini, who held this appointment from 1502 until the return of the Medicis in 1512, contributed in no small measure to the development of Florentine art. A friend of Michael Angelo and a patron of Leonardo da Vinci, as also of Luca Pacioli, who dedicated to him in 1509 his treatise De Divina Proportione, Soderini, in acting the Maecenas, was only following the example of the most powerful and famous allies of Florence, and it was very natural, for the superiority of her artists added tremendously to the prestige of the ancient metropolis of Tuscany. Marshal de Gie was ever pressing on the Republic to get Michael Angelo to complete his statue of David, and Marshal de Chaumont was not less anxious for the return oi Leonardo da Vinci to Milan, and the delay nearly gave rise 1 Gave, Carteggio, vol. ii. pp. 49, 50, 62, 63. 128 Raphael. to a suspension of diplomatic relations between the two govern- ments, while Pope Julius II. was compelled to use actual threats to induce the authorities of Florence to send back Michael Angelo to him. From all parts of Europe came requests for Florentine artists or their works, and one might have taken the city for a vast nursery-garden in which the Pope, the king of Naples, the Italian sovereigns, the kings of Spain, France, England, Hungary, and even the rulers of Muscovy and Turkey, came to recruit their architects, painters, sculptors, and miniature painters. Nowhere was art more honoured and petted than at Florence, for the painter and the sculptor were looked upon as the equals of the nobility, and the government treated with Michael Angelo as they might with the ruler of a neighbouring State. When one compares the position of Florentine artists with that of their compeers at Perugia, Siena, and Urbino, one is tempted to re-echo the ingenuous remark of Albert Diirer, who, sur- prised at the nature of his reception at Venice in 1606, said : "Here, I am a grand seigneur; at home, I am a parasite." All this tended to magnify the importance of artists in their own eyes and to fill them with legitimate pride. But what pleased them most of all was the abundance of intellectual resources which Florence afforded, and thanks to which the artist whose history we are writing was enabled to enlarge his horizon, to ennoble his style, and to develop his talent : in short, to become the rival of those mighty men of genius, Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo. All these various elements we propose to analyse, and we will commence with the influence of antiquity. If Raphael had come to Florence ten years sooner, his first visits would have been to the gardens in which the Medicis had collected the masterpieces of Greek and Roman sculpture, and to the Casino which was filled with marbles and bronzes assembled from all parts of the world, and which was the principal school of the Florentine Renaissance. The possessor of these treasures doubtless allowed him to inspect the cabinets in which he had arranged his inestimable collection of medals, cameos, and intaglios, in which the plastic arts of old were represented by thousands of valuable Florence at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century. 129 specimens, portraits of emperors and philosophers, pictures of battles and of the divinities of Olympus. If the visitor showed any real appreciation of these treasures, the owner of them, so well surnamed the Magnificent, would admit him to see the two masterpieces of his museum — the chalcedony with Apollo and Marsyas, and the coffer with the Head of Medusa. Lorenzo was the glory of his illustrious house, and there was not an artist in Florence who had .ot improved himself by visiting his collection, who had not, as e studied its beauties, been stimulated by a desire to emulate ;he great artists of old. It is sad to reflect that one day's revo- lution should have sufficed to sweep away this incomparable :ollection, to which Cosmo, the Father of his country, his son 'ietro, and his grandson Lorenzo had devoted their attention for jihalf a century. What had not been pillaged was sold at auction [by order of the new government, and when Eaphael came to [Florence, nothing was left in the palace which had once been the [wonder and envy of civilised Europe. Fortunately, some salvage pad been saved from the wreck by pious hands, and Lorenzo's [brother-in-law, the historian Bernardino Euccellai, showed especial raeal in preserving for his country as many as possible of the anti- quities which the Medicis had fetched from the most remote parts hf Europe and from Asia Minor. His gardens, the " Orti Oricellari," |oon rivalled the " Casino Mediceo," and provided artists with the [models without which the progress of the Eenaissance would Lssuredly have been checked. Other connoisseurs had made collec- tions more or less valuable, notably the Strozzi and Ghiberti jamilies. Then there were the ancient sarcophagi exhibited in public buildings like the Baptistery, so that between so many works of beauty the choice was not always an easy one. It is certain that Eaphael when he came to Florence began to Hook for the models which he had been unable to find at Perugia Ind Urbino, and two drawings preserved, one in the Uffizi Museum md the other in the Academy of Venice, show us his studies for the jomposition of Apollo and Marsyas, which he painted soon after- ,rds. One represents a young man quite naked, holding lightly jrith his right hand a gracefully-shaped vase which he carries on his ead, while his other hand, held downwards, rests lightly upon his s 130 Raphael. thigh. The second drawing is arranged rather differently, and M. A. Grayer, who has submitted these designs to a careful ex- amination, points out that they exhibit an instinct for, rather than a knowledge of, antiquity. 1 There is a like want of decision in the picture of The Three Graces, also painted in Florence, and yet, it must be added, the influence exercised upon Raphael by the art of the Greeks and Romans while in that city was as nothing compared to what it was later at Rome. To thoroughly understand his position, we must take a look backward and consider the attitude of the early Renaissance in regard to classic antiquity, and we are convinced that an impartial study of facts will modify hitherto received opinions to a very considerable extent. When Raphael came to Florence more than a century had elapsed since Pagan antiquity had, thanks' to the efforts of Brunelleschi, Donatello and Ghiberti, regained its ancient power. Architects, painters and sculptors laboured unceasingly to find the lost rules which had guided their glorious predecessors at Athens and Rome. Bat it would be a mistake to suppose that the early Renaissance considered itself bound to a servile imitation of the past, and committed the error which proved so fatal in the following century. Ghiberti, without ceasing to be an essentially Christian artist, con- sidered himself justified in copying the heads of heathen divinities, or in making use of motives, costumes and ornaments, borrowed from some Roman bas-relief. Donatello, too, while he carried his reverence for antiquity still further, preserved his full independence. Though his medallions in the Medicis Palace are exact reproductions of Grecian or Roman cameos ; and though one or two of his bas- reliefs are so like ancient models that one can hardly detect the difference between the two, his own manner is unmistakable in his Judith, his David and his St. George, for he displayed in them a freedom of conception and workmanship which the boldest inno- vators have never outdone. Like Giotto, Brunelleschi, Masacciol and the brothers Van Eyck, he surpassed not only his contempoJ raries but the two or three generations which immediately followeJ 1 Raphael et Uantiquite, vol. i. pp. 246-248. The Florentine Renaissance and the Antique. 131 him. When one compares the productions of his successors with his own, it seems as if the progress of art was actually being put back. Desiderio da Settignano, the two della Robbias and Mino da Fiesole do not give nearly so good an idea of the antique as he does, and though Verrocchio and Pollajuolo are rather better, they do not come up to his standard. Not until the beginning of the sixteenth century was the imitation of classic models in sculpture erected into a principle. The triumph of the antique was delayed still longer in re- gard to painting. The Greek and Roman style of art, known only by its marbles, bronzes, medals, and stone-carvings, did not supply painters with any obvious models, and it took them a long time to master principles expressed in a language so different from their own. The Mantuan school was the first to triumph over these difficulties and to embody in pictures and frescoes the lessons taught by the plastic arts of the ancients. Their triumph soon became complete — too complete in fact, for in some of the com- positions of Mantegna, reminiscences of antique art marred the spontaneousness of inspiration and the freshness of style. At Florence the struggle lasted much longer. It is true that there was no lack of subjects borrowed from the mythology or history of Greece or Rome, and there was even a copious imitation of ancient ornaments, — volutes, trophies, and medallions, — but the types, the dresses and the composition remained essentially modern. The works of masters such as D. Ghirlandajo, Botticelli and Filippino Lippi, who, as we know from Va.sari, made a special study of ancient models, prove this beyond all doubt. Their imitation of antiquity was confined to details, and even when they are retracing some exploit of Roman history, or celebrating some divinity of Olympus, their inexperience is manifest. Botticelli's Birth of Venus, as Herr Springer has pointed out in his work upon Raphael and Michael Angelo, gives a striking proof of this. There is nothing of the antique about the lanky and spare figure, insecurely seated upon the ■hell which bears her up, and looking as if she did not know what bo do with her hands ; her head on one side and her hair falling )ver her shoulders ; very unclassic, too, is the female attendant frith her elegant costume, and so also are the Zephyrs whose breath 132 Raphael. causes a cloud of roses to float around the Goddess. But with all this the Birth of Venus has about it a perfume of youth and poetry which is not to be found in the more scientific and correct works of a Giulio Romano or a Perino del Vaga. Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest of all the Florentine painters of the Renaissance, was also the one who was most free from the trammels of ancient tradition. Except in his statue of Francesco Sforza, we find no direct reminiscence of Greek or Roman art. As his latest biographer, J. P. Richter, has pointed out, he has scarcely ever, in all his numerous writings, spoken of the antique as a mode of instruction for artists, though he once mentions the " Graeci et Romani " as having excelled in the management of loose draperies. 1 It was not, assuredly, that Leonardo had not often admired the productions of the Roman sculptors, but with his exquisite taste he felt that their works should be used for inspiration rather than imitation. To him it would have seemed slavish to have copied them, and his common sense revolted at the idea of transferring to the domain of painting effects appertaining to so different an art. But though not always apparent, the influence of antiquity none the less helped him in realising the progress which advanced his art towards perfection. We have every reason for believing that Raphael, who was at that time in sympathy with the Florentine school, took the same view. Antiquity, to employ a happy expression of Quatremere de Quincy, was like a mirror helping him to see nature ; he used it to give a freer interpretation to his model, to enlarge his manner, to ennoble his types, and to give more scope and simplicity to his draperies : in short to come nearer to the classic laws of beauty. But he was not at all inclined to introduce into his compositions figures taken bodily from a bas-relief or an antique statue, as he afterwards did in Rome. Even in those pictures which would have justified him in so doing, such as The Three Graces and Apollo and Marsyas he only borrows his inspiration indirectly from the Greek, 1 Leonardo, London, 1880, p. 108. In a manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci, belonging to Lord Ashburnkam, he asks whether it is preferable to study the antique or to study nature. The space intended for the answer is unfortunately left blank. (Communicated by J. P. Richter.) The Florentine Renaissance and the Antique. 133 and treats the ancient motives with the utmost freedom and in an essentially pictorial style. In his other compositions belonging to the same period, he displays similar independence. Great as was the respect for the antique at Florence in the early part of the sixteenth century, the influence of a more recent and scarcely less fruitful epoch was not less potent. The grandeur of art, its civilising influence, its superiority over material interests, and i the omnipotence of genius, made themselves felt at every turn. There Giotto, the most illustrious master of the Middle Ages, had returned to nature after the lapse of many centuries, and had founded what we now call the Florentine School. The Italians were not lacking in gratitude, and his name was never mentioned but with veneration all through the Eenaissance period. Raphael doubtless did not fail to render homage to the merits of the friend of Dante or to gaze in frequent and deserved admiration upon the frescoes in Santa-Croce so full of grace and pathos. In the Pieta, which forms part of the predella of the altar-piece in the monastery of St. Anthony at Perugia, the Magdalen prostrate at the bleeding feet of Christ recalls to mind the compositions of Giotto and his school, notably the kneeling attitude of the sisters of Lazarus before Christ in the Arena chapel at Padua. But it was from the quattrocentisti that he derived more ideas still, and the two leaders of the great revolution which marked the opening of the fifteenth century, Brunelleschi and Donatello, must have astonished him by the boldness and the wealth of their genius. We shall see that he afterwards imitated, in the picture now at St. Petersburg, the charming little bas-relief of St. George slaying the Dragon, which was formerly placed under Donatello's statue of that saint. The resemblance is striking, though in the drawing of the horse the painter shows himself the superior of the sculptor ; as to the statue itself, he copied it almost to the letter in a drawing which is in the Oxford collection, and which represents the saint standing upright amid several other warriors. 1 The disciple and rival of these masters, Masaccio, who carried 1 Passavant, drawings, No. 541. Robinson, No. 46. 134 Eaphael. out in painting the principles which they had introduced into architecture and sculpture, exercised a still greater influence over Raphael, who was subjugated by the grandeur and simplicity of his style. No artist, during the whole of the fifteenth century, had so dexterously drawn himself clear of the archaisms of the Giotteschi on the one hand, and of the excesses of the new natural- istic school on the other. — or, to speak more accurately, had so skilfully combined their various tendencies. His figures preserve the majestic pose of the Middle Ages, and at the same time are remarkable for a relief, an ample presence and a suppleness which are distinctly modern. They are personages taken from the reality, yet each one of them is, with a discipline worthy of all admiration, subordinated to the general economy of the composition. With him Adam and Eve, St. Peter and St. Paul, gaolers and cripples, live and act, hope and believe, suffer and are moved without allow- ing the expression of their feelings to detract from the beauty of the whole arrangement. It has been truly said of this painter, who died at the age of seven-and-twenty, after having accomplished a revolution in art, that he was the connecting link between Giotto and Raphael ; with him as with them the worship of nature preceded and determined the search after the ideal ; with him as with them portraiture was a basis for the greatest historical pictures. When Raphael came to copy the frescoes of Masaccio, the modest chapel in the Carmine Church had long been a rlace of pilgrimage for Florentine artists. Vasari mentions, amon£ those who studied there, Fra Angelico, Filippo and Filippino Lippi, Alesso Baldovinetti, Andrea del Castagno, Verrocchio, Dcmenico and Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo di Credi and Perugino, Fra Bartolommeo and Mariotto Albertinelli, Michael Angelo and Torrigiano, Andrea de. Sarto and Granacci, in short all the most representative arists of Florence. Raphael's copies are unfortunately lost, but we can gather from his subsequent compositions what a deep effect the Carmine frescoes must have had upon him. Long afterwards, when he had become the founder and unquestioned lead.rove Raphael to have been the painter of painters ; so far as the nutation of a night event is concerned, painting has never produced more divine or more universally admired and appreciated work." 3 B 370 Raphael. Modern writers, however, are more severe, and consider that such powers would have been better employed upon easel pictures than upon fresco. Raphael is also blamed for having discarded unity of action, and for representing two different scenes in one and the same composition, Peter in Prison and Peter Liberated; but these faults ought not to make us forget the dramatic power displayed, or to prevent us from considering it a representative picture. When Raphael commenced the decoration of the Stanza d Eliodoro, the ceiling was at least partly decorated by frescoes attributed to Baldassare Peruzzi. 1 Here again Raphael respected the work of his predecessor as far as the Pope's commands per- mitted, although his own work was sure to eclipse that which was already in place. Although the four subjects represented on the ceiling have now no affinity to the side frescoes, they at least, taken by themselves, form a homogeneous whole. All four are taken from the Old Testament, and recall the promises made by Jehovah to the people of Israel. They represent God Appearing to Noah, Abraham's Sacrifice, Jacob's Dream, and the Burning Bush.' 1 Raphael at this time saw only the grand and terrible side of the Old Testament. Later, in the Loggie, he penetrated into the poetry of its oriental tales, and extracted from it exquisitely graceful idylls. We have no fear of being taxed with presumption in comparing two of these scenes, God Appearing to Noah and the Burning Bush, with the great works in the Sistine. Raphael was at this time no doubt inspired by Michael Angelo, whom he has at least equalled in the first of the two compositions to which we refer. As regards the other two frescoes, some connoisseurs are of opinion (and their opinion continually makes converts) that they must be assigned to Giulio Romano rather than to his master. The caryatides in grisaille — greatly restored in 1702-1703 by Maratta — 1 See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Histoire de la peinture Italienne, t. iv. pp. 401-405. 2 See notes, Robinson, A Critical Account, p. 228 and following. Mr. Robinson goes so far as to say that the Burning Bush is amongst the productions of Giulio Romano, but this assertion is refuted with success by Herr Springer. THE DELIVERANCE OF ST. PETER, The Chamber of Heliodorus. 371 complete the decoration of the Chamber of Heliodorus. In these single figures Raphael has forcibly symbolised the power of the papal states. They are Religion, Law, Peace, Protection, Aristocracy, commerce (Study for Caryatid in the Stanza d' Eliodoro). (Louvre.) Commerce, The Navy, Navigation, Abundance, Agriculture, Rearing of Cattle, and The Vintage, Our engraving reproduces in all but colour a sketch for the figure of Commerce, now preserved in the Louvre. Raphael. The original drawing is in red. To these allegorical figures there are small corresponding pictures in bronze and gold. As they were much repainted by Maratta in 1702-1703 their description will not be of much interest. The same may be said of the small pictures in the embrasures of the windows, in which everything Raphaelesque has been restored and renovated away. One of them represents, after Durer's engraving, the man with the brazen feet in the Apocalypse. 1 We may repeat before leaving the Stanza d- Eliodoro, that it is conspicuously free from those references to antique civilization of which there are so many in the Camera delta Segnatura. The arms and armour in the Attila, copied, as Vasari had already noticed, from the bas-reliefs of Trajan's Column, form the only exception. In this chamber Raphael seems to have been mainly occupied with purely pictorial questions, and to have been bent on proving himself a great colourist as well as a master of design. The painters of the Renaissance did not despise the most humble works of decoration. It was thus that Raphael, famous as he was, readily consented to paint above the fireplace of a room, said to be that of Innocent VIII., the arms of Julius II. supported by two nude children. One of these figures still exists ; it was bequeathed by the painter Wicar to the Academy of St. Luke at Rome. Our engraving may give an idea of its beauty, though unhappily the original is greatly damaged. We may remark that this childish figure is in many ways similar to those placed at the side of the Isaiah in the church of St. Augustine at Rome. From a document preserved in the archives of the church of St. Peter we find that Julius II. also confided to Raphael the decoration of the corridor connecting the Vatican with the Belvedere, and that of the seventeen arcades which form this corridor, Raphael had decorated one, before the death of Julius, for 200 ducats. For four others clone in the time of Leo X. he only received 150 ducats each. 2 According to a statement received from M. de Geymuller these pictures were 1 See Passavant's Raphael, t. ii. p. 136. 2 We have published this paper in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts of August 1st, 1879. Madonnas and Holy Families. 373 intended for one of the two storeys then finished of the right arm of the corridor to the Belvedere. On the ground-floor, now converted into coach-houses, the Doric arcades form an open corridor. The first floor, now used as a studio for the mosaic workers, was ornamented with Ionic pillars, and lighted by rectangular windows. A considerable portion of this building fell down in the reign of Clement VII., 1 and it is probable that the pictures in question perished on that occasion ; thus only can we account for the total oblivion of so interesting a series of works. The decoration of the " Stanze " would have been sufficient to engross the whole life of a less able and prolific artist than Raphael. But in spite of the vast amount of painting in the Camera della Segnatura, and the Stanza d' Eliodoro, the frescoes in the pontifical palace form only a small portion of the work pro- duced by Raphael between the years 1508 and 1513, in which latter year Julius II. died. During this period several altar-pieces were completed, such as the Madonnas di Foligno, di Loretto and della Pesce, and the Holy Family at Naples ; as well as easel pictures like the Madonna della Casa Alba, the Aldobran- dini or Garvagh Madonna, the Louvre Virgin with the Diadem, a fresco ordered by Goritz for the church of St. Augustine ; the CHILD SUPPORTING THE ARMS OF JULIUS II. (Academy of St. Luke, Eome. ) 1 Yasari, t. vii. p. 132. 374 Raphael. Isaiah; a number of portraits, Julius II., Bindo Altoviti, Federigo of Mantua ; the beautiful drawings for Lucretia and the Massacre of the Innocents, so grandly reproduced by the burin of Marc Antonio, &c. &c. Raphael was also busy at this period with works of architecture, as we shall see in our chapter dedicated to that branch of art. Let us examine in succession the pictures, frescoes, and engrav- ings which belong to this, the most productive and the most glorious period of the young master's life. We shall commence with historical compositions, and we shall find that they all belong- to the domain of religious art. Although in the Madonnas and Holy Families of his Florentine period Raphael has often sacrificed the expression of religious senti- ments to that of more human feelings, such as maternal affection, the joys of youth, &c, in the compositions executed at Rome Religion reasserts her fullest rights, and the master returned to the traditions of the Umbrian school, but with a brilliancy and power of style, which had little in common with the teachings of Perugino. Working under the direction of the Pope and addressing himself to all Christendom, " Urbi et orbi," he gave to the fundamental doctrines of his religion all the elevation in the power of art. The immortal masterpieces which we have enumerated above, together with others, such as the Madonnas della Sedia and di San Sisto, and the Holy Family of Francis I., show in turn Mary as the Queen of Heaven enthroned amid a glory of angels, and the young Mother of scripture embracing with virgin tenderness the Son who had so much to suffer. Never since the great and austere creations of the primitive Church, since the struggles of the faith in the Middle Ages, had painting told its story so eloquently ; grandeur of conception, beauty of form, brilliancy of colour, all unite in making Raphael's Madonnas the most perfect expressions of Christian art. Other compositions, of equal celebrity complete this cycle. In the paint- ings of the Vatican the master has retraced the most remarkable events of sacred history ; in the Spasimo and the Transfiguration, the miracles and sufferings of Christ ; in the cartoons the Acts of THE MADOXNA WITH THE DIADEM. (Louvre Museum.) The Virgin with the Diadem. 375 the Apostles ; in the St. Cecilia and St. Margaret the triumphs of the martyrs. Is there, in all the annals of religious art, anything, as a whole, so admirable ? The number of Madonnas and Holy Families painted by Raphael in Rome was very considerable, and comprised about a score of pictures, mostly of large size. We shall here notice such as are known to have been executed during the reign of Julius II. — the Madonna di Loretto, the Madonna delta Casa Alba, the Aldo- brandini Madonna, the Virgin with the Diadem, the Madonna di Foligno, the Madonna of the Bridgwater Gallery, the Madonna 'with' the standing Jesus, the Holy Family of Naples, and, lastly, the Madonna with the Fish. In the Virgin with the Diadem, of the Louvre, Raphael shows himself desirous of composing a well-balanced scene in which figures and background should blend with perfect harmony. To the left is the " bambino," gently slumbering on a folded mantle, one hand is resting by his side, the other placed under his head in an attitude both natural and graceful. Mary kneels beside him, and raises with one hand the veil which covers him, whilst with the other she draws forward the little St. John, whose fervour and infantile enthusiasm contrast well with the seriousness of the Virgin, who regards her Son with mingled tenderness and devotion. This composition is more pictorially effective than some of Raphael's works, and it appears as if, not content with the com- position of a fine group, he was desirous of making all the parts of his picture help out the story ; this intention he has carried out most skilfully, and the background, the principal feature of which is a fine old ruin, is much more important than usual. This is the first time we find any reminiscence of the antique introduced into his compositions, which have hitherto been entirely single-minded. The Madonna di Loi*etto, only knowm by its copies (the original having disappeared during the last century), was painted by order of Cardinal Riario for the church of St. Maria del Popolo at Rome, where it remained a long time, together with a portrait of Julius II. 376 Raphael. The Virgin is here raising the veil which covers the child, whilst St. Joseph contemplates the scene. In one of the Madonnas of MADONNA DE LORETTO. (From a copy preserved in the Louvre.) the Bridgwater Gallery, formerly in the Orleans collection, 1 Raphael has again represented the Virgin at half- length, the infant Jesus lying 1 An ancient copy of this painting has recently been added to the National Gallery of London. The Madonna della Casa Alba. 377 in his Mother's lap, has taken hold of the veil which covers her head and is looking at her with affection. The Madonna della Casa Alba, now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, recalls, both in composition and style, the Madonnas of the Florentine period. Sitting on the ground in the midst of a rich landscape, Mary holds a book in one hand, while with the other she draws the little St. John towards her Son. The former is kneeling, and brandishing his little cross with childlike joy. The eyes of the Mother are turned fondly on the two children. We reproduce two drawings in the Wicar collection, by means of which we may study the method of the artist. His first model for the general grouping was a man, whom, however, we shall find transformed in the second drawing into a perfect Madonna, and in another step the final composition is completed. The Madonna of the Aldobrandini Family, which from the collection of Lord Garvagh has passed into the National Gallery of London, displays a severity which strongly contrasts with the grace of the Madonna della Casa Alba. In this picture, one of the gravest and most noble of Raphael's works, is seen, more than in all the preceding ones, the influence exercised over the artist by the beauty of the Roman women, so different from those whom lie had painted in Umbria and Tuscany. The model employed pleased him so much that he repeated her nearly without change in the Madonna ivith the Standing Jesus (collection of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts). For beauty of conception, freedom of handling, and harmonious colour, the Madonna di Foligno, painted about 1511, is greatly superior to the works we have already studied ; and among all Raphael's Madonnas that of San Sisto alone can be compared with it. Seated in the clouds in a golden glory, her Son standing by her side, Mary, at once shy and happy, casts her eyes down towards the donor, Sigismondo Conti, who is kneeling below clothed in the superb scarlet mantle worn by the Pope's private chamber- lains. Innumerable Angels surround the Queen of Heaven, making the air vibrate with their joyous chants. The Child, while playing with his Mother's mantle, follows the glance of her eyes, and smiles 3 c 378 Raphael. at the devout old man who worships Him. Upon the earth, which is illumined by a rainbow and covered with luxurious vegetation, St. John the Baptist and St. Francis are offering homage to the divine couple, while St. Jerome presents the donor to the holy Mother. Here we must quote the words of a contemporary of the painter's, who describes the Madonna di Foligno in such enthusiastic terms that posterity can add but little :— .STUDY FOE MADONNA DELLA CASA ALBA. " One sees in St. John the Baptist," says Vasari, " the traces of the fasts which he had imposed on himself. St. Jerome, wrapt in thought and with eyes raised to the Madonna, has a face full of the wisdom of which he has given proof in his writings. His portrait is so life-like that it appears almost alive. The figure of St. Francis is not less beautiful ; kneeling with arms extended The Madonna di Foligno. 379 and head raised, he feels himself strengthened and consoled by the gentle regard of the holy Mother, and by the vivacity and beauty of her Child. In the centre of the picture, below the Virgin, and with his head raised towards her, Raphael has repre- sented a lovely child holding a cartouche. Lastly, the landscape comprises all beauties and all perfections." STUDY FOR MADONNA DELLA CASA ALBA. What Vasari has forgotten to tell us is that the Madonna di Foligno is distinguished by warm and luminous colour, a quality which is attributed, not without reason, to the influence of Sebastiano Luciani, who about this time appeared in Rome, where his style excited universal admiration. This is not the only occasion on which we have seen Raphael affected by the work 380 Raphael. of this brilliant pupil of Giorgione, and we can understand how these proofs of esteem from so great a master deluded the ambitious Venetian into thinking himself a fit rival to Sanzio. THE ALDOBRANDINI MADONXA. (National Gallery, London.) The engraver, Boucher-Desnoyers, who, in 1802, saw the Madonna