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 MONOGRAPHS ON ARTISTS 
 
MONOGRAPHS ON ARTISTS 
 
 EDITED, AND WRITTEN JOINTLY WITH OTHER AUTHORS, 
 
 BY 
 
 H. KNACKFUSS 
 
 I. 
 
 Raphael 
 
 BIELEFELD AND LEIPZIG 
 
 VELHAGEN & KLASING 
 
 1898 
 
Raphael 
 
 BY 
 
 H. KNACKFUSS 
 
 PROFESSOR AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, CASSEL. 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 CAMPBELL DODGSON, M. A. 
 
 ASSISTANT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS, BRITISH MUSEUM. 
 
 WITH 128 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PICTURES AND DRAWINGS 
 
 BIELEFELD AND LEIPZIG 
 
 VELHAGEN & KLASING 
 
 1898 
 
Pkinted by Fischer & Wittig, Leipzig. 
 
Raphael’s portrait of himself, in the Uffizi, Florence. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 “T TOW liberal and kindly heaven shows itself sometimes in bestowing 
 1 1 on a single person the infinite store of its treasures and all those 
 graces and rarest gifts which it is wont to distribute among many in- 
 dividuals in a long space of time, may be clearly seen in the no less 
 excellent than gracious Raphael Sanzio of Urbino ; who was by nature 
 endowed with all that modesty and kindness which may sometimes be seen 
 in those who beyond others have added to a refined and gentle nature 
 the beautiful ornament of a charming courtesy, which is wont to show 
 itself ever sweet and pleasant to all kinds of persons and in all manners 
 of things. He was nature’s gift to the world , when , vanquished by art 
 in the hands of Michelangelo Buonarroti, she was willing in Raphael to be 
 vanquished by art and manners at once.” 
 
 With these words Giorgio Vasari, who wrote in the i6th century the 
 lives of famous Italian artists from Cimabue to himself, begins the life of 
 the immortal master, who brought the art of the Italian Renaissance to its 
 utmost perfection, and who shares with the giant Michelangelo this supreme 
 glory, that his works, like the creations of classical antiquity, count with 
 all posterity as unsurpassable. 
 
 Rafifaello Santi (or Sanzio) first beheld the light of day on Good Friday 
 (28th March) in the year 1483. His native place, Urbino, situated on the 
 North-East side of the Apennines in the Marches of Ancona, near the 
 frontiers of Tuscany and Umbria, was the capital of a small Duchy, which 
 belonged to the valiant and art-loving family of Montefeltro. Raphael’s 
 father, Giovanni Santi , was a painter of repute, who painted pictures of 
 saints, full of thoughtfulness and reverence. In his youth he had made 
 trial of several occupations before he turned his attention to art; among 
 other things he had composed a rhyming chronicle in praise of the deeds 
 of the Duke Federigo Montefeltro. Of Raphael’s mother, Magia, to whose 
 memory he doubtless owed the inspiration of his heavenly Madonnas, those 
 revelations of a mother’s love and a mother’s bliss transfigured, we know 
 no more than that she was the daughter of a certain Giovanni Battista 
 Ciarli at Urbino, that she presented her husband with another son, besides 
 Raphael, and a daughter (both of whom died in early childhood), and that 
 
 Knackfuss, Raphael. I 
 
2 
 
 RAPPIAEL. 
 
 she herself died as early as October, 1491. A fresco painted by Giovanni 
 Santi in the house, still standing, in which Raphael was born, representing 
 the Madonna with the child asleep, is supposed to be a picture of his wife 
 Magia with the little Raphael. Giovanni can only have grounded his son 
 in the first rudiments of his art, for he died on i. August, 1494, after 
 marrying a second time, in 1492. Raphael’s actual teacher, according to 
 Vasari’s account, was Pietro Vannucci, called “il Perugino” (^born 1446, 
 
 Fig. 1. The Knight’s dream. In the National Gallery, London. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 died 1524), the head of what is called the Umbrian School of painting, 
 whose special characteristic is a tender, poetical feeling combined with a 
 certain timidity of expression in form and colour. But Vasari is evidently 
 mistaken in his story that Giovanni Santi himself brought the boy to 
 Vannucci at Perugia during his mother’s lifetime. Raphael probably entered 
 the studio at the age of seventeen, for up to the year 1500 the master’s 
 engagements kept him almost constantly employed for years together at a 
 distance from Perugia. There is no record to show who was the young 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 3 
 
 Santi’s instructor up to 
 that time. Since the year 
 1495 an excellent pain- 
 ter , Timoteo Viti , a 
 native of the place, had 
 been settled at Urbino. 
 
 He was born in 1467, 
 and received his train- 
 ing at Bologna under 
 Francesco Francia. The 
 supposition that Viti was 
 Raphael’s teacher is 
 exceedingly probable, 
 especially as Raphael 
 stood in friendly rela- 
 tions with him in later 
 years. At any rate when 
 Raphael came to Peru- 
 gino he brought with 
 him not only his native 
 talent, but a preliminary 
 training of no mean 
 order. A few charming 
 little pictures are extant, 
 which are supposed on 
 good grounds to have 
 
 been painted while Raphael was still at Urbino, for, with all the excellence 
 of their execution, they are somewhat childish in design and betray in no 
 respect the influence of the school of Perugia, which was to become so 
 powerful at a later stage. The most remarkable of these small pictures is in 
 the National Gallery at London, and is known by the name of “The Knight’s 
 Dream”. In a rich landscape a youth in armour lies asleep under a small 
 tree; on one side a comely woman, decked with pearls, approaches and offers 
 him flowers ; on the other side a lady of more severe aspect advances with a 
 sword in one hand, a book in the other. The meaning of the picture explains 
 itself (Fig. i). Another small picture, in the Louvre at Paris, represents the 
 Archangel Michael, who has plunged from heaven in full armour to smite 
 down with his sword the Evil One, in the shape of a dragon, who writhes 
 in impotent fury under the mailed foot of the celestial warrior. The scene 
 of the action is Hell ; frightful monsters stand round glowering, and in the 
 distance, before the flaming citadel of Hell and between gloomy rocks, the 
 penalties of hypocrites and thieves are depicted in accordance with Dante’s 
 poem. A representation of the rivalry between Apollo and Marsyas, also in 
 the Louvre , may be regarded as the earliest of all the extant works of 
 Raphael’s youth, for it is still more childish than the rest, and makes no 
 
 I 
 
 Fig. 2. From the Venetian Sketchbook. 
 
4 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 pretence to effectiveness 
 of colouring, which is 
 one of the great charms 
 of the other pictures. 
 Among these precious 
 early works is also to 
 be reckoned a picture 
 in the Due d’Aumale’s 
 collection , representing 
 the Three Graces , in 
 which a group — borrow- 
 ed from some antique 
 work of art — of three 
 maidens holding one 
 another in an embrace 
 is placed in a wide, open 
 landscape. 
 
 In various collections 
 drawings are preserved, 
 which pass as works of 
 Raphael’s early youth, 
 without any external or 
 internal evidence in sup- 
 port of the assumption. 
 The Academy at Venice 
 possesses the largest 
 collection of drawings 
 professedly derived from 
 Raphael’s early years , in a sketch-book which has been broken up into 
 separate leaves (Fig. 2, 3, 4). There we find copies drawn from heads and 
 figures by various masters, exercises in drawing from memory, schemes for 
 pictures, studies of drapery drawn strictly in the manner of the school, and 
 studies from nature of various kinds, among them some heads of remarkable 
 beauty. The authorship of Raphael in the case of this sketch-book has been 
 maintained and disputed with equal zeal ; according to the view of the con- 
 noisseurs whose opinion carries most weight it belongs to Pinturicchio. 
 Bernardino Betti, called “il Pinturicchio” (the little painter), was, next to 
 Perugino, his senior by a few years, the most excellent painter of the school 
 of Perugia; there is no doubt that Raphael learned much from him as well. 
 The examination of the lea\ es of the Venetian sketch-book, apart from the 
 intrinsic interest which it possesses, is extremely attractive, because it offers a 
 concrete illustration of the nature of the Umbrian school , which Raphael 
 entered and to which he was soon able to adapt himself completely. A lively 
 reciprocity of action and reaction developed itself between the master and 
 the pupil. It is believed that improvements may be observed in Perugino’s 
 
 Fig. 3. From the Venetian Sketchbook. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 5 
 
 works of the early years of the i6th century, as compared with his earlier 
 productions , which may be accounted for by the influence of Raphael’s 
 fresh talent; and Raphael, for his part, completely assimilated his master’s 
 manner of conceiving and representing his subjects. There seem even to 
 have been occasions when the master painted from the designs of the 
 pupil. The converse case was not infrequent; in Italy, just as in Germany, 
 artists whose practice was large left the execution of their less important 
 works to their assistants ; in such a case the name of the master covered 
 the achievement of the pupil ; but with the glory of Raphael’s name so 
 soon outshining all others it seems easy to conceive that , even in the 
 eyes of contemporaries, the master who invented the design might disappear 
 behind the pupil who carried it out. A similar relationship seems also to 
 have existed for a time between Pinturicchio and Raphael. At least the 
 earliest Madonnas painted by Raphael are based on drawings which are 
 ascribed with the greatest probability to Pinturicchio. It is not, indeed, 
 absolutely necessary on that account to suppose that the young painter 
 was commissioned by the elder to carry out orders which were originally 
 given to the latter; we may also imagine that the shy beginner, who was 
 receiving his first commissions, may have turned to his experienced fellow- 
 artist for advice, and that the latter may have placed designs of his own at 
 the former’s disposal as 
 models which he might 
 safely copy. As a matter 
 of fact the patterns put 
 before learners in the 
 studios of that period 
 consisted merely of the 
 works of the teacher, 
 and nobody took of- 
 fence if a pupil occa- 
 sionally made use in a 
 picture of his own of 
 some study by his 
 master which he had 
 copied for practice. 
 
 That is the explanation 
 of the echoes and direct 
 repetitions which we not 
 infrequently encounter 
 in the works of different 
 painters who proceeded 
 from the same school; 
 our own conscientious 
 striving after originality 
 at any price in every 
 
 Fig. 4. From the Venetian Sketchbook. 
 
6 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 5. The three Saints. In the Royal Museum, Berlin. 
 
 Stroke of the brush was quite unknown to that time. Raphael’s peculiar style 
 and his special gift for natural beauty of form are not to be mistaken even 
 in the works which he produced during the time which he spent in the school 
 at Perugia. His two earliest pictures of Madonnas belong to the Berlin 
 Museum: the Madonna with St. Jerome and St. Francis (also called “the 
 picture of the three Saints”, Fig. 5), and the “Solly Madonna”, so called 
 from its former owner (Fig. 7). With these two pictures is associated a 
 third, a small circular painting, which remained till 1871 in the Conestabile 
 Palace at Perugia, but has been since then in the Hermitage collection at 
 St. Petersburg. They are sacred pictures, not attempting to depart from 
 the treatment of the subiect fixed by long tradition , true products of the 
 Umbrian school, still mediaeval to a large degree, but infinitely charming 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 7 
 
 Fig. 6. Study for the head of St. Jerome in the 
 Picture of three Saints at Berlin. 
 
 Drawing in the Lille Museum. 
 
 tion , a fresh eye for natural beauty 
 study of a head for the aged Jerome 
 a drawing preserved in the Wicar Mu- 
 seum at Lille (Fig. 6), is a nice example 
 of Raphael’s manner of making studies 
 from nature during his apprenticeship 
 at Perugia. It is agreeable to observe 
 how the young artist turned over in his 
 mind the extremely simple idea of 
 the traditional picture of the Madonna, 
 which seemed to leave so little room 
 for the play of fancy, and how, through 
 very slight deviations from it, he ob- 
 tained new forms, which he perpetuated 
 in slight sketches or more careful 
 drawings. For instance a beautiful, 
 large chalk drawing (Fig. 9) in the 
 collection of the Archduke Albert (the 
 Albertina) at Vienna resembles both 
 the Solly Madonna and the Conestabile, 
 but yet is different again from both 
 and forms a complete and harmonious 
 
 in their delicacy and gentleness. 
 The Virgin Mary appears in all of 
 them as the half-length figure of a 
 very young girl, veiled like a nun, 
 with pale, refined countenance and 
 downcast eyes; the naked infant 
 Christ, whom she holds on her lap 
 or in her hands, looks wise beyond 
 his years; here he raises his little 
 hands in blessing towards the two 
 saints ; there he grasps in his hand 
 a bird by way of toy, in childish 
 fashion, but turns his eyes with a 
 serious look to heaven; there again 
 he cons devoutly the book of prayers 
 which his mother is reading. The 
 backgrounds consist of distant views 
 under a light-blue sky, and these 
 exquisite, fragrant landscapes con- 
 tribute not a little to produce the 
 poetical sentiment which is peculiar 
 to these pictures. Without regard 
 to the restrictions of school tradi- 
 reveals itself at every point. The 
 in the picture of the three Saints, 
 
 Fig. 7. The Solly Madonna. 
 In the Royal Museum, Berlin. 
 
8 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 picture in itself; a remarkable feature of this design is that the child is 
 occupied in true childish fashion with a pomegranate , which the Virgin 
 holds up to him, while she has laid her book of prayers aside for a moment. 
 A precious little pen-drawing in the Oxford Gallery (Fig. lo) reveals the 
 whole fragrant charm of a direct first design : the Virgin’s look of heavenly 
 graciousness as she contemplates the boy, and his devout upward gaze as 
 
 Fig. 8. The Conestabile Madonna. In the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 he holds her prayer-book in the grasp of his little hands , are thrown off 
 with a few expressive lines. On the back of the sheet (Fig. ii) the boy 
 is drawn on a larger scale and in a more finished style , with delicate yet 
 firm lines ; in these lovely outlines we divine the whole beauty of Raphael’s 
 later figures of children. 
 
 In the year 1502 Perugino took up his abode at Florence. Raphael, 
 however, still remained at Perugia. He was already entrusted with the 
 execution of a large altar-piece. As a commission from a lady of one of 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 Fig. 9. Sketch for a Madonna. Charcoal drawing, Albertina, Vienna. 
 
 the most powerful families of Perugia, Maddalena degli Oddi, he painted 
 a Coronation of the Virgin for the altar of the Franciscan church of that 
 place (Fig. 12). The picture, now in the Vatican gallery, shows in its 
 lower half the Apostles surrounding the empty tomb of the Virgin, from 
 which lilies and roses grow; Christ appears above the clouds and places 
 
lO 
 
 RAPHAKL. 
 
 the heavenly crown on 
 the head of his mother 
 to the jubilant music 
 of the angelic hosts. A 
 number of extant studies 
 inform us as to Raphael’s 
 method of preparation 
 for the work. Thus we 
 recognise in the beautiful 
 portrait-head of a youth 
 (Fig. 13, in the Lille 
 Museum) , perhaps a 
 comrade in the studio, 
 the study for the counte- 
 nance of the angel, who 
 stands with a tambourine 
 on the Virgin’s right; on 
 the other hand, in the 
 study for the head of 
 the angel with the violin 
 who stands on the op- 
 posite side, the young 
 master even in the act 
 of drawing from nature 
 has idealised the treat- 
 ment of his subject (British Museum, London, Fig. 14). If we find 
 Raphael in the picture of the Coronation still quite dependent, in respect 
 of the whole arrangement of the picture and the type of the heads , on 
 the school of Perugino, who was painting the same subject about the same 
 time for a church near Perugia, we, nevertheless, observe also how far the 
 pupil already excelled the master 
 as regards beauty and vivacity. 
 
 How the power of Raphael, still a 
 lad under twenty, was stirring to 
 rise above the limitations of the 
 traditions of the school , how fast 
 he outstripped the very masters ot 
 that school, we have the best op- 
 portunity of recognising in the 
 present situation of the picture ; 
 quite close to it, in the same room, 
 hangs a representation of the same 
 subject by Pinturicchio; in com- 
 paring the two, the advantage of 
 
 ^ ° Fig. II. B.\ck of the same sheet, 
 
 R3.ph3.cl j foiindcci on his pCrSOri3l a larger drawing of the child (Oxford Gallery). 
 
 Fig. 10. Sketch kok a Madonna. Pen -drawing in the Oxford Gallery. 
 
Fig. 12. The Coronation of the Virgin. Vatican Gallery. 
 
12 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 qualities, is most 
 conspicuous. As 
 an altar-piece the 
 picture of the Co- 
 ronation had also 
 a “predella”, a 
 gradine decorated 
 with smaller pic- 
 tures, by which it 
 was raised above 
 the holy table itself. 
 Separated from the 
 principal picture, 
 this predella is to 
 be found also in the 
 Vatican collection. 
 The Annunciation, 
 the Adoration of 
 the three Magi and 
 the Presentation in 
 the Temple form 
 the subjects of the 
 predella - pictures. 
 In these small paint- 
 
 Fig. 13. Study of a head for an angel in the Coronation of the V’irgin. Raphael haS 
 
 Silver- point drawing in the Lille Museum. mOVed with Still 
 
 more freedom and 
 
 independence of the school than in the principal picture. The cartoons, or 
 preparatory drawings for the first two subjects on the scale in which the 
 paintings were carried out, are still extant, one in the Louvre (Fig. i 5), the 
 other in the Museum at Stockholm ; in the case of the Annunciation, where 
 Raphael has placed the scene in a wide hall with columns in order to fill 
 up in an interesting way the space of the picture , which is very wide in 
 proportion to the small number of figures, we see how the cartoon has 
 been used to transfer the drawing to the panel: the outlines drawn with 
 the pen are perforated with pin-holes to allow powdered charcoal to pass 
 through. If we here get a peep into Raphael’s method of workmanship, 
 we have a view of his intellectual studio, so to speak, in a precious sketch 
 in the Oxford Gallery (Fig. 16), which fixes in a few firm and expressive 
 pen-lines the principal group of the third picture of the predella. 
 
 About a day’s journey to the North of Perugia, in the upper valley 
 of the Tiber, lies the little town of Citta di Gastello. Hither Raphael was 
 led by several commissions after the completion of the Coronation of the 
 Virgin. He first painted here, according to Vasari’s narrative, a picture for 
 the church of San Agostino, quite in Perugino’s manner. The biographer 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 13 
 
 does not state the subject of this painting. Tradition, however, has indicated 
 as a youthful work of Raphael an altar-piece which stood in this church 
 until the year 1789, namely the Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino. 
 In that year the picture was sold, and then, being painted on canvas, 
 which was very unusual, it was cut up into separate pieces, which have 
 disappeared and left no trace. A more favourable destiny has ruled over the 
 two other pictures painted at Citta di Gastello , which Vasari mentions 
 expressly by name. One, representing the dead Christ on the Cross, with 
 Mary, John , the Magdalen and Jerome, conceived and executed quite in 
 the manner of Perugino, belonged to the church of San Domenico; it is 
 now in a private collection in London. The third picture, the marriage 
 of the Virgin (Fig. 17), finished, according to the inscription, in the year 
 1504, was the 
 ornament of an 
 altar in the church 
 of San Francesco 
 till towards the 
 end of the last 
 century; it is now 
 in the collection of 
 the Brera at Mi- 
 lan. This master- 
 piece ofRaphael’s 
 Umbrian period, 
 known to the 
 world by the name 
 of “lo Sposalizio”, 
 represents in front 
 of a round build- 
 ing, which stands 
 for the Temple 
 at Jerusalem, the 
 High-Priest join- 
 ing the hands 
 of the betrothed 
 couple ; behind 
 Mary appears a 
 train of maidens, 
 behind Joseph are 
 the rejected sui- 
 tors of whom we 
 are told in the 
 legend ; they hold 
 barren wands in 
 
 rig. 14. Studies for another angel in the same picture. 
 their hands, while British Museum. 
 
Fig. 15. Cartoon for the Annunciation on the predella of the Coronation of the Virgin. In the Louvre, Paris. 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 15 
 
 Fig. 16. Sketch (at Oxford) for the presentation of Christ in the Temple on the same predella. 
 
 flowers have sprouted from Joseph’s wand; two of them are breaking their 
 wands, the barrenness of which is the sign vouchsafed by heaven of their 
 rejection, one with a certain self-possession, the other, in the foreground, 
 with violent emotion. In this picture Raphael has once more guided himself 
 closely in the whole arrangement and grouping by a similar work of Perugino; 
 but , even to the smallest details , he has infinitely surpassed his model in 
 spirit, freedom, life and beauty; his eminent talent for the art of architec- 
 ture, which he was to find brilliant opportunities of proving in later years, 
 displays itself in the tasteful design of the temple. 
 
 While Raphael was working, at Citta di Gastello, Pinturicchio was 
 engaged in adorning with frescoes the Cathedral library at Siena, as a 
 commission from Pope Pius III. Vasari reports that the painter sent for 
 Raphael to Siena to assist him with the cartoons for these wall-paintings. 
 In this information there is nothing incredible ; Raphael at the age of 
 scarcely one-and-twenty might very well consent with pleasure to act as the 
 assistant of a man from whom he had learnt so much. It would be a 
 fruitless effort, indeed, to endeavour to find the traces of Raphael’s co-ope- 
 ration in the masterly creation of Pinturicchio ; for if an older painter 
 
i6 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 trusts a younger one so far as to allow him to help in a great work, 
 
 yet he does not usually permit him to introduce anything of his own. 
 
 At any rate Raphael did not stay long at Siena. He was anxious to 
 become acquainted with Florence, the chief seat of art in Italy at that 
 time, where, too, his former teacher had set up his studio. Before Raphael 
 removed to Florence he paid a visit to his native town. Here events of 
 a warlike nature had taken place in the meantime. Duke Guidobaldo 
 
 Montefeltro had been driven out by Cesare Borgia, but had once more 
 taken possession of his hereditary dominion in the year 1503, amidst the 
 rejoicings of the population. In the same year Giuliano della Rovere, 
 
 whose brother was married to the Duke’s sister Giovanna, ascended the 
 papal chair as Julius II. Under the protection of this influential relationship 
 peace remained secured to the Duchy of Urbino. That active intellectual 
 life , which has invested the princely courts of Italy of the period of the 
 Renaissance with so peculiar a lustre and charm in the memory of the 
 after-world, unfolded itself without disturbance at the court of Guidobaldo. 
 Raphael, too, was drawn into the select circle, the soul of which was the 
 beautiful and talented wife of the Duke, Elisabetta Gonzaga, the grand- 
 daughter of a princess of the house of Hohenzollern. Next to the Duchess 
 Elisabetta, the Duke’s sister Giovanna della Rovere was a special patroness 
 of the young artist, whose first achievements promised already clearly 
 enough that he would one day prove the glory of his native town. 
 Provided with a cordial recommendation from the Duchess Giovanna to 
 the Gonfaloniere of Florence, Piero Soderini , Raphael, in the autumn 
 of the year 1504, entered the flourishing capital of Tuscany. Here 
 Leonardo da Vinci stood at that time at the height of his fame. His 
 competitor was Michelangelo Buonarroti, three-and-twenty years his Junior, 
 whose colossal statue of David had recently been set up at the entrance 
 of the palace of the Signoria ; at present both masters were busy with 
 the designs for great battle -pictures which were to adorn the walls of the 
 Council-chamber. Among the painters who resided permanently at Florence 
 the Dominican Fra Bartolommeo was one of the most distinguished. His 
 creations were full of character and inspired by faith ; their colouring was 
 splendid and they were generally compiled with strict architectural sym- 
 metry. Raphael entered into specially close and friendly relations with 
 this serious master, whom the fate of Savonarola had driven into the 
 cloister. Each learned from the other; Raphael imparted to his friend, 
 eight years older than himself, as much as he received from him. This 
 reciprocal influence can easily be observed in several of the works of each. 
 But Raphael at Florence learned not only from the living , but also from 
 the old masters of earlier times. He studied with zeal in the church of 
 Sta. Maria del Carmine the frescoes of Masaccio, who had introduced into 
 art that fidelity to nature which formed the special glory of the Florentine 
 school. Thus the young native of Urbino contrived, as Vasari relates, 
 “to attain an extraordinary perfection in art and in his style of execution”. 
 
Fig. 17. The Marriage of the Virgin (Lo Sposalizio). In the Brera, Milan. 
 
 Knackfuss, Raphael. 
 
 2 
 
8 
 
 RAIMI AEI.. 
 
 Raphael by no means disowned 
 his old teacher; the character 
 of the Umbrian school is still 
 frequently to be discerned in 
 his later works; but a freer 
 surrender to nature and greater 
 energy and fulness of life in 
 the figures distinguish clearly 
 the works of his Florentine 
 period from their predecessors. 
 Raphael could not but look up 
 with unbounded veneration to 
 the great master , Leonardo ; 
 his friend in the monastery also 
 stood under the spell of the 
 great enchanter. The influence 
 which the contemplation of 
 works by the unsurpassed de- 
 pictor of ravishing feminine 
 beauty exerted on so keen a 
 learner may be most vividly 
 observed in several portraits 
 of women sketched by Raphael 
 on a small scale (Fig. i8, 20). 
 Leonardo’s “Gioconda” hove- 
 red before the young artist, though only as an unattained and unattainable 
 standard of perfection , when he was painting his first portraits of ladies. 
 Agnolo Doni , an enthusiastic but economical patron of art , who may 
 have been scared by the i)iices of the famous Florentine masters of 
 portraiture , has the merit of having first given Raphael an opportunity 
 of trying his strength on this new ground , for he engaged him to paint 
 himself and his wife Maddalena, These two portraits (Fig. 19, 21) are 
 now in the collection at the Pitti Palace, P'lorence. To look at them 
 may suggest the reflection that the young master was far from having 
 attained to the art of imparting to the faithful presentment of a human 
 being the significance of a work of art of universal validity; one may 
 miss a convincing portrayal of character; but for all that they are a very 
 important pair of pictures , and the unusual gifts of their author plainly 
 appear in them; their beautiful and effective scheme of colouring, more 
 especially, attracts the attention of the beholder, even from a distance. 
 After his two earliest productions of this class come two creations of 
 masterly quality, which are not certified as the work of Raphael, though the 
 attribution hardly admits of doubt ; both are portraits of unknown ladies, 
 one (the so-called “Donna Gravida”) in the Pitti Gallery, the other in the 
 Tribune at the Uffizi. 
 
Fig. 19. Portrait of Maddalena Strozzi - Doni. Painting in the Pitti Palace, Florence. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 19 
 
 In the year 1505 we find Raphael again employed at Perugia. In a 
 chapel of the Camaldolese Monastery of San Severo he painted his first 
 fresco. The space assigned to him was a pointed arch ; his task was to re- 
 present the Holy Trinity and a number of saints of the order. The painting is 
 unfortunately much damaged— -the figure of God the Father has completely 
 disappeared — and has suffered still worse maltreatment from a modern re- 
 painting than from the effects of time and damp. The splendid design of 
 Raphael can, nevertheless, still be recognised and admired. The painting re- 
 flects clearly the strong impressions which Raphael had received from seeing 
 the works of the great early Florentine masters, but also, at the same time, 
 from the creations of his friend Bartolommeo. It was not in Perugino’s 
 school that he had learnt the magnificent sweep of the lines in the solemn 
 rank of Saints who are enthroned in a semicircle on the clouds on either 
 side of the Redeemer, nor the artistic freedom and the fulness of life in 
 every single figure. But the youthful master had set his own creative 
 force at work on all those influences from without ; this achievement fore- 
 shadows the future unsurpassed master of monumental painting. How 
 vigorously Raphael’s mind was occupied at that time with what he had 
 seen in Florence is betrayed to us , to take one instance only, by a 
 drawing which is preserved in the Oxford Gallery (Fig. 23). It contains 
 the carefully drawn studies for two heads and two hands of saints in the 
 San Severo fresco ; but in a corner of the same sheet is sketched from 
 memory with rapid strokes a group out ot Leonardo’s Battle of the 
 Standard , the cartoon for 
 which was finished in this 
 very year (1505) and aroused 
 universal enthusiasm by its un- 
 precedented vigour. Raphael 
 painted , furthermore , at Pe- 
 rugia a large altar-piece for 
 the convent of St. Antonio, 
 as well as a picture for the 
 altar of the family -chapel of 
 the Ansidei in the church of 
 the Servites. In both pictures 
 the Mother of Christ was re- 
 presented as Queen of the 
 Saints, enthroned above other 
 saints on a lofty seat roofed 
 over by a baldachino. In 
 the case of the work first 
 mentioned there was an addi- 
 tional semicircular arched 
 space at the top with the 
 
 figure 01 God the rather in drawn in silver-point on toned paper. 
 
20 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 the act of bene- 
 diction, and a pre- 
 dclla with five sub- 
 jects: Christ on the 
 Mount of Olives, 
 Christ bearing the 
 cross, the lamenta- 
 tion over the bo- 
 dy of Christ, and 
 single figures of St. 
 Antony of Padua 
 and St. Francis of 
 Assisi. Both works 
 have long since 
 left their original 
 places ; indeed no 
 single altarpiece 
 by Raphael has 
 remained in a 
 consecrated spot. 
 They are now to 
 be found in the 
 National Gallery 
 at London , with 
 the exce{)tion of 
 the predella, which 
 has been broken 
 up into its several 
 parts and distri- 
 
 Fig. 21. Portrait or Agnolo Doni. Painting in the Pitti Palace, Florence. buted among dif- 
 
 ferent English col- 
 lections. In both paintings it is remarkable that Raphael shows himself still 
 strongly swayed by the rules of the Umbrian school in the composition, in 
 the type of the infant Christ, and, in a measure, even in the drawing of the 
 figures; one must suppose that the commissions were obtained as a result 
 of older designs; it may have seemed to the patrons, and presumably 
 also to Raphael himself, unfitting, especially in the case of large altar-pieces, 
 to depart from the venerable native style of the place in favour of the 
 freer and more natural conception of the subject which had its home in 
 Florence. Towards the end of the year 1 505 Raphael received a com- 
 mission from the nuns of the convent of Monteluce near Perugia to paint 
 the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven. Even then he already passed as 
 the foist of painters and he was already so fully engaged , that he post- 
 poned the execution of ^his order for an indefinite time. 
 
 In the year 1 506 Raphael painted a St. George for his Duke, Guido- 
 
Fig. 22. Madonna of the House of Orleans. Chantilly. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 21 
 
 baldo. He had once already taken the patron saint of chivalry as the 
 subject of a picture. This older painting is now to be found as a com- 
 panion to the still earlier St. Michael, with which it corresponds exactly 
 in dimensions , in the Louvre. While we see in the archangel the very 
 embodiment of victory , we behold in St. George , the human warrior, 
 the stress of conflict. The saint has sprung towards the dragon, mounted 
 on a powerful white horse ; with the weight of the onset the spear is 
 broken in the breast of the monster; the creature twists itself in agony 
 and flings itself against the horse as it rushes past ; but the knight 
 has already seized the sword at his side, and whilst he seeks to check 
 with his strong hand the snorting steed, which rears towards the spectator, 
 he strikes out a deadly blow at the enemy. It was not possible to surpass 
 this picture in the dramatic vivacity of its presentment, which enables the 
 spectator to assist at the antecedents and the sequel of the action. But 
 the St. George painted for Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino certainly shows 
 great progress in respect of the drawing of the horse (again a result ol 
 the stay at Florence). The splendid landscape, too, tells of the new im- 
 pressions which Raphael had received in the capital of art. The com- 
 position is the reverse of that adopted in the first picture. Turning away 
 from the spectator , the Saint hurls himself against the dragon ; this time 
 he has laid the monster low in the first thrust with the spear, and the 
 white horse springs over it with a mighty bound ; the ransomed maiden is 
 represented in the background, praying, while she appears in the first picture 
 
 Fig. 23. Studies of heads and hands for the fresco at San Severo, Perugia (Oxford Gallery). 
 
22 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 in the agitation 
 of extreme fear. 
 Raphael thought 
 the little picture 
 worthy of being 
 signed with his 
 name in full: Raf- 
 faello U. (Urbinas) 
 is to be read on 
 the strap across the 
 breast of the horse. 
 Duke Guidobaldo 
 had ordered the 
 picture as a present 
 for King Henry Vll 
 of England, in re- 
 turn for the Or- 
 der of the Garter, 
 which had been 
 bestowed on him. 
 Accordingly the 
 saint appears clear- 
 ly characterised as 
 the patron of this 
 order by a blue 
 
 Fig. 24. Drawing for the St. George at St. I’etersbi rg. Uffizi, Florence. 
 
 band under the 
 
 knee, on which the word ‘honi ’ can be read. In the summer of 1506 
 Count Baldassare Castiglione travelled to London as envoy of the Duke 
 to deliver the picture. It is now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. A 
 careful drawing on the scale in which the picture was carried out, per- 
 forated with pin-holes for the transfer to the panel, is in the collection of 
 the Uffizi at Florence (Fig. 24). 
 
 It is possible that this picture took Raphael again to Urbino ; in this 
 case it may perhaps be supposed that Pope Julius II., who spent three 
 days with his relative at Urbino on his progress to Bologna in September 
 1506, may have there first made the acquaintance of the young artist, who 
 was soon afterwards to produce such magnificent masterpieces in his service. 
 
 The years 1506 to 1508 are principally filled by a series of Madonnas. 
 The important point in the period of Raphael’s activity at Florence is the 
 heavenly beauty of his representations of the Virgin and Child. In the 
 Umbrian Madonnas we are still in a measure reminded of the essential 
 quality of mediaeval art, which directed all its energy to the portrayal of 
 the soul with all depth of feeling, and treated the body as something of 
 minor importance. In Florence, however, the home of realism, of the faithful 
 reproduction of nature in art , Raphael had fully recognised the beauty of 
 
Fig. 25. Madonna del Granduca. Pitti Palace, Florence. 
 
Fig. 26. Madonna of Casa Tempi. Munich Gallery. 
 (After an original photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.) 
 
24 
 
 K.APHAEL. 
 
 jf, 
 
 reality. Like the masters of the 
 undying creations of classical paga- 
 nism, he finds in the most perfect 
 human beauty the means of re- 
 presenting the Divine. At the head 
 of the works produced in this frame 
 of mind stands the “ Madonna del 
 Granduca” (Fig. 25) in the Pitti 
 Palace at Florence. The designation 
 of the picture is derived from the 
 fact that it came from the property 
 of the Grand Duke Ferdinand III. 
 of Tuscany, who thought it so 
 precious that he would not part 
 from it even when he was on his 
 travels. Whoever has once lost 
 himself in contemplation before this 
 marvellous picture , must be able 
 to comprehend such a devotion to 
 it. The forms of the Virgin standing 
 quietly, seen in half length, and of 
 the Divine Child in her arms, stand 
 out like a gleaming vision, and yet 
 in all bodily fulness, from a uniform 
 dark background. The Madonna 
 appears as the virgin saint no less 
 completely than in the older pictures; her eyelids droop, as custom had 
 long required them to do in representations of Mary ; but from under 
 the lashes the eyes look down on the beholder with an expression of 
 infinite kindness. A soul full of more than terrestrial purity and gentle- 
 ness is revealed to us ; but this soul shines from a countenance which we 
 might believe to be human , with warm blood flowing in the veins , a 
 countenance full of charm and loveliness. A seemingly unimportant and 
 accidental departure from tradition further contributes to clothe this celestial 
 countenance with the charm of life; the heavy veil which covers the head 
 is set back, so that the bright golden hair pours out along the temples 
 and cheeks, only half concealed over the brow by a fine, transparent veil. 
 The child Jesus clings to his mother, but turns his little head as he does so, 
 and fixes the full gaze of his large, peaceful child’s eyes on the spectator. 
 Next after the “Madonna del Granduca’’ comes the picture in a similar 
 vein of feeling, which is named, after its English owner, the Madonna of 
 Lord Cowper. Whereas in the former picture Raphael had abandoned 
 all accessories , in order to give himself up entirely to working out his 
 idea of the two figures, landscape, in this, has once more regained its 
 position. Here, again, both figures turn their faces and eyes towards the 
 
 Fig. 27. Pen -SKETCH resembling the Colonna Madonna, 
 but without the animated movement (Uffizi). 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 25 
 
 spectator. But in a larger picture of the Madonna in the collection of 
 the same amateur (generally known as the Madonna Niccolini, after its 
 former owner), dating from the last year of Raphael’s stay at Florence, 
 
 Fig. 28. CoLONNA Madonna. Berlin Museum. 
 
 only the child looks out of the picture , while Mary lets her gaze rest on 
 him with quiet motherly pleasure, and on his face a glad, childish smile 
 has replaced the expression of great seriousness. It appears, as it were, a 
 natural result of the fidelity to nature with which Raphael has modelled 
 
26 
 
 RAIMIAEL. 
 
 the forms of the 
 sacred personages, 
 that these truly hu- 
 man beings reveal 
 human emotions. 
 The picture of Mary 
 turning graciously 
 towards the out- 
 ward world be- 
 comes a picture 
 of the love of two 
 sacred beings for 
 one another. Mary 
 no longer appears 
 merely as the Vir- 
 gin carrying in 
 her arms the Son 
 of God , but at 
 the same time as 
 his tender , lov- 
 ing mother. The 
 commencement of 
 these representa- 
 tions was in the 
 enchanting “ Ma- 
 donna of the Casa 
 Tempi” (Fig. 26) in 
 the Pinakothek at 
 
 ^ Munich, which was 
 
 r Ig. 29. bKKTCHliS KOK A MADONNA. 
 
 Pen -and- ink drawing in the British Museum. produCCd SOOll af- 
 
 ter the “^ladonna 
 
 del Granduca”. The mother clasping the child .'^o lovingly to her heart, laying 
 her cheek against his, absorbed in gazing at him with a smile of bliss, makes 
 a picture of the purest humanity, taken straight from life, which might be a 
 reminiscence of his own childhood; but the pure and lofty feeling of the artist 
 has infused a spirit of more than earthly holiness into the consummate beauty 
 of his portrayal of the holiest of human feelings. “ The Madonna of the 
 House of Orleans” (in the collection of the late Due d’Aumale; Fig. 22) 
 shows us the happy mother playing prettily with her child, just awakened 
 and eager for nourishment, in the retirement of a dwellingroom. We 
 
 see the group once more in a rich landscape in the “ Madonna of the 
 Casa Colonna” (Fig. 28), in the Berlin Museum. Produced shortly before 
 Raphael left Florence, this picture was never quite finished asregards the 
 execution of tne painting; that does not prevent us, however, from fully 
 enjoying the charm of its design. As in the older pictures, we see here 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 27 
 
 again the book of prayers in Mary’s hand ; but the splendid boy who sits 
 up, full of life, on her lap, has disturbed her in her pious meditations, 
 and while she evades his impetuous demand with a movement of her 
 body, the outlines of which are hidden by the heavy mantle, to one side, 
 she fixes her gaze full of maternal happiness on the child. 
 
 Besides the pictures, the number of which, quite apart from those of 
 doubtful genuineness, is still further increased by such as are only known 
 from old imitations, numerous drawings offer us the opportunity of admiring 
 Raphael’s inexhaustible resources for inventing new forms, for always por- 
 traying the blessed union of mother and child with the same freshness and 
 love and always with the same magical beauty. Many of the pages contain 
 several experimental ideas, hastily jotted down, of which every one is a 
 masterpiece ; for instance, a sheet of paper in the British Museum (Fig. 29), 
 which contains two different conceptions of the child with his hunger 
 appeased, in contrast to the pictures with the child eager for nourishment, 
 which have just been described ; in one he turns round satisfied, thrusting 
 his tiny hand against his mother’s breast ; in the other he turns still 
 further away from her, and tries to escape from her lap to the ground; 
 or a sheet in the Albertina (Fig. 30), with two quite different compositions, 
 one of which once more employs in a new way the motive of interrupted 
 meditation, the mother herself holding the book aside and turning affection- 
 
 rig. 30. Sketches for a Madonna. In the Albertina, Vienna. 
 
28 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 31. Terranuova Madonna. Berlin Museum. 
 [(After an original photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.) 
 
 ately to the child as he caresses her , while the other introduces a third 
 person, the little St. John, into the scene. Even in the Middle Ages the 
 pictures of the Madonna and Child had frequently been enriched by the 
 addition of the son of Elizabeth to the group; a special significance was 
 given to the forerunner by his holding a cross of reeds and a scroll with 
 the words “Ecce Agnus Dei”, in reference to the future passion of the 
 Son of God. That, too, is the way in which the little St. John is represented 
 in the earliest picture of the kind by Raphael, the “Madonna of the Duke of 
 Terranuova” in the Berlin Museum (Fig. 31); the infant Jesus gazes earnestly, 
 bending to one side on his mother’s lap, at the momentous words on the 
 roll of writing which is presented to him ; opposite to St. John, who wears 
 a little coat of skins, stands a third boy .looking on, perhaps the future be- 
 loved disciple St. John the Evangelist. This second picture with its delightful 
 colouring belongs to the early part of Raphael’s time at Florence ; in the 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 29 
 
 design it still bears the stamp of the school of Perugino, but in the heads, 
 especially in that of the Virgin, the Florentine beauty, with all its warmth 
 of life, comes out. 
 
 Raphael carried out the group of the Virgin with the infant Jesus 
 and St. John with far greater freedom in three pictures which are closely 
 
 Fig. 32. Madonna in the Meadow. In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna. 
 
 related one to another. In all three, Mary sits with the two children in a 
 meadow, the strong green of which loses itself in a distant prospect of 
 varied forms ; they have further in common the artificial structure, an effect 
 of the teaching of Fra Bartolommeo, by which the group, however un- 
 constrained its composition may seem, forms a decided triangle. The first 
 
of these three pictures is the “ Aladonna in the Meadow” (Fig. 32) in the 
 Imperial Museum of Art at Vienna (painted in 1505 or 1506), the second 
 the “Madonna del Cardellino” (with the goldfinch, Fig. 33) in the Tribune 
 of the Uffizi, the third (of the year 1507 or 1508) “La belle Jardiniere” 
 (Fig. 34) in the Louvre. At the beginning the arrangement of the three 
 whole-length figures in that regular structure seems to have presented 
 unwonted difficulties to the young master; at least there are an unusually 
 large number of trial sketches and studies for the “Madonna in the Meadow” 
 (Fig. 35, 36). Then, too, the painting appears to a certain extent em- 
 barrassed, in spite of its great charms, in comparison with the two others. 
 In its colouring and in the form of the Virgin it bears witness to the zeal 
 with which Raphael studied the works of Leonardo da Vinci The picture 
 at Florence is, similarly, the final result of experiments of various kinds. 
 What makes this picture especially attractive is the delightfully natural 
 and childlike treatment of the two boys. In the Vienna picture the little 
 St. John on his knees offers the cross of reeds to the Child Jesus — the 
 written scroll is omitted in all three cases — ; but there is no Such 
 reference here to the future passion ; St. John has run up with a captive 
 goldfinch , by offering which he ho[)es to gratify his playfellow. This 
 charming piece of child’s play did not originally form part of the artist’s pur- 
 pose ; a pen-and-ink sketch in the Oxford Gallery (Fig. 37) shows us the 
 Child Jesus still seriously occupied with his mother’s book ol devotions, while 
 St. John stands by inactive, merely as an attentive listener. Unfortunately 
 the masterpiece has suffered severely. Raphael painted it as a wedding 
 gift for his friend, Lorenzo Nasi, at Florence; in an earthquake in the year 
 1584 the house of the Nasi family fell down, the panel came to pieces 
 and had to be laboriously put together again and repaired. In the picture 
 at Paris, the peculiarity of which is the loving care with which the flowers 
 and plants of the foreground are carried out, the master succeeded in 
 making the religious relations between the children quite clear and yet in 
 preserving their childish character in its full delightfulness ; St. John, with 
 the little cross of reeds in his hand, has fallen on his knee, but we feel 
 that he is not yet fully conscious in his childish thoughts of that which 
 urges him at the sight of his comrade to assume the attitude of prayer ; 
 and the little Jesus, one of the most ravishing forms of children which 
 Raphael has produced, looks with great, questioning eyes at his mother’s 
 wonderful countenance, full of womanly charm and divine majesty, as if 
 he were expecting to be told why his playfellow was kneeling before him. 
 The Oxford Gallery possesses a splendid study from nature for this child 
 (Fig. 38), with several special studies for that one foot which rests on the 
 foot of his mother. 
 
 The group is once more differently composed in an unfinished painting, 
 the “ Esterhazy Madonna”, in the picture gallery at Pesth. Mary has knelt 
 down and set the child before her on a mossy stone ; the child St. John 
 kneels at her side, busy with his roll of writing, which he seems to wish 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 
 Pig- 33- Madonna with the goldfinch. In the Uffizi, Florence. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 to read, and draws the attention of mother and child to himself. The sketch 
 for this painting, full of life, belongs to the collection of the Uffizi (Fig. 39). 
 
 In the same collection is a very slight, but none the less charming, 
 pen-and-ink sketch (Fig. 40), in which the little St. John brings up to 
 
32 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Jesus as he sits in his mother’s lap a real lamb, which he can hardly carry, 
 instead of the scroll with the words “Ecce Agnus Dei”. 
 
 To the same group of subjects belongs, further, a picture which exists 
 in several versions, painted partly by pupils of Raphael, partly by later 
 imitators, but the design of which goes back to the master himself. This is 
 generally known as the “Madonna with the veil”, or the “Sleeping Child”. 
 The Child Christ has fallen asleep in a meadow; the Virgin has sat down by 
 his side and lifts the veil from his little face, on which she gazes, rapt in 
 contemplation, while the little St. John, nestling against Mary’s lap, looks 
 at the spectator and points with outstretched hands to the Son of God. 
 
 Raphael’s inexhaustible fancy has displayed itself again most abundantly 
 in this subject , which he was able to clothe in new and ever delightful 
 forms every time he took it up. 
 
 Another group of subjects is formed by the Holy Families, in which 
 the Virgin and Child are accompanied by the foster-father Joseph and, 
 occasionally, by other persons as well. There is, first, the little picture, 
 the Madonna with the lamb (Fig. 41), in the gallery at Madrid, in which 
 we see the Virgin holding the child astride on a lamb which lies beside 
 her, in a beautiful landscape, while St. Joseph, leaning on a staff, watches 
 the group affectionately — a very attractive picture, remarkable also on 
 account of the effectiveness of its colouring, which combines the three 
 primary colours, boldly but not inharmoniously, in the dark-blue mantle 
 and carmine robe of Mary and the warm yellow mantle of Joseph. Then 
 the Madonna under the palm-tree in Lord Fllesmerc’s collection, London, 
 is a lovely family group. Mary sits under a date-palm, and holds the child 
 securely by a scarf round his body; his foster-father is kneeling and offers 
 a bunch of flowers to the child, who turns round towards him with an 
 animated movement. We find a splendid study for this picture in the 
 Louvre (Fig. 42). Quite different in kind and almost odd in its conception 
 is a picture in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, in which St. Joseph, re- 
 presented, contrary to the tradition of artists, without a beard, looks so full 
 of care that this expression in itself gives a somewhat gloomy tone to the 
 whole — with which the dark background corresponds (Fig. 43). 
 
 The Canigiani Holy Family in the Pinakothek at Munich shows a 
 richer composition. Mary sits on the ground in a meadow; opposite to 
 her kneels the aged Elizabeth ; each of the two mothers holds her child 
 securely; the little Jesus has cheerfully accepted the scroll which John, 
 with a serious look on his face, has offered to him ; St. Joseph stands in 
 the middle behind the tw^o women, leaning with both hands on his staff, 
 and looks down ponderingly ; a hilly landscape with a town of many towers 
 forms the background. We learn through Vasari that Raphael painted this 
 pieture for Domenico Canigiani at Florence ; from the possession of his 
 descendants it afterwards passed into that of the Medici. When the Elector 
 Palatine John William mamed a daughter of that house, the picture came 
 as part of the princess’s dowry to Diisseldorf, and was transferred thence 
 
Fig. 34. Madonna, c.a.lled “L.a. belle Jardiniere”, in the Louvre. 
 
 (After an original - photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 Knackfuss, Raphael, 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig- 35- Sketches kok the M \don.na in the Meadow, Vienna. 
 Pen-and-ink drawing in the Albertina, Vienna. 
 
 in the year 1805, with the rest of the treasures of the Diisseldorf Gallery, 
 to Munich. The beautiful picture is unfortunately in a very bad state of 
 preservation; groups of child-angels which hovered in the air on either 
 side of St. Joseph , have completely disappeared through cleaning and 
 repainting, so that now the too strictly pyramidal structure of the group 
 strikes the eye more than was originally the case. If we wish to gain an 
 idea of the original effect of the composition we must look at one of the 
 old copies for the sake of comparison. There are several of these: for 
 instance , a copy in oils in the Palazzo Corsini at Florence, and a wash- 
 drawing — not a particularly good one, it is true — in the Oxford Gallery 
 (Fig. 44). 
 
 Next to the pictures of the Madonna, with their idyllic charm, is to be 
 placed the picture of St. Catharine in the National Gallery, London (Fig. 45), 
 which is no less rich in loveliness. Represented in somewhat more than 
 half-length , the Virgin Saint stands in an open landscape through which 
 a river flows ; her left arm rests on the wheel , the instrument of her 
 martyrdom ; she lays her right hand — a hand of incomparable beauty — 
 on her breast, as if to assert the steadfastness of her faith and her courage 
 in meeting her doom , and looks with head turned aside towards the 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 35 
 
 ray of heavenly 
 light which gleams 
 upon her from the 
 clouds. 
 
 In the last year 
 of his residence at 
 Florence Raphael 
 had once more 
 occasion to pro- 
 duce a large altar- 
 piece in honour 
 of the Virgin, 
 whom he had so 
 often glorified in 
 those lovely pic- 
 tures which formed 
 the fairest orna- 
 ments of the rooms 
 of pious lovers of 
 art. The Floren- 
 tine family of Dei 
 gave him an order 
 for the adornment 
 of their altar in 
 the church of San 
 Spirito. But pre- 
 viously to that, in 
 
 the year 1507, Raphael completed another large altar-piece which he had pledg- 
 ed himself to carry out at the date of his presence at Perugia. A lady of the 
 ruling family of Perugia, Atalanta Baglioni, had commissioned him to paint 
 the Lamentation for Christ, for the church of San P'rancesco at that place. 
 Atalanta had her special reason for choosing this subject: in the bloody 
 family feuds which raged at that time in almost every Italian town, her son 
 Grifone had fallen a victim to the vendetta; in her arms he had forgiven 
 his murderers. There fell to the young master a task which required him to 
 concentrate himself on very different feelings from those to which he gave 
 expression in his gracious Madonnas. It seems, too, that Raphael had to 
 surmount great difficulties in mastering a subject less congenial to his 
 nature , before arriving at a final result. If we may regard a slight pen- 
 drawing preserved in the Oxford Gallery (Fig. 46) as Raphael’s first project 
 for the picture for Atalanta Baglioni, we learn that the design underwent a 
 complete transformation before it was carried out. On this sketch we see 
 how loving hands prepared the first resting-place for the body before steps 
 were taken for the burial. The head of Christ rests on the lap of his 
 mother, who sinks into the arms of her attendants , overcome by her 
 
 Fig. 36. 
 
 Study for the Madonna in the Meadow, Vienna. 
 Sepia drawing in the Oxford Gallery. 
 
 3 
 
36 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 37. Sketch for the Madonna with the goldfinch, 
 Florence. Pen-and-ink drawing at O.xford. 
 
 excessive grief; the legs ot the 
 Saviour lie on the lap of the Mag- 
 dalen , who wrings her hands and 
 turns her eyes away from the De- 
 parted to the sorrowful Mother ; 
 the disciple John , Joseph of Ari- 
 mathea and other persons stand on 
 one side with various expressions 
 of grief and sympathy. A larger 
 drawing in the Louvre (Fig. 47), 
 which goes into greater detail, 
 though it does not include all the 
 figures but only the most important 
 ones, shows the same composition 
 with some deviations: the Magdalen 
 grasps the hand and knee of her 
 beloved Lord ; behind her appears 
 a young woman, who is carefully 
 lifting the veil from the head of 
 the fainting ^lary ; Joseph of Ari- 
 mathea, who, in the small sketch, 
 stands close to St. John , has now 
 gone behind the women, who are occupied with Mary, and expresses his 
 
 grief and his inability to console by spreading out his arms. The com- 
 
 position in this form reminds us, both in the general arrangement and in 
 several details , of a representation of the same subject which Perugino 
 had painted for the church of Santa Chiara at Florence , one of the 
 master’s most excellent works (now in the Pitti Palace). Meanwhile Raphael 
 soon determined on quite a new composition , in which the alteration 
 extended even to the choice of the moment. He transformed a picture 
 of repose into one of movement. Two bearers have lifted the body ot 
 the Redeemer ; they have reached the entrance of the tomb , to which 
 steps lead up, which the foremost bearer, stepping backwards and strain- 
 ing under the burden of the dead body, is just mounting; the friends, be- 
 
 fore all St. Mary Magdalene , who has grasped the hand of Christ once 
 more, take a last look at the dear countenance, before it is withdrawn 
 from them for ever; but the mother’s feet have refused to carry her on 
 the grievous road; her senses fail, and she falls as heavily as a corpse 
 into the arms of the women who attend her; a view of the hill where 
 the cross stands closes the horizon. In the year 1507 Raphael finished 
 the painting (Fig. 48) on the spot , from a cartoon drawn at Florence. 
 That Raphael in carrying out the cartoon already worked with assistants 
 we are taught by a drawing in the collection of the Uffizi (Fig. 49), which 
 contains the principal group drawn quite in the manner of a pupil and 
 ruled over in squares. This drawing merely served the purpose of trans- 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 3; 
 
 ference to the size required for the execution of the picture; but Raphael 
 seems to have gone over the outlines of the head and shoulder of the 
 Magdalen in it with his own master-hand; the figure inserted in the gap 
 between the Magdalen and the bearer appears to be an experiment 
 which was again abandoned. He adorned the predella of the altar-piece 
 with representations painted in grisaille of the three Christian virtues, 
 Faith, Hope and Charity, as feminine half-figures: Faith contemplates the 
 Chalice with the Host with the expression of steadfast conviction, laying 
 her hand on her breast in asseveration; Hope, with folded hands, looks 
 upwards with an incomparable expression of confidence which nothing can 
 shake ; Charity has a 
 group of children as- 
 sembled near her heart ; 
 at the side of each of 
 the circles in which these 
 noble womanly forms 
 are framed appear two 
 delightful child - angels, 
 standing. The Albertina 
 at Vienna possesses a 
 masterly pen - drawing 
 (B'ig. 50) which agrees 
 in essentials with the 
 middle picture of this 
 predella. Charity, but is 
 puzzling, inasmuch as it 
 reminds us much more 
 of Michelangelo’s style 
 of drawing than of Ra- 
 phael’s. Till 1608 the 
 Entombment, in which, 
 before all else, the splen- 
 didly expressive heads 
 call forth our highest 
 admiration, adorned the 
 place for which it was 
 intended; then, in spite 
 of the loud objections 
 which were raised by 
 the monks of San Fran- 
 cesco, it was presented 
 to Cardinal Borghese 
 (Pope Paul V.); since 
 
 then it has remained in from nature for the infant jesus 
 
 IN THE PICTURE AT PaRIS KNOWN AS “La BELLE JaRDINIERe”. 
 
 the Borghese palace at Pen-and-ink drawing at Oxford. 
 
38 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Rome. The pre- 
 della was left in 
 San Francesco at 
 Perugia till to- 
 wards the end of 
 the last century, 
 when it was car- 
 ried off to Paris 
 by the French 
 conqueror, like 
 so many other 
 church-treasures in 
 Italy; then in 1815 
 it was conveyed 
 to the Vatican pic- 
 ture-gallery, which 
 was formed by 
 Pius VII. from the 
 ])aintings restored 
 after the fall of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 There is a letter 
 of Raphael of con- 
 siderable length, 
 dated April 21, 
 I 508 , directed to 
 his uncle Simone 
 Ciarla at Urbino; 
 the original docu- 
 ment is said to be 
 in the missionary 
 college of the Pro- 
 paganda at Rome. 
 We learn from it 
 
 that Raphael had shed tears when he received the news of the 
 death of the Duke Guidobaldo ; that he had several commissions in 
 view , that he chose to let the persons who had ordered his pictures 
 value them on their receipt rather than fix the price himself, and that 
 he was anxious to obtain a recommendation from the prefect to Pietro 
 Soderini for the purpose of executing a wall-painting, which the latter 
 had to assign. 
 
 Whether the letter of recommendation was given by the prefect we 
 do not know. In any case Raphael had no longer any need to trouble 
 himself to obtain commissions for work of a monumental kind; for in the 
 same year the greatest and most brilliant sphere of work was opened to 
 
 Fig. 39. Sketch for the Esterh.vzy Madonk.x .m' I'esth. 
 Collection of drawings in the Uffizi, Florence. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 39 
 
 him, which has ever been offered to a painter. He was obliged to leave 
 even the altar-piece of the Dei family unfinished, at which he had begun 
 to work after completing the Entombment. This was the “Madonna with 
 the Baldachino”, so called on account of the great canopy under which 
 the Virgin sits, a solemn representation of the Queen of Saints, which no 
 longer reminds us of the school of Perugia, but rather of the manner of 
 Fra Bartolommeo (Fig. 51). After Raphael’s death, the picture, finished 
 by the hands of a pupil, came into the possession of his executor, the 
 papal Datary, Baldassare Turin! of Pescia, who had it hung in the cathedral 
 of his native town; in the year 1697 it was sold, which the citizens of 
 Pescia resented as a disgraceful piece of sacrilege; it became the property 
 of the Medici, and was hung in the Pitti Palace. 
 
 On the great turning-point in Raphael’s life, his summons to Rome 
 to enter the service of the Pope , Vasari gives the following information : 
 “Bramante of Urbino, who was in the service of Julius IL, wrote to Raphael, 
 since he was distantly related to him and came from the same place, that 
 he had obtained the consent of the Pope , who had had some new apart- 
 ments constructed, to let Raphael display his powers in them. The proposal 
 pleased Raphael, so that he abandoned his work at Florence and moved 
 to Rome.” Bramante (born at Monte Asdrualdo near Urbino about 1444) 
 had been occupied for several years with the Pope’s gigantic enterprise, 
 the rebuilding of St. Peter’s. Michelangelo had been painting the ceiling 
 of the Sistine chapel since the spring of 1508. Now Raphael arrived, to 
 make the third star of the constellation, the splendour of which would 
 suffice by itself to make the name of Julius II. immortal , even if the 
 politician and warrior-pope had done nothing to secure for himself im- 
 perishable renown beyond setting 
 for these three men their sublime 
 and magnificent tasks. Raphael has 
 handed down to us the features of 
 the pope (Fig. 52) who made Rome 
 the capital of the world of art, so 
 that the former glory of Florence 
 paled beside that of Rome. The 
 portrait dates from the last years of 
 the life of Julius II. ; the burden of 
 old age has bowed the mighty shoul- 
 ders, the full beard falls white over 
 the breast, the eyelids have grown 
 heavy; but the fire is not yet quench- 
 ed in the eyes , which rest in deep 
 hollows under the powerful fore- 
 head, and the expression of an iron 
 
 will and energy bent on its purpose 
 
 ^^4. 4. ^ u J Fig- 40. Sketch OF A Madonna WITH THE TWO CHILDREN, 
 
 lies m the contracted brows and Drawing in the Uffizi, Florence. 
 
40 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 closely shut mouth- The whole personality of the aged man, who sits with 
 his elbows propped on the arms of his chair, is so convincing, so full of 
 life, that we can well understand the words of Vasari, that the picture 
 was so true to nature that it made the beholders tremble , as if Pope 
 Julius were present in the body. The magnificent portrait was copied 
 repeatedly soon after it came into existence, and that, in some cases, by 
 such skilful hands that it is no longer certain which is the original; the 
 two examples in Florence especially (one in the Tribune, the other in the 
 Pitti palace) contend for precedence. 
 
 In the autumn of 1508 Raphael was in the service of the Pope; he 
 was overwhelmed with work and employed a number of assistants. We 
 learn as much from a letter (no longer extant in the original document) 
 which he addressed on the 5th September in that year to the Bolognese 
 painter and goldsmith Francesco Francia, the teacher of Raphael’s friend 
 Timoteo Viti.- Raphael - thanks the master, who is his dear and honoured 
 friend, as is evidenced by the whole tone of the letter, for sending him a 
 portrait of himself, and makes excuses for not having yet been able to 
 send him his own in return. “ I might indeed have sent it you, painted 
 by one of my young men and touched up by myself, but that would not 
 be becoming; or, to speak more precisely, it would be becoming, as an 
 acknowledgement that I cannot come up to your level. Bear with me, 
 I pray you, since you will have already experienced what it means to be 
 robbed of one’s liberty, and to live in the service of a master.” 
 
 The pope’s newly constructed chambers, of which Bramante wrote to 
 Raphael, are the apartments of the Vatican palace known as the “Stanze”. 
 
 Raphael , who was received with great kindness by the pope, began his 
 
 work at the age of twenty-five in the “Stanza della Segnatura”, which 
 received this name because the popes were accustomed to sign dispensations 
 in it. The most famous painters had already exerted themselves in rivalry 
 to adorn the apartments of the Vatican and a number of masters of esta- 
 blished reputation, among them Perugino, were still employed in doing so. 
 In the Stanza della Segnatura the ceiling had already been painted by 
 Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (called Sodoma) of Vercelli. But when Raphael 
 had completed a part of his work , the Pope had the other paintings 
 stripped off, in order to transfer the whole to the youth who threw old 
 
 masters and new alike into the shade. Raphael, however, had the distri- 
 
 bution of space in the vaulted ceiling preserved as Sodoma had planned 
 it, with its ornaments, small decorative subjects, and the armorial bearings 
 of the pope, upheld by angels, in the centre. The pictures which Raphael 
 inserted into this frame give, as it were, a resume of the contents of the 
 whole decoration of the room. There was a mighty range of thought to 
 be reduced to shape; the most ideal domains of the human intellect were 
 to be glorified in painting, under the guardianship of divines, sages, poets 
 and lawgivers. So we find on the ceiling in the first place the emblematical 
 figures of Theology, Philosophy, Poetry and Justice, which occupy circular 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 41 
 
 spaces in the most important positions on the ceiling, between the central 
 space with the arms and the top of the semicircular boundaries of the 
 wall-paintings. These are splendid female figures, enthroned on clouds, 
 accompanied by genii who carry tablets with explanatory inscriptions ; 
 
 Fig. 41. The Holy Family with the Lamb. In the Prado Gallery, Madrid. 
 (After an original photograph by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid.) 
 
 they stand out in full, strong colours from a shining background of gold 
 mosaic (Fig. 53, 54, 55, 56). Next to Theology, who holds the spectator’s 
 gaze spellbound by an indescribable combination of deep earnestness and 
 infinite gentleness. Poetry, transfigured by heavenly enthusiasm, is the most 
 
42 
 
 RAPIIAKL. 
 
 magnificent of these 
 supernatural forms: “the 
 breath of the Godhead 
 is upon her’’ — we should 
 recognise it, even if the 
 words were not held up 
 for us to read by the two 
 splendid cherubs, who 
 disport themselves in 
 the clouds on either 
 side of her (Fig. 55). 
 
 Next to the four large 
 allegorical figures come 
 four smaller pictures of 
 a square shape, also on 
 a ground of gold mo- 
 saic, in the pendentives 
 of the vaulting. Next to 
 Theology is represented 
 the Fall of Man (Fig. 57). 
 Since the very earliest 
 times the Fall and the 
 Redemption had been 
 placed in juxtaposition 
 as a pair of subjects in 
 Christian art ; the pic- 
 ture of human guilt 
 serves significantly as a 
 
 Fig. 42. Study for the M.a.uonna under the Tal-m - tree. foil tO the pictUre of 
 
 Drawing in the Louvre Collection. divilie graCe. So here, 
 
 too, this subject had 
 
 to be represented in symbolical relation to the wall-painting, which 
 celebrates the gracious God of Christianity. Raphael’s picture of the event 
 is a perfect masterpiece. The serpent — with the head of a woman, 
 as was customary in early art — approaches Eve and whispers in the shade 
 of the leaves of the tree, looking meanwhile observantly at the face 
 of Adam , who sits on the other side of the tree ; Eve still holds in 
 one hand the bough from which she has broken off the forbidden fruit, 
 which she now offers to her husband with a look of irresistible seductive- 
 ness ; Adam’s attitude and head express hesitation , but his hand opens 
 in desire. 
 
 Next to Poetry the triumph of skill over clumsiness is s^^mbolised by 
 the rivalry of Apollo and Marsyas. Next to Justice the Judgment of 
 Solomon gives an example of wise administration of justice. Next to 
 Philosophy, however, instead of a representation which tells a story, we 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 43 
 
 see once more an allegorical figure, namely Astronomy, who, accompanied 
 by two small genii, bends in amazed contemplation over the celestial sphere. 
 
 Among the four great wall-paintings that which usually enthrals a 
 
 Fig. 43. Holy Family with the beardless St. Joseph. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 modern beholder the most is the one which is devoted to Theology 
 (Fig. 58). It is universally known by the name of “Disputa” (discussion), 
 for a discussion of theologians on the Sacrament of the Altar has been 
 
44 
 
 KAl’HAKL. 
 
 regarded as the true subject of the representation. But, as a matter of 
 fact, the monstrance with the Host exhibited on an altar is merely the 
 connecting link between the upper and lower halves of the picture. Above, 
 the Triune God appears in the majesty of Heaven; below, the church on 
 earth is assembled round the Body of the Lord in the species of bread. 
 In a golden sea of light, composed of rays laid on in relief and of glittering 
 points, God the Father is seen at the top, with endless rows of angels 
 
 Fig. 44. Old copy of the Madonna Canigiani at Mlntcm. Oxford Gallery. 
 
 hovering round him ; he holds the orb in his left hand and raises the right 
 in benediction ; his head is of a majesty which no conception has ever 
 surpassed (Fig. 59). Beneath him, in a halo of rays encompassed by heads 
 of cherubim, Christ is seated on the clouds, with a countenance of heavenly 
 beauty full of inmeasurable love, and lifts up both hands, to show the 
 prints of the wounds (Fig. 60); next to the Redeemer sit, as on the Day 
 of Judgment, Mary and John the Baptist, the former praying for mercy 
 for the human race, the latter with gloomy looks invoking justice; on a 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 4.5 
 
 lower stratum of clouds, which is supported by heads of cherubim, the 
 elect are ranged in a semicircle, saints of the old and the new covenant 
 in splendid forms, strongly characterised. Beneath the Redeemer hovers 
 
 Fig. 45. St. Catherine, in the National Gallery, London. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 the dove ot the Holy Ghost, flying down towards the earth, accompanied 
 by angels, who carry the books of the Four Gospels with their pages open. 
 All this had been painted a hundred times before, and Raphael kept 
 
46 
 
 KAI'IIAKI,. 
 
 Fig. 46. Sketch for a Lamentation for Christ. Pen -drawing, O.xford Gallery. 
 
 closely in all things to the usage of the church ; but no one had ever 
 clothed the subject in such forms or painted it as he did. 
 
 In the grouping of the theologians on earth the artist possessed the 
 fullest liberty, and it would be superfluous to say another word about the 
 beauty with which he designed it. The four Doctors of the church, who 
 sit on chairs near the altar, Ambrose and Augustine, Jerome and Gregory 
 the Great, form, in a manner, the fixed points to which the companies of 
 elders, men and youths attach themselves, including the holders of the 
 highest dignities in the church together with simple priests, regular clergy 
 and faithful laymen. One figure is more splendid than the next, every 
 head is in itself a sublime masterpiece. All conceivable gradations of 
 faith strong, as the rocks, and sacred enthusiasm. Joyful surrender to belief 
 and absorption in the search for truth find their expression. The vivacity 
 of the conversation — question, answer and instruction — Sends a thrill through 
 the groups, while single figures stand amongst them in imperturbable calm. 
 
 By a curious coincidence, it was almost at the same time — -some two 
 years later — that Dtirer painted his picture of the Trinity, which in its 
 contents was almost of like significance with the Disputa. With this re- 
 collection the thought inevitably suggests itself, how different the circum- 
 stances were in which art reached its highest development in Germany 
 and in Italy. The Italian painter was presented by the lord of Christendom 
 with immense surfaces of wall in the grandest palace of the world, that 
 he might record his greatest thoughts in great outlines upon them; the 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 47 
 
 German was commissioned by a few respectable citiziens to paint an 
 altar-piece for an old men’s almshouse, and he had to confine the abundant 
 force of his imagination by plodding industry within the scanty limits of 
 a panel about three square yards in area. 
 
 It goes without saying that Raphael prepared himself with special 
 diligence for his first great fresco (the wall-painting in San Severo at 
 Perugia was considerably smaller). For none of his works are so large a 
 number of preliminary studies and experiments of various kinds preserved, 
 as for this. 
 
 Several of these sketches have a peculiarly human and personal interest. 
 While Raphael was turning over in his head the mighty forms of the 
 Disputa and endeavouring to restrict them within definite outlines, his 
 thoughts wandered at times to the sweetest of realities , and the pen, 
 which ought to have been determining the shapes of the saints and doctors 
 of the church, wrote tender and glowing love-poems on the page (Fig. 6i). 
 There is no ground for the assumption that Raphael made any experiments 
 in the art of poetry at any other time ; it does not appear from the few 
 sonnets which were produced after a deal of erasure, correction and 
 seeking for rhymes that he had any special vocation as a poet. But the 
 stammering words in which “ the tongue loosens the bonds of speech, to 
 
 Fig. 47. Larger drawing for the same Composition. Louvre. 
 
48 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 48. The Entombment. In the Borghesc Gallery, Rome. 
 
 tell of the unwonted, blissful toils”, in which he is caught, the words 
 which tell with glowing passion of happiness enjoyed, of the pang of 
 separation and of yearning desire, are, even without a high poetical value, 
 a precious record of Raphael’s life. For what fair Roman the love-poems 
 were intended , there is not the slightest indication , for no name is 
 mentioned ; only it may be discovered by a few passages, which, however, 
 are struck out again, that she was of high position. 
 
 The wall opposite the “Disputa” is occupied by the “School of 
 Athens” (Fig. 62); the glorification of knowledge forms a counterpart to 
 the glorification of religion. As in the first painting the Christian theologians 
 of all centuries are grouped -round the fathers of the church, so here the 
 philosophers of ancient Greece are assembled round Aristotle and Plato, 
 the two heroes of the intellect to whom the early Renaissance paid the 
 same tribute of unquestioning veneration as to the fathers of the church 
 themselves. The scene is a structure of idealised Renaissance architecture. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 49 
 
 Fig. 49. Drawing of the principal Group in the Entombment. Uffizi. 
 
 a lofty cupola filled with light, flanked by four wings, and adorned with 
 statues of the gods in niches, among which Apollo and Minerva are to be 
 recognised in the foreground. From the background of the hall we see 
 the two great philosophers advancing slowly, between the companies of 
 reverential listeners who have closed up in ranks on either side. The 
 ladder of knowledge, which leads to wisdom, consisting of the seven liberal 
 arts, as they are called (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, physics 
 dialectics and metaphysics), forms the basis for the characterisation of the 
 various incomparable groups, which we behold further to the side and in 
 front, in the vestibule. In the figures and heads of the sages and seekers 
 after knowledge Raphael has depicted character with matchless power, as 
 he did in those of the divines ; learning and comprehension, teaching and 
 listening, research and knowledge, are portrayed in the most masterly 
 style. Our special attention is engaged by the group in the foreground 
 to the right. Here the teacher of geometry, Archimedes, bears the features 
 
 Knackfuss, Raphael. 4 
 
50 
 
 RAmAKL. 
 
 of the aged Bramante ; separated 
 from him by the group of astronomers, 
 Zoroaster and Ptolemy , two heads 
 are visible at the extreme edge of 
 the picture, of which the more youth- 
 ful one gazes at the spectator with 
 kindly, brown eyes; this is Raphael 
 (Fig. 63). This head, like the whole 
 picture , has unfortunately suffered 
 very much; for all that, we gain from 
 it a more definite idea of the master’s 
 features, in which his great, loving 
 soul reveals itself, than from his 
 portrait of himself in oils (Frontis- 
 piece), in the Uffizi at Florence, 
 which has been stripped almost of 
 the last remnants of originality by 
 over-diligent cleaning and restoration. 
 
 The Disputa and the School of 
 Athens occupy walls without any 
 break. In the case of the two other 
 wall-paintings there was this special 
 difficulty to be overcome, that the area of the picture was interrupted by 
 a large window. On one side, where the glorification of Jurisprudence 
 was to be the subject, Raphael took refuge in a partition of the space 
 into three single pictures. In the arched space over the window he painted 
 the three virtues which are inseparable from Justice: Fortitude, Prudence 
 and Temperance, noble female figures, by the side of which little genii, 
 once more, are seen at play. On either side of the window he represented 
 the function of the lawgiver in the civil and in the ecclesiastical sphere ; 
 on one side the Emperor Justinian delivers the Pandects, on the other side 
 Pope Gregory IX. the Decretals. The Pope’s features are those of Julius II., 
 and the remaining figures of this painting are portraits of persons connected 
 with his court. On the opposite wall, where the glorification of Poetry 
 was to be represented, Raphael would not be prevented by the window 
 from producing a picture single and complete in itself ; on the contrary, 
 he made the happiest use of the peculiar shape which resulted. He painted 
 Parnassus (Fig. 64), placing the summit of the Muses’ hill over the window 
 and letting the slopes descend on either side of it. On the top of the 
 mount Apollo is seated undei a slender bay-tree (Fig. 65), a splendid youth, 
 listening in rapture to the strains evoked by the magic of his art. His 
 instrument is not the lyre , which was recognised universally, it is true, 
 as the antique symbol of music, but was not calculated to awake in the 
 painter’s contemporaries a lively notion of the power of sound ; the divine 
 musician might play no other instrument but the violin. The “Parnassus” 
 
 Fig. 50. Charity. Pen-and-ink drawing in the 
 Albertina, agreeing in essentials with the middle 
 picture of the predella to the Entombment. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 51 
 
 was not to be an archaeological picture, but had to give immediate ex- 
 pression to the feelings and thoughts of the time ; how cold would be the 
 effect of the lyre, the sound of which was quite unknown, in place of the 
 
 Fig. 51. Madonna del Baldacchino. In the Pitti Palace, Florence. 
 
 violin, at the sight of which everyone thinks of the music of the actual 
 world, especially when such a countenance as that of the God who plays 
 it , helps to call forth the idea. Round Apollo is the company of the 
 Muses. With them the great princes of poetry have found a place on 
 
52 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 the summit of Parnassus; Homer, who raises his sightless eyes in divine 
 enthusiasm, and dictates his poems to a youth; Virgil, and following him, 
 Dante, whom Raphael has also introduced among the theologians; next to 
 Virgil a portrait-head is visible, which cannot be identified. Among the 
 corresponding group on the other side, which does not stand quite so high, 
 we recognise, next to the Muses, Raphael’s friend Ariosto with his swarthy 
 beard ; here the company of poets prolongs itself without a break into the 
 foreground ; the foremost figures are commonly distinguished as Pindar 
 and Horace. Opposite to the seated Pindar we perceive Sappho, who 
 leans her beautiful arm on the painted frame of the window ; between the 
 poets, who form a group in conversation with her, the head of Petrarch 
 can be discerned under the stem of the bay-tree. 
 
 Under the picture of Parnassus the date i 5 1 1 marks the time at which 
 the whole work was completed. In three years Raphael had coped with 
 the immense task. Putting forth strength proportionate to the labour it 
 entailed, he had made himself the greatest master of fresco-painting that 
 has ever lived. How he accustomed himself to sec things in a large and 
 simple manner is revealed even by his studies from nature; the splendid 
 sheet in the British Museum with the study of drapery for the so-called 
 Horace and the studies for the hands of the same figure (the right hand 
 in two different positions) may serve as an example (Fig. 66). Raphael’s 
 divinely gifted genius made him understand how to add to the abundance 
 of intelligent thought and the development of expression and beautiful 
 form that which is beyond aught else the secret of painting which no 
 teaching can impart, namely, picturesque pose and decorative effect; before 
 the beholder can begin to seek out the beauty of details, or to penetrate into 
 the content of the theme represented, beauty encounters him and instantly 
 captivates his gaze and his feelings by the harmony of lines, masses and 
 colours. When within this first and most distinguished quality of the 
 painter’s art , and without prejudice to that quality, all the other merits 
 are developed which pictorial art can bring forth, the highest imaginable 
 goal of painting is attained. On entering the Stanza della Segnatura, the 
 Holy of Holies of the art of painting, we experience that complete, over- 
 powering impression of beauty, which excites our emotion even without 
 the work of the understanding in interpretation , even at the present day, 
 although inexorable time has not passed without leaving its traces, and 
 has stamped its cruel marks plainly enough , especially as regards the 
 colours. The general view of the room must have been still more splendid 
 when the connection between the wall-paintings and the fine pavement 
 of inlaid marble , now effected by a dado of paintings of subordinate 
 interest, was produced by intarsia panelling, which Julius II. had prepared 
 by the first of masters in this branch of art. Fra Giovanni of Verona, 
 in order that it might be worthy of the paintings. 
 
 The sight of Raphael’s performance had induced the Pope to destroy 
 the finished works of other painters in the adjoining chamber as well. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 53 
 
 Immediately after the completion of the Stanza della Segnatura Raphael 
 set to work to paint the apartment which is known by the name of the 
 Stanza dell’ Eliodoro. This work , was however, not brought to an end 
 till after the death of Julius II. (20th February, 1513). We may therefore 
 
 Fig. 52. Portrait of Julius II. In the Pitti Palace, Florence. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 turn first to the consideration of the other works which Raphael produced 
 in the years 1508 to 1513 — for the master, in all the vigour of youth, was 
 far from expending his whole power of creation on the great wall-paintings. 
 A whole series of pictures of the Madonna belongs to this period. In 
 the majority of them we observe a difference which is easily recognised 
 
54 
 
 RArilAKI.. 
 
 as compared with the Madonnas painted at Florence. The charm of a 
 fervent but tranquil love is no longer sufficient ; the pictures grow more 
 serious in expression , they acquire, one may say, a more ecclesiastical 
 stamp, which betrays itself especially in the fact, that the child Christ be- 
 
 Fig- 53- Theology, Painting on the ceiling of the Camera della Segnatura in the Vatican. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement &. Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 comes the chief figure, rather than Mary; there is a lively impulse towards 
 a greater display of power, a more vigorous pictorial effect in chiaroscuro 
 and in full colour, an impulse towards emphatic movement in the lines, 
 and fulness and strength in the contours; even the countenance of the 
 
RAPAHEL. 
 
 55 
 
 Virgin alters, and reflects the strongly marked type of beauty of the Roman 
 women. There is still a Florentine delicacy in the head of the “Virgin 
 with the diadem” (Fig. 67) in the Louvre, which is otherwise quite Roman 
 in sentiment. In a landscape, the background of which is composed of 
 
 Fig. 54. Philosophy. Painting on the ceiling of the Camera della Segnatura in the Vatican. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 sharply drawn, bare mountain- outlines like those of the Sabine hills, while 
 more to the front antique buildings and magnificent ruins tell of the im- 
 pression which the Roman soil had made on the new-comer, the child 
 Jesus lies asleep on a pillow. The Virgin - mother , characterised by a 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 56 
 
 diadem as Queen of Heaven, kneels by his side; she kneels, indeed, not in 
 adoration, as we frequently see in pictures of the late middle ages, but 
 with her arm cautiously extended to lift the veil from the boy’s head, so 
 that she can contemplate his face; she does so, however, not with a 
 
 Fig- 55- Poetry. Painting on the ceiling of the Camera della Segnatura in the V'atican. 
 
 mother’s blissful joy, but with deep seriousness, full of presentiment ; next to 
 her kneels the little St. John, praying with fervent devotion to the Saviour 
 of the world, who has appeared in the form of a little child. In a picture, 
 the original of which is lost, though a number of old copies are extant, the 
 so-called “Madonna of Loreto” — the picture was kept, before its dis- 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 57 
 
 appearance, in the famous pilgrimage-church of Loreto — we see the child 
 Christ in an enclosed room resting on a soft bed; the Virgin, over whose 
 shoulder St. Joseph is looking, has just stepped up to him and has lifted 
 the veil with which the child was covered ; the latter stretches out his 
 
 Fig. 56. Justice. Painting on the ceiling of the Camera della Segnatura in the Vatican. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 little arms in eager joy towards his mother. Even from the more or less 
 weak reproductions of the picture we can form an idea of the wealth of 
 poetry which Raphael put into this subject, which he conceived once more 
 with true human feeling, though in a composition of large and animated 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 58 
 
 lines. How completely Raphael found himself in harmony with the ideas 
 of his time, in taking the highest human beauty as a medium for the ex- 
 pression of the divine, is proved by the words of Vasari, who says in 
 describing this picture that the boy “is possessed of such beauty, that he 
 
 Fig. 57. The Fall. Painting on the ceiling of the Camera della Segnatyra in the Vatican. 
 
 proves by the features of his head and by all his limbs that he is the 
 true Son of God.” The child’s awakening is portrayed with incomparable 
 truth to nature. A precious sheet of studies in the British Museum (Fig. 68) 
 tells us how Raphael has sat at the bedside of a child and recorded with 
 
Fig. 58. The Disputa. 
 (After an original photograph by Br 
 
e Camera della Segnatura. 
 t & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 59 
 
 Fig. S9 God the Father, from the Disputa. 
 
 a sure and masterly hand the changing postures of the helpless little 
 creature just roused from sleep. The most finished of these sketches from 
 nature was turned to account in the so-called “Bridgewater Madonna”, 
 which is to be found in the same English private collection as the “Ma- 
 donna under the palm-tree”. This is one of the few pictures of the Madonna 
 of Raphael’s Roman period which confine themselves, like the Florentine 
 subjects, to portraying the happy, intimate union of mother and child. 
 The original of a picture of the same kind, known 'as the “ Madonna with 
 the standing child”, is lost; Raphael’s magnificent studies for it of the heads 
 of a young Roman lady and a laughing child from nature are preserved 
 in the British Museum (Fig. 69). The same thoroughly Roman girl’s head 
 occurs again in the “Madonna Aldobrandini ” in the London National 
 Gallery. Here again the little St. John accompanies the mother and child ; 
 as in some Florentine idyll, he does homage to the child Christ by 
 presenting a flower; but the landscape, of which there is a view through 
 an open arched window, is of a Roman type, like the head of the Madonna. 
 To the same group of pictures belongs a Holy Family in the Museum at 
 Madrid, which has taken its title from a small lizard which is introduced 
 in the foreground (Fig. 70). Here Mary sits under a tree, the dark 
 branches of which stand out against the sky, on a stone which belongs 
 to the ruins of a finely chiselled Roman marble monument ; she lays her 
 
6o 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 6o. Christ, ekom the Disputa. 
 
 left arm on a high stone adorned with a relief; on this St. Joseph also 
 leans, standing behind her, and looks down tenderly on the child Jesus, 
 who has climbed out of the cradle onto her knee and seems to be asking 
 her what the words mean which are on the scroll unrolled by the little 
 St. John. If in the head of the Virgin there is still much of the fragrant 
 
Fig. 62. The School of Athens. Fresc( 
 (After an original photograph by Braunl 
 
le Camera della Segnatura in the Vatican, 
 lent & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 

 t 
 
RAPHAEL, 
 
 6l 
 
 charm of Florence , the difference 
 as compared with the paintings of 
 the Florentine period is all the more 
 striking in the colour- scheme. The 
 fine, delicate tone of those pictures 
 is sacrificed altogether in aiming at 
 a strong effect of light and shade. 
 
 The “Madonna del divino amore” 
 
 (Fig. 71), the original of which is 
 in the Naples Museum and a fine 
 early copy in the Palazzo Borghese 
 at Rome , indicates in the most 
 emphatic way the change of manner, 
 in religious conception as well as in 
 the rendering of form and colour. 
 
 Here the idea of the picture is firmly 
 grasped and expressed with great 
 picturesque effect, while, with regard 
 to the subject, the Incarnate God 
 forms most decidedly the central 
 point in the representation. As re- 
 gards space also the infant Christ occupies the centre of the picture ; he 
 sits astride on the knee of his mother, who folds her hands in adoration 
 of him, and raises his hand in benediction — not as if in childish play, but 
 with a conscious expression — towards the infant St. John, who bends the 
 knee before him in reverence and humility. Just to remind us that this 
 divine child is also a feeble child of man, he seeks support in his raised 
 position against the knee of Elizabeth, who sits by the side of Mary and 
 at the same time makes a prop for his raised arm with her hand. The 
 
 Fig. 61 . Sketch of two bishops for the Disputa 
 
 AND DRAUGHT OF AN UNFINISHED SONNET. 
 
 (See note below.) 
 
 (Reading and translation of the verses on the sketch for the Disputa at Vienna.) 
 
 lingua or di parlar disoglio el [nodo 
 a dir di questo diletoso ittgafno 
 chamor mi fece per mio gra[ve afanno 
 ina hn pur ne rUtgratio e lei 7i[e lodo 
 e qtiesto sol 7ni rimasto a7icor(i) 
 
 (struck out: pel Jiso i7i777agi7iar 77iio par\) 
 qtiel dolce suo parlar) 
 pel Jisso i>i77iagi7iar qtiel\ 
 
 (struck out: pel 77tio pensir quel so pa\) 
 
 7710S0 ta7ita letizin (co77t) che co 
 
 7in pe7isar dolce e ri77te77ibrare il 7nodo di quelle asal 
 
 (struck out: dim / _ , , ,. 
 
 I bello assalto si bel chel di) 
 pin di dispetti e ricordarsi el da7io 
 
 struck out: / di quel par _ 
 
 I del suo partire) 
 molte speranze nel mio peto stanno. 
 
 Above, at the edge, the words sano and va]no are 
 noted as suggestions for rhymes. 
 
 The terminal syllables of the first strophe, which 
 are lost owing to the leaf being cut down, are supplied 
 from a complete sonnet (on a sheet of sketches at 
 Oxford), which appears to be an altered version of the 
 
 incomplete one before us; it begins with the words: 
 un pensar dolce, and contains the four lines: lingua 
 or di parlar, etc., with slight alterations, as the second 
 strophe. 
 
 Now, o tongue, I loosen the bonds of speech. 
 
 To tell of that delightful snare. 
 
 Which Love has set for me, to my great trouble; 
 
 But yet I thank him for it and her (i. e. the unnamed 
 lady) I praise. 
 
 This alone still remains for me (in) .... 
 
 To keep my imagination fixed on that . . . 
 
 Moved, so great joy as .... 
 
 (Intervening lines struck out: 
 
 That it seems always to my imagination .... 
 
 That sweet speech of hers .... 
 
 For my thought that [speech] of hers . . . .) 
 
 A sweet thought it is, to recall the manner of that 
 assault 
 
 (struck out: of a / r • u t. 
 
 v fair assault, so fair that the 
 
 Full of vexation is it to remember the loss 
 (struck out: / of that [departure] 
 
 I of her departure) 
 
 Many hop?s are stored within my breast. 
 
62 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 63. Group ok head from thk School ok Athens with Raphael’s own portrait. 
 (The older painter next to Raphael, commonly called I’erugino, is probably Sodoma.) 
 
 scene of the action is a vast and partially ruined antique building; through 
 one of the arches the foster-father, Joseph, wrapped in his mantle, is seen 
 entering in the background. 
 
 In several other pictures of the Madonna of the same period, among 
 which the “Madonna del Passeggio” (Fig. 72) — designed by Raphael, though 
 none of the extant versions are actually by his hand — is perhaps the best 
 known, the Florentine key-note asserts itself again more strongly. That is 
 also the case in a round picture, the “Madonna of the House of Alba", in 
 the Hermitage at St. Petersburg (Fig. 73). The Lille Museum possesses a 
 sheet of red chalk studies belonging to it, which claims our close attention 
 in several respects. On one side we see the design for the picture, slightly 
 drawn, but definitely settled in all essential points (Fig. 74). It was only 
 as to details that Raphael had not yet quite made up his mind, when he 
 made the drawing. Thus we see the traces of a book , subsequently 
 obliterated, which the Virgin held in her right hand ; in the picture as carried 
 out this has been transferred to the unoccupied left hand. The object 
 which the little St. John presents, and, accordingly, the right hand of the 
 infant Christ, which is stretched out to receive this object, have also under- 
 gone alterations; first there was a cross of reeds; then a lamb took the 
 place of the cross ; while in the picture the cross of reeds is restored once 
 more. We see in the lower corner of the sheet an incidental experiment 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 63 
 
 in giving quite a different position to the infant Christ. The sandal which 
 is placed on the Virgin’s foot, not only in the picture but also in the 
 
 preliminary sketch, points to the study of ancient sculpture.- ■ The position 
 of Mary was regarded by Raphael from the first as successful, with the 
 
 Fig. 64. Parnassus. Fresco in the Stanza della Segnatura. 
 
64 
 
 RAPIIAKL. 
 
 exception of the riglit hand, for which he afterwards found a solution of 
 the difficult)’ by letting it embrace the child. Now he wanted at once to 
 make sure of the balance of the bod\' in this rather difficult attitude, and 
 drew a study from nature on the back of the sheet (Fig. 75 ;. As model 
 
 Fig. 65. Apollo, from the Parnassus. 
 
 he took a young man, who sat without his outer garment and with bare 
 legs; he drew the legs with the greatest care, especially the knees, which 
 in the finished picture had to give the principal evidence of the presence 
 of a correctly formed body under the ample draperies ; the model’s head 
 did not interest him — he drew it, indeed, in detail in connection with the 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 65 
 
 figure , but while he was drawing 
 from the young apprentice his 
 thoughts were bent on the counte- 
 nance of the Madonna , which he 
 had before him in his mind’s eye ; 
 the right arm, about which he was 
 still undecided, he merely indicated; 
 but he already placed the book in 
 the left hand. But it is not only 
 the sketch and study for the “Ma- 
 donna of the House of Alba” 
 which make the sheet so interesting. 
 
 Above the sketch there are a variety 
 of drawings near the margin: a buil- 
 ding in ground-plan and elevation, 
 and then , repeated in two experi- 
 mental versions, a sketch for a Ma- 
 donna, who sits on a chair with the 
 child on her lap , nestling tenderly 
 against her. In these two small 
 designs , one of which shows the 
 two figures alone , while the head 
 of the little St. John is also visible in the other, which latter , owing to 
 the repeated alterations and re-touchings of the outlines , shows through 
 on the other side of the sheet — in these insignificant-looking drawings we 
 recognise the first record of the thought which took shape in that picture 
 which has won the favour of the widest circles more than any other creation 
 of Raphael’s and was destined, reproduced in every imaginable style, to 
 become the favourite of the whole world — the “Madonna della Sedia” 
 (Fig. 76). 
 
 Everybody knows the subject of this supreme picture of love, this 
 absolute union of mother and child. But we must see the original in the 
 Pitti Palace in order fully to comprehend that this picture of the purest 
 humanity does not merely acquire a religious significance from the child 
 St. John’s look of faith and piety and his folded hands, but is raised to 
 a more than earthly height by the consecration of the highest artistic 
 beauty. With all that, the picture looks so wonderfully simple and natural, 
 as if it could not be different from what it is, and we understand how the 
 childish legend may have been formed, that Raphael drew this group one 
 day immediately from life, in the street, on the end of a cask (hence the 
 circular shape), which lay just at hand : the legend is very significant as a 
 naive attempt to explain the immediate truth which speaks in the picture; 
 but it is, in reality, true of this picture especially that nothing is accidental; 
 every tiniest stroke, every gentlest movement of the outline has been well 
 thought out; all is the fruit of the maturest deliberation of the artist, who 
 
 Fig. 66. Studies from nature for the drapery and 
 HAND OF A FIGURE IN THE Parnassus. British Museum. 
 
 Knackfuss, Raphael. 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 knew how to produce a work of the purest harmony, without in the 
 least sacrificing the outward appearance of naturalness. 
 
 Fig. 67. Madonn.a. with the Di.\dem. In the Louvre. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 Two altar-pieces, which Raphael painted at this time, are kept strictly 
 in a tone of religious solemnity. One is the “Madonna di Foligno” (Fig. 77), 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 67 
 
 Fig. 68. Studies of Children from nature. 
 British Museum. 
 
 painted as a commission for the papal 
 chamberlain Sigismondo de’ Conti of 
 Foligno, originally placed in the 
 church of Araceli at Rome, then trans- 
 ferred to Foligno, carried off at the 
 end of the last century by the French, 
 and hung since 1815 in the collection 
 of the restored works of art in the 
 Vatican. Deliverance from some peril 
 of war seems to have been the motive 
 which led the chamberlain to dedicate 
 the picture ; there is an allusion to 
 this in the bomb at the back at the 
 picture, which plunges into the town 
 of Foligno, leaving a long fiery trail 
 behind it. But the rainbow , the 
 heavenly token of peace , already 
 spans the town. Over it appears, 
 enthroned on clouds , in a brilliant 
 halo with a circle of hovering angels 
 around it, the Mother of Mercy with 
 her child. Mary appears the personi- 
 fication of modesty, whose gaze perceives nothing beyond the Son of God, 
 whom she bears in her arms. The child Christ looks down graciously on 
 
 the chamberlain, who kneels on the 
 ground and sends his thanks to 
 heaven in fervent prayer, while three 
 saints stand by his side as inter- 
 cessors : St. Jerome has laid his hand 
 on his head and commends him 
 with an eloquent gesture to divine 
 grace ; opposite stands St. John, the 
 stern preacher of repentance , and 
 points with his hand to the Saviour 
 of the world ; next to him kneels 
 in fervent worship — a marvel of 
 expression — St. Francis, glowing 
 with divine love. Between the two 
 praying figures stands a little naked 
 angel, one of those delicious childish 
 forms , full of soul , which are pe- 
 culiarly Raphael’s own , holding a 
 little tablet destined to contain a 
 
 Fig. 69. Studies of heads for the lost picture of Hediratorv in^rrintion 
 
 THE Madonna with the Child standing. OeOlCatOry inscription. 
 
 British Museum. The second altar-piece is derived 
 
68 
 
 raphap:l. 
 
 Fig. 70. The Holy Family with the lizard. In the Prado Gallery, Madrid. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 from the church of San Domenico at Naples, and is now in the museum 
 at Madrid. It bears the title of the “Madonna with the Fish”. As an 
 offering of supolication or of gratitude, it refers to the curing of a disease 
 of the eye. The young Tobias, who holds in his hand the fish with 
 the gall of which he has restored sight to his father is led by the angel 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 69 
 
 to the throne of the Virgin , by whose side stands St. Jerome , the trans- 
 lator of the Bible ; both are praying earnestly, and the divine child rises, 
 supported by his mother, stretches out his hand, and the cure is granted 
 (Fig. 78). The “ Madonna with the Fish” is one of Raphael’s most beauti- 
 
 Fig. 71. Madonna del divino amore. In the Naples Museum. 
 
 ful easel-pictures, it is as great and serious in conception as it is beautiful 
 in colour. The “Madonna di Foligno” is also distinguished by a splendour 
 of colouring which Raphael had never previously attained. But in this 
 case the brilliant colours are brought into a harmony not inferior in the 
 
Fig. 72. Madonn.\ del Passeggio. From a modern engraving. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 71 
 
 Fig. 73. Madonna of the House of Alba. In the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris ) 
 
 merit ot painting to the delicate tones of the Florentine Madonnas. The 
 festal harmony of colours seems to be an immediate artistic expression 
 of the mood which gave rise to the work. The light flesh -tones of the 
 central group stand between various tones of blue and green : Mary’s 
 robe is greenish blue, the sleeve of her dress bright blue, the curtain dark 
 green, the sky and the glimpse of the distance dark blue. Against this 
 deep sky-blue St. Jerome stands out effectively with his brownish com- 
 plexion and glowing red robe; the cover of the book in his hand is, 
 again, a warm green. The dark yellowish colour of the lion which lies at 
 the feet of the father of the church forms a transition to the light brown 
 of the wood of the throne and its steps. A pronounced yellow, shot with 
 a reddish hue, appears in the coat of the fair-haired Tobias. The figure 
 of the angel is enlivened with a variegated play of colour; his sleeve, of 
 a cold, yellowish tone, approaches the colour of Tobias’ coat; his outer 
 
72 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 74. Design for the Madonna ok the House of Alba at St. Petersburg. 
 Lille Museum. 
 
 garment is crimson shot with pale lilac in the lights, and those colours 
 combine with the bright, warm flesh-tint, the bright, brown hair and the 
 white wings to produce an effect of full tone against the dark-green back- 
 ground of the curtain. 
 
 Closely related to the “Madonna with the Fish” in respect of the 
 features, attitude and movement of the Virgin, is a Madonna in the collection 
 of Sir J. C. Robinson, London, which, like the “Madonna della Sedia”, 
 shows a composition of the infant Christ and the brust of the Virgin 
 within a circle. In contrast to the former circular picture, this one is full 
 of solemnity, in spite of the movement of the infant Jesus, that of a true 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 73 
 
 «iii 
 
 ^'ig- 75- Back of the preceding sheet: Study from a model for the figure of the Virgin. 
 
 Lille Museum. 
 
 child of man ; angels appearing to left and right , who hold burning 
 tapers, heighten the sense of worship in the picture (Fig. 79). 
 
 To the time of Julius II. belong the first engravings of Marcantonio 
 
 Raimondi from drawings by Raphael. Marcantonio came to Rome about 
 
 1510, and was employed at first, as in the immediately preceding years 
 
 at Venice, chiefly in engraving copies of Diirer’s works, but he soon 
 entered the service of Raphael as well. For Raphael, of whom it is related 
 that he decorated his studio with Diirer’s prints, was desirous of seeing his 
 own creations also multiplied in this way. For this purpose he engaged 
 the Bolognese engraver, and so contributed indirectly by the beauty of his 
 
74 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 76. Madonna dei-Ua Seuia. In llie Pitti Pal.nce, Florence. 
 
 drawings to perfecting the art ot engraving in Italy. We have to thank 
 the burin of Marcantonio for our knowledge of a whole series of com- 
 positions by Raphael which were never carried out in paintings, or, if so, 
 in an altered form. Among the first prints which this master engraved 
 after Raphael are the “Death of Lucretia” and the “Massacre of the 
 Innocents” (Fig. 80). They are contemporaneous with reproductions of 
 drawings for frescos in the Stanza della Segnatura. As to the date of 
 Raphael’s composition of the massacre of the innocents, we are guided by 
 the circumstance that on a sheet of sketches in the Albertina, which contains 
 the designs for Astronomy and a study for a figure in the Judgment of 
 Solomon, there is also the design for one of the principal figures of this 
 scene. A large sketch for this engraving, with figures in the nude in order 
 to determine the movements with precision , is preserved in the British 
 Museum (Fig. 81). 
 
 In addition to his activity in the Vatican, Raphael also found time to 
 carry out a fresco for a private patron. As a commission from Johannes 
 
Fig. 77 Madonna di Foligno. In the Vatican Gallery. 
 
KArilAKL. 
 
 76 
 
 Goritz of Luxemburg, an elderly scholar, cheerful, sociable and universally 
 popular, who held the office of a collector of petitions to the Pope, he 
 
 Fig. 78. Madonna with the fish. In the Prado Gallery, Madrid. 
 (After an original photograph by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid.) 
 
 painted on a pillar in the church of Sant’ Agostino the Prophet Isaiah, the 
 powerful form of an aged man sitting between two youthful genii. We 
 can no longer recognise anything more than the general plan of this work 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 77 
 
 Fig. 79. Madonna with the Candelabra. In the collection 01 Sir J. C. Robinson. London. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 of Raphael, in which Vasari was convinced that he observed the influence 
 of the mighty productions of Michelangelo ; for the picture was repainted 
 even in the i6th century, since it was threatened with complete decay, and 
 now it is once more a ruin. A repetition of one of the angels, also not 
 particularly well preserved, a fragment of a decorative wall-painting from 
 the Vatican, which depicted the papal arms carried by two genii, is now 
 in the collection of the Academy of St. Luke at Rome. 
 
 Let us now return to Raphael’s principal occupation, the decoration 
 of the apartments of the Vatican. The whole content of the paintings in 
 the Stanza della Segnatura has been described with point as the confession 
 of faith of the Renaissance. But the great Renaissance prince, who had it 
 painted, was also Pope of Rome, and the second chamber was devoted to 
 the glorification of the church. The picture which has given its name to the 
 Stanza d’Eliodoro represents the expulsion from the Temple at Jerusalem 
 
Fig. 8o. The M.\ss.a.cre oe the Innocents. Engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi. 
 
Fig. 82. Heliodor 
 (After an original photograph by Braui 
 
Fresco in the Vatican. 
 
 lement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 

 r 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 79 
 
 Fig. 8i. Preliminary drawing of nude figures for the Engraving of the Massacre of the Innocents. 
 
 In the British Museum, London. 
 
 of the Syrian commander Heliodorus , according to the second chapter 
 of the second book of Maccabees (Fig. 82). The heavenly champion, ac- 
 companied by two youthful figures rushing through the air in violent 
 motion, has dashed the plunderer of the Temple to the ground with 
 irresistible force. The people who behold the miracle form an excited throng. 
 But quite in the background we see a group assisting at the event in 
 complete tranquillity; Pope Julius II., enthroned on a litter, as was usual 
 in solemn processions, fixes his gaze on the heavenly warrior (Fig. 83). 
 In this way a special allusion is introduced into the picture, by which 
 alone its full significance is explained : Pope Julius II., who had reconquered 
 a large territory from the Venetians and in whose soul there was a burning 
 wish for the expulsion of the French from Italy, sees here symbolically the 
 heavenly hosts freeing the church from her enemies. Among the persons 
 who form his suite we observe distinct portraits : the young man who walks 
 by his side is identified by the writing on a paper in his hand as the 
 papal secretary Johannes Petrus de Folcariis; one of the bearers of the 
 papal chair passes for the engraver Marcantonio ; but what German who 
 beheld the face framed in flowing locks, with its lofty brow, open eyes, 
 fine nose and short beard, could fail to think of Diirer.^ We know from 
 Vasari that Diirer sent to Raphael a portrait of himself painted in tempera 
 on canvas, as a token of his esteem. 
 
 The next picture immediately follows the “Heliodorus” in the sequence 
 of thought. As in the first Julius II. beholds the triumph of the church 
 over its worldly opponent, so here he assists at the triumph of ecclesiastical 
 doctrine over doubt. A Bohemian priest, so the legend tells, had doubted 
 
8o 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 83. The groui' ok poktr.\its in the pictoke ok Heliodorus in the V’^atican. 
 
 the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar; whilst he was 
 saying Mass at Bolsena, drops of blood issued from the Host, as soon as 
 he had pronounced the words of consecration, and convinced him of his 
 error. That is the subject of the “Mass of Bolsena”. The people perceive 
 in joyous amazement the miracle which has displayed itself to the priest; 
 in imperturbable calm, WTth a faith as strong as the rocks, the Pope kneels 
 facing the ashamed and converted doubter. By the arrangement of a 
 choir, in which the altar stands, approached on both sides by steps, and 
 by a very clever distribution of the crowd of people and of the papal 
 retinue, Raphael has managed in a most masterly way to build up his 
 composition without an appearance of constraint round the window which 
 cuts into the area of the picture (Fig. 84). 
 
RAPHAFX. 
 
 8l 
 
 On the following picture there is no longer the Pope appearing as 
 a mere spectator, but a Pope is the principal person in the action: Leo I., 
 the Great, causes Attila to turn back before Rome. We find ourselves 
 within the precincts of the Eternal City; the Colosseum, the long series 
 
 of arches of an ancient aqueduct, the cypresses of a villa surrounded by 
 high walls, are painted on the horizon ; on Monte Mario burning farms 
 mark the way which the merciless foe has taken. The troops of mounted 
 Huns press on in wild confusion ; the Pope, accompanied by a few cardinals, 
 rides in stately calm to meet the barbarians. We seem to see the motion 
 
 Knackfuss, Raphael. 6 
 
 Fig. 84. The Mass of Bolsena. Fresco in the Camera d’Eliodoro in the Vatican. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
82 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 of Leo’s lips, as he addresses Attila in 
 gentle and serious words. But what strikes 
 horror to the heart of the terrible foe, and 
 makes him turn his horse back with an 
 involuntary pressure of the thigh, is a 
 threatening vision ; over the Pope hover 
 with gleaming swords in their hands the 
 princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul 
 (Fig. 85). The splendid painting, which 
 in contrast to that on the opj)osite side, 
 where heavenly weapons smite down the 
 church’s enemies , represents the protec- 
 tion of the papal domains by the power 
 of persuasion, was begun in the time of 
 Julius II. But the Pope who is represen- 
 ted here bears the features as well as 
 the name of the successor of the iron 
 Julius, Leo X., of the house of the great 
 patrons of art, the Medici. 
 
 In the Battle of Ravenna (iHli April, 
 1512) Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici had 
 been taken pri.soncr by the PTcnch, and 
 had escaped under unusual circumstances. 
 It is natural to suppose that when hc^ 
 became Poj)e he decided in memory of 
 this event, that the liberation of the person 
 of the Pope should be represented on the 
 in which his predecessor had ordered 
 pictures to be painted of the liberation of the church and of the church’s 
 dominions; the deliverance of St Peter from prison presented itself naturally 
 as the subject. Yet the choice ol this subject is so intimately connected with 
 the sequence of ideas which composes the contents of the whole cycle of 
 paintings , that it is not necessary to seek for such an explanation from 
 external reasons ; the whole Papacy appears symbolised in the person of the 
 first Pope, whom the heavenly powers protect, and this subject contains, as 
 it were, the scriptural foundation of the contents of all the rest. In all the 
 paintings of the Stanza d’Eliodoro we observe that Raphael has laid more 
 stress than in the Stanza della Segnatura on the effects of colouring. In 
 the last picture he indulged in bold effects of light. Over the window in this 
 
 wall we look through the Iron bars of a painted window into the interior of 
 
 the prison. Peter sits asleep on the ground, with chains round neck, hands 
 and feet; two guards, also asleep, lean against the walls. In a flood of dazzling 
 radiance an angel has appeared in the gloomy room, and wakes Peter, 
 that he may throw off his bonds and follow him. On the left we see a 
 
 warrior with a torch on the step outside startling with a loud call the 
 
 Fig. 86. .Study from N.\tuke for onf: of the 
 Caryatids beneath the wall-paintings in the 
 Stanza d’Eliodoro in tlie Vatican. Red chalk 
 drawing in the Louvre. 
 
 remaining wall of the chamber 
 
' 
 
imera d’Eliodoro in the Vatican. 
 
 nent & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
■I 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 83 
 
 guards who have gone to sleep in the hot moonlight night, and calling 
 their attention to the fact that something unusual is going on in the dungeon. 
 But his warning comes too late ; for on the other side the prisoner, holding 
 the radiant angel by the hand , is already stepping into the open street. 
 
 On the socle under the wall-paintings are Caryatids painted in grisaille; 
 they were very thoroughly and very badly repainted in the last century, 
 but there is still a slight glimmering of Raphael’s tasteful design through 
 it all. ' In the Louvre is a study drawn from nature in red chalk for one 
 
 Fig. 87. L’incendio del Borgo. Wall-painting in the Vatican. 
 
84 
 
 RAPIIAKL. 
 
 Fig. 88. Gkolp from the Incesdio <el Bokgo. 
 
 of these figures (^Fig. 86). On tlie ceiling, within an older frame which 
 was retained, are painted four scenes from the Old Testament, of typical 
 significance. These are, “ The Sacrifice of Isaac” over the ]\Iass of Bolsena, 
 “The Lord in the burning bush” over the Heliodorus, “The Lord appearing 
 to Noah” over Attila, “Jacob’s Dream” over the deliverance of St. Peter. 
 Most of this does not belong to Raphael, even as regards design ; it is 
 the work of pupils. Soon after the accession of Leo X. began the time, 
 when the master was so overloaded with work that he had only leisure 
 to control the design and was obliged to leave the greater part of the 
 execution to the hands of his assistants, among whom Giulio Romano 
 (born 1498, died 1546) was foremost. 
 
 The Stanza d’Eliodoro was finished in the year 1514. At the brilliant 
 
Fig. 89. Group from the Incendio del Borgo. 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 court of Leo X. Raphael held a brilliant position. “He never went to court 
 but he had the company of fifty painters — good and valiant painters, all of 
 them — who escorted him from the moment when he left his dwelling; indeed, 
 he lived not as a painter, but as a prince.” So Vasari relates. On the ist July 
 in that year the master wrote a detailed letter to his uncle Simone Ciarla at 
 Urbino about his circumstances and his occupations. The document, highly 
 interesting in many respects, the most comprehensive of the few extant spe- 
 cimens of Raphael’s epistolary style, runs, in a literal translation, as follows : 
 
 “Beloved in place of a father! 
 
 I have received your letter, which is a very precious proof to me 
 that you are not angry with me, as indeed you have no right to be. 
 
86 
 
 RAIMIAEL. 
 
 considering how tiresome it is to write when nothing of importance 
 occurs. Now, when I have matters of importance, I reply to you, to tell 
 you circumstantially everything which I can impart. In the first place, 
 as regards taking a wife, I reply to you that in respect of her, whom 
 erewhile you were for giving me, I am quite at ease, and thank God 
 continually that I have taken neither her nor another, and in that I have 
 been more prudent than you, who wished to give her to me. I am sure 
 that you, too, have now recognised that I should not be in the position 
 where I now am ; up to the present time I find myself in the position 
 of holding property at Rome worth three thousand gold ducats, and an 
 income of fifty gold dollars (monthly), since His Holiness our Master 
 has given me a salary of three hundred gold ducats for conducting the 
 building of St. Peter’s, and this salary is never to fail so long as I live, 
 and I am sure to obtain still more, and, further, I am paid for my work 
 according to my own estimate, and I have begun to paint another chamber 
 for His Holiness, which will come to one thousand two hundred gold 
 
 ducats, so that I do credit, dearest uncle, to you and all my relatives 
 
 and to my native place; but, for all that, I carry you always in my inmost 
 heart, and when I hear your name it seems to me as if I heard the 
 name of a father ; and do not complain of my not writing to you ; I 
 should rather have reason to complain of you, since you have a pen in 
 your hand all day long and yet let six months pass between one letter 
 and the next; but, with all that, you will not make me chide you, as you 
 do me without just cause. I have wandered from the subject of marriage, 
 
 but, to return to it, I reply to you : know that Santa Maria in Portico 
 
 (i. e. Cardinal Bernardo Dovizio, called Bibbiena, who bore the title of 
 this church) wishes to give me a relative of his own, and I have promised 
 him, with the permission of my clerical uncle (Don Bartolommeo, Arch- 
 priest at Urbino, who had been Raphael’s guardian) and with yours, to 
 do everything which His Reverence’s Grace requires of me ; I cannot 
 break my word, we are on closer terms than ever, and I shall soon 
 inform you about everything. Have patience till this good affair is decided, 
 and then, if I do not do this, I will do what you want. And if Francesco 
 Buffa has parties to propose, let him know that I have too; I find at 
 Rome a pretty little woman, of very good reputation, according to what 
 I have heard, both herself and also her belongings, who will give me three 
 thousand gold dollars as a marriage portion ; and I live in my own 
 house at Rome, while a hundred ducats here are worth more than two 
 hundred there, of that you may be sure. As regards staying at Rome, 
 I shall never be able to stay anywhere else again, out of love for the 
 building of St. Peter’s ; for I am in Bramante’s place ; but what spot on 
 earth is more dignified than Rome, what enterprise more dignified than 
 St. Peter’s } It is the first temple of the world, and the greatest piece 
 of building that has eve*: been seen ; it will come to more than a million 
 in gold ; and know that the Pope has resolved to spend sixty thousand 
 
Fig. 90. Studies from the nude for the Battle of Ostia. 
 
 Red chalk drawing in the Albertina. Vienna. 
 
 Sent to Albrecht Diirer as a present, and inscribed by him with the note: “1515. Raphael of Urbino, 
 who is so highly esteemed by the Pope, made this study of the nude and sent it to Albrecht 
 Diirer at Nuremberg, to show him his handiwork”. 
 
88 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 ducats yearly on this building, and he thinks of nothing else. He has 
 given me an assistant, a very learned monk, more than eighty years of 
 age ; the Pope sees that he cannot live much longer , so His Holiness 
 has resolved to give him to me as an assistant, since he is a man of 
 great reputation and great wisdom, in order that I may learn any fine 
 secret in architecture which he possesses, that I may become quite perfect 
 in this art; his name is Fra Giocondo *) ; and every day the Pope has us 
 summoned and speaks a little while with us about this building. I beg 
 you to go to the Duke and Duchess and tell them this; for I know that 
 it will be a pleasure to them to hear that one of their subjects is doing 
 himself credit; and commend me to their lordships; and I commend 
 myself to you continually. Greet all my friends and relatives, and espe- 
 cially Ridolfo, who has shown me so much kindness and affection. The 
 ist July 1514. 
 
 Your Raphael, painter at Rome. 
 
 When we read that Raphael had again already begun to paint a new 
 chamber in the Vatican, it cannot but seem a matter of course after the 
 success which had followed him hitherto. But the intelligence is surprising^ 
 that the control of the building of St. Peter’s had been transferred to him 
 in place of the deceased Bramantc. Bramante died on ipli March, 1514; 
 on his deathbed he had recommended Raphael as his successor, as we 
 learn from the Pope’s official document making the ajjpointment. The 
 model and plan which Raphael sent in met with the Pope’s approval. 
 The master probably felt the great burden which this new honour laid on 
 him. But he threw himself with zeal, in the wish “ to find out the beautiful 
 forms of the ancient buildings”, into the study of Vitruvius and such 
 monuments of ancient architecture as had been preserved. An old scholar, 
 Fabio Calvi, whom he kindly received into his house, translated for him 
 the works of the ancient architect into Italian. This occupation with the 
 relics of ancient buildings filled up a large part of Raphael’s time during 
 the latter years of his life; he measured and drew the monuments and 
 began the vast undertaking of presenting to his contemporaries the whole 
 splendour of the ancient town in reconstructions. It effected him painfully 
 when he had to look on while many a classical ruin was cleared away, 
 although the marble piles of ancient Rome were no longer used so ruthlessly 
 as quarries as they had been in the middle ages. In one point he was 
 successful in saving countless invaluable relics of antiquity: on the 27th August 
 1515 hs was named by a papal brief overseer of all excavations in Rome 
 
 The Dominican Fra Giocondo of Verona carried out many important public buildings 
 in Italy and France; he was also employed as a teacher and published a number of scientific 
 works of different kinds; he was an important member of the series of architects of the Italian 
 Renaissance. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 89 
 
 and in the circuit of ten miles round Rome, with the express authority to 
 prevent the destruction of every inscribed stone. Numerous engravings 
 of Marcantonio and his school bear witness to Raphael’s interest in ancient 
 sculpture, both such as present mythological compositions of Raphael’s own. 
 
 which are derived from the contemplation of the antique, and also such 
 as copy the antique statues themselves at his instigation. 
 
 Raphael remained till his death architect of St. Peter’s, for a time 
 without an assistant — the old Fra Giocondo did not live longer than 1515 — 
 and then, again, for a time, with one. We cannot see anything of the work 
 
 Fig. 91. The Coronatio.m of Ch.^rlemagne. Fresco in the Sala dell’ Incendio in the Vatican. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Pari.s ) 
 
90 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 which lie contributed to the giant cathedral; for his princi[)al task in the 
 first place was the supplementary strengthening of the foundation walls 
 under the pillars of the cupola; his further plans were upset again at a 
 later date. 
 
 Raphael’s activity as an architect, in which he showed himself a loyal 
 disciple of Bramante, was not confined to the building of St. Peter’s. A 
 whole series of buildings, some of which Vasari names expressly, were 
 carried out from his drawings. For Cardinal Giulio de’ ]\Iedici (afterwards 
 Pope Clement VII.) he prepared the plans for a country-house: this was 
 the Villa on Monte Mario, never quite completed and partly altered at a 
 later time, which is named Villa Madama, from the title of its later 
 possessor, Margaret of Parma, daughter of the Emperor Charles V. One 
 of his principal works , the palace of the papal chamberlain Branconio 
 d’Aquila, fell a victim to the laying out of the great colonnade on the 
 Piazza of St. Peter’s ; but old representations have preserved a view of the 
 fine fagade. On the other hand, the Palazzo Pandolfini at Florence, also 
 carried out from Raphael’s design, but not until long after his death, is in 
 good preservation. 
 
 The chamber of the Vatican, which Raphael began to paint in the 
 year 1514, bears the name of the Sala dell’ Incendio, from the most im- 
 portant of its wall-paintings, which rei)rcsents the burning of the Borgo, 
 which Pope Leo IV. checked by his benediction. The closer connection 
 between the joaintings of this chamber is confined to the fact that, in all 
 four, deeds of Popes of the name of Leo are celebrated. The paintings 
 on the ceiling are not to be considered, for here the existing frescos were 
 allowed to remain; Perugino had executed them, and they owed their 
 preservation to Raphael’s veneration for his old teacher. The picture of 
 the “Incendio del Borgo” (Fig. 87) still reveals Raphael’s design in all 
 integrity, although it was carried out for the most part by pupils. The 
 representation of the exciting events incidental to a conflagration forms, at 
 least as regards space, the principal contents of the magnificent painting. 
 To the left we see a splendid group (Fig. 88) suggested to the painter 
 by Virgil’s narrative of the burning of Troy; a strong man, accompanied 
 by a beautiful boy, carries his aged father on his back from the burning 
 house, as Aeneas carried Anchises. Next to these a youth is saving himself 
 by letting himself drop, stretched out at full length, down along the wall ; 
 a woman throws a child in swaddling-clothes down from the top to her 
 husband, who reaches out his hands to catch it. On the other side attempts 
 are being made to quench the fire ; young women, whose garments are 
 lashed by the wind round their powerful limbs, cry out and carry water 
 to pour on the flames. Women and children are huddled together shrieking 
 in the streets ; in the general helplessness some of them turn their gaze to 
 the Vatican palace beside the ancient Basilica of St. Peter’s: the Vicar of 
 Christ must needs aid them. Indeed a group of persons have already 
 arrived there in confident faith and are kneeling before the Pope’s windows; 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 91 
 
 the Saint appears and lilts his right hand in blessing ; his prayer is to break 
 the force of the fire. In contemplating the lively passages of the foreground 
 the spectator may easily overlook the small figures in the distance, and 
 
 Fig. 92. Galatea. Wall-painting in the Farnesina (Chigi’s Villa). 
 
 yet this group of suppliants desperately yet confidently beseeching help 
 is, itself, a magnificant creation. In the splendid figures of the foreground 
 Raphael has given a proof of his power to reproduce the human body in 
 attitudes of violent motion with a knowledge in no way inferior to that of 
 
92 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Michelangelo, ^vhose works, according to Vasari, incited him at Florence to 
 the study of anatomy. The figures of the Incendio del Borgo in their artistic 
 beauty of form constituted accordingly one of the chief sources of study 
 to Raphael’s pupils and their successors. In different collections numerous 
 copies from these figures are preserved, drawn partly in sepia-wash heightened 
 with white, partly in red chalk; among them examples of a kind of exercise 
 which was assiduously practised at that time, the reconstruction, from the 
 draped figures, of the nude which was concealed with unfailing correctness 
 beneath them. That these are not preliminary studies of Raphael’s own, 
 is proved at once by their exact correspondence with the figures as carried 
 out, by which they may recognised as drawings from the fresco itself and 
 not from nature, to say nothing of the style of drawing and the knowledge 
 of form which is sometimes defective. The very different sharpness and 
 intelligence of Raphael’s drawing from nature is show by the splendid 
 sheet with two studies from the nude, which he presented to Albert Diirer 
 in the year 1515 (|)rcserved in the Albertina). The two figures drawn in 
 red chalk (Fig. 90) are studies from models for two warriors in the fore- 
 ground of the second wall-painting, the “Battle of Ostia”. The victory of 
 Leo IV. over the Saracens in the year 849 is the subject of the picture, 
 an appropriate theme at a time when the Turks were once more threatening 
 Italy. While the conflict is still raging, we see that the victory is already 
 decided; at the gate of the fortress the ])risoners are led before the Pope, 
 who bears the features of Leo X. It is evident that in this picture Raphael 
 left to his pupils not only the whole of the execution but also much of 
 the working-out of the groups. The preponderance of the work in the two 
 other frescoes belongs to Raphael’s assistants; they are both pictures of 
 ceremonies, which, merely as such, may have had little attraction for the 
 master. One represents Leo III.’s oath of purgation. Charlemagne, sum- 
 moned by the Pope (in the year 800) to help him against the rebellious 
 nobles of Rome, has invited both parties to appear before him that he may 
 hear them and pronounce judgment accordingly; the Pope, however, re- 
 fuses to recognise any earthly judge over him, and clears himself by a 
 spontaneous oath from all accusations. By the inscription: “It is for God: 
 not for man, to judge Bishops”, the picture conveys an immediate reference 
 to a resolution of the Lateran council, which was sitting at the time when 
 it was being carried out. The fourth picture shows the coronation of 
 Charlemagne. We recognise, of course, Leo X. again in Leo III.; the 
 Emperor is said to be a likeness of Francis I. of France, who concluded 
 an alliance with the Pope soon after his accession (1515). For the rest, 
 this picture, in which the monotony of representing a solemn assembly of 
 church dignitaries put special difficulties in the way of artistic success, is 
 a masterpiece in respect of picturesque effect (Fig. 91). 
 
 The completion of the Stanza dell’ Incendio falls within the year 1517. 
 We must not be surprised that Raphael made great use of the collaboration 
 of his assistants in this task, for the abundance of the productions which 
 
Fig. 93. The Sibyls. Wall-painting in the Church of Sta. Maria della Pace, Rome. 
 
94 
 
 KAPHAKL. 
 
 date from the same time is quite 
 incredible, while he regarded the 
 supervision of the building of St. 
 Peter’s all the time as his prin- 
 cipal task. 
 
 Next to the Pope it was the rich 
 and artistic banker, Agostino Chigi, 
 who secured the master most fre- 
 quently to carryout his commissions. 
 We learn that Raphael was preparing 
 the drawings for two salvers for him 
 as early as 1510. On several later 
 occasions he furnished him with 
 architectural designs; for instance, 
 for a magnificent stable, which Chigi 
 in the year 1518, before installing 
 his hundred horses with golden har- 
 ness, turned by the most costly de- 
 coration into a festal hall of fairy- 
 like beauty, in order to entertain 
 the Pope , fourteen Cardinals and 
 numerous foreign ambassadors with 
 more than princely splendour and 
 profusion. It is more important to 
 jmsterity that it owes to Chigi’s 
 love of art a number of splendid 
 wall-paintings by Raphael. The 
 first of these were produced con- 
 temporaneously with the earliest 
 work in the Sala dell’ Incendio. Chigi had had a villa built for himself 
 in a situation which then lay outside the town, between the river and 
 the slope of the Janiculum. This was the charming little building, which 
 at a later date, after it had passed into the possession of the Farnese 
 family, received the name of the Villa Farnesina. Here Raphael painted 
 in the loggia facing the Garden, as a pendant to Polyphemus, (painted by 
 another hand and afteiwvards very badly restored) the nymph Galatea, beloved 
 in vain by the Cyclops. On a shell drawn by two dolphins the beautiful 
 nymph glides over the mirror-like surface of the sea and listens smilingly 
 to the rude love-plaints of her uncouth adorer; a joyous train of nymphs 
 and tritons throngs about her, a cupid has seized the reins of her equipage, 
 wiiile his fellow’s are poised in the air with arrow’s menacingly aimed (Fig. 92). 
 The cheerful sensuousness of Greek antiquity is recalled to life in this 
 picture, with the wondrous poetical charm which it diffuses. Raphael painted 
 it with his owm hand; ic must have been a true refreshment' for him, in 
 the midst of the serious paintings in the Vatican apartments, to employ his 
 
 Fig. 94. Stl'dv for a Sibyi 
 O.xford Gallery. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 95 
 
 Fig. 95. Study of the figure and drapery of an angel in the picture of the Sibyls 
 Red chalk drawing in the Albertina, Vienna. 
 
 imagination on these pleasant and charming forms. But Chigi, too, had a 
 serious task in store for him. He gave him a commission to paint a fresco 
 over the entrance of a side-chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Pace, 
 to represent the Prophets and Sibyls. In the execution of this work the 
 master was assisted by his fellow-townsman Timoteo Viti. To him it is 
 usual to ascribe the Prophets, who occupy an arched space above the Sibyls. 
 
 The Sibyls, however, are peculiarly 
 Raphael’s^ own creation, even if Ti- 
 moteo Viti may have had a hand in 
 their execution (Fig. 93). Only one 
 of the four prophetesses , who are 
 here united in a group, is represen- 
 ted as in old age, the rest are in the 
 flower of youth ; they possess no- 
 thing of the Titanic, primeval force 
 of the Sibyls of Michelangelo , but 
 instead of that they are adorned 
 with the fulness of beauty. Angels 
 with mighty pinions bring to the 
 God-inspired women the predictions 
 of the future; but, besides these, three 
 smaller inhabitants of heaven have 
 found a place, the central one of 
 
 Fig. 96. Studies for the angel of the preceding 
 FIGURE, AND FOR A SiBYL. Albertina, Vienna. 
 
Fig. 97. The ^Miraculous draught of fishes. Cartoon in the South Kensington Museum. 
 
 RATH.AKL. 
 
 96 
 
 whom holds the torch of light, and their merry childish smiles form a delightful 
 contrast to the sublime seriousness of the other forms. The picture is 
 composed in a masterly manner to fill the peculiar space with a symmetry 
 which is carried through the whole and withal broken again. Originally 
 
 Raphael intended to maintain the balance ot the two halves more strictly ; 
 this is betrayed by a precious study in the Oxford Gallery (Fig. 94) ; instead 
 of the one Sibyl in the picture who raises herself and fixes her gaze from 
 afar on the revelation accorded to her, thus producing a break in the out- 
 line with excellent effect, we see here a figure clinging with a similar 
 
Knackfuss, Raphael. 
 
 7 
 
 Fig. 98. The healing of the cripple by Peter and John. Cartoon in the South Kensington Museum. 
 
98 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 99. Christ bearing the Cross (Lo Spasimo di Sicilia). In the Madrid Gallery. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 movement to that of the corresponding Sibyl on the other side to the curve of 
 the arch. A study in the Albertina for one of the angels flying down (Fig. 95) 
 instructs us as to the conscientious attention which the master paid to the 
 structure of the body under the fluttering drapery; he has devoted peculiar 
 care to the study of the arm which is left exposed, but, not yet contented with 
 the result, he has drawn both arms of the angel, together with the upraised 
 arm of the Sibyl who sits below, again with the most delicate finish, from 
 a feminine model , on a sheet of studies in the same collection (Fig. 96). 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 99 
 
 Fig. loo. Study from nature for the group of women in the picture of Christ bearing the Cross. 
 
 Drawing in the Lille Museum. 
 
 Chigi further entrusted Raphael with the preparation of the designs 
 for a chapel to be erected in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. The 
 master made the drawings for the architecture and the cartoons for the 
 decorative subjects of the cupola, which were carried out in mosaic by 
 Luigi da Pace of Venice in the year 1516. The creation of the stars is 
 represented; in the centre of the cupola we see the Creator, who floats in 
 space, surrounded by angels, and with mighty, outstretched arms calls the 
 lights of heaven into being; in the eight compartments into which the 
 vaulting is divided, appear eight magnificent angelic forms, the guardian 
 spirits of the stars; the first of these looks up and lays his hands on the 
 sphere with the fixed stars ; beneath the remainder the divinities of the 
 seven planets rise from nothing at the beck of the Almighty. Raphael also 
 provided for the plastic decoration of the Chigi chapel; he designed two 
 figures, the prophets Elijah and Jonah, which were carried out in marble 
 by the Florentine Lorenzetto. The wide-spread assumption that Raphael 
 himself chiselled the statue of Jonah in marble, is quite unfounded. It is 
 quite conceivable, however, that he may himself have prepared a clay model 
 for this splendid youth, who triumphs like an ancient hero over the fish 
 which has cast him up , for it is a known fact that Raphael made ex- 
 periments in the sculptor’s art in this very year, 1516; an otherwise un- 
 known sculptor, Pietro d’Ancona, carried out a figure of a child in marble 
 from Raphael’s clay model. In all probability we have rediscovered this 
 piece of sculpture by Raphael in the charming group of a dead boy carried 
 by a dolphin, of which Raphael Mengs brought the first plaster cast to 
 Germany in the last century; the original, in marble, is at St. Petersburg. 
 
 7 ^- 
 
Fig. loi. St. Cecili.\. In the^Academy at Bologna. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 lOI 
 
 Meanwhile, however, the Pope had again approached the master with 
 new commissions. To cover the lower part of the walls in the Sistine 
 
 Fig. 102. The Vision of Ezekiel. In the Pitti Palace, Florence. 
 
 Chapel costly tapestries were to be woven in Flanders, and no less a person 
 than Raphael was to carry out the preliminary cartoons. The whole history 
 of the redemption, from the creation of the world, was related in frescoes 
 
102 
 
 RAPIIAKL. 
 
 Fig. 103. The Lady with the V'eii,. Portrait of a lady unknown, who has been suppo.sed to be 
 the model for the Sistine Madonna. In the Pitti Palace, Florence. 
 
 on the roof and walls of the chapel ; the tapestries were to contain the 
 Acts of the Apostles, and so bring the whole series of biblical pictures to 
 a close. In the years 1515 and 1516 Raphael carried out the cartoons for 
 the tapestries and in doing so, in spite of his occupation at the same time 
 with so many other great subjects, created one of his mo.st immortal 
 works. The lapestries were woven in Brussels in the looms of Master Peter 
 van Aelst, and that in so short a time that the magnificent organisation 
 
Fig. 104. Madonna di San Sisto. In the Royal Picture Gallery, Drestfen. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 

 "f 
 
 
 C 
 
 
 
 
RA.PHAEL. 
 
 103 
 
 of this workshop seems to us today quite inconceivable ; on St. Stephen’s day 
 in the year 1519 seven of the hangings were adorning the place for which 
 they were destined, and excited the amazement and delight of all who saw 
 them ; in the next year the three which were still wanting were added. 
 In the course of ages these splendid fabrics have been hardly used ; they 
 have their own eventful history, which begins with their being pledged in 
 the year 1521. They were twice carried, away from Rome, in 1527 as 
 plunder by the Landsknechts, and in 1798 by French dealers, who bought 
 them at auction; at last they have once more found shelter in the Vatican, 
 but in a condition which no longer admits of their being used to decorate 
 the Sistine chapel. Raphael’s cartoons were copied more than once on the 
 loom, but even the better preserved repetitions, like those in the Berlin 
 Museum, give only a feeble idea of Raphael’s creations. We should not 
 be able to prize this masterpiece of the master himself highly enough, had 
 not a kindly destiny preserved seven of the original cartoons painted in 
 distemper on sheets of paper stuck together; after many wanderings they 
 have found a dignified place of public exhibition in the South Kensington 
 Museum. There is nothing more perfect in the way of clear and vivid 
 narration, thoroughly popular and at the same time of the highest artistic 
 quality, than these seven pictures from the history of the apostles, in which 
 the founders of the Christian church meet us with strongly marked characters 
 and forms of convincing truth. Raphael depicts the events with a simplicity 
 and force ot expression comparable only to the words of scripture. The 
 series of subjects opens with Peter’s miraculous draught of fishes (Fig. 97) ; 
 all the charm of a cool morning by the water is diffused over the grand 
 picture. The second subject is the calling of Peter ; in superhuman beauty 
 the Risen Lord stands on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias opposite to 
 the men of the people who are to carry his teaching over all the world, 
 and says to the kneeling Peter: “Feed my sheep.” Then we see Peter 
 accompanied by John at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple bidding the lame 
 beggar arise (Fig. 98); and, further, Ananias struck by the divine judgment 
 on the stern utterance of the Prince of the Apostles, so that the sight 
 thrills the bystanders with horror. Almost more impressive is the next 
 subject, the sorcerer Elymas deprived of his sight before the tribunal of 
 the Roman governor at the powerful bidding of Paul, and groping about 
 helplessly in the darkness which has suddenly overtaken him. The next 
 picture takes us to Lystra; we see the pagan sacrificial procession, copied 
 with archaeological exactness from antique representations, halting before 
 Paul and Barnabas, we see the lame man whom they have cured pressing up 
 with the procession and lifting his hands in grateful prayer to the Apostles, 
 and Paul, whose mighty form balances the whole company, rending his 
 raiment with averted head: “Sirs, why do ye these things ” The sacrificial 
 axe is already raised to fell the wreathed ox, the sacrifice would be con- 
 summated in a moment, were it not that a handsome youth who had 
 understood the Apostle’s words, pressed forward hastily and prevented the 
 

 4S) 
 
 104 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 deed. The last picture shows us Paul at Athens, where the man of God 
 lifts his voice on the Areopagus in presence of the assembly of trained 
 thinkers; his pithy words find attentive listeners, but some, too, who shake 
 their heads and mock at him, as well as some who draw nigh in faith. 
 Although the hands of pupils have been employed on these cartoons in 
 translating them into colour, yet Raphael’s invention is revealed with full 
 force in every slightest line. A piece of tapestry with the coronation of 
 the Virgin, which was only rediscovered some thirty years ago in the 
 Vatican, is founded likewise on a design of Raphael’s. The master’s power 
 of working seems to us quite incomprehensible when we learn that in the 
 same years, to say nothing of the drawings which he furnished to Marcantonio 
 for engraving, he painted a number of pictures in oils, and among them 
 some which held the loftiest places of honour among his grandest achievements. 
 
 For the Convent of Santa Maria dello Spasimo at Palermo he painted 
 Christ bearing the Cross (P'ig. 99). It is true that he took as the basis of 
 his composition the corresponding woodcut in Diirer’s Great Passion, from 
 which he almost exactly borrowed the figure of Christ bowed down by 
 the burden of the cross; but he put his own sensibility into it, and made 
 the new version of the subject quite his own intellectual property; the 
 group of the fainting Virgin Mother and her women, in particular, is quite 
 independent of the Northern pattern (Fig. lOo). The painting has undergone 
 curious vicissitudes ; the ship, on which it was to have been brought to 
 Sicily, went down ; the case containing the picture, however, came ashore 
 and arrived at Genoa; the news of the picture being fished up was soon 
 noised abroad, but it was only on the interference of the Pope that the 
 Genoese surrendered the treasure to the monks of Palermo; when hung in its 
 destined place the picture, in the words of Vasari, “acquired more reputation 
 and celebrity than the mountain of Vulcan.” In the 17th century Philip IV. 
 purchased the picture secretly from the monks and had it brought to Spain ; 
 it is now in the Museum at Madrid. 
 
 The actual handiwork of Raphael in the painting of the Bearing of 
 the Cross seems doubtful, because the colouring contains bright and hard 
 passages which spoil the impression which the powerful composition produces. 
 But there is no doubt of it in the case of the jewel of the collection of 
 pictures in the Academy at Bologna, the “St. Cecilia” (Fig. loi). The 
 picture was ordered as early as 1513 as altar-piece for a chapel in the 
 church of San Giovanni in Monte at Bologna, but the master did not 
 proceed to carry it out till 1516. It is an incomparable poem on the charm 
 of music. In the centre of the picture stands Cecilia, a virginal figure of 
 gracious beauty, with the organ in her hands, enchanted by the notes given 
 out by a choir of angels in the air; four Saints surround her, Paul, John 
 the Evangelist, Augustine and Mary Magdalene, each of whom is listening 
 in his own way to the celestial notes — a perfect study of character; profane 
 musical instruments — these were carried out by Raphael’s gifted pupil 
 Giovanni da Udine (born 1487) who was a master of the careful rendering 
 
Fig. 105. Pope Leo X. Pitti Palace, Florence. 
 
 V 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 105 
 
 Fig. 106. Joanna of Aragon. In the Louvre, Paris. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 of nature in small things — lie broken on the ground. In the colouring 
 the picture is music itself. 
 
 It was also for a Bolognese patron that Raphael designed a small 
 picture in which he reduced a gigantic creation to the proportions of a 
 miniature: the so-called Vision of Ezekiel (Fig. 102), now in the Pitti Palace. 
 Between the wings of the four living creatures which have passed from 
 time immemorial in Christian art as the symbols of the Four Evangelists, 
 Jehovah soars in space and with uplifted arms, supported by ministering 
 
io6 
 
 RAl'IlAKL. 
 
 Fig. 107. A PiLASi'ER in the Loggie of the Vatican. 
 
 angels, spreads his hands in blessing over the earth, which is visible in the 
 distance far below. 
 
 To the same period of the master’s greatest productive energy belongs 
 undoubtedly that picture which, perhaps more than any other of his works, 
 enables the modern spectator to experience the full power of art, the 
 Sistine Madonna (Fig. 104). Vasari relates in a few words how “for the 
 black monks (Benedictines) of San Sisto at Piacenza he painted the picture 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 107 
 
 for the high-altar, in which is Our Lady with St. Sixtus and St. Barbara, 
 truly a rare and matchless work.” The picture, which was painted by 
 Raphael with his own hand from first to last, stood till 1753 in the place 
 for which it was intended, then it was acquired for King Augustus III. and 
 conveyed to Dresden. There it was far from finding unanimous approval 
 from the first; the connoisseurs of the last century were doubtful whether 
 the picture was really worthy of the great Raphael. Such are the changes 
 of opinion with regard to art in the course of time. To-day probably no 
 one can stand unmoved before this creation, the character of which cannot 
 
o8 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 be expressed in words, which transports the gaze to another world released 
 from all that is earthly, and constrains the beholder to a reverential silence. 
 If ever a countenance has been painted which is completely transfigured by 
 an unearthly radiance, it is that of the mother of the Redeemer in the 
 San Sisto picture. And yet there is a woman’s portrait of quite a wordly 
 kind, which shows a certain likeness to this same countenance, so that it 
 has given rise to the conjecture that in this portrait we are made acquainted 
 with the lady whose features were present in Raphael's mind when he 
 created it. This is the so-called Lady with the Veil “Donna Velata” (Fig. 103) 
 in the Pitti Gallery, an excellent portrait, the attribution of which to Raphael, 
 however, lacks not only proof but even probability, so that the conjecture 
 is quite without foundation. The resemblance of this fair Roman with the 
 large, dark eyes to the Sistine Madonna is at any rate only a distant one. 
 
 Connected with the assumption that the “Donna Velata” is by Raphael, 
 is an equally unfounded idea that she betrays to us the features of Raphael’s 
 mistress, of whom Vasari speaks repeatedly, and whose portrait he mentions 
 especially among the master’s portraits of ladies. This mistress, w'hose name 
 is never stated, has been an object of piquant curiosity to posterity, which does 
 not care to content itself with know’ing nothing of great men except their 
 great works; legend has even busied itself with inventing a name for her. 
 La Fornarina, the baker’s daughter. This title has remained attached to 
 the likeness of an unveiled girl with unattractive features, who wears an 
 amulet with the name of Raphael ; this picture has passed for ages as the 
 portrait of a mistress of the painter, and was copied as such repeatedly in 
 the 1 6th century itself; the original is in the Barberini palace at Rome. 
 Raphael painted finer portraits than this. Under Julius II. this branch 
 of his activity had remained somewhat in abeyance; at least we hear of 
 only two portraits besides that of the Pope himself, those, namely, of the 
 young prince Federigo Gonzaga of Mantua and the artistic Roman banker 
 Bindo Altoviti ; the former has disappeared , while the latter, which has 
 suffered unfortunately from re-painting, is in the Munich Gallery, where it 
 long passed as Raphael’s own portrait, in consequence of an expression of 
 Vasari which certainly seems ambiguous: “For Bindo Altoviti he painted 
 his portrait when he was young.” But under Leo X. portrait-painting be- 
 came an important part of Raphael’s work. Thus he painted amongst others 
 the brother and nephew of the Pope, Giuliano and Lorenzo de’ Medici, 
 the papal secretary and librarian, Tommaso Inghirami, who was equally 
 admired as poet and as preacher, the singer and poet Antonio Tebaldeo, 
 another illustrious poet who was an intimate friend of Raphael’s, Count 
 Baldassare Castiglione, and the clever statesman Cardinal Bibbiena (Bernardo 
 Dovizio). Some of these portraits are lost , others are only extant in old 
 copies or versions of which the originality appears dubious ; at any rate 
 sufficient is preserved to allow us to admire Raphael as one of the greatest 
 artists of all times, in portrait-painting as in other things. The portrait of 
 Count Castiglione in the Louvre is indisputably the work of Raphael’s 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 109 
 
 Fig. 109. Decoration in stucco and fresco painting over a window in the Loggie of the Vatican. 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 own hand. Next to this accomplished and affectionate friend of the master 
 we are most interested in making the acquaintance of his special patron 
 Cardinal Bibbiena (in the Pitti Palace). Raphael was actually betrothed to 
 the Cardinal’s niece, if Vasari’s information is correct, but the marriage 
 never took place ; the Cardinal’s hat which the Pope led him to expect 
 must have appeared to the master more seductive than the bond of matri- 
 mony. A work of some magnitude which Raphael undertook for Bibbiena 
 in the year 1516 was the decoration of a bathroom in the Vatican (now 
 inaccessible) with wall-paintings in antique style. The conclusion and crown 
 of Raphael’s portraits is that of Pope Leo himself, in which by the side 
 of the Pope, who sits at a table with a lens in his hand to look at the 
 miniatures of a manuscript which lies open before him, two cardinals are 
 also represented, Giulio de’ Medici (afterwards Pope Clement VII.) and 
 Lodovico de’ Rossi, the latter Leo’s nephew and the former his cousin 
 (Fig. 105). Of this magnificent picture there are two versions, one in the 
 Pitti Palace, the other in the Naples Museum. We must not be surprised if 
 the question as to which is the genuine picture can hardly be decided at the 
 present day; the copy was carried out in the year 1525 by Andrea del 
 Sarto, and this skilful painter succeeded so perfectly that Giulio Romano 
 
I lO 
 
 RAPIIAKL. 
 
 Fig. no. The Creation of Eve. Painting in a cupola of the Loggie of the Vatican. 
 
 himself, who had assisted Raphael with the picture, is said to have been 
 taken in. The last portrait which proceeded from Raphael’s studio was 
 that of the beautiful Joanna of Aragon, the wife of the constable of Naples 
 (Fig. io6). Cardinal Bibbiena bespoke it as a present for the King of 
 France, to whom he went as ambassador in 1518; Raphael himself had no 
 time to go to Naples to take the portrait of the princess. He sent one of 
 his pupils to draw a sketch for the likeness, and the picture, now in the 
 Louvre, with its splendid colouring was then carried out from this drawing. 
 According to Vasari’s testimony Raphael painted only the head, while the 
 rest is by Giulio Romano. 
 
 From the year 1517 onward Raphael hardly ever managed to carry out 
 anything with his own hand ; when once he had begun to paint a picture 
 he was obliged very soon to leave it alone, on account of new commissions. 
 There was no question now of his practising fresco-painting any longer in 
 person, but under his supervision two more marvels of wall-painting were 
 produced, the Loggie of the Vatican and the Story of Psyche in Chigi’s villa. 
 
 In Part of the Vatican Palace every storey opens on a court-yard by 
 means of galleries (loggie) constructed on Bramante’s and partly on Raphael’s 
 own designs. That part of the Loggie on the second storey which forms 
 the approach to the Stanze, Leo X. wished to see decorated in such a 
 manner as to be a worthy introduction to the artistic splendour of those 
 apartments. Perhaps at the same time as the order for the cartoons for 
 the tapestries, Raphael received the commission to decorate this gallery. 
 The task indeed was quite a different one from that which he had had in 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 I 
 
 Fig. III. The Fall. Painting in a cupola of the Loggie of the Vatican. 
 
 the inner apartments ; for those who walked here, in the open air and yet 
 protected from the glowing sun , art was to offer merely a cheerful 
 play of form and colour which should occupy the mind without fatiguing 
 it and delight the eye together with the incomparable prospect over the 
 Eternal City, the Campagna and the distant mountains. Here Raphael 
 has produced a work which has not its equal. Only we no longer receive 
 the complete impression of it on the spot; wind and weather have used 
 the frescoes very badly, so that in the present century the arches had to be 
 covered in by glass windows, to rescue at least what was left of them ; 
 unfortunately the rough usage of visitors has also contributed to the ill treat- 
 ment of the remains. Fortunately there is no lack of good old engravings 
 which serve to complete the picture of the whole work. Antique art served 
 as a foundation for it. Some well-preserved specimens of ancient wall- 
 decoration in stucco and painting had recently been discovered in the ruins 
 of the Baths of Titus. These charming forms traced in the wanton roving 
 of the fancy — grotesques, as they were called, because they had only been 
 preserved in subterranean vaults (grotte) — gave the pattern for the de- 
 coration of the Loggie, not that they were simply copied outright, but 
 the artistic frame of mind which had produced them was revived once 
 more in full vigour. Details perhaps were borrowed immediately from the 
 antique motives ; it was just at that time that Raphael was devoting his 
 keenest attention to the remnants of antique art, and he sent his pupils 
 to them, when his own time failed, in order to prepare suitable designs, 
 while throughout Italy and even in Greece he kept draughtsmen employed 
 
I 12 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 1 12. From the fable of Psyche: Cupid and the Graces. Painting in the ceiling of the Villa 
 Farnesina at Rome. The back of the foremost of the Graces is one of the few places in these 
 paintings which escaped the late restoration. 
 
 in copying the antique. But the most part was planned anew in the spirit 
 and taste of the old Roman decorative art. The grotesques climb up 
 the pillars and arches (Figs. 1 07 and 108) with a delicate lightness and a 
 variety of shapes of which it would be a fruitless effort to convey even an 
 approximate idea by means of words. The colours form a tracery of more 
 connected design on the surface of the wall which contains the windows 
 and doors of the papal apartments, opposite to the arched openings ( Fig. 109), 
 and on the domed vaultings of the roof of the Loggie : in every dome 
 four pictures are arranged as part of the decoration, which derive their 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig.- 113. From the fable of Psyche: Venus before Jupiter. Painting in the ceiling of the Villa 
 Farnesina at Rome. The figure of Venus is seriously spoilt by repainting, especially in the outlines. 
 
 subjects not from the wanton world of the ancient Gods but, to suit the 
 dignity of the apostolical palace, from the biblical narrative. Raphael placed 
 the execution of the grotesques and plasterwork under the direction of 
 Giovanni da Udine, that of the pictures under the supervision of Giulio 
 Romano. 
 
 Besides these two there was a whole troop of Raphael’s pupils employed 
 on the work, which the omnipresent mind of the master invested with a 
 bond of unity. In details every one followed his own inspiration ; especially 
 in the little stucco designs which are everywhere interwoven with the 
 arabesques, each man set down Just what occurred to him. We find free 
 imitations of antique statues and reliefs, of compositions by Raphael and 
 
 Knackpuss, Raphael. 8 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 II4 
 
 Fig. 114. From the fal)le of Psyche: Merci'RV and Psyche. Painting in the ceiling of the 
 Villa Farnesina at Rome. 
 
 Michelangelo, and scenes freshly drawn from life, we even have glimpses 
 of the occupation of the artists themselves ; there sits the master, drawing 
 industriously; a colour-grinder prepares the pigments; a mason lays on the 
 fresh plaster and by his side a young painter scratches in the outlines on 
 the ground so laid, another paints, a third brings up a cartoon to fasten it 
 to the wall, a fourth is employed in perforating the outlines of another 
 cartoon with a needle, while an old attendant arranges the jars of paint. 
 
 The fifty-two pictures in the thirteen domes of the Loggia are usually 
 known by the collective name of “Raphael’s Bible”. They begin with the 
 Creation and end with the Last Supper; only four belong to the New 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 Fig. 115. Study for Venus and PsycHe in the Villa Farnesina. 
 
 Drawing in the Louvre, Paris. 
 
 Testament, all the rest to the Old, According to Vasari they are all based 
 on designs by Raphael ; but in the latter part of the work these designs 
 can, at the most, have consisted merely of slight sketches, while in the 
 earlier part, at any rate, Raphael’s original invention speaks to us with its 
 whole force and attractiveness. But even the least valuable of these pictures 
 fulfil excellently their immediate, decorative purpose of interrupting the 
 light play of ornament with strong, full harmonies of colour, and of forming 
 an agreeable spot for the eye to rest on. The subjects in the first dome 
 are evidently influenced by a prototype of overwhelming power, Michel- 
 angelo’s paintings of the Creation in the Sistine Chapel, and at least one 
 of them, the parting of light from darkness at the fiat of God, is scarcely 
 inferior to its great predecessor, in spite of its small proportions. Most 
 attractive of all, perhaps, is the second dome, which tells the story of our 
 first parents ; in a Paradise of enchanting beauty the Lord presents his 
 
 8 * 
 
Fig. ii6. St. Mich.\el. Drawing from the picture of 1518, in the Louvre. 
 
Fig. 1 1 7. The Large Holy Family. In the Louvre, Paris. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 1 18 
 
 Fig. 118. Study from nature for tlic figure of the V'irgin in the Large Holy 
 Family In the Louvre. The Louvre. 
 
 consort to Adam, who awakes in amazement from his slumber (Fig. iio); 
 then Eve offers to her husband the forbidden fruit (Fig. ill) — a comparison 
 with the painting on the ceiling of the Stanza della Segnatura teaches us 
 how variously in conception, yet with what an equal degree of beauty, 
 Raphael could treat the very same subject — the angel with the sword drives 
 them after the Fall into the rough world, where a raging storm, which 
 bends and cracks strong trees, forms a contrast in landscape to the calm 
 Paradise; but the earth, too, is beautiful in Raphael’s eyes, as w’e see in the 
 fourth picture of this dome by the happy smile with which Eve greets her 
 merry children and by the sunny amenity of the landscape in which Adam 
 tills the field. The point in which these paintings stand unrivalled, almost 
 without exception, is the terse clearness with which they tell their story 
 to the eye ; in this respect they are patterns, the value of which is not 
 diminished by their unequal, and not always exemplary, execution. 
 
 The Loggie of the Vatican were still unfinished, when Chigi recalled 
 the master to the world of antique mythology. The problem now was the 
 decoration of the large loggia on the ground-floor of Chigi’s villa in Traste- 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 II9 
 
 Fig. 119. Study of drapery for the Virgin in the Large Holy Family in the Louvre. 
 Uffizi Collection, Florence. 
 
 vere. Apuleius’ story of Cupid and Psyche furnished the subject material. 
 But how infinitely more poectical is Raphael’s conception of the subject 
 than that of the late Roman author, whose narrative is a mere profanation 
 of the beautiful myth of the Soul and Love. The master has adapted his 
 paintings with extreme skill to the different shapes of the surface of the vaulting, 
 
120 
 
 RAPHAKL. 
 
 to which the decoration was confined. He had to deal with fourteen pointed 
 lunettes which start from the semicircular arches of the open arcade and 
 the corresponding spaces on the wall, and cut into the vaulting, ten penden- 
 tives running to a point at the bottom, in which the vaulting descends to 
 the pillars and pilasters, and lastly a long rectangular space in the middle. 
 Raphael framed these spaces with garlands of flowers and fruit, dividing 
 the central space into two halves, and filled the surfaces with life-sized 
 figures on a sky-blue ground. In the pendentives the narrative begins with 
 the subject of Venus sending her son down to earth to punish Psyche for 
 her beauty, without foreseeing that Cupid would experience her power in 
 his own person; as he flies past, Cupid tells the Graces of the beautiful 
 mark at which his darts are to be aimed (Fig. 1 1 2). The events which 
 take place on earth, according to the story, the union of Cupid and Psyche 
 and her loss of happiness through breaking the commandment that she 
 
Fig. i2i. Holy Family, known as La Perla. In the Prado Gallery, Madrid. 
 (After an original photograph by J. Laurent & Cie., Madrid.) 
 
22 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 must not enquire into the nature of her lover, are not represented in the 
 painting, for the scene is confined to Olympus. We see Venus disconso- 
 lately turning away from Juno and Ceres, who cannot give her counsel 
 and help ; we see her passing through the heights of heaven in her chariot 
 drawn by doves to invoke the assistance of Jupiter to punish Psyche; we 
 see her approaching the father of the Gods with cajoling prayers (Fig. 113); 
 thereupon Mercury takes wing to earth, to seek for Psyche and deliver her 
 up to the vengeance of the goddess. How Psyche has performed the last 
 and severest task of her probation and fetched for Venus a casket from 
 the lower world, how she offers it, kneeling in all humility to the surprised 
 goddess, is shown in the next picture. And now Cupid intercedes with 
 Jupiter for mercy for his beloved, and receives his assurance in an affectionate 
 kiss; thereupon Psyche, escorted by Mercury, soars upwards to heaven 
 (Fig. 1 14). In the first of the large pictures with numerous figures in the 
 central compartment of the ceiling, we see Jupiter appeasing the strife 
 between Venus and Cupid in a solemn assembly of the gods, while Psyche 
 receives the draught of immortality; in the second the gods are celebrating 
 at a festal banquet the nuptials of Cupid and Psyche. So Raphael tells 
 the story; but in the lunettes he lets little cupids fly about, who have stolen 
 the god’s arms and emblems of rank, and so put to the spectator the 
 question of the Greek poet : 
 
 When Cujiid makes immortal arms his spoil, 
 
 Can mortals hope the roj^ish God to foil ? 
 
 The precious paintings were unfortunately restored in a merciless way 
 towards the end of the 17th century; the fine outlines of the figures espe- 
 cially have suffered severely in places in the process, and the sunny sky- 
 blue of the background has been turned to a heavy, confused blue daub. 
 If, even after this, the work possesses a wonderful charm, that is perhaps 
 the most brilliant testimony to the imperishable power of the artist’s design. 
 The figure of one of the Graces who turns her back to the spectator has 
 remained untouched by re-painting; this splendidly painted back passes for 
 the work of Raphael’s own hand. Vasari relates somewhere that the master 
 painted a number of figures in these frescoes with his own hand ; otherwise 
 the execution of the pictures was entrusted to Giulio Romano and Giovanni 
 Francesco Penni (whose relationship to Raphael obtained for him the sobriquet 
 of il fatiore, or the agent); the magnificent wreaths of flowers and fruit were 
 painted by Giovanni da Udine. That Raphael made elaborate drawings in 
 preparation for all the pictures cannot be doubted ; no one else could have 
 displayed such invention and such mastery of form. Of the studies for the 
 ceiling-paintings which are extant only a few, it is true, are by the master’s 
 own hand (Fig. 115); in addition to the studies there are a number of 
 drawings done from the cartoons, such as the younger pupils were wont to do 
 for practice, and these too have their value for us, since they partly bring 
 the original beauty of the forms before our eyes at less disadvantage than 
 the re-painted frescoes themselves. 
 
Fig. 122. The Visitation, in the Prado Gallerj--, Madrid. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
124 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 The paintings in Chigi’s villa and in the Loggie of the Vatican were 
 not yet finished when the year 1519 began. We find Raphael in a state 
 of feverish activity. The Pope, who had placed in his hands everything 
 that was to be done at the Vatican in the way of painting and architecture 
 after the completion of the Loggie, approached him daily with new projects; 
 at one time he was to draw cartoons for frescoes in the chapel of the 
 hunting-lodge. La Magliana, in the Campagna, at another to prepare designs 
 for tarsia-work, or dies for the coinage, or else to plan the decorations for 
 carnival festivities at the Vatican, whilst a large hall adjoining the Stanze 
 was being prepared to receive wall-paintings. All the time he was being 
 urgently pressed by the representatives of foreign princes, who wished to 
 have pictures by him for their masters ; they would not be deterred by a 
 refusal of admittance at the door of his studio ; to keep them quiet 
 Raphael would make a few strokes with the brush before their eyes on the 
 pictures which they had ordered, and then the pictures so begun would be 
 laid aside to make room for new ones, which were soon to share the same 
 fate. The master, so gay and so amiable of yore, began to acquire a 
 reputation for moroseness. If we review the number of oil-paintings, some 
 of them of considerable dimensions, which Raphael produced after 1517, 
 in addition to the rest of his arduous occupations, — to say nothing of the 
 doubtful works — we can understand that he must have been galled by 
 the excess of work, in spite of the help which his well-trained pupils, 
 especially Giulio Romano and Giovanni Francesco Penni, who lived with 
 him, were able to afford. Not everyone who ordered a picture was so 
 patient as the nuns of Monteluce near Perugia, who reminded him in the 
 year 1516 of the picture of the Coronation of the Virgin which they had 
 commissioned eleven years before ; they succeeded then in getting Raphael 
 to sketch out the composition, and yet they had to wait again till long after 
 the master’s death before his pupils finished the picture now in the Vatican 
 Gallery. The most important thing was to keep the Pope satisfied; he had 
 ordered two pictures as presents for the King and Queen of France, the 
 Archangel Michael and a Holy Family. Leo X. was eager to see them 
 delivered, and he was continually urging the artist to hasten with his task, 
 till in the spring of 1518 the pictures were packed on mules and conveyed 
 to Fontainebleau under the escort of one of Raphael’s pupils. Both pictures 
 are now in the Louvre. St. Michael is represented as a handsome youth 
 in antique armour but without a helmet, who swoops down on great pinions 
 to thrust his uplifted spear at Satan, who has already fallen to the ground 
 beneath him ; the savage, dark-hued form of the demon and the gloomy 
 rocks, from clefts in which tongues of flame dart forth, form a strong 
 contrast to the radiant form of the angel (Fig. 116). The large Holy Family 
 of the Louvre, as the picture presented by the Pope to the Queen is 
 called, to distinguish it from another smaller Holy Family, also in the Louvre, 
 (“The Virgin with the cradle”), composed by Raphael but painted entirely 
 by the hands of a pupil, shows a Virgin whose countenance rivals the 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 125 
 
 Fig. 123. Central Group from the Battle of Constantine. Wall-painting in the Vatican, 
 from a design by Raphael. 
 
 Florentine Madonnas in tender, maidenly majesty, and an infant Jesus, who 
 springs out of the cradle and throws himself gladly into his mother’s arms ; 
 the child is as childlike as any Raphael ever invented, but his divine majesty 
 is indicated by the homage which is offered to him ; not only does Elizabeth 
 kneel and teach the little St. John to fold his tiny hands in prayer to his 
 fellow-child, but angels have come down into the small room, to offer worship 
 and to strew flowers before him (Fig. 117). A powerful effect of chiaroscuro 
 corresponds to the majestic forms of the closely-packed composition. The 
 
26 
 
 RAPHAKL. 
 
 picturesque effect of the painting is determined rather by sharp distinctions 
 of light and shade than by the local colours of the different objects. One 
 can hardly imagine a greater contrast of colour-schemes than exists between 
 this picture and “La belle Jardiniere”, which is in the same room. Even 
 contemporaries disapproved of Raphael’s practice of making the shadows 
 too black in his latest pictures, and the course of time has proved the 
 pernicious effect of the use of a peculiar black pigment, which has turned 
 still darker and has penetrated the other colours. In j)ainting the large 
 Holy Family Raphael was assisted by Giulio Romano, to whom the execution 
 of a “St. Margaret” was almost entirely left, which, according to Vasari, 
 was sent about the same time to Fontainebleau as a gift to the French 
 royal family (now in the Louvre). How’ diligently Raphael even now- 
 consulted nature, is proved by three sheets of studies for the large Holy 
 Family: the Louvre collection possesses the study from life of a maiden 
 lightly clad for the figure of the Virgin (Fig. Ii8); in the Uffizi w’e find 
 the carefully finished study of drapery for the same figure which was em- 
 ployed almost exactly in the picture (Fig. i 19), and the precious study 
 from a model for the infant Christ (Fig. 120). 
 
 To Raphael’s latest pictures of the Madonna belongs further the famous 
 large picture at Madrid, which Philip IV. described as the pearl of his 
 collection, so that it has retained the name of “la perla” ever since. It 
 ow^es its existence to a commission from the Count of Canossa at Verona. 
 It is a true picture of family life ; Mary has laid one arm round the neck 
 of her mother Anne, who is lost in serious thought, W'ith the other hand 
 she holds the child, who has climbed from the cradle on to her knee, and 
 lays hold smilingly of the fruit which the little St. John has brought to 
 him (Fig. 121). Raphael has here pushed the strong effect of chiaroscuro 
 to the furthest extreme; the lights stand out harshly against deep darkness. 
 The picture possesses, so to speak, no scheme of colour at all, and so it 
 lacks that quality of art by which painting is able to appeal most directly 
 to the mind. Yet it is certainly a work of the master’s own hand. It 
 owes its old reputation perhaps chiefly to the extraordinary carefulness of 
 its execution, which is doubly remarkable considering the time at which 
 it was produced. At Madrid, too, is a “Visitation of the Virgin” in life- 
 sized figures, which Raphael made for the papal chamberlain, Branconio 
 d’Aquila, the same patron for whom he designed a palace at Rome (Fig. 122). 
 Here, too, the poetry with w hich the meeting of the two women, the elderly 
 Elizabeth and the girlish Mary, is depicted, loses much of its effect on the 
 spectator through the want of charm in the colour, which destroys the 
 unity of tone by harsh constrasts of light and shade. For Cardinal Colonna 
 the master painted the inspired youthful form of John the Forerunner (now- 
 in the Tribune at Florence), a picture which w-as repeatedly copied, owing 
 to the novelty of the treatment of the subject. 
 
 The weighty forms, the large outlines, the strong contrasts of light and 
 dark, which we observe in all these pictures, seem to tell of the state 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 127 
 
 Fig. 124. Study from the nude for the picture of the Transfiguration in the Vatican. 
 Collection of the Ambrosiana, Milan. 
 
 of mental excitement in which the master created them during his struggle 
 with fleeting time. It is perhaps not hard to explain how Raphael lost 
 that fineness of feeling which is able to give rise to poetical harmonies of 
 colour in the feverish stress of work which wore out his strength. The 
 fourth of the Vatican apartments, in which he was to conduct the painting, 
 promised him an opportunity of exerting himself in representations of passion 
 and violent movement. The life of Constantine was to be depicted here, 
 with the victory over Maxentius as the chief event (Fig. 123). It is true 
 that the cartoon for this battle-piece, fragments of which are extant, was 
 not made by the master himself ; but he drew separate studies for the 
 
128 
 
 RArHAKl 
 
 Fig. 125. Study in nude figures for the picture of the Transfiguration (the work of a pupil;. 
 
 In the Albertina, Vienna. 
 
 picture and doubtless also prepared a general design, for only this hypothesis 
 can explain the fact that the painting, which was not carried out till several 
 years after Raphael’s death, possesses the fulness of life and the magnificent 
 strength, which make it, in spite of its defects, an unsurpassed pattern 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 129 
 
 Fig. 126. The Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor. In the Vatican Picture Gallery. 
 
 Raphael’s last picture. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 
 for the representation of a violent heroic conflict. It is certain, too, that 
 the masterly distribution of the v/all-spaces in the Hall of Constantine is 
 due to Raphael : the arrangement by which the historical subjects with 
 their numerous figures alternate with magnificent architectural designs in 
 which the giant forms of famous popes are enthroned. It is in keeping 
 
 Knackfuss, Raphael. 9 
 
130 
 
 RAl'lIAKL. 
 
 with the straining after powerful effect which characterised the master at 
 this time, that the experiment was made of substituting oils for fresco- 
 painting, an experiment which, in the sequel, was abandoned. Raj)hael 
 hardly lived to see the beginning of the work in the Hall of Constantine; 
 if in the battle against Maxentius we still trace an after-effect of his sj)irit, 
 we perceive in the remaining pictures all too clearly how feeble Giulio 
 Romano and his comrades were, when confronted with such tasks, so soon 
 as they were left entirely to themselves. Such great works demanded the 
 great master himself. His pupils inherited his spirit more successfully in 
 purely decorative matters ; at least the work in stucco which Giovanni da 
 Udine carried out in the Villa iNIadama, the construction of which Giulio 
 Romano took over after Raj)haers death, is an achievement worthy to rank 
 with the decoration of the Loggie in the Vatican ; it is true that in this 
 work an exact study of ancient models was able to rei)lace, to a certain 
 extent, the stimulus which had been derived from Raphael’s fertile and 
 inexhaustible fancy. 
 
 The last work to which Rai)hael himself set his hand was a large 
 altar-piece which Giulio de’ Medici ordered for the principal church at 
 Narbonne, of which place he was bishop. Raphael may well have felt that 
 the preponderance of pupils’ work in the execution of his i)ictures would 
 end by damaging his rej:)utation, esf)ccially as the name of the Venetian 
 Sebastiano (afterwards called del Piombo), a follower and friend of Michel- 
 angelo, was beginning to be named at Rome by the side of his own. And 
 the fact that it was this very painter, a distinguished colourist, who received 
 the Cardinal’s commission for a companion i)icture to Raphael’s, may have 
 been another reason for determining Raphael to carry out the altar-piece, 
 for the subject of which the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor 
 was selected, entirely by his own hand. Of course this did not prevent 
 the master from using the help of pupils in the more mechanical parts of 
 the work, for instance, in transferring the drawing to a larger scale, or 
 when it came to constructing the whole finished composition in nude figures 
 (Fig. 125) in order to have an absolutely safe foundation for the anatomical 
 correctness of the figures. Such work, however, was based on studies 
 from life which he drew himself with the most extreme care, as a number 
 of sketches of the kind which are still extant bear witness (Fig. 124). The 
 picture never saw the place for which it was originally intended; after 
 Raphael’s death it was thought right to keep this, his last production, on 
 the chief scene of his active career, so the picture was set up over the 
 altar of San Pietro in Montorio at Rome ; carried off to Paris as booty 
 by the French in 1797, it has been since 1815 in the Vatican Gallery. 
 Raphael’s latest work is one of his most powerful (Fig. 126). It makes 
 its effect on the spectator by strong contrasts. On the top of the mountain, 
 at some distance, brilliantly lighted in the bright cloud, hovers the trans- 
 figured form of the Saviour between Moses and Elias , over the three 
 disciples who have fallen to the ground, dazzled by the brightness. Mean- 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 I3I 
 
 while a scene of human misery and human weakness is being enacted at 
 the foot of the mountain ; the father of the lunatic boy, accompanied by 
 a crowd of people, has entered the presence of the nine remaining disciples. 
 The unfortunate man keeps a firm hold on the boy, who is convulsed 
 with a spasm, and keeps his eyes fixed with a last glimmering of hope 
 on the disciples of Jesus, though he is affected almost to despair by his 
 son’s sufferings ; two women have thrown themselves on their knees before 
 the apostles ; one prays with gentle, mutely eloquent glances, the other, 
 in whom we suppose that we see the boy’s mother, cries passionately, 
 almost imperiously, for help ; their companions stretch out their hands in 
 supplication. And the nine apostles stand on the other side, deeply moved, 
 seized with compassion, but powerless to help ; for he, who might have 
 helped, has left them and is gone up on the mountain, as one of them 
 points out to two of his comrades, who, ashamed of their feebleness, dare 
 no longer look on the fearful spectacle ; another apostle, who has risen 
 up, announces to the suppliants with firm assurance, that he who stays 
 on the mountain is the one who shall bring help. By this figure the 
 dramatic tension of the scene is relieved ; we know that help is there ; we 
 recognise it by the expression of certainty in the countenance and gestures 
 of the disciple, and we see it, too, with the bodily eye ; for our gaze 
 involuntarily follows the direction of the sharp cross-line, to which the 
 outstretched hand of this apostle gives the utmost emphasis, and fixes itself 
 once more on the radiant form of the Saviour. “Both are one: below, 
 the suffering, the needy; above, the active, the helpful; related, the one 
 to the other, in mutual interaction” (Goethe). The contrast is carried 
 through the externals of the picture too ; above there is a harmonious 
 blending of colours and lines, all floating in abundance of light; below, 
 there are lines which cross one another roughly, harsh and conflicting 
 colours and dark shadows. The two persons whom we observe at the side 
 of the picture as witnesses of the transfiguration, without feeling that their 
 presence is markedly inappropriate, form an addition meaningless except 
 to the donor of the picture: they are the patron-saints of the Cardinal’s 
 father and uncle, Julian and Laurence. 
 
 Raphael had just finished the “Transfiguration”, — perhaps the last 
 transitions still remained to be added, which would have softened down 
 the over-harsh juxtapositions of colour in the lower half of the picture — 
 when death overtook him. He was attacked by a violent fever, which, in 
 the overwrought state in which he had been for some time past, he had 
 not the stamina to resist. From the poetical tribute which Count Castiglione 
 paid to the memory of his friend, it might be inferred that Raphael con- 
 tracted the fever in the course of his excavations ; for the theme of the 
 poem is, that Death struck him down in indignation at his undertaking to 
 resuscitate the dead city. An ill-advised bleeding hastened the progress 
 of the malady, which only lasted a few days. Raphael prepared himself 
 for death and set all his affairs in order with the utmost care. On Good 
 
32 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Friday (6th April) in the year 1520 he passed away. He had hardly reached 
 the threshold of mature manhood, and yet had accomplished such a work 
 as it has seldom been given to an artist to perform in a course of a 
 long life. All Rome spoke of nothing but Raphael’s death ; it was rumoured 
 that cracks had opened in the Vatican Palace during the night of his 
 departure, so that it threatened to fall. The grief was universal, for 
 everyone who came into contact with him had loved him for his amiability. 
 The Pope wept bitterly, and the foreign ambassadors sent their masters 
 detailed reports of the sad occurrence. The body lay in state in the studio, 
 with the picture of the Transfiguration standing at its head. Raphael had 
 chosen as his burial-place the finest building in Rome, and the best preserved 
 monument of ancient architecture, the Pantheon. According to his will 
 the sculptor Lorenzetto executed a marble statue of the Madonna, which 
 was placed between the porphyry columns of one of the fine old taber- 
 nacles. Hard by a simple plate with an inscription was let into the marble 
 facing to mark the place of the grave. Cardinal Bembo composed the 
 short Latin epitaph, with verses to this effect: 
 
 Nature, while Raphael lived, must fear defeat: 
 
 He died ; she too prepared her death to meet. 
 
 (After an original photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Domach (Alsace) and Paris.) 
 

 
 
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