'{give ' lots- fn-JBve0u?uIai$ eft CeHtgt- au ibt^ColoH-f' •YAILE-'VHIIVEffiM'inr- « K-niaiRAisy • From the Estate of MRS. THOMAS D. GOODELL 1933 RAPHAEL THE ILLUSTRATIONS CONTAINED IN THIS WORK HAVE BEEN ENGRAVED ON WOOD FROM DRAWINGS BY MM. R. BALZE, S. BARCLAY, G. BELLANGER, H. CHARTIER GOUTZWILLER, RONJAT AND THIRIAT, OR REPRODUCED BY THE PROCESSES OF MM. BRAUN, DUJARDIN, GILLOT, GUILLAUME AND QUINSAC. L.F real- R.Sanzro drlt &fe Htfe, Woifes, anti Cimesf. EUGENE MUNTZ (CONSEEVATEVB DE EECOLE RATIONALE DES BEAVX-AKTS). ILLUSTRATED WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR ENGRAVINGS IN THE TEXT, AND FORTY-THREE FULL-PAGE PLATES. NEW EDITION REVISED FROM THE SECOND FRENCH EDITION BY WALTEE AKMSTRONG, B.A. Oxon. ItsxiUm: CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited. gork: A. C. AEMSTEONG AND SON. 1888. Richard Ciay and Sonf, london and bungay. EDITOR'S NOTE. In the present version of M. Muntz's Raphael are embodied those additions and corrections in the second French edition which were demanded by the progress of research during the six years which had elapsed since the issue of the first, and, more especially, by the increased interest taken in the work of Raphael's first youth. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The town of Urbino and the Montefeltro dynasty. — The Santi family. — Giovanni Santi. — Birth of Raphael. — First impressions and earliest efforts. — Death of Giovanni Santi. — Departure of Raphael for Perugia . 1 — 18 CHAPTER II. Raphael at Perugia. — Perugino and theUmbrian School. — The Cambio Frescoes. — Joint works of Perugino and Raphael. — Return of Perugino to Florence . ... 19 — 34 CHAPTER III. Studies of Raphael at Perugia and in its neighbourhood. — Triple influence of Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Signorelli. — The Venice Sketch Book . . 35 — 45 CHAPTER IV. The earliest original productions of Raphael. — His works at Perugia and at Citta di Castello. — Madonnas and Holy families. — The Coronation of the Virgin. — The Sposalisio . . ... . . . • • • 46 — 71 CHAPTER V. Journey of Raphael to Siena.— Pin turicchio's Frescoes in the Cathedral Library.— The group of the Three Graces. —First contact with Antiquity.— The old Sienese School and Sodoma.— The Vision of a Knight . 72—84 CHAPTER VI. Return of Raphael to Urbino in 1504.— Guidobaldo's Court.— Baldassare Castiglione and the Cortegiatw.—T\\e St. Michael and St. George in the Louvre . . . 85—94 viii Contents. CHAPTER VII. Raphael at Florence. — The Florentine Republic and the Arts. — Models, old and new. — Masaccio, Donatello, Ghiberti, Pollajuolo, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo and Fra Bartolommeo. — Protectors, friends, and rivals of Raphael, Baecio d'Agnolo, Taddeo Taddei, Lorenzo Nasi, R. Ghirlandajo, A. da San Gallo . 95 — 119 CHAPTER VIII. Raphael at Florence (sequel). — Madonnas and Holy Families. — The Madonna del Gran Duca.' — The "Large" and "Small" Madonnas of Lord Cowper. — The Madonna della Casa Tempi. — The small Orleans Madonna. — The Madonna of the Casa Colonna. — The Terranuova Madonna. — The Virgin in the Meadow. — The Madonna del Cardellino. — La Belle Jardiniere. — The Madonna with the Lamb. — The Bridgewater Madonna.' — The Madonna of the Casa Canigiani. — The Madonna of the Bfildacchino. — The Esterhazy Madonna. — The Madonna with the Pink . 120-157 CHAPTER IX. Raphael at Florence (sequel) : portraits. — Return to Perugia in 1505 : the Fresco of San Severo ; the altar-piece of St. Anthony ; the Ansidei Madonna. — Visit to Urbino in 1506 : portraits ; the Three Graces. — Journey to Bologna. — Return to Florence : Apollo and Marsyas ; St. Catherine ; the Entombment. — Return to Urbino in 1507. Departure for Rome ... 158—200 __CHAPTER X. Iiaphael at Rome. — The eternal city in the beginning of the sixteenth century. — Julius II. and the Pontifical Court ; prelates, scholars, great nobles, and bankers, Castiglione, Bembo, Bibbiena, Ariosto, Ag. Chigi.— The world of Artists: The San Gallos, Bramante, Peruzzi, Caradosso, G. Marcillat 201—238 CHAPTER XI. Raphael in the service of Julius II.— The Camera^delia Segnatura. — The Disputa, the School of Athens, the Parnassus. — Raphael's poetry 239 284 CHAPTER XII. Raphael in the service of Julius II. (continued).— Chamber of Hcliodorus. -Heliodorus driven from the Temple.— The Mass of Bolsena.— St. Leo and Attila.— The Deliverance of St. Peter.— Pictures for Private Individuals— Madonnas and Holy Families.— The Isaiah.— Portraits.— First Engravings of Marc Antonio.— Lucretia. —Massacre of the Innocents.— Death of Julius II 285—315 Contents. IX CHAPTER XIII PAGE Leo X. and the New Pontifical Court . . , . . 3ig 33s CHAPTER XIV. Painting in the Vatican under Leo X.— Completion of the Chamber of Heliodorus. —The Chamber of the Incendio del Borgo. —Tlie Hall of Constantine .... . 337—346 CHAPTER XV. The Loggia.— The Bath-room of Cardinal Bibbiena.— The Frescoes of the Magliana . 347— 3G8 CHAPTER XVI. The Cartoons. — Coronation of the Virgin. — " Pittti. "—Decorative Designs . 369 — 394 CHAPTER XVII. Raphael and Agostino Chigi ; the Galatea.— The Sibyls. — The Planets.. — The Story of Psyche . . ... 395—414 CHAPTER XVIII. Oil Paintings executed under Leo X. . the Madonna delta Sedia, the Pearl, the Madomia di San Sisto. — The Holy Family of Francis I. — The Vision of Ezckiel. — Christ bearing His Cross. — St. Cecilia, St. Margaret, St. John in the Desert, St. Michael. — Portraits. — The Transfiguration . . 415 — 440 CHAPTER XIX. Raphael as Architect.— The Church of St. Aloysius.— St. Peter's.— Palaces.— The Villa Madama — Raphael as a Sculptor. — Jonah. — Child with Dolphin. — Sketches for Medals . . • • 441—458 CHAPTER XX. Raphael's and the Antique.- — Report addiessed to Leo X. — Ideal Restoration of Ancient Rome .... . .... 459-482 CHAPTER XXI. Raphael last years.— His Pupils.— The Fornarina.— His Palace and Home Life.— His Will aud Death.— Conclusion 483-501 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Heads of Madonna, and Child (Drawing in the British Museum) Frontispiece View of Urbino j Raphael's Birthplace .... ... ... 5 Raphael and his Mother (a Fresco by Giovanni Santi, preserved in the House of Raphael at Urbino) 9 The Massacre of the Innocents (From a drawing in the Venice Academy) 14 Portrait of Raphael (Drawing in the University Galleries, Oxford) . 17 View of Perugia , . . , , . , . . 20 Portrait of Perugino, by himself . . . 33 Portrait of a Girl (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) . . 38 Portrait of a Girl (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) . . 39 Portrait of a Girl (Drawing in the Academy of Fine. Arts, Venice) .... 42 Portrait of Virgil (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) . . .43 Study for " The Coronation of the Virgin" (Drawing in the Wicar Museum) . . . 52 The Coronation of the Virgin (in the Vatican) . , 52 Study for one of the Angels in "The Coronation of the Virgin" (Drawing in tho Wicar Collection) .... . 56- Cartoon of the Annunciation (in the Louvre) , , . . 61 Study for " The Presentation in the Temple" (Drawing in Oxford University) . . . 64 The Marriage of the Virgin (in the Brera, Milan) . . .... . . 67 Siena at the Time of the Renaissance . 74 The Group of the " Three Graces " (Cathedral Library at Siena) . ... . 78 Two of the " Three Graces. " — Drawing by Raphael (in the Venetian Academy) . ... 79 The Vision of a Knight (National Gallery, London) . .... 83 Study for the St. George in the Louvre Collection (Uffizi Museum) .91 Florence at the end of the Fifteenth Century (after a contemporary picture) . 97 Sketch of a Fight (Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) . . . 110 Study for the Portrait of Maddalena Doni (Louvre) . . . . Ill Study for a Madonna (Oxford University) . . . 127 The Mother and Child (Drawing in the Louvre) . . . 128 Children at Play (on the reverse sheet of the Drawing on page 128) .... . 129 Study for a Virgin (Malcolm Collection) - . • • 130 The Virgin of the Grand Duke (Pitti Gallery) . ¦ . 131 xii List of Illustrations. PAGE The Tempi Madonna (Munich) . . . 133 Study for a Madonna (Oxford University) • .... . ¦ 134 The Little Orleans Madonna (in the Due d'Aumale's Collection) . . 135 The Colonna Virgin (Berlin Museum) ...... . 136 Study for the Madonna in the Meadow (Albertina Collection) • . . .137 The Madonna in the Meadow (in the Imperial Gallery, Vienna) . . ... 139 The Madonna del Cardellino (Uffizi Gallery) . . . • 141 Study for the Madonna del Cardellino (Albertina Collection, Vienna) . . .142 Study for the Madonna del Cardellino (Oxford University) .... 143 Study foy the Belle Jardiniere (in the Louvre) ... . 145 La Belle Jardiniere (Louvre Museum) ... . . to face 146 Study for the Madonna in the Bridgewater Gallery (From the drawing in the Louvre) . . 147 The Holy Family of the Casa Canigiani (in the Gallery at Munich) 150 Study for the Holy Family of the Casa Canigiani (in the Due d'Aumale's Collection) . . 151 Sketch for a Holy Family (Wicar Museum) . . ... . .153 The Madonna del Baldacchino (Pitti Gallery) . . 154 Study for the Esterhazy Madonna (Uffizi) . 156 Portrait of Angelo Doni (Pitti Palace) . . 158 Portrait of Maddalena Doni (Pitti Palace) . . . 160 Study for the Portrait of a Young Girl (Wicar Museum) .... 162 Holy Family of the Convent of St. Anthony at Perugia (South Kensington Museum) . . . 163 La Madonna Ansidei 173 Portrait of Raphael (Uffizi Museum) . . . 175 Portrait of a Woman (Uffizi Museum) ... 177 Study for the St. George at St. Petersburg (Uffizi Museum) . . . . . 179 Apollo and Marsyas (Louvre) 181 Study (Academy of Fine Arts, Venice) . . . 183 St. Catherine of Alexandria (National Gallery, London) . . , 185 Study for tho Entombment (Oxford University) Igy Study for the Entombment (Mr. V. Gay's Collection) 1 88 Study for the Entombment (Louvre Museum) 190 Study for the Entombment (Mr. Malcolm's Collection) .... 191 Study for the Entombment (Uffizi Museum) . . . 193 The Entombment (Borghese Gallery, Rome) . 195 Faith (Vatican Pinaeoteca) .... 1 97 Hope (Vatican Pinaeoteca) . jog Charity (Vatican Pinaeoteca) . . ..... 199 View of the Vatican in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century (after an old engraving) 205 Portrait of Julius II. (Uffizi) . .... 209 Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena (Pitti Palace) . 217 Portrait of Inghirami (Pitti Palace) . . . 0-,q Portrait of Bindo Altoviti (Munich) ... 29Q Study for the Portrait of Bramante (In the Louvre) . 233 The Stanza della Segnatura 0 . , First Study for the Dispute of the Sacrament (Windsor Castle Collection) . . 251 List of Illustrations. xiii PAGE Study for the Dispute of the Sacrament (Stsdel Museum, Frankfort-on-the-Maine) . . 253 Study for the Dispute of the Sacrament (Louvre Museum) . ... 257 Study for the School of Athens (Albertina Collection, Vienna) . 261 Portrait of Raphael and Perugino (from the School of Athens) . . 269 Study for the Calliope (The Parnassus) . . . 272 Study for the Dante in The Parnassus (Albertina Collection) 273 Prudence, Force, and Moderation 274 Gregory IX. Promulgating the Decretals 275 Adam and Eve 276 Apollo and Marsyas 277 The Judgment of Solomon 278 Astronomy ...... . . 279 Raphael's Autograph (British Museum) .... . . . 283 Study for a Scene from the Apocalypse (Louvre) 287 Study for Papal group in the Heliodorus (Louvre) . . 291 Commerce (Study for Caryatid in the Stanza d'Eilodoro) (Louvre) 297 Child supporting the Arms of Julius II. (Academy of St. Luke, Rome) 298 The Madonna with the Diadem (Louvre Museum) to face 299 Madonna di Loretto (from a copy preserved in the Louvre) • . . . 301 Study for the Madonna della Casa Alba . . 302 Study for the Madonna della Casa Alba .... 303 The Aldobrandini, or Garvagh, Madonna (National Gallery, London) . . . 304 Study for the Virgin with the Fish (Uffizi) . . .to face 306 The Madonna di Foligno (Vatican) . . ... . 307 The Madonna del Pesce (Madrid Museum) . . . . to face 309 The Fornarina (Barberini Palace) .... ... 312 Lucretia (facsimile of the engraving by Marc- Antonio) . . ... 314 The Massacre of the Innocents (facsimile of the engraving by Marc- Antonio) . . to face 315 Portrait of Leo X. (Pitti Palace) . . 322 Study for one of the Groups in the Incendio del Borgo (Albertina Collection) . . to face 341 Study for one of the Figures in the Incendia del Borgo (Uffizi) . . . . . . to face 342 Study for a Group in the Battle of Ostia (Albertina Collection) . . . . to face 343 The Loggia of Raphael ¦ . . 349 God Dividing Light from Darkness ... . . • . 351 Joseph Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream ... . . . 352 Adam and Eve driven from Paradise . . . . . . . 353 Adam and Eve . . . . . 354 The Deluge ... . 355 Abraham and the Three Angels . . . . . . . 356 Jacob and Rachel . 357 Joseph's Dream . ¦ 358 The Burning Bush . . 359 The Finding of Moses ... . . 360 Raphael's Pupils (from a stucco relief in the Loggia) . . • • 361 Grotteschi in the Loggia ... • • • ¦ 3(>2 xiv List of Illustrations. PAGE Grotteschi in the Loggia . . 363 The Bath-room of Cardinal Bibbiena . 364 The Eternal Father Blessing the World (Louvre) 367 The Fates (one of the Tapestry borders) . . , . 370 Faith, Hope, and Charity (one of the Tapestry borders) 371 The Seasons (one of the Tapestry borders) . . . 372 The Hours (one of the Tapestry borders) .... .... 373 Study for the Figure of Christ in the Charge to Peter (Louvre) . 379 Arms of Leo X. (from the borders of the Tapestries) . . . 384 The Gonfalonier Ridoln addressing the Florentines (from the borders of the Tapestries) 385 Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici at the Battle of Ravenna (from the borders of the Tapestries) . 386 Entry of Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici into Florence (from the borders of the Tapestries) . 387 Study for the Coronation of the Virgin (Oxford University Gallery) . . . 388 Loves playing in a Wood (facsimile of an engraving by the Master of the Die) . . 390 Design for a Bronze Dish (Dresden Gallery) .... . . . 392 Design for a Perfume Vase (facsimile of Marc-Antonio's engraving) 393 Study for the Phrygian Sibyl (University Galleries, Oxford) . . . . 399 The Sibyls in S. Maria della Pace ..... . 400 The Dome of the Chigi Chapel ... 401 The Planet Jupiter (Chigi Chapel) . . . 402 The Creation of the Stars (Chigi Chapel) . , . 403 Study for one of the Angels in the Chigi Chapel (University Galleries, Oxford) . to face 405 Love and the Birds . ... 406 The Psyche Saloon 407 Venus, Juno, and Ceres . 408 Venus and Jupiter 409 The Car of Venus ... 410 Mereuiy and Psyche Ascending to Olympus . . . .... 411 Study for Venus and Psyche (Louvre) - ... . , to face 412 Mercury in Search of Psyche (facsimile of the engraving by Marc- Antonio) . . 413 Jupiter and Love (Louvre) .... ... . to face 414 The Madonna della Sedia (Pitti Palace) . . .to face 41C The Madonna of San Sisto (Dresden Museum) .... . to face 417 Holy Family of Francis I. (Louvre) ... . . ... .418 Study for the Holy Family of Francis I. (Uffizi) ... 419 Study for the Holy Family of Francis I. (Uffizi) . . . 42o The Vision of Ezekiel (Pitti Palace) . . 423 Study for Horseman in the Spasimo di Sicilia (Albertina Collection) ... ... to face 424 Christ bearing His Cross (Madrid Museum) to face 425* St. Cecilia (Gallery of Bologna) 42g St. Cecilia (facsimile of the engraving by'Marc-Antonio) 429 St. Michael overthrowing Satan (Louvre Museum) .... to face 430 The Violinist (Seiarra Gallery at Rome) .... 432 Portrait of Joanna of Aragon (Louvre) . . 433 Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (Louvre) 434 List op Illustrations. XV Portrait of Timoteo Viti (British Museum) The Palazzo dell' Aquila (facsimile of an old engraving) Pandolnni Palace at Florence Statue of Jonah (Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome) The Judgment of Paris (facsimile of an engraving by Marc-Antonio) . Venus at the Bath (facsimile of an engraving by Marc- Antonio) The Palace of Raphael and Bramante (facsimile of an old engraving) to face to face PAGE 435449451457468 469 493 PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES. Study for the Watchers at the Tomb of Christ (University Gallery, Oxford) . to face 32 Portrait of the Donna Gravida (the Pregnant Woman) (Pitti Palace) to face 161 Study for the Dispute of the Sacrament (Collection of the Due d'Aumale) . to face 252 The Dispute of the Sacrament (Vatican) . . to face 255 The School of Athens (Vatican) to face 263 The Parnassus (Vatican) . . to face 270 Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (Vatican) . to face. 288 The Mass of Bolsena (Vatican) . to face 289 St. Leo and Attila (Vatican) to face 294 The Deliverance of St. Peter (Vatican) . to face 295 The Incendio del Borgo (Vatican) .... . to face 342 The Flight of Lot (Collection of M. Armand) . . ... to face 356 The Battle of Constantine (Vatican) . . to face 368 ' The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (South Kensington Museum) to face 374 Christ's Charge to Peter (South Kensington Museum) to face 376 Peter and John Healing the Lame Man at the Gate of the Temple (South Kensington Museum) . • • toface 380 The Death of Ananias (South Kensington Museum) . . . to face 382 Elymas the Sorcerer Struck with Blindness (South Kensington Museum) to face 384 The Sacrifice at Lystra (South Kensington Museum) . .... to face 386 St. Paul preaching at Athens (South Kensington Museum) . to face 388 The Triumph of Galatea (The Villa Farnesina) .... • to face 396 The Five Saints (Louvre) ... . . • to face 422 Pieta (Louvre) . . ... . • .. to face 42i The Transfiguration (Vatican) ... . to face 437 CATALOGUE OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OE RAPHAEL. FRESCOES. PERUGIA. The Trinity : Convent of San Severo (1505), 167, 169 ROME. VATICAN. The Camera della Segnatura (1508-1511), 244, 246/t. 249, 250, 274, 284, 285, 286, 288, 298, 299, 315, 324, 343, 344, 394, 464, 466 The Dispute of the Sacrament, 99, 113, 122, 169, 223, 233, 242, 245, 249, 260, 203, 270, 280, 282, 375, 378, 422, 426, 465 The School of Athens, 180, 234, 238, 245, 249, 260, 263, 264, 268, 270, 271, 280, 315, 378, 383, 459, 464, 465, 467, 468 The Parnassus, 245, 249, 250, 272, 273, 378, 400, 459, 465, 467, 468 Prudence, Force, and Moderation, 245, 250, 274 Justinian Promulgating the Pandects (the Consecration of Civil Law), 245, 273 Gregory IX. Promulgating the Decretals (the Consecration of Canon Law), 245, 274, 275, 287 Adam and Eve, 276, 278 Apollo and Marsyas, 179, 181, 182, 245, 277, 278, 467 The Judgment of Solomon, 246, 278, 279, 315, 424, 465 Astronomy, 245, 278, 279 Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Justice, 245, 250, 251, 280 Alexander Depositing Homer's MS. on the tomb of Achilles, 245, 465 Augustus Preventing the Friends of Virgil from Burning the ^Eneid, 245, 467, 468 The Stanza d'Eliodoro (1511-1514), 246re. 284, 286, 287, 289, 291, 296, 298, 299, 465, 466 Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, 211». 267, 288, 289, 291, 340, 343, 380 The Mass of Bolsena, 242, 286, 287, 289, 315 The Meeting of St. Leo and Attila, 286, 290, 294, 298, 340, 343 The Deliverance of St. Peter, 293, 295, 296, 417 God appearing to Noah, 296 Abraham's Sacrifice, 296, 354 Jacob's Dream, 296, 416 The Burning Bush, 296, 357, 416 Caryatides, 297, 298 Paintings in Camaieu, 291, 299 xviii Catalogue of the Principal Works of Raphael. Child supporting the Arms of Julius II. (now in the Academy of St. Luke, at Rome), 298 Paintings of the Beveldere (destroyed), 298 The Chamber of the Stanza dell' Incefcdio del Borgo (1514-1517), 241«.. 243, 245, 281, 287, 341, 342, 372, 466 The Incendio del Borgo, 241, 243, 245, 281, 287, 341, 342, 372, 466 The Battle of Ostia, 109, 297, 340 The Coronation of Charlemagne, 286, 331, 341, 343 The Oath of Leo III., 341, 343, 344 Ideal Portraits of Constantine, Charlemagne, Lothaire, Astolpho, Godfrey of Bouillon and Ferdinand the Catholic, 344 The Hall of the Pope's Pages— Christ aud the Apostles, 361, 365, 372, 375 The Bithroom of Cardinal Bibbiena (1516)— History of Venus and Cupid, 362-367, 466 Elephant painted on a Tower of the Vatican (1516), 324 The Loggia (finished in 1519)— History of the Old and New Testaments, 347 et seq., 372-375, 466 The Hall of Constantine (finished after the death of Raphael), 244, 285, 286 The Battle of Constantine, 109, 466 Portrait of Bramante, 233 CHURCH OF ST. AUGUSTINE. The Prophet Isaiah, 221, 298, 309 CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DELLA PACE. The Sibyls, 49, 228, 237, 333, 398-400 THE VILLA FARNESINA. The Triumph of Galatea, 228, 237, 281, 396, 397, 467 The History of Psyche, 228, 406-414, 467 THE VILLA MAGLIANA. The Eternal Father Blessing the World (now in the Louvre). The School of Raphael, 466, 467 The Martyrdom of St._Cecilia (now in the Louvre), 184, 331, 466 MOSAICS. The Creation of the Planets (finished in 1516), in the Chigi Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo), at Rome, 32, 228, 398, 401-405, 467, 468 EASEL PICTURES. SUBJECTS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. The Trinity ; Adam and Eve ; Banner in the Church at Citia di Castello (1533 ?), 65 The Vision of Ezekiel. Pitti Palace, 204, 421-423 SUBJECTS FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST. The Resurrection of Christ (partly by Perugino). Museum of the Vatican, 35, 422, 437 Christ on the Cross. In the Collection of the Earl of Dudley, London, 65, 69 The Adoration of the Magi. Predella in the Vatican, 60-65, 76, 358 The Presentation in the Temple. Vatican, 63, 64 Catalogue oe the Principal Works op Raphael. xix Christ in the Garden of Olives (Predella of the Holy Family of St. Anthony). In the Collection of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, London, 94, 166 Christ Bearing His Cross. In the Collection of Sir Philip Miles, at Leigh Court, near Bristol 16 6 193, 196, 290, 424 Pieta. In the Collection of Mrs. H. Dawson, London, 105, 167, 421, 422, 425 The Nativity, or Adoration of the Shepherds, painted for the Bentivoglio family at Bologna Lost 358, 387, 389 The Entombment. Borghese Gallery, 55, 118, 162, 179, 184, 183-196, 425 Christ Bearing His Cross. (Lo Spasimo di Sicilia. ) Madrid Museum, 290 The Transfiguration. Vatican, 300, 309, 330, 334, 416, 422, 428, 437-439, 440, 459 MADONNAS, HOLY FAMILIES, &c. UMBRIAN PERIOD. Madonna of the Solly Collection. Berlin Museum, 50, 51 The Alfani-Fabrizi Madonna. At Terni, 50, 51 The Virgin between St. Jerome and St. Francis. Berlin Museum, 50, 51 The Conestabile Madonna, St. Petersburg Museum, 50, 51 The Coronation of the Virgin. Vatican, 51-59, 118, 386-388, 416, 426, 439, 442 The Annunciation (Predella of the Coronation of the "Virgin), 59-63 The Marriage of the Virgin, Sposalizio (1504). Brera Museum, Milan, 67-71 FLORENTINE PERIOD. The Virgin of the Grand Duke. Pitti Palace, 125, 128-132 Lord Cowper's Small Madonna at Panshanger, 132 The Madonna della Casa Tempi. Pinaeoteca of Munich, 114, 132-134 The Little Madonna of the Orleans Family. In the Collection of the Due d'Aumale, 132-134 Lord Cowper's Larger Madonna at Panshanger (1508), 126 The Madonna di Casa Colonna. Berlin Museum, 134, 136 The Terranuova Madonna. Berlin Museum, 112, 122, 137 The Madonna in the Meadow. In the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna, 112, 118, 122, 138-140, 149 The Madonna del Cardellino. Uffizi Gallery, 118, 141-144, 149 The Belle Jardiniere. Louvre, 117, 126, 144-146, 415 The Holy Family with the Lamb. Madrid Museum, 112, 126, 146 The Holy Family under the Palm-tree. Bridgewater Gallery, 146, 300 The Holy Family of the Casa Canigiani. Pinaeoteca of Munich, 144-152 The Madonna del Baldacchino. Pitti Palace, 117, 126, 152-156, 220 The Holy Family with the Beardless Joseph (attributed to Raphael). St. Petersburg Museum, 157 The Esterhazy Madonna. Pesth, 155-157 The Madonna of the Pink. Lost, 157 The Madonna with the Sleeping Jesus. Lost, 157 The Holy Family of St. Anthony of Perugia. Lent to the National Gallery by the Duke of Ripalda, 152, 163 The Ansidei Madonna. National Gallery, 118, 162, 169, 170 P.OMAN PERIOD. The Virgin with the Diadem. Louvre, 299, 300 The Madonna di Loretto: Supposed to be lost, 213, 290, 300, 301 The Madonna of the Bridgewater Gallery, 300, 415 The Madonna della Casa Alba. St. Petersburg Museum, 198re. 299, 302, 303». The Aldobrandini Madonna. National Gallery, 299, 302, 303, 304 xx Catalogue op the Principal Works op Raphael. The Madonna di Foligno. Vatican, 220, 299, 301, 304, 305, 306, 307, 416, 426 The Madonna della Pesce. Madrid Museum, 306, 309 The Madonna dell' Impannata. Pitti Palace, 230, 415, 417 Holy Family of Naples. Naples Museum, 300, 415 The Madonna della Tenda. Pinaeoteca, Munich, 415 The Holy Family under the Oak. Madrid Museum, 415 The Madonna with the Rose. Madrid Museum, 415 The Madonna with the Candelabra. Munro Collection, London, 415 The Holy Family of the Louvre, 415 The Repose in Egypt. Lost, 415 The Madonna del Passeggio. Lost, 415 The Madonna della Sedia. Pitti Palace, 416 The Pearl. Madrid Museum, 218, 416 The Visitation. Madrid Museum, 387, 419 The Madonna di San Sisto. Dresden Gallery, 58, 300, 416, 420, 421, 436 The Holy Family of Francis I. (finished in 1518), Louvre, 300, 309, 330, 416, 418, 421 The Coronation of the Virgin (finished by Giulio Romano and Penni). Pinaeoteca of the Vatican, 70, 95, 162 MALE AND FEMALE SAINTS. Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino. Lost, 55, 65, 66 St. George with a sword. Louvre, 91-93, 105, 171, 176, St. Michael with a sword. Louvre, 92-93, 176, 330, 416 St. George with a lance. St. Petersburg Museum, 103, 105, 176 St. Francis of Assisi. (Fragment of the Predella of the Holy Family of St. Anthony of Perugia.) Dulwich Museum, 165 St. Anthony of Padua. Dulwich Museum, 165 Preaching of John the Baptist (Predella of the Ansidei Madonna). In England, 170 St. Catherine of Alexandria. National Gallery, London, 179, 183-185 St. Cecilia. Bologna Museum, 331, 366, 367, 426-430 St. Margaret. Louvre. Another copy in the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna, 184, 410, 426, 430 St. John the Baptist. Uffizi Gallery. There is an ancient replica in the Louvre, 227, 430 St. Michael overthrowing Satan (1548). Louvre, 416, 430, 431 MYTHOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, AND ALLEGORICAL SUBJECTS. The Vision of a Knight. National Gallery, London, 82-84 The Three Graces. In the Collection of the Earl of Dudley, London, 80, 81, 102, 104, 176-182, 467 Apollo and Marsyas. The property of Mr. Morris Moore, Rome, 101, 104, 180-182, 465, 468 Faith, Hope, and Charity. (Predella of the Entombment.) Pinaeoteca of the Vatican, 196-200 PORTRAITS. Angelo Doni. Pitti Palace, 172 Madalena Doni. Pitti Palace, 111, 112, 172 La Donna Gravida. Pitti Palace, 160, 161, 172 Elizabetta, Duchess of Urbino. Lost, 171 Portrait of Raphael, by himself. Uffizi, 175, 176 Portrait of a Woman (name unknown). Uffizi, 177 Julius II. Uffizi Museum, 208-210, 310 Bindo Altoviti. Pinaeoteca of Munich, 228-230, 310, 311 La Fornarina. Barberini Palace, 311-313, 436 Federigo Gonzaga. Lost, 310, 313 Cardinal Beinbo. Lost, 214, 216, 432, Catalogue op the Principal Works op Raphael. xxi Cardinal Bibbiena. Madrid Museum. There is an old copy in the Pitti Palace, 216-218, 310, 432 Inghirami. There are two examples of this, the one in the Pitti Palace, and the other in the residence of the Inghirami family at Volterra, 218-220, 310, 434 Navagero and Beazzano. Lost, 310, 434 Leo X. Pitti Palace, 310, 321 Giuliano da Medici. There was, in 1867, an old copy in the Collection of the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, 310, 434 Lorenzo da Medici. Lost, 310, 434 Baldassare Castiglione. Louvre. There is another copy, dated 1519, in the Torlonia Palace at Rome, -310, 313, 434, 435 Tebaldeo. Lost, 310, 432, 434 Portrait of a Young Man. Louvre, 310 Joanna of Aragon (1518). Louvre, 310, 432, 434, 597 The Violinist (1518). In the Sciarra-Colonna Palace at Rome, 310, 432, 434 Beatrice of Ferrara. Lost, 433 n. La Donna Velata (the Veiled Lady). (Attributed to Raphael.) Pitti Palace, 434 TAPESTRIES. The Acts of the Apostles. The cartoons are in the South Kensington Museum, the tapestries themselves in the Vatican, 378, 386, 388, 390 The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, 370, 374, 378, 466 Christ's Charge to Peter, 370, 374, 376, 378 Peter and John healing the Lame Man at the Gate of the Temple, 374, 378, 380, 466 The Death of Ananias, 378, 380, 466 The Martyrdom of St. Stephen, 370, 374, 377, 378, 380, 383, 466 The Conversion of St. Paul, 213, 370, 374, 377, 378, 380, 383 Elymas the Sorcerer struck with blindness, 374, 375, 378, 381 The Sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, 374, 378, 381, 385, 466 St. Paul Preaching at Athens, 106, 375, 377, 378, 385 St. Peter in Prison, 378 St. Paul in Prison, 377, 383, 466 The Coronation of the Virgin. In the Vatican, 387-389 Scenes from the Life of Christ. Tapestries in the Vatican, 300, 388, 389 Children at Play (attributed by Vasari to Giovanni da Udine), 129 Loves (Cupids) playing in a Wood, 390-392 WORKS m ARCHITECTURE. The Church of St. Aloysius at Rome, 444 The Chigi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 444, 456 The Church of the Navicella (attributed to Raphael), Rome, 444 Continuation of St. Peter's, Rome, 441, 446-448 Completion of the Loggia, Rome, 441, 448, 449, 454, 456, 466 The Stalle Chigiane (Chigi Stables), at Rome, 395, 450, 453 The Villa Madama,.Rome, 441, 453, 454 The Aquila Palace, Rome, 449, 450, 453 The Coltrolini-Stoppani-Vidoni Palace, Rome, 452, 453 The Palace of Jacopo da Brescia (attributed to Raphael), Rome 452 The Pandolfini Palace, Florence, 451, 453 xx ii Catalogue of the Principal Works op Raphael. sculpture. Child and Dolphin (attributed to Raphael). St. Petersburg Museum, 455re. The Prophet Jonah. Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome (Small model at the South Kensington Museum), 456 DRAWINGS.1 SUBJECTS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT. The Massacre of the Innocents. Academy of Fine Arts at Venice, 14, 229, 315, The Entombment (from an Engraving by Mantegna). Venice, as above, 186-196 The Adoration of the Shepherds. Lost, 358 The Massacre of the Innocents. Albertina Collection, 299 Scene from the Apocalypse. Louvre, 281 The Five Saints. Louvre, 422 Pieta. Louvre, 422 The Resurrection. In Collections at Oxford, Windsor, Lille, &c, 437, 438 MADONNAS. Study for a Madonna. University Gallery, Oxford, 126-128 Another. Louvre Museum, 126-129 Another. Malcolm Collection, 126, 130 Another. University Gallery, Oxford, 134 Another. Berlin Museum, 136 Sketch for a Holy Family. Wicar Museum, 152, 153 MYTHOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, AND ALLEGORICAL SUBJECTS. Departure of iEncas Sylvius for the Council of Basle. Uffizi, 75 Betrothal of the Emperor Frederick III. to Eleanor of Portugal. Baldeschi Collection, Perugia, 75 Audience granted to iEneas Sylvius by Pope Eugene IV. In the Duke of Devonshire's Collection at Chatsworth, 75 .Eneas Sylvius proclaimed Poet-Laureate by the Emperor Frederick III. Study for a Group of Soldiers. University Gallery, Oxford, 75, 76 The Three Graces from the Siena group in the Venetian Academy, 76». 78, 79, 459 Drawing after the Cartoon of the Battle of Anghiari. University Gallery, Oxford, 109 Sketch for a fight. Academy of Fine Arts, Venice, 109, 110 Children at Play. Louvre Museum, 468 The Marriage of Alexander and Roxana (painted in fresco, by a pupil of Raphael's, in the old Villa Raphael, attached to the Villa Borghesi). In the Albertina Collection, 468 The Rape of Helen. University Gallery, Oxford, 468 The Calumny of ipelles. Louvre, 468 II Morbetto. Uffizi, 468 The Triumph of Bacchus in India. Lost, 484 Project for a Tomb. Lost, 496 1 This list only mentions drawings unconnected with any particular fresco or picture. A description of the others will be found in the paragraphs devoted to the works for which they were studies. Catalogue of the Principal Works of Raphael, xxiii PORTRAITS. Portrait of Raphael by himself. University Gallery, Oxford, 17 Portraits of Young Girls. Academy of Fine Arts, Venice, 38, 39 Study for the Portrait of a Young Girl. Wicar Museum, 162 Another. In the Same Collection, 205 Pietro Bembo. Lost, 171 Timoteo della Viti. British Museum, 434 VARIOUS. View of Urbino. Academy of the Fine Arts, Venice, 1 Design for Bronze Dish. (1540.) Dresden Gallery, 28, 372, 396 Another. University Gallery, Oxford, 392 COMPOSITIONS ENGRAVED FROM LOST DESIGNS. Lueretia, 299, 314, 468 Model for a Perfume Vase, 393 The Judgment of Paris, 468 Quos Ego, 468 Venus at the Bath, 468-469 VARIOUS WORKS. /fie Scenery for the " Suppositi " (1548), 32o Designs for Medals for Baldassare Castiglione, 457 WORKS WRONGLY ATTRIBUTED TO RAPHAEL. San Sebastiano. Bergamo Museum, 28 Portrait of Caesar Borgia. Borghese Gallery, 86re. Christ in the Garden of Olives. National Gallery, London, 93, 165, 173 Portraits of Balasio and Baldassare. Academy of Fine Arts, Florence, 178 Madonna della Prefetissa, 198 and note Portrait of a Female known as the Fornarina. Uffizi, 490 The Madonna of St. Luke. Academy of St. Luke, Rome, 315 The Uguccioni Palace, Florence, 452 Project for Facade of San Lorenzo. Albertina Collection, 452 Fountain of the Tortoises, Rome, 456?i. The Wax Head, in the Wicar Museum, 456». VIEW OF URBINO. CHAPTER I. The town of Urbino and the Montefeltro dynasty. — The Santi family.— Giovanni Santi. — Birth of Raphael. — First impressions and earliest efforts. — Death of Giovanni Santi. — Departure of Raphael for Perugia. The little duchy of Urbino, which had the honour of giving birth at a few years' interval to the greatest of modern architects and to the greatest of modern painters, to Bramante * and to Raphael, is situated in the centre of the Apennines, at the point where Tuscany and Umbria meet. Few Italian provinces have more varied scenery, for there fertile and smiling hills suddenly sheer up into abrupt mountains ; and while in one place the horizon is shut in by fantastic peaks, in another the eye can penetrate to the vast panorama of the Adriatic. In the second half of the fifteenth century, the duchy of Urbino was •governed by the valiant and enlightened dynasty of the Montefeltros. Duke Frederick, who died in 1482, a year before the birth of Raphael, had fascinated 1 There has been some dispute as to the birthplace of Bramante, but thanks to the able researches of M. de Geymiiller, we now know that the illustrious architect of St. Peter's was born in the villa da Monte Asdrualdo, near Permignano, three miles from Urbino. {Projets primitifs pour la Basilique ch Saint Pierre de Borne. Paris, 1875—80, pp. 18—20.) B 2 Raphael. all Italy by his exploits and his splendour. He was a commander of the highest order, the worthy pupil of Piccinino, and the almost invariably successful adversary of Sigismund Malatesta, the " enemy of God and man." The Montefeltros were not ashamed to be mercenaries, 1 or condottieri, and the title of Gonfalonier of the Church, conferred in later years upon the son of Duke Frederick by Pope Julius II., was only a complimentary one. But no one could have carried out his engagements with more chivalrous fidelity aud dignity than Frederick, whose court was frequented by the young Italian noblemen who wished to become familiar with all that belongs to a soldier's calling, and to fit themselves for the duties of statesmanship. Frederick of Urbino's chief claim, however, to the regard of his contempo raries and of posterity was the protection which he extended to literature and art. His was the golden age of the Renaissance. After a long eclipse classic antiquity had made her appearance, and warriors and statesmen, financiers and prelates, princes and republics rivalled one another in their endeavours to re-establish in her rights the goddess who had not been dead but sleeping. But deep as was the enthusiasm, there was not, in the first place, anything exclusive about it ; on the contrary, it seemed to develop the faculty of admiration for the works which were the very opposite of ancient genius, for in perusing the catalogues of the libraries formed at Urbino, Florence, Rome, Pavia and Naples, it is impossible not to be struck by the readiness with which their founders associated Christian antiquity, and even the Middle Ages, with pagan antiquity. Dante and Petrarch were to be found side by side with Homer and Virgil ; while Aristotle and Cicero had their places beside the Fathers of the Church. Nothing due to the brush of Giotto was effaced to make room for paintings more in harmony with modern taste, and the triumph of a new style of architecture did not lead to the demolition of a single Gothic cathedral. Far from causing a brusque rupture with the past, the early Renaissance had a distinctly reconciling tendency, its programme being not to destroy as a preliminary to construction, but to take classic antiquity as a starting-point, and to favour the expansion of all liberal senti ments. It was when the Renaissance put a ban upon what stood outside antiquity that it killed the national aspirations and became barren. We can point to the history of Italian art from the second half of the sixteenth century— to its long and painful death-agony — as the penalty such narrowness brings with it. Tlie sincerity of his enthusiasm and the great sacrifices which he made 1 This fact is made very clear by Viscount Delaborde in liis treatise on arts "and letters at the court of Urbino. (Etudes sur les Beaux-Arts en France et en Italie Paris 1864, vol. i. p. 145.) Duke Frederick of Urbino. 3 have won for Duke Frederick of Montefeltro a place beside the two noblest champions of the early Renaissance, Pope Nicholas V. and King Alfonso V. of Naples. M. Rio, in his work on Christian Art, puts the Urbinate prince even above the Medicis, than whom he was more disinterested; for it is difficult to believe that the encouragement given to new ideas by those financiers, who were so eager to place their country under the yoke of despotism, could have been exempt from selfish calculations, while the Duke of Urbino had no need for extraneous devices to secure the affections of his subjects, whose cry of " God preserve our good Duke " came from the bottom of their hearts. Vespasiano de' Bisticci, the biographer of Frederick, relates several facts which prove very clearly the fondness of the duke for literature, science and art. He spent thirty thousand gold ducats upon the formation of a library ; but it is worthy of note that he shared the prejudices of many of his contemporaries with regard to printed works, which were just beginning to circulate in Italy, and nothing would have induced him to admit one of them into his library. His manuscripts were encased in splendid bindings, and they now form what is known as the " Urbino section." Differing in that respect from many other book-collectors, Frederick was not content to fill his shelves with rare and precious volumes and there to let them stay ; he either read them himself or had them read to him. Plutarch's lives and the works of Xenophon, soldier and savant like himself, had an equal attraction for him, and he paid particular attention to the treatises on the art of government by Aristotle. He was always read to during his meals.1 The interest which Frederick took in art was not less thorough than that which he felt in literature, and according to his biographer it was the duke in person who superintended the construction of the palace at Urbino and gave the dimensions of it to his architect Luciano di Martino da Lauranna. He was also very well up in sculpture, and to hear him talking with a sculptor one would have imagined that he had used the chisel himself. He had his own ideas, too, about painting ; and as the masters who then peopled Umbria, Tuscany, the Marches of Mantua, and many other Italian provinces, did not please him, he sent for a Flemish painter, Justus of Ghent. Proofs of his indomitable will and varied knowledge are to be found in the smallest details of the decoration of his palace. The duke insisted that the tapestries which 1 The eclecticism of Frederick shows itself in the choice of philosophers, poets, savants, prophets, or fathers of the Church, whose portraits he had painted for his study. These portraits embraced Moses and Solomon, Homer, Solon, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Cicero, Virgil, Seneca, Boethius, St. Jerome, St. Augustin, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory the Great, Altertus Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Petrarch, Pius II., Beesarion, Sixtus IV., etc. B 2 4 Raphael. were woven at Urbino by artists brought from Flanders, the woodwork and the moulding, should alternate in the decorations of the different rooms or mutually complete each other. Whether by chance or deliberately, Raphael, in his subsequent decoration of the Vatican, resorted to the same three methods. Inlaid wood gave the beautiful doors which were executed by Giovanni of Verona and Giovanni Bavili ; stucco and frescoes were both employed in the Loggia, and tapestry completed the cycle of pictures in the Sistine chapel. To these marvels of contemporary art were added various collections of priceless value. Besides the richly illuminated manuscripts of the ducal library, referred to above, there Avas a splendid picture gallery, one of the gems in whioh was a small picture by Jan van Eyck, representing women bathing, which Fazio,1 writing in 1456, declared to be a masterpiece of finish. Castiglione2 expressly states, however, that the ancient masters were well represented, though the Venus which was so much admired in the Urbino palace, and which in 1502 became the property of the Marchioness Isabella of Mantua, was not acquired until long after the death of Frederick. Like the Cupid of Michael Angelo, it was a present made to Guidobaldo, about the year 1496, by Caesar Borgia,3 who, when he captured the capital of the Montefeltros in 1502, as a matter of course took back his presents, together with other artistic treasures to the value of 150,000 gold ducats. Frederick's son, Guidobaldo, born in 1472, carried on the glorious traditions of his father. Brought up by the learned Martinengo, he displayed from his earliest days a very marked fondness for study, and both literature and art found in him a hearty patron. His courage and his good sense further endeared him to his subjects, while his wife, Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the Marquis of Mantua, helped, by her beauty and grace, to consolidate his hold upon the affections of his subjects. The inhabitants of Urbino showed how attached they were to their prince when they rose, in 1503, against the tyranny of Caesar Borgia and brought Guidobaldo back. It was amid associations so well calculated to develop lofty sentiments and brilliant qualities that Raphael was born. 1 De Viris Illustrious, edition of 1745, p. 47. I have no hesitation in identifying this picture, which, in the time of Fazio, was in the possession of Cardinal Octavianus, with the one which Vasari mentions as belonging to Duke Frederick II. (read Frederick I. of Urbino), and which he calls the stufa (warm bath). (Le Vite de' pvii eccellenti piltori, scultori ed architetti, vol. i. p. 163.) — All our citations from Vasari refer, in the absence of any indi cation to the contrary, to the edition published at Florence by Lemonnier, 1846—70. 3 "Per ornamento v' aggiunse una infinita di statue antiche di marmo e di bronzo, pitture singularissime, instrumenti rnusici d' ogni sorte, ne quivi cosa alcuna volse se non rarissima ed eceellente." (Cortegiano, book i. p. 15 of the edition of 1733.) 3 Gaye, Carteggio, vol. ii. p. 53. See also Herr Richter's interesting article in the ZeU- sehriftfur hildende Kunst, 1877, p. 132 and following. Duke Guidobaldo op Urbino. 5 It is true if he had been a native of Florence he would from his youth have been within the influence of a more intense artistic movement, and have, at an earlier period of life, been in full possession of the secrets of his profession, as he would also have had a fuller knowledge of classic RAPHAEL'S BIBTHELAOE. antiquity, the fruitful source of progress. But it seems to me that, taking everything into account, his intellectual development lost nothing by his having been born at Urbino. It was important for him to spend his youth amid peaceful surroundings, and to gain an appreciation of the beauties of nature while he was learning the rudimentsof drawing. Urbino offered 6 Raphael. him-and that was the essential point— very excellent models, upon which was impressed the mark of the Renaissance, so that when the time came these germs fructified and gave a vigorous impulse to his genius. " The patient researches of a scholar of Urbino, Father Louis Pungileoni, have procured for us a very complete acquaintance with the family history of Raphael.1 His family belonged to a large village called Colbordolo, situated some few miles from the capital, and a person named Santi is known to have lived there in the fourteenth century. One of his descendants, the great-grand father of Raphael, Pietro or Peruzzolo, was a merchant at Colbordolo a century later, and after the pillage of his house and lands by Sigismund Malatesta, in 1446, the fear of a second attack induced him to go and live in Urbino. He came to Urbino in 1450, and died there seven years later, and his son carried on his business, also opening a shop for the sale of grocery, hardware, and so forth. His trade seems to have prospered, and he had saved enough money by 1463 to buy for 200 ducats,2 a house, or rather two houses situated close together, in one of those steep streets of which there are so many at Urbino, the Contrada del Monte.3 This modest dwelling was destined to become very famous, for it was here that Raphael was born ; and in the seventeenth century, an architect of Urbino, Muzio Oddi, having purchased one of the two houses, put up a tablet with the following Latin inscription, in which the humble aspect of the house is compared with the imperishable memories connected with it : NVNQVAM MORITVRVS EXIGVIS HISCE IN ^EDIBVS EXIMIVS ILLE PICTOR . RAPHAEL NATVS EST OCT. ID. APR. AN. MCDXXCIII VENERARE IGITVR HOSPES NOMEN ET GENIVM LOCI NE MIRERE LVDIT IN HVMANIS DIVINA POTENTIA REBVS. ET SjEPE IN PARVIS CLAVDERE MAGNA SOLET. 1 Elogio Slorico di Raffaelo Santi da Urbino. Urbino, 1829. 2 It is very difficult to ascertain the relative value of moneys in the fifteenth century. At Rome, the gold ducat of the Apostolic Chamber (consisting of seventy-two Bologna pieces) weighed about 3J grammes, so that it would be now worth about 9s. 6d., barring the differ ence in the purchasing power of money. This difference, according to competent judges, is in the proportion of one to four, or even to five. The Roman ducat would, therefore, be Worth now about 21. (it has been put as high as 21. 8s. by one authority). At Urbino, the custom was to count as a rule by ducats or florins of forty Bologna pieces. 3 The street is now called Contrada di Raffaello. Giovanni Santi. 7 The birthplace of Raphael now belongs to the Academy of Urbino, which purchased it, in 1873, with the money resulting from a subscription started by the late Count Pompeo Gherardi, to which Mr. Morris Moore contributed 200 guineas.1 In a letter addressed to Duke Guidobaldo, Giovanni Santi, the son of Sante and the father of Raphael, dwells in some detail upon the difficulties of his early life, beginning with the destruction of his home by Sigismund Malatesta,2 and going on to speak of the hard work he had to earn a livelihood. He ultimately selected the noblest of careers, that of an artist, and the worthy Giovanni becomes enthusiastic when he speaks of the marvellous and very famous art of painting {la mirdbile, la clarissima arte de pictura). Notwith standing the anxieties arising from the maintenance of his family, he did not regret his decision, though he often found very heavy a burden which, to use his own words, would have appalled Atlas himself. At what date Giovanni Santi began to work on his own account is uncertain, but we know that by the year 1469 he had his studio at Urbino, and in that year he was intrusted with the duty of receiving as a guest Piero della Francesca, one of the most famous representatives of the Florentine School, who had been summoned by the Brotherhood of the Corpus Domini to execute an altarpiece. Thinking that he would be more comfortable in the house of a fellow artist than at an inn, they asked Santi to lodge him, and though the latter' s pride must have suffered at finding a stranger selected to paint in the city in preference to himself, he received the Florentine with a good, grace, and afterwards praised his talents in his Rhymed Chronicle of Urbino.3 Giovanni Santi was, in all likelihood, past his first youth when he married Magia Ciarla, the daughter of a well-to-do tradesman of Urbino, who brought him a dowry of 150 florins, which is equivalent to 150/. or 200/. of our money.4 1 The total cost was 800/. Ingres, who had the utmost veneration for all that related to his favourite master, made a drawing of Raphael's house, which was published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1861, vol. ii. p. 45. 2 Giovanni Santi would seem, therefore, to have been born previous to that event, that is before 1446. 3 This was not the only time that Giovanni Santi had the mortification of seeing strangers intrusted in his native town with works which he could have himself executed with credit. In the month of June, 1494, the Brotherhood of the Holy Ghost at Urbino instructed Luca Signorelli to paint a banner for them. (Pungileoni, Elogio Storico di Giovanni Santi, pittore epoeta, padre del gran Raffaello di Urbino. Urbino, 1822, p. 77.) 4 The following figures will give some idea of the relative value of this sum. At Florence, about 1480, the amount of the dowry in the artistic world varied between 150 and 300 gold florins, and it was about the same in most of the other Italian towns. At Mantua, for instance, we find Andrea Mantegna giving his daughter a dowry of 200 ducats in 1499. There is an exception in the case of Perugino, whose wife, Clara Fancelli, -brought him 500 8 Raphael. From this marriage was born on the 2Sth of March, 1483,1 the boy who was destined to shed such lustre on the name of Santi. His father, says Passavant, gave him the name of an archangel, as if he had foreseen the celestial splendour which his son was destined to attain, and Vasari adds that he would not allow the child to be taken from its mother's breast and put out to nurse. Two other children, a boy and a girl, died in infancy. One likes to fancy Raphael surrounded from his cradle with the smiling faces of Madonnas contemplating with tenderness the divine "bambino," and of cherubs wafted upon purple clouds, and in this case the reality is kind to fancy. The first picture which Giovanni Santi painted after the birth of his son was well calculated to strike the imagination of the child, and to fix in his jiiuniory certain types of ineffable grace and tenderness. Giovanni received in 1483 the order for an altarpiece which was to be placed in the Church of Gradara, and in this work, which was completed on the 10th of April, 1484, when Raphael was only a year old, the face of Jesus, who is represented as sitting on his mother's knee, is very beautiful. His countenance, his figure and attitude, all remind one of the " putti " which are to be found in so many of Raphael's compositions, and which are the most perfect expression of infancy. Another painting, a fresco still preserved in the house of the Santis, represents a young woman sitting in front of a desk upon which is placed a book, and holding on her knees a child asleep with his head resting on his left arm (see engraving on opposite page). Much injured as this picture is, it still retains traces of its primitive beauty, and the marked florins, which was a very large sum for the time ; for the wealthiest patricians of Florence, Giovanni Ruccella'i and Lorenzo the Magnificent, did not give their daughters more than 2000 florins. 1 The reader will excuse us for going into some detail as to the date, which is not gene rally accepted. Several authors, notably Passavant, arguing from the funeral inscription of Raphael, which says that the artist, who died on Good Friday, April 6th, 1520, was thirty- seven years of age to a day, give the date of his birth as April 6th, 1 183. The evidence of Vasaii is, however, very positive. Raphael, he says, was born in 1483, on Good Friday, at three o'clock in the night (that is, according to our reckoning, at a quarter to ten in the evening). He acids that his death occurred on his birthday, Good Friday of 1520. At this period, when astrology and the horoscopes were thought so much of, people paid a good deal more attention to any remarkable events which occurred at the time of a birth than to the actual date. So that what struck contemporary writers the most was that Raphael was born and died on a Good Friday. We should add that the latest editors of Vasari, as well as Messrs. Robinson, Springer, Commander Paliard, and others, declare in favour of the date of March 28th. — After these explanations we may be forgiven for passing over the arguments of Piper and Crowe and Cavalcaselle in favour of another view. Family Events. 9 individuality of the features, coupled with the absence of a halo, justifies the belief that this is a picture not of the Virgin and Child but of the painter's wife and son.1 Magia doubtless sat very often like this beside her husband while he was at work, and though the house of the Santis was a very modest one, Raphael as a child could not have lived amid more perfect artistic surroundings. Illness and death soon cast a shadow over the happiness of his father and mother, for in 1485 Giovanni Santi lost, at a few weeks' interval, his father and one of his sons, probably older than Raphael ; and the archives of Urbino RAPHAEL AND HIS 110THEK. give us some idea as to the pecuniary position of the family at this period. The father of Giovanni left his two daughters a hundred ducats each, to his son Bartolommeo, who was a priest, seventy ducats, and the remainder of his fortune, including his house, to Giovanni himself. His widow, Elizabeth, continued to live with her son Giovanni, who also found room for his sister Santa when she lost her husband, who was a tailor by trade. Santa had a little money of her own, and as Giovanni earned a certain amount, their 1 This opinion is held by the most competent judges, such, for instance, as Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. i0 Raphael. position was relatively prosperous. But fresh trouble was in store for Giovanni as his mother died on the 3rd of October, 1491, her death being followed at an interval of only four days by that of his beloved wife, while on the 25th of the same month his daughter, aged only a few months, also died. Raphael at that time was only eight years old. Giovanni found a solitary life unendurable, and a few months later, on the "5th of May, 1492, he contracted a new marriage, his second wife, Bernardina Parte, daughter of a goldsmith at Urbino, bringing him a dowry of 200 florins. From the° disputes which afterwards occurred between Bernardina and her husband's family it is to be inferred that she was not of so gentle a disposition as Magia, and that she was scarcely a mother to Raphael. The union, however, was not of long duration, for Giovanni died two years after his second marriage, on the 1st of August, 1494. For his will, dictated two days before his death, he appointed his brother Bartolommeo guardian of Raphael and of the child of which his wife was delivered shortly afterwards, providing that she should have the use of the house as long as she remained a widow. The total amount of his property was 860 florins. Some documents recently discovered by the Marquis J. Campori,.of Modena, throw some fresh light upon the history of Raphael's father during the last years of his life, showing that he was in communication with the princely family,1 and that the Duchess Elisabetta had employed him to paint her portrait and that of some one attached to the court of the Gonzagas, probably Bishop Louis of Mantua. His death prevented him from completing these two works, and the letter by which the Duchess announced the sad news to her sister-in-law, the Marchioness of Mantua (August 19th, 1494), proves that he was no stranger to her, for she writes, " Giovanni de' Santi, painter, succumbed about three weeks ago ; he died in full possession of his senses, and at peace with all men. May God have mercy on his soul ! " 2 1 If the conjecture of the Inventaire des autographes et des documents historiques composant la collection de M. Benjamin Fillon, series ix. et x. (Paris, 1879, p. 125) is correct, Giovanni Santi must have been attached in 1483 to the household of Duke Guidobaldo. As a matter of fact, the physician of the duke, Antonio Braccaleone, in a letter from Urbino, dated May 10th, 1483, speaks of a portrait painted by the duke's painter, "who is a disciple of the Muses,'' and we know that Giovanni cultivated poetry as well as painting, for he is the author of some Chronicles in Rhyme. It was probably to him, therefore, that Braccaleone alluded. We may mention by the way, that the father of Raphael had already drawn a portrait of Duke Frederick, and this portrait, which is in silver point heightened with white, is in the Christ Church collection at Oxford. (Robinson, A critical account of the drawings by Michael Angela and, Raphael in the University Galleries, Oxford. Oxford, 1870, p. 314.) 2 " Ell' e circa vinti di, che Giovanni de' Sancti depinctore passo di questa vita presente et e morto cum bono intellecto et optima dispositione, a la cui anima el N.S Dio habbia concesso verace perdona." (Campori, Notiz'ie e Doeumenti per la vita di Giovanni Santi e di Rafaello Santi da Urbino. Modena, 1870, in quarto, p. 4.) The Works of Santi. 1 1 A letter written seven weeks later (October 13th, 1494), gives some further details. This letter is written by the Duchess to her brother, the Marquis of Mantua, and she says : " In reply to the despatch which Your Excellency sent me, I write to inform you that when Giovanni Santi was with you he was too ill to complete the portrait, and the same reason prevented him from going on with mine. If Your Excellency will send me a plate like the others, I will have my portrait painted upon it by a skilful artist whom I am expecting here, and send it to you as soon as it is finished. ... I have ordered the companion of the said Giovanni to make a search for it diligently, but he tehs me that he can find nothing." When, ten years later, the sister-in-law of Duchess Elisabetta, Jeanne de Montefeltro, spoke in a letter of introduction which she gave Raphael for the Gonfalonnier Pietro Soderini, of Florence, of her regard for his father, it was not a mere formality, but the expression of her real sentiments. This, as will be seen hereafter, explains much that was hitherto obscure in Raphael's history. The town of Urbino and the neighbouring cities, as well as several public galleries, notably the Lateran at Rome, the Brera at Milan, the National Gallery, London, and the Berlin Gallery, still contain pictures by Giovanni Santi. They are, for the most part, Annunciations, Madonnas, and Holy Families, or in some instances, likenesses of apostles or saints. There are a few portraits, too, but the originals are not as a rule known. Santi's art moved in a rather narrow groove, but the spirit of his work and the qualities which he displayed are worthy of respect. He showed, too, that he had acquired familiarity with the tendencies and methods of Paolo Uccello, who was painting at Urbino in 1468 ; of Piero della Francesca, who, as already mentioned, came there in the following year; of Andrea Mantegna; of Melozzo da Forli, and of Peruzio ; that is to say, of men who were all in one way or another original artists. The influence of the two latter is to be traced in nearly all his pictures, for Giovanni borrowed from the one his precision of outline, accuracy of perspective and skill in composition, while from the other he derived much of his exquisite grace and mystic tendencies. He showed great skill in fusing these aspirations, which it may seem at first sight im possible to harmonise, and secured in the ranks of the Umbro-Florentine school a very high ^standing. His works are full of body and well balanced ; what they are mainly deficient in is a warmth of tone. There is a good deal of grace, and in some cases no little energy, in his faces, and his conceptions as a whole have an indefinable air of sincerity, while here and there may be discerned a 1 2 Raphael. touch which reminds one of his son — a part of a head or an attitude which the latter may have unconsciously reproduced years afterwards. His children's faces were particularly calculated to make an impression on his son, whose artistic instinct, to say nothing of his filial affection, led him to profit by such excellent models. This sketch of the character and talents of Giovanni Santi would be incomplete if we did not say something about the poet as well as the painter. The Rhymed Chronicle, which is now in the Vatican Library, has been published in part by Passavant, and it provides us with some interesting evidence as to the erudition and eclecticism of Raphael's father. In his poem, devoted to the glorification of his sovereign, Duke Frederick, and dedicated O CD ' to the latter's son, Duke Guidobaldo,1 the writer celebrates the achievements of his hero in the field, and his literary and artistic liberalities. Santi is very prone to digressions, but this is a fault upon which we are not inclined to be severe, for it enables us to form a very good idea of his tastes and views. There is notably a dissertation entitled Una disputa della Pittura, in which he discusses the merits of the principal artists of the fifteenth century. Giovanni Santi has heard of the famous John of Bruges (Jan van Eyck), and of his pupil, Rogier van der Weyden. They were, he says, such gifted artists that they often outdid nature herself in the beauty of their tones. He speaks too of good king Rene, who, like Scipio and Caesar, cultivated at once the art of painting and that of war. Of the Italians, his greatest admiration is for Mantegna, and more or less flattering references are made to Gentile da Fabriano, Fra Angelico, Pisanello, Filippo Lippi and his son FilippinO' Masaccio, Melozzo da Forli (" Melozzo a me si caro "), Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandajo, Sandro Botticelli, Luca Signorelli, Antonello da Messina, Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, and Cosimo Tura. He speaks well, too, of many sculptors, such as Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Rossellino, Ghiberti, Verrocchio, and Antonio Riccio. This collective mention of names which are so opposed to one another in appearance, shows that Giovanni Santi was as impartial as his son afterwards proved to be. At the time of his father's death, Raphael was not twelve years old, so that he scarcely knew what paternal affection was, and his heart was deprived of the joys of family life, just when they would have been most precious to him. In spite of the premature death of Giovanni Santi, competent judges are of opinion that there is much affinity of style between the works of father and 1 The poem must therefore have been written after the accession of that prince, on September 10th, 1482. Education. 13 son. The Annunciation in the Brera Museum, that at Cagli, the St. Jerome in the Lateran Museum, to mention only a few well-known works, are remarkable for -a certain charm, and for a purity and harmony of line which dimly foreshadow the immortal painter of the Vatican. It is probable, moreover, that Raphael received lessons from his father, as at that time painters went through an apprenticeship of fifteen years, while during the later Renaissance they reached maturity more quickly. Mantegna was only seventeen years old when he painted the Virgin in the Church of St. Sophia at Padua; Michael Angelo, who was born in 1475, and who in 1488 entered the studio of Ghirlandajo, sculptured the following year, when scarcely fifteen, the face of the faun which struck the attention of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Fra Bartolommeo, born a year or two earlier, was taken into Cosimo Rosselli's studio in 1484, and he was only fifteen when he set up on his own account. Perugino, too, entered on his apprenticeship at the age of nine, and Andrea del Sarto was but seven when he was put as an apprentice to a goldsmith. Allowing three or four years for the regular apprenticeship, and as much for the journeyman stage, by sixteen a young man might thus have completed his studies. Supposing Raphael to have been no exception to this rule, he may very well have begun, to draw and have received a few lessons from his father before the latter's death. But it is impossible to accept Vasari's statement that the son assisted the father in the execution of his later works, for he was only eleven years old when his father died, and rapid as the development of his talent may have been, that would have been simply miraculous. We would rather see him as he was, not exempt from the painful efforts and hesitations by which the greatest of artists have to work their way upwards. It is probable that the remarkable drawing in the Academy at Venice, the Massacre of the Innocents, was executed by Raphael under his father's superintendence. Amid much that is quite childlike in its inexperience, one can detect a force of inspiration and a purity of taste which shows how great was Raphael's promise from his earliest years, and how much he had benefited by his father's teaching. What we have said as to the tastes of Giovanni Santi renders it certain that his son received, in addition to careful artistic teaching, a sound literary education. The Italian artists of the fifteenth century were, as a rule, less ignorant than is generally supposed, and it would be difficult to name one who could not read or write. Bramante himself, whose education had been very much neglected, and who was called " illiterate " by his contemporaries, wrote excellent sonnets, and this will show what was the extent of knowledge possessed by those who had been able to complete their studies. In looking over the collection of autographs of the Italian artists of the Middle Ages and 14 Raphael. the Renaissance published by Messrs. Milanesi and Pini,1 one sees that the writing is in some instances clumsy, and the spelling incorrect ; but there is a vast difference between awkwardness and complete ignorance. Compared with that of his contemporaries Raphael's writing is remarkable for its elegance and correctness. One can see that he was accustomed to the pen. He also learnt beyond doubt the rudiments of Latin ; and the study of that language, which the Italians had never ceased to cultivate, and which they THE MASSACRE OF THE IXNOOF.KTS. (From the Drawing in the Venice Academy.) held in almost as much honour as their own, was not confined in the fifteenth century to the narrow circle of humanists. Mantegna almost unconsciously employs Latin phrases in his Italian letters,2 and Giuliano da San-Gallo composed a special alphabet by means of the epigraphic letters which he had found on the monuments of ancient Rome.3 Leonardo da Vinci is continually I La Scrittura di arlisti italiani reprodolta con la fotografia e corredala d'illustrazioni. Secolo xiv.— xvn. Florence, 1873. 3 vols, in quarto. 3 Lettere pittoriche, Ticozzi edition, vol. viii. p. 22. 3 See his Note-book, preserved in the Sienna Library. Education. 1 5 quoting Latin ; and Perugino, who was notoriously unlettered, made a point of signing and dating his works in Latin, and, strange, to say, never made a mistake.1 Even the addresses on letters and the headings and endings were usually given in Latin, so it is very certain that Raphael must have used the Latin grammar which Venturi published at Urbino itself in 1494. It will be objected, perhaps, that in after years he got his friend Fabio Calvi of Ravenna to translate Vitruvius for him ; but there is a great difference between having a general knowledge of a language and being well up in the technical terms which abound in the Treatise on Architecture. We may therefore assert that Raphael knew as much Latin as the bulk of his contemporaries. By his father's death, Raphael not only lost an instructor and guide, but was compelled to listen to continual disputes about money. Dom Bar- tolommeo, his uncle and guardian, and his step-mother, to whom had been born a daughter called Elisabetta, so frequently quarrelled about money that the law had to intervene, and without laying the whole blame upon the widow of Giovanni Santi, it is to be noted that Raphael, when once he had left them, did not keep up any very intimate communication with her or her daughter, and never alludes to them in his letters. Fortunately he was much liked by his mother's family, and his uncle Simone Ciarla showed him kindness, for which he never failed to express his gratitude. When in his letters he speaks of his uncle as being as dear as a father (" carissimo in loco di padre ") it was more than one of those formal expres sions, such as were used at that time, and his aunt Santa, his father's sister, who continued to reside in the house after his father's death, also took much interest in his welfare. Raphael in after years gave one of his dearest friends, the Florentine Taddeo Taddei, who proposed to pay a visit to Urbino, a letter of recommendation to her, and it is pleasant to find that the great painter never forgot his humble relatives. If the money quarrels which followed his father's death left a painful impression upon his early youth, he was at all events exempt from privation. It is true that his inheritance was not large enough to admit of his studying art as a mere amateur, and that he had to fight his way to independence 1 The same cannot be said of all his contemporaries. The medallist Peter, of Milan, inscribed upon the reverse of the medal representing King Rene, Opus Petrus de Mediolano. (Some kind friend pointed out to him the solecism which he had committed, for his medal of Queen Jeanne of Laval bears the inscription, correct in this instance, Opus Petri de Mediolano.) The upholsterer Benedict of Milan wrote still worse Latin, Ego Beneditus de Mediolani hoc opus fecit con sociis suvis. Yet these very mistakes show how general was the use of Latin. , 1G Raphael. and wealth. But he must none the less have appreciated the advantage which his position, modest as it was, gave him over most of his comrades. It was something to be able to pursue his studies without being compelled to think of the morrow, as is illustrated by the position of his future teacher, Perugino, who, according to Vasari, was so poor that for many months he had no bed but a wooden chest. So acutely did he feel the pangs of poverty that he braved fatigue and privations of every kind to become rich, and at last acquired a name for being too fond of money; so true. it is that poverty often lowers the noblest talents, even when it does not crush out energy and permanently degrade the character. There has never, until quite recently, been any doubt that 'Raphael entered the studio of Perugino in 1495, but this date is incorrect, for Perugino, between 1493 and 1499, while making several excursions to various parts of Italy, resided chiefly at Florence, and not at Perugia.1 Though he may have come to the latter town now and again, he did not. stay long, and only took up his residence there towards the end of 1499, just. as he began the frescoes of the famous Sala di Cambio. On the other hand,- we know that Raphael was recorded in the registers of Urbino as being present in his native town on June 5th, 1499, and that in the following year the registrar wrote the word " absent " against his name. His admission into the studio of Perugino must, therefore, have been four or five years later than was generally supposed, that is to say, when he was about sixteen years old.2 But if upon this point preconceived views are erroneous, there is ample confirmation of what has previously been said with regard to his dibut at Perugia, in which town he received his first lessons and became familiar with the methods of the Umbrian School. How the interval between the death of Giovanni Santi and Raphael's departure for Perugia was passed we do not know, but perhaps — though it is only a guess — he received lessons in his native town from Timoteo Viti, who returned to Urbino in 1495, after having studied for some time at Bologna in the studio of Francia, and this is the more likely as they were very intimate friends. 1 In 1494, we find him at Cremona and Venice ; in 1496 at Florence, Perugia, and the neighbourhood of Milan (letter written by Ludovic the Moor to Father Arcimboldo, asking the latter to send him Perugino, Milan, June 8th, 1496, published in Indagini. . . . sulla lib-eria Visconteo-Sforzesca del castello di Pavia, by the Marquis G. d'Adda, Milan, 1875, vol. i. p. 168) ; in 1497 at Florence and at Fano ; in 1498 and 1499 at Florence, where he was received (September 1st) as a member of the corporation of painters. (See Vasari (Milanesi) vol. iii. pp. 611 612.) 2 The credit of proving this is due to Herr A. Springer, who first put the facts together in an article of the Zeitschriftfur bildende Kunst, 1873, pp. 67, 68. Education. 17 When Raphael rose to greatness he did not forget the friend of his youth, but sent for him to Rome to assist in the painting of the Sibyls in the Pace! POIITI1AIT OF RAPHAEL. (Drawing in the University Galleries, Oxford. After the return of Viti to Urbino, he was more than once asked by Raphael to pay him a second visit, as we learn from Vasari, who saw the letters which c 1 8 Raphael. Raphael wrote to him.1 It may be added that Viti, who imitated Raphael's style very well, owned a fine collection of drawings given him by the latter, and the finest Raphaels in the Crozat collection were derived from the accumulations which were kept intact until 1714 by Viti's descendants.2 It has recently been argued by the senators Morelli and Minghetti, among others, that many pictures and drawings in which little trace of Peruginesque influence is to be found, were executed by Raphael under the guidance of Viti, and before he had ever entered Perugino's studio. Among these may be named the Two Archers, at Lille (which is a copy after Signorelli) ; the Vision of a Knight, in the National Gallery ; the Angels at the Tomb of Christ, at Oxford ; and a small Madonna in the same collection (Braun, No. 10). But this theory has been victoriously combated by Springer, who shows that it is the Timoteo of 1504 that is reflected in the Vision of a Knight!' 3 1 Vol. vii. p. 152. 2 This piece of information has been handed down to us by one of the most gifted, amateurs of the last century, P. J. Mariette. Speaking of Timoteo Viti, he says : " There; are many pen and ink drawings which one would attribute to Raphael if one did not know, that they were by Timoteo Viti. . . Raphael had so much regard for him and he had so much admiration for Raphael, that he never parted with a very fine series of drawings which; the latter had given him. They were still in the possession of his descendants at Urbino' when M. Crozat saw them there, and purchased them for his collection." — Abecedario, vol.' vi. p. 86. 3 The present editor, too, has shown, in the Portfolio for June 1884, that one of the figures, in this picture proclaims the influence of Perugino even more strongly than the other two do that of Timoteo.— "W. A. ; CHAPTER II. Raphael at Perugia.— Perugino and the Umbrian School— The Cambio Frescoes.— Joint works of Perugino and Raphael— Return of Perugino to Florence. If in some respects Raphael's new residence was less desirable than the town he had left, he was at all events much better off as regards the beauty of the surrounding scenery and the varied nature of the impressions to be derived from it. Here, too, he was able to inhale the bracing mountain air and to gaze upon sites full of poetic beauty. Situated in the heart of Umbria and overlooking the plain, Perugia, the ancient Augusta Perusia, forms as it were the centre of an immense amphitheatre. A good road winds up to the summit of the eminence upon which the town is built, and the view, at an elevation of 1,600 feet above the level of the sea, is a very fine one. There are few grander panoramas all Italy over, than that which is to be seen at a short distance from the plantation of thick evergreen-oaks on the Piazza di San-Pietro outside the walls. The view extends without a break on three sides, being only limited in the direction of the town. In the distance is to be seen a sea of undulating mountains, rising the one above the other so that they form a vast rampart upon the horizon. When the sun lights up these gigantic masses, the eye can detect the smallest undulations of ground and almost count the in frequent spots of greenery upon the rocky soil. But towards evening the landscape is veiled with those misty tints which lend so much charm to Perugino's pictures — especially to the frescoes of the Cambio — and to the earlier productions of Raphael. At the feet of the spectator extend winding hills, covered with fig-trees, olive-trees, and vines climbing around the stems of the elms. White and dusty roads are to be seen winding amidst foliage which is in places dark-green and in others iron-grey, contributing, with the houses in the distance, to animate and soften the tones of the whole picture. Looking towards Perugia, the view, though a different one, is not less picturesque. Houses, palaces, and churches, rise the one above the other c 2 20 Raphael. upon the incline, the highest standing against a background of mountains, the general effect being finer than that which the most skilful architect could have produced. In the fifteenth century, as now, the traffic was almost entirely confined to the square in front of the municipal palace, the Corso. The principal buildings, of which the inhabitants are so justly proud, are all crowded into a very small compass. First of all there is the Cambio, the seat of the ancient corporation of money-changers, made famous by the frescoes of Perugino. By the side of this edifice, modest in its proportions, rises the Seignorial Palace, with its battlements, its long rows of gothic windows divided in half by mullions of red granite and surmounted by white marble VIEW OF PERUGIA. copings. In spite of its irregular facade, few Italian buildings are more imposing in appearance ; and among the notable features of the interior is the grand staircase with its two lions in white marble at the foot, emblematic guardians of the public liberties, and at the head its griffin and she-wolf in bronze to perpetuate the memory of the victory won by Perugia over her ancient rival Siena. Recollections of victory in the field are also evoked by the Loggia of the merchants, which was built in 1423 by one of Perugia's bravest sons, the famous condottier, Braccio Fortebraccio. Then there is the beautiful fountain carved in 1277 by Giovanni Pisano, while at the cathedral, which forms the western boundary of the square, may still be seen the balcony from which St. Bernardino of Siena harangued the vast Perugia. 21 crowds which flocked in from all parts of Umbria, and who, finding the interior of the building too small, stood outside, as in the time of the Crusades, to listen to the popular preacher. These memories were still fresh when Raphael came to live at Perugia, and they must have taken some root in his mind. The palaces on the opposite side of the square seem at first sight to be out of keeping with the rest, but in spite of the rococo style of their decora tions, they are of somewhat ancient date. Examined closely, it will be seen that eighteenth-century windows have replaced those of the Renaissance, which in their turn had taken the place of gothic embrasures, the out lines of which are still easily traced. These buildings are like palimpsest manuscripts. Owing to the absence of all rough-cast on the outside, the eye can follow in detail every modification which the walls have undergone for over 400 years and ascertain the addition of styles. Thus, while each epoch has made its mark, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are pre dominant ; and so Perugia retains the aspect of a city of the Middle Ages on which the Renaissance has left but faint traces. Considering the rough manners of the aristocracy and the attachment of the middle classes to the customs and beliefs of another age, the intellectual resources of Perugia must have appeared to the young painter as very inferior to those of Urbino, where poetry, science and art were held in such high esteem. It would be a mistake, however, to regard the old Umbrian city as being altogether outside the sphere of the ideas which were then stirring the whole of Italy. Its university had a well- deserved reputation, and in the fifteenth century it included amongst its professors one Pope, Sixtus IV., and two others, Pius III. and Julius II., among its students. A disciple of Piero della Francesca and of G. B. Alberti, a friend of Leonardo da Vinci, Luca Pacioli, the author of the Treatise on Proportions, occupied the chair of Mathematics there at about the time of Raphael's arrival, having been at Perugia in 1476 and 1486, and again in 1500,1 but only to go on to Florence in September of the same year. Perugino must certainly have known him, for Luca Pacioli, as a member of the Milan Academy, would be able to tell him and his pupils of the marvellous creations of Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci in Lombardy. It was at Milan, too, that a famous writer born at Perugia, Jacopo Antiquario, took up his residence, and in letters written to his compatriots2 he must often have told them about the literary and artistic movement to which Ludovico il Moro attached his name. 1 Mariotti, Lettere pittorkhe Perugine, Perugia, 1787, p. 127. 2 Vermiglioli, Memorie di Jacopo Antiquarj, pp. 112, et seq. 22 Raphael. From an artistic point of view the difference between Urbino and Perugia was equally great, for while the former was ruled by high-minded princes who exercised an irresistible influence over the whole population, the latter was inhabited by turbulent and bloodthirsty nobles, and by a middle-class population at once laborious and austere. The Montefeltros, moreover, were very tolerant in their views on art, having employed in turn painters of such different schools as Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Justus of Ghent, Giovanni Santi, Luca Signorelli and Timoteo Viti, while at Perugia there was something like a close body of painters all belonging to one school. In spite of his long residence at Florence and Rome, Pietro Perugino was deeply attached to the Umbrian school, into which, however, he introduced several fresh elements. The sciences of colouring and perspective were by him carried to a higher pitch of perfection than ever before. But these after all were but changes of detail, and he still continued to be in the main the painter of soft and tender scenes, of Madonnas and of Saints. The influence which a great realist painter, Buonfigli, exercised over him was not lasting in its effects, and the religious tendencies of his patrons and of his own talent soon brought him back to the mystic banner of St. Francis of Assisi. There is no need to inquire whether Vasari was right in declaring him. to be a sceptic ; it is enough for us to know that no painter ever represented with more tenderness and suavity the religious sentiment. There was something very exclusive and absorbing about Umbrian art, for excursions into the secular world and above all into the ancient classics, were forbidden ground for its adepts not more through religious scruples than through want of knowledge: Perugino's attempts in this line were unqualified failures, and in his frescoes in the Sistine Cbapel the composition of the triumphal arches shows that he knew nothing of Roman architecture. So, too, with the frescoes in the Sala di Cambio. But another of his compositions from the antique, the Combat of Love and Chastity, would, in spite of the traces of hasty work which it betrays, attract more admiration if it had not the disad vantage of being hung, in the Louvre, next to Andrea Mantegna's Parnassus. Towards the close of his life, Perugino painted another mythological com position. His widow, in a letter addressed to the Marchioness of Mantua, in 1524, speaks of a picture representing Mars and Venus being discovered together by Vulcan (la storia qnando Vulcano cucprc con la rete Venus et Marte). It is not known what became of this picture, which Clara Fancelli offered the Marchioness for sale.1 1 Braghirolli, Notizie e Doeumenti inediti intorno a Pietro Vannucci detto it Pemgino; Perugia, 1874, p. 51. The Umbrian School. 23 There are few types of the portrait in the Umbrian school, and Perugino did not paint more than two or three. It is but rarely that he or his predecessors would consent to introduce even the donor of a picture on a religious subject in an attitude of prayer, while purely historical com positions seem also to have been excluded from the narrow and sacred domain of Umbrian art. Upon the other hand, the artist could be certain that his work would, if executed in good faith, be favourably received in a society so profoundly attached to its religious creed. He knew that the least valuable of his Madonnas, and of his pictures representing Christ on the cross, would touch many a heart, and the poorest villages and monasteries found the money for one of these saintly symbols. Humble peasants found it an ample reward for a long life of labour and privation, to present their village church with some picture which would stimulate piety ; and a striking instance of this is afforded by the following anecdote : In 1507, a humble shoemaker of Perugia gave Perugino the order to paint a picture of the Madonna standing between St. Francis and St. Jerome, and the forty-seven ducats which the painter asked were paid without hesitation. This picture is still to be seen in the Penna Gallery at Perugia. In looking, at it, I was irresistibly reminded of the Gospel parable of the poor widow. The wars and disturbances of various kinds which marked the close of the fifteenth century, so far from arresting the progress of art, favoured its development by exciting the religious feeling of the people. Again and again Perugino comes over from Florence to paint some new masterpiece for his native city. Thus in 1495 the church of San Domenico obtained the Madonna which is now preserved in the gallery of Perugia, and in the following year the chief magistrate renewed a contract with him for decorating the chapel of the town-hall. In the same year, he was entrusted by the church of San Pietro de' Monaci Cassinensi with the painting of the Ascension, now in the Lyons Museum, and he began the Marriage of the Virgin, or Sposalizio, which was not completed until long afterwards. Perugino then did some work for Santa Maria Nuova, at Fano, while delegates from Orvieto were imploring him to fulfil his promise and complete the chapel begun by Fra Angelico. It is to this exuberance of patriotism and piety that we owe what is perhaps the most celebrated of Perugino's works, as it is certainly the most important he ever painted in Umbria. The Cambio frescoes occupy in his career the place the Vatican Stanze do in that of Raphael. The corporation of money-changers at Perugia (L'arte del Cambio) had long been anxious to decorate their council-room with exceptional splendour. They began 24 Raphael. by some wood panelling along the lower part of the walls and by the raised platform upon which the council and rectors took their seats. This work was entrusted to one of the most skilful workers in marqueterie from Florence, Domenico del Tasso, who completed his task in 1493 to the general satisfaction.1 In 1496, it was resolved to decorate the roof and the upper part of the wall, and at a meeting of thirty members, held on the 26th of January, Perugino was unanimously selected. A committee of six members was appointed to settle the matter with Perugino, who was at that time busy on the Ascension, and he agreed to the proposal on the condition that he should be allowed first to complete what had been ordered of him at Florence and other places. He agreed, however, to finish the work by the year 1500, and the price was to be 350 ducats, payable in ten years.2 In this instance, the painter was punctual, for by the end of 1499 the work was so far advanced that the corporation of the Cambio were able to look for its completion in a few months time. It was at this period, most likely, that Raphael entered the studio of Perugino. Pietro Vannucci, surnamed Perugino, though as a matter of fact he was born at Citta della Pieve, was then at the zenith of his fame and talent. He had a host of pupils and followers, while princes and free cities rivalled each other in their efforts to secure him. The Duke of Milan, the Venetian Republic, and the authorities of Orvieto, simultaneously tried in vain to obtain a monopoly of his services. When some ten years before Giovanni Santi in his Rhymed Chronicles spoke so warmly of the Umbrian painter he was only anticipating the popular verdict of a later day, and if he had lived there can be no doubt that he would have selected Perugino as the master for his son, who must often have thought of his lines : Due giovin par d'etate e par d'onori, Leonardo da Vinci e'l Perusino. Pier della Pieve ch'e un divin pittore. 1 A. Rossi, Storia artistica del Cambio di Perugia (Perugia, 1874, p. 7), and Maestri e favori di legname inPervgia nei secoli XV." e XV 1° (Perugia, 1873, pp. 17, 18). 2 Rossi, loc. cit. It would be very interesting to know whether this contract contained clauses such as those which Perugino had allowed to be inscribed a few years before with regard to the dome at Orvieto. In this latter contract he undertook to paint himself all the figures, especially the faces and upper parts of the bodies. He further agreed to use only good and hard colours, and to make the composition as perfect as possible. Perugia. 25 The conditions of apprenticeship at the time when Raphael entered the studio of Perugino are well known to us, and the parents of the apprentice incurred very heavy obligations. Thus when the father of Sodoma, in 1490, apprenticed his son, then ten years old, to a painter of no great celebrity, Martino de Spanzettis, he had to pay a sum of fifty ducats for the term ot seven years. The latter, for his part, undertook to lodge, board, and instruct his pupil ; and, what is characteristic of the times, to find him in clothes.1 The conditions of the journeymen painters were of course much more favourable for beginners, and when Raphael's compatriot, Timoteo Viti, placed himself under the famous Bologna painter and goldsmith, Francesco Francia, it was agreed that he should work the first year for nothing, that during the second he should receive sixteen florins a quarter, and that afterwards he should work by the piece, with the power of leaving if he pleased. We know, too, that Francia had two separate studios, one for the goldsmith apprentices and the other for the painters. This is how he writes of the departure of Timoteo Viti : " 1495, 4th April. Departure of my dear Timoteo. May God pour upon him all manner of good things." 2 A very touching proof of the good feeling which existed in most of the Italian studios. They were sanc tuaries of art — it may almost be said of good morals — and most of the masters treated their pupils as if they were their own children. Timoteo Viti was about twenty years of age when he entered Francia's studio, and Raphael was about seventeen when he was taken in hand by Perugino, so that both knew the rudiments of art, and what they wanted from their teachers was rather advice and direction than elementary instruc tion. Bearing in mind their age, they must have been companions (garzoni) rather than pupils (discepoli) to employ the terms then in use. Perugino's house is still in existence, and is, of course, an object of great interest to travellers. It is situated in one of the steep streets — the Via Deliziosa, No. 18 — near the church of San Antonio.3 Although the house has been very much altered, one can still form a fair idea of its original distribution. The main building is situated at the foot of a very sunny courtyard, flanked on each side by old houses. A low flight of stone steps 1 I omit several clauses of no great interest, such as the obligation upon the part of the father to let his son have, on entering the studio, a tunic " of good length," two waistcoats, and three pairs of boots, plenty of linen, and to pay for washing it. 2 " 1495. A di 4 Aprile, partito il mio caro Timoteo, e Dio le dia ogni bene e fortuna." (Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice. Vie de G. Francia.) 3 See Marotti's Lettere pittoriche Perugine, o sia ragguaglio di alcune memorie istoriche risguardanti le arti del disegno in Perugia (Perugia, 1788, p. 15). Mezzanotte, Delia vita e delle opere di Pietro Vannucci (Perugia, 1836, p. 172 and following). Rossi Scotti, Guida illustrata di Perugia (Perugia, 1878, p. 92). 26 Raphael. leads to the entrance door, above which is placed a head in marble. Inside the door is a sort of hall, the arcades of which formerly opened on to the courtyard, and even now that the space between the columns has been walled up, one can distinguish the columns themselves. Leading off from the hall are several small rooms, all of them vaulted and decorated with sculptured medallions, representing foliage and lions' heads from the spring of the arch. The principal room, now divided into two, was probably used as a studio, and next to it are several smaller rooms now con verted into bedrooms. The first story is arranged in just the same way as the ground floor, and here too the open arcades looking on the courtyard have been walled up. The back windows look out upon a narrow lane. Small as it is, the house has something original and striking about it, and one can well fancy one's self in the residence, at once simple and comfortable, of an artist of the fifteenth century. The chief defect is the absence of a garden, for a few flowers and some greenery would lend an additional charm to the scene. Perugino and his wife were in very comfortable circumstances, for though the latter's father complains of being poor in his letters to the Marquis of Mantua,1 he had given his daughter a dowry of 500 gold ducats, while Perugino owned houses at Florence, Perugia, and Citta della Pieve. He had also plenty of ready money, which he had the improvidence to carry about him ; and Vasari tells us that he was waylaid on one occasion and robbed. But the love of money seemed to grow with' him in proportion as he got rich, and few even of the greatest painters set a higher value upon their work. In 1489, when asked to complete the decoration of the chapel at Orvieto begun by Fra Angelico, he stipulated for 1,500 gold ducats, the scaffolding, the lime and the sand to be thrown in ; but the committee, unable to comply with this demand, offered 200 ducats for the painting of the roof alone, they undertaking to • supply the materials and pay for his board and lodging. Perugino accepted this proposal, but he seems to have regretted having done so, and did not carry out his engage ment. When the Venetian Senate in 1491 asked him to paint for their 1 Braghirolli, Luca Fancelli, scultore, architetto e idraulico del secolo XV. (Milan, 1876, pp. 16, 30, 31). This seems to prove that one must not take all the complaints of the artist of the fifteenth century too literally ; for whenever they are writing or speaking to the great they are full of lamentations over the precarious state of their finances. The numerous letters given in Gay's Carteggio, from those of Fra Filippo Lippi to those of Mantegna, nearly all speak of penury, if not of absolute want. And yet these same people could give their daughters a dowry of 500 florins, or nearly a fourth of what constituted the dowry of a daughter of the wealthiest Florentine patrician. This is why I am disposed to think that the letter in which Raphael complained of poverty to a noble who probably owed hiin money, may not be a forgery. (Passavant, Raphael, vol. i. p. 551. This letter is dated Florence, July 8th.) Perugia. 27 council-room the Flight of Pope Alexander III. and the Battle of Legnano, they thought that 400 florins would be a liberal offer, but the painter asked double the amount, and the negotiations were not carried further. Five and twenty years later Titian himself accepted with alacrity the offer which Perugino had declined. Pietro Perugino had neither the culture nor the vast intelligence of Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, or Michael Angelo. His letters show that he knew very little of orthography or style, and a report which he prepared at Florence in 1492, after making a valuation in the company of three other artists, is a tissue of blunders ; even from an artistic point of view his abilities did not take a wide sweep. He was a painter and nothing more, whereas most of his contemporaries were more or less proficient as goldsmiths, architects, and sculptors. He had, however, travelled a great deal and been in the society of the most remarkable men of the day, so that he was a pleasant companion for young men such as those he had around him. Vasari states — and we have no reason for doubting what he says — that Raphael from the very first became a favourite with his master for his amiable manners and from his early promise of ability, while the pupil on his part displayed an almost filial affection for Perugino. His fellow pupils might have been inclined to be jealous of his finer talent, but he was so frank and so unaffected, thanks in some degree to the influence exercised upon him by his stay at Urbino, that he won their hearts, and soon had as many friends as admirers. The artists' colony at Perugia consisted at that time of some fifteen painters, more or less rivals or imitators of Perugino, of several, goldsmiths and architects, and of a few sculptors and carvers. Their number was very small compared to the total of the population, at that time not far short of 40,000. They did not all move in the same high region of art, and some of them did work of a very unpretentious kind. Their predecessors, however, had formed themselves into corporations, one of which, the corporation of painters (L'arte dei pittori), dated from 1366, and another, the goldsmiths' company, from 1 296. The miniature painters' (L'arte dei miniatori) corporation was also of great antiquity.1 Among the most eminent painters must be mentioned Fiorenzo di Lorenzo and Pinturicchio, both the founders of a school. Then came Andrea Luigi, or Di Assisi, surnamed " L'Ingegno," an artist very famous in his time, though it is not known now what was bis exact line;2 Berto di Giovanni, 1 Marehesi, II Cambio di Perugia (Prato, 1853, pp. 188, 189), and Giornale di erudizione artistica (1873), vol. ii. pp. 89, 305, 350. 2 A picture ascribed to him on better grounds than most has lately been added to the National Gallery. It is a Madonna and Child, and shows Andrea to have been, as a painter, about equal to Lo Spagna. This Madonna is signed A.A.P. (? Andreas Assisiensis Pinxit). — W. A. 28 Raphael. who was entrusted in 1516 with the execution of the ornaments intended for the "Coronation of the Virgin," which Raphael was to paint for the nuns of Monteluce; Bartolommeo Caporali and his son, Giovanni Battista, the translator of Vitruvius ; Eusebio di San Georgio, whose San Sebastian was long believed to be the work of Raphael ; 1 Mariano di ser Eusterio ; Ludovico Angeli ; Assalone di Ottaviano ; Lattanzio di Giovanni ; and Giannicola Manni, the painter of the frescoes in the chapel next to the " Sala del Cambio." 2 When Raphael came to Perugia, the beautiful Clara Fancelli, daughter of the famous architect of the Marquis of Mantua, was still alive to gladden the household of her husband, who had married her only five or six years before, and who was so deeply in love with her, that, amid all his occupations, he would not leave to a second person the choice of her wedding ornaments.3 The portrait of Clara Fancelli may, in the opinion of competent judges, be seen in the splendid Madonna of Pavia, one of the gems of the National Gallery.4 Raphael probably also made about this time the acquaintance of the goldsmith Cesarino di Francesco Rossetti, of Perugia, for whom he after wards sketched, while at Rome, the drawing of some dishes intended for Agostino Chigi, and in a letter written to Domenico Alfani in 1508, the painter speaks of him in very friendly terms.5 To these painters, whom we know to have been at Perugino while Raphael was studying there, that is to say. between 1499 and 1502, must be added the pupils attracted to the place by the fame of Perugino, and those whose acquaintance Raphael afterwards made either at Perugia or in its suburbs ; such, for instance, as Giovanni di Pietro, surnamed Lo Spagna, whose works betoken the influence which Perugino and his fellow pupil had exercised, and who afterwards came to Rome and swelled the phalanx of Raphael's assist ants ; Girolamo Genga da Urbino, who was also with Raphael at Rome,6 and Domenico di Paris Alfani. 1 This picture, described by Passavant under No. 16 of Raphael's works (vol. ii. p. 20), is now in the Bergamo Museum. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their History of Italian Painting (vol. iv. p. 360), unhesitatingly attribute it to Eusebio. Messrs. Burckhardt and Bode, on the contrary, are inclined to credit it to Lo Spagna. 2 "We have made out this list by means of the valuable documents of which an analysis is given in the Lettere pittoriche Perugine, by Mariotti. 3 " Tolse per moglie una bellissima giovane, e n' ebbe figliuoli ; et si diletto tanto ehe ella portasse leggiadre acconciature e fuori ed in casa, che si dice cheegli spesse volte l'acconciava di sua mano." (Vasari.) 4 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting, vol. iv. p. 235. 5 Giornale di erudizione artistica, vol. ii. pp. 104, 105. 0 Vasari, vol. xi. p. 87. The Paintings of the Cambio. 29 Raphael became especially intimate with Pinturicchio, whose presence at Perugia during the year 1501 is attested by authentic documents.1 He afterwards followed hirn to Siena, and Pinturicchio, it may be added, though inferior to Perugino as regards colour and expression, had more imaginative power. He represented the narrative style so much neglected by all the other Umbrian masters, with the exception of Buonfigli ; but though he did not cultivate the true historical style of painting, his influence contributed in no small degree to open to Raphael wider horizons than those unfolded to him by Perugino. It was his delight to paint brilliant processions and to accumulate a mass of decorations in his pictures. But if Raphael owed him some good advice, he soon repaid the debt with interest, as we shall see by and by. Domenico Alfani, of Perugia, had a still warmer admiration for the young artist of Urbino, and one of his Madonnas, still preserved in his native town, is an exact reproduction of a drawing by Raphael. After the departure of his friend, Domenico acted as correspondent for him and represented his interests in Umbria, deeming himself amply rewarded when Raphael sent him some sketch or drawing.2 Thus we see how this budding genius, on his first coming to Perugia, exercised a'great fascination, not only over his comrades, but over artists much older than himself, and it is pleasant to find several of those who had encouraged him at first gathered around him when he went to Rome. The most competent judges, notably Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, admit that Raphael took part in the execution of the Cambio frescoes. Perugino, as we have seen, devoted himself exclusively to this work in 1499 and 1500, when there can be no doubt as to Raphael being with him : and this should suffice to remove all doubt as to the latter's participation in the work, of which a summary description may be given. The Cambio has not the gigantic proportions of many of the palatial buildings in which the Italian municipalities of the Middle Ages were lodged. The council-room is not above forty feet long by twenty wide, and it opens directly upon the street, so that there is no loss of time in entering or leaving — an important consideration for the business men who had the Cambio built. The decoration as a whole is at once chaste and elegant, as befits a building for the use of merchants, and its principal feature is the harmonious contrast between the paintings of the upper part and tho 1 Vermiglioli, Di Bernardino Pinturicchio, Piitore Perugino dei secoli XV. e XVI. Perugia, 1 837, p. 99. 1 Among the other fellow pupils of Raphael has been included Gaudenzio Ferrari, but no authentic proof of this has ever been given. 30 Raphael. brown inlaid wood-work of the lower part of the walls. This latter is one of the best things of the sort in the Renaissance,1 and the painter could not possibly have had a better framework for bringing out his skill as a colourist. The following are the subjects of the frescoes : on the roof, the personifi cations of the sun, the moon, and the planets ; on the left side, the most illustrious representatives of Justice, Prudence, Moderation, and Courage ; on the right side, God the Father, the Prophets, and the Sibyls; on the lower end, the Nativity and the Transfiguration; while near the entrance was to be depicted the Cato, father of lawgivers. The probability is that this project, combining as it did the dogmas of Christianity with recollections of classic antiquity, was drawn up by some man of letters at the request of the corporation. This was not the first time that literature had been the handmaid of art, for Dante had inspired Giotto, and Petrarch had suggested subjects to his friend Simone Memmi. At Florence, in the early part of the fifteenth century, Leonardo d'Arezzo, a celebrated writer and Chancellor of the Republic, was entrusted with the choice of the Old Testament scenes which Ghiberti was to model ; and in the contract made by Perugino in 1490 for the decoration of the cathedral of Orvieto, it was stipulated that the president should supply him with the programme of the composition. Raphael himself, as we know, often resorted to the advice of his literary friends, so it is no wonder that Perugino, whose inventive powers were very limited, was glad to receive detailed instructions. These were prepared by Francesco Maturanzio, professor of rhetoric at the University of Perugia; and in a manuscript containing his works may be found the Latin inscriptions which are placed beneath the frescoes.2 The choice of personages is characteristic, as showing the introduction of antique elements into Umbrian art, which had hitherto been devoid of all admixture. Francesco Maturanzio must have been thoroughly conversant with ancient history and literature, for as types of Temperance he gave to the 1 This is a convenient opportunity for speaking of the interesting art of inlaying in wood (tarsia, iniarsiatura in legno), of which so much is to be seen in the churches of Perugia. Two shades, one light and the other dark, suffice to produce very fine effects in decoration. One of these shades was used for the background and the other for the arabesques, which even at this early period were of great elegance, and very classic in design. The most cele brated painters did not think it beneath their dignity to compose designs for these incrus tations, which were to be found in the most sumptuous edifices. Thus, in 1502, Perugino undertook to furnish models for the wood-work which had been ordered for the church of St. Augustine, Perugia, from Baccio d'Agnolo Baglioni. 2 Mariotti, Lettere piltoriche Perugine,-p. 158; Marchesi, II Cambio di Perugine, p. 356 et seq. Arrangement of the Figures. 31 artist, P. Scipio, Pericles, and Cincinnatus ; of Courage, L. Licinius, Leonidas, and Horatius Codes; of Justice, Camillus, Pittacus, and Trajan; and of Prudence, Fabius Maximus and Numa Pompilius. The prophets and sibyls face the Greek and Roman heroes, and here Perugino has given a distorted version of the truth, for he represents the sibyls as young and elegant women, while his figures of the prophets are so strange that one wonders whether he ever read a Bible. In only one respect has he conformed to tradition, his sibyls, like those of Pinturicchio in the Torre Borgia, and of others, having their prophecies written on long scrolls which are wound round their bodies. It was reserved for Michael Angelo to suppress these last vestiges of the art of the Middle Ages, in his Sistine frescoes. The pictures are at once strong and delicate in colour, characteristic in design, and ill-arranged. In the latter respect they show the weakest point in Perugino's talent, for instead of forming an animated and living whole, the different personages are placed simply side by side, standing badly and not knowing what to do with their hands. They look at each other in a vacant sort of way as if they had nothing to say to each other, and there is a want of the conviction and logic which go to make up a chef d'oeuvrc. There is little to be said about the two pictures placed at the lower end of the room, the Nativity and the Transfiguration. Pietro Vannucci had often treated the former of these two subjects, notably in his picture at the Villa Albani (1491), and the only difference he made at the Cambio was to substitute two shepherds for the two angels placed between the Virgin and St. Joseph, and to add three seraphim. Having but little initiative, Perugino made no effort to create an ideal superior to that of the public, and when once he had lighted upon what he deemed satisfactory types and arrangements he adhered to them, and repeated them over and over again, like most of the artists of the Middle Ages. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle show us how, whenever he had to treat one of the traditional subjects, he selected from his portfolio some of the studies made for previous compositions and copied them without scruple. His fellow citizens in Umbria did not grumble, but the people of Florence were more exacting, as Perugino found out to his cost; for when in the Assumption, which he painted for the church of Santa-Maria dei Servi, he repeated in almost exactly the same form the picture of the Ascension, now in the Lyons Museum, there was a general outburst of indignation, and he lost all his favour in that city. Tendencies of this kind, amounting to a lack of intellectual probity, might have been expected to exert an evil influence upon the pupils whom he had around him, but Raphael was in no wise affected by them, and his whole life 32 Raphael. was one of laborious effort. He never repeated himself, and of all his count less Madonnas, no two are exactly alike. Three times he represented the Temptation of Adam and Eve, and each time he devised a new composition, though they were only decoration, after all. No wonder, therefore, that Raphael should have died in the prime of his manhood, worn out by work, while Perugino lived on to old age. The decoration of the ceiling of the Cambio is more interesting than that of the walls, for there the painter had to carry on a struggle with the Renais sance, the principles of which he could never quite assimilate. There is no little elegance about his arabesques, nor have we any objection to raise to the griffins, satyrs, nymphs, meanders, &c, which make up the ornament. But the stunted thrones upon which the divinities of Olympus sit do not belong to any particular style, while the drawing of the chariots is also defective, for they are much too small for the people in them. First, with regard to the general arrangement. The ceiling is divided into nine unequal compartments. The ornaments, which are painted on a blue or a golden ground, cover the whole of the space, with the exception of the seven medallions which comprise the personifications of the sun, the moon, and the planets. Each of these divinities, whose attributes and characteristics are faultless (for here Maturanzio superintended the work), is placed upon a car drawn by eagles, doves, horses, the hours, or by a dragon, and on the wheels of the cars are the signs of the zodiac. Among the happiest pieces of work may be mentioned Jupiter seated on his throne and taking the cup from Ganymede, who is kneeling before him. Then there is Apollo urging on his steeds by voice and gesture, and leaping in impatience out of his car, which does not travel fast enough. The figure of Venus too is finely graceful, whereas Mars, Mercury, Diana, and Saturn are lifeless and uninteresting. To pass a fair opinion upon the Cambio ceiling we must carry our minds back to the time at which the work was executed, for even but ten years later the mythological paintings of Perugino would have been deemed old- fashioned in no matter what Italian town, and Raphael must have thought with good-natured pity of these simple designs when he.painted the famous Planets in the Chigi Chapel. Even in 1500 there were several painters, both in Florence and Mantua, who would have been capable of giving a far better idea of the antique. But given the temperament and education of Perugino, it would be unfair not to credit him with having expended much thought and care on this work. All that remains to be said about the Cambio is to notice the striking portrait of the artist which completes tho decoration. Perugino was at that time fifty- four years of age, in the full flush of health and strength, and his countenance is €&Nr*-H3P MS 1 £Mfe<^ Perugino Settles at Florence. 33 expressive at onoe ofkeflection and self-content. The portrait represents rather the active, well-to-do, and practical-minded burgher than the artist, whose qualities, however, are dwelt upon in very eulogistic terms in the inscription at the foot of the portrait, due no doubt, like the rest, to Maturanzio. PETRVS PERVSINVS EGREGIVS PICTOK. PERDITA SI PVERAT PINGENDI : HIC RETTVLIT ARTEM SI NVSQVAM INVENTA EST HACTENVS IPSE DED1T ANNO SALVT. MD. In giving himself the place of honour upon the most prominent part of the walls, between the heroes of Greece and Rome, Perugino was not obeyino- the traditions of humility associated with the Umbrian school, but at Perugia, just then, he was a great man. He occupied, moreover, important municipal posts, so we need not be too severe in criticising an act of pardonable vanity. The frescoes of the Cambio were, in all probability, completed in 1500,1andin the same year Perugino painted the beautiful picture of the Assumption, which is in the Academy of Fine Arts at Florence, but he did not return at once to the capital of Tuscany. During the first two months of 1501 we find him holding at Perugia the office of municipal prior, and in September, 1502, he was working at Siena;2 while at Perugia, on the 10th of September, he agreed to paint for the Convent of San-Francesco at Monte the Coronation of the Virgin, and the Saints and Angels which were to stand around an image of Christ. Upon the 10th of October he became ¦ surety, at Perugia, for Baccio d'Agnola Baglioni, to whom he also supplied 1 It is true that the account was not settled until 1507 (Mariotti, Lettere pittoriche Perugine, p. 158). But as the corporation had stipulated in the original contract for ten years time (Rossi, Storia artistica del Cambio di Perugia, p. 9), there is nothing surprising about this delay, nor does it justify us in believing, with M. Rio and several other writers, that the frescoes were not finished until 1507. 2 Braghirolli, Notiziee doeumenti inediti inlorno a Pietro Vannucci, p. 17. n POKTP.AIT OF PERUGINO, BY HIMSELF. 34 Raphael. drawings for the stalls at S. Agostino. In the same year he accepted for the same church an order for the Nativity ; and it was about this period too (after 1500, and not in 1495, as generally believed), that he executed for the cathedral at Perugia the celebrated Marriage of the Virgin, or Sposalizio, now in the museum at Caen. In the last weeks of 1502 he returned to Florence, where he settled himself again in the latter half of October.1 1 Braghirolli, Notizie e doeumenti inediti intorno a Pietro Vannueci, p. 1 8. CHAPTER III. Studies of Raphael at Perugia and in its neighbourhood. — Triple influence of Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Signorelli. — The Venice Sketch Booh. Criticism long exercised itself in trying to establish a distinction between the hand of the master and that of the pupil in the works issued from Perugino's studio between 1499 and 1502. To Raphael the wings of the famous " Certosa Madonna" in the National Gallery, were long ascribed. This opinion is now abandoned and the triptych as a whole given to Vannucci. The presence in an Oxford collection of two studies for the guardians of the Tomb of Christ, led also to a considerable share in the Vatican Resitrrection being attributed to the pupil. In spite, however, of the support given to this theory by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, it must be accepted with reserve ; and one may say as much of the predellas at Rouen (Nos. 269, 270, 271) and at Munich (Nos. 1173, 1185), the Adoration of the Magi, the Christ with St. John, and the Resurrection.1 While even the most practised connoisseurs feel doubts before certain pictures, it is difficult, on the other hand, to confound drawings by the master with those by the pupil. The former are infinitely more archaic, and, at the same time, far more careless. Throughout his life, Raphael was imbued with theprobiU de I'art to a far greater extent than Perugino. It would take too long to review all those drawings at Oxford, at Venice, at Lille, in which Raphael has gone to his master for inspiration and method. I must be content with selecting two of the most striking examples of his submission to the types of his master. Among the drawings at Venice there is one which seems to be at once a study for Apollo in the Apollo and Marsyas, and for one of the kings in the Adoration of the Magi (see chapter ix.). In this figure no one can fail to notice the malformation of the right leg, which is curved and bent in a very ungraceful way. Now, this motive is taken literally from an angel by Perugino in one of the Uffizi drawings. Again, in the picture itself of Apollo and Marsyas, the curious head of Marsyas is taken 1 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Raphael, vol. i. pp. 90, et seq. D 2 36 Raphael. from one of Perugino's favourite types. A whole scries of almost exactly similar heads is preserved in the Albertina and Uffizi collections. To resume, when Raphael left Perugino, in 1502, he had learnt all that the Umbrian had to teach. Neither oil nor fresco painting had any more secrets for him. In later years his brush acquired more freedom and power, but it lost some of the fine qualities of its earlier days. His colour became less warm and luminous, and it lost that fine amber tone which it had at first.1 But if Perugino was of profit to Raphael as a master for colour and technical methods generally, his influence was for the worse in all that regarded draughtsmanship, design, and imagination. No painter ever had fewer ideas than ho. His genius was essentially comtemplative, and to that perhaps we owe some of the grace, tenderness, and love for nature of his pupil. The fame of Pinturicchio has long been overshadowed by that of his more famous fellow-countryman. But if Perugino was the greater painter, Ber nardino di Betto, to give him his right name, had the more active imagination, the more curious spirit. It has now been established, mainly through the discoveries of the Commendatore Morelli,2 that Raphael studied Pinturicchio almost as much as he did Perugino. At one time he copied, in the Venice Sketch Book, the kneeling virgin and the standing lion (Kahl, Nos. 8, 42) 3 painted by Bernardino in the Chapel of St. Jerome, in S. Maria del Popolo. At another he studied the History of Moses, which the same artist painted under Vannucci's superintendence in the Sistine Chapel (women's heads; woman kneeling to the left : Kahl, Nos. 44, 62). With these things Raphael made acquaintance, not, of course, in the originals, but in the sketches and cartoons which Pinturicchio let him see in his Perugian studio. In another sketch (two horsemen : Kahl, No. 41), Raphael imitated a study ascribed to Pinturicchio and now in the Louvre.4 But if impartial criticism has to recognise such borrowings as these, it must also set itself to combat the accusations of plagiarism which over-zealous admirers of Pinturicchio have lately levelled at Raphael. According to some of these gentlemen, the Virgin between Saints Jerome and Francis, at Berlin, and the Coronation of the Virgin, in the Vatican, are nothing more than 1 By insisting on Raphael's authorship of the Apollo and Marsyas, M. Miintz and other French writers bring an element of disorder into the early development of the master which seems quite gratuitous. In the picture itself there is much to affirm and nothing to contradict the authorship of Perugino, which is confirmed by such studies for it as have been identified. — W. A. 2 Italian Masters in German galleries, London, 1883 ; pp. 265—285. 3 Our references are to the well-known work of Hcrr Kahl : Das Skizzenbuch, Leipzig, 1882. 1 Braun, No. 234. The Venice Sketch Book. 37 cartoons of Pinturicchio translated into paint ,by the younger master. We shall show presently how slight the foundations are upon which these ideas repose. At present we must turn to another question. For vigour of design it was no use to follow Perugino or Pinturicchio. Raphael, therefore, set himself to assimilate some at least of the characteristic fire of the master of Cortona, Luca Signorelli ; who had left such fine works in Citta di Castello. Thanks to the researches of Vischer, Schmarsow, and Kahl, we can now point to a whole series of drawings by Raphael in which creations of Luca's are reproduced. In the Massacre of the Innocents, at Venice (page 14), a drawing which was made, most likely, before Raphael left Urbino, the warrior who seizes the young woman by the hair passes generally for a reminiscence of Signorelli. It is the same with various nude figures of men, represented in more or less unrestful attitudes (Kahl, Nos. 15, 19, and 31). The soldier with his back to us (Kahl, No. 16) is an almost literal reproduction from one of the Monte Oliveto frescoes, The Squire of Totilla before St. Benedict. This figure may also . be compared to one of the extreme right of Signorelli's History of Moses, in the Sistine Chapel. Another drawing by Sanzio, now at Lille, reproduces two archers in the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, by the same master, in the Dominican Church at Citta di Castello. But all these borrowings were no more than accidents in the artistic development of Raphael, whose master par excellence was Pietro Perugino. Hitherto I have only referred incidentally to the famous collection at Venice, The Raphael Sketch Book. During these latter years it has become a subject of ardent controversy, especially in Germany, where the members of the smaller of the two parties into which it has divided Raphaelists endeavour to make up for their scanty numbers by the warmth of their words. I shall here endeavour to state the question as it stands with the impartiality required to prevent the discussion being fruitless. Three points are beyond dispute : (1) that the drawings at Venice date from the end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century ; (2) that they formed at first a sort of album, or portable sketch-book;1 (3) that they are for the most part by one and the same hand. It is upon the question as to whose this hand was that furious polemics have raged. On the one hand MM. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, De Liphart, Bode, Lippmann, Bayersdorfer, 1 This is not true of all the drawings commonly included under the title of The Venetian Sketch Book. Of these a certain number are on paper of a different colour, a different size, and a different water-mark from the rest. Among these are the only two drawings in the whole collection which are universally acknowledged to be by Raphael.— W. A. 38 Raphael. Schmarsow, de Pulszky, and the whole body of French critics, persist in affirming the paternity of Raphael. On the other Morelli gives most of the drawings to Pinturicchio, and in this he is followed by Wickhoff and the late Marco Minghetti, while they are ascribed by Kahl to Girolamo Genga, of Urbino. A few connoisseurs, with Springer among them, deny the authorship of Raphael, and believe the studies to be the collective work of some Umbrian studio. The Sketch Book has no pedigree. All that we know is that it was bought about eighty years ago by the Milanese painter, Giusappe Bossi, who PORTRAIT OF A GIRL. (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice.) gave about sixteen pounds for the collection and christened it with Raphael's name. At Bossi's death it was purchased for the Venice Academy. It must be remembered, however, that the drawings at Oxford, at Lille, in the Louvre, and at Vienna, are no better authenticated. Why should we not recognise, in this Sketch Book, the Libro famoso de cento discgni di mano lutti di Raffaello che comprb Guido in Roma, which formed part of the property left .by Guido at his death in 1642, and was afterwards, in all probability, in the collection of The Venice Sketch Book. 39 Carlo Maratta (died 1713), who possessed a Libro di alenni avanzi de' studj giovamh di Raffaello, che approvano le sue prime fatiche con un esatissima imitazione a maggior finvmento terminato? In a question like this there is room for plenty of conjecture, and ours seems to have as much probability as any other. When Bossi acquired it the Sketch Book consisted of an album of fifty- three leaves with 106 drawings, numbered from two to fifty-five (including one numbered forty-eight, which was discovered afterwards, at Paris). The leaves are now exhibited separately (on hinged frames, so that both sides can PORTRAIT OF A GIRL. (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice.) be examined and the paper looked through), but it is easy in nearly every case to verify the old numeration. The work of rehabilitation has been performed 'with equal skill and conscience by Kahl, who bases his erroneous conclusions on premisses that are perfectly sound and well established. By general consent, the sheets contain many slight sketches which are not from Raphael's hand, and as much may be allowed of the syllables d. unz. B. L. paro (Kahl,- No. 50) which appear on one and do not seem to be in his writing. As for the letter G, however, in which Kahl sees the initial of Girolamo Genga, it is precisely similar, as Wickhoff has shown, to the initial 40 Raphael. of the word Genova in that study for the Departure of Apneas Sylvius, which we shall presently show to be certainly from the hand of Sanzio. In glancing through the Sketch Book one is struck by the fact that it contains, side by side with studies from the living model, views of Urbino and its neighbourhood, copies from the portraits of philosophers in the library of that city, copies from Mantegna, Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Signorelli, copies from the antique fragment of the Three Graces at Siena, and finally from drawings by Pollajuolo and Leonardo da Vinci. Such a melange would be strange in the last degree if one supposed the author to be any one else than Raphael. Take, for instance, Pinturicchio. Morelli has shown, with much sagacity, that a certain number of the Venetian drawings repeat motives from the compositions of that master, but instead of deducing thence that their author copied Pinturicchio, he concludes that the latter himself did most of the drawings. But Pinturicchio did not go to Urbino, he did not study Mantegna, he did not imitate Leonardo, he cared nothing for the antique. The evidence of the philosophers' portraits and the views of Urbino is so strong that Kahl has proposed an Urbinate as their author, namely Girolamo Genga (1476 — 1551). This conjecture, how ever, has made no converts, so far as I know, so I may be excused from discussing it. Now if we admit the authorship of Raphael, we find most of our difficulties at an end. It is natural that a boy bruught up at Urbino should have studied the scenes of his native district, and copied the portraits in the ducal library ; that proceeding afterwards to Citta di Castello, he should have put Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Signorelli under contribution ; and that, seeing how he turned out in after life, that he should also have gone for inspiration to Leonardo da Vinci. Even the copy from Mantegna's print fits into the facts of Raphael's life, for its general arrangement reappears in his famous picture in the Palazzo Borghese. And the drawing after the Three Graces, is not that the ancestor of the little gem in the collection of Lord Dudley 1 x The first general conclusion we come to, then, is that the Venice Sketch Book fits ill into what we know of all those for whom it has been claimed, with the exception of Raphael, while it accords perfectly with the course taken by his early development. The objections drawn from the style of the drawings have at first sight more force. It is undeniable that in some the handling is at once easy and commonplace, in others, harsh and rude, while a very great number are without accent and distinction. Now in answer to this, three things have to be remembered. In the first place, these studies are carried out with the pen 1 Now in the possession of the Due d'Aumale.— W. A. The Venice Sketch Book. 41 on a poor paper which was sure to give a result very different from what may be won with silver point on a prepared surface; secondly, they may well have been done when Raphael was no more than some twelve years of age, and it would be hard to say how immature the work, even of genius, rm>ht not be at that age ; thirdly, there is at least as much difference between the very early works of Raphael (The Virgin between Saint Francis and Jerome and the Solly Madonna, at Berlin, to say nothing of the Diotalevi Madonna) and such things as the Coronation of tlie Virgin or the Sposalizio, as between the drawings at Venice and some of those at Oxford or Lille. But even among drawings which no one has so far denied to be by Sanzio, we may, perhaps, finds parallels to these Venetian studies. I confess that, at first, I thought of that St. Martin on Horseback, at Frankfort, which has been accepted by such careful judges as Crowe and Cavalcaselle. It has been claimed both for Eusebio di San Giorgio and for Pinturicchio, but the technique, a system of harsh cross hatchings with the pen, is absolutely identical with that of several drawings at Venice. Another drawing at Frankfort, a study for the Dispute on the Sacrament, offers the most striking analogy to the study of two nude male figures, seen from behind, in the Sketch Book (Kahl, No. 15). There is an equally strong likeness between the two draped men (Kahl, Nos. 1 and 3), inspired by figures in the Delivery of the Keys to Peter, by Perugino, in the Sistine Chapel, and a group of four figures in the Wicar collection. The types, the clumsily-broken folds of the draperies, the system of hatching, in short, both the general conception and the smallest details of execution have a likeness which amounts to identity. We might establish a similar comparison between the landscapes at Venice and several of those at Vienna. The only change we should have to note would be the greater freedom in the latter. We continually encounter, too, expressions and turns of the head before which no one can avoid the word Raphaelesque. Even Mr. Kahl, who denies the participation of the Urbinate, has more than once to point to Raphaelesque passages (Nos. 21 and 30). Besides the Three Graces and the Entombment, the Sketch Book contains other motives used by Raphael in his later years. The Massacre of the Inno cents, perhaps the earliest drawing of them all, contains the germ of the famous plate engraved some ten years later by Marc Antonio after a second composition by Sanzio. The Woman Kneeling (Kahl, No. 8) recalls the Magdalen in the Dudley Crucifixion. The Young Man Standing (Kahl, No. 4), holding his cloak with one hand and resting the other on his chest, seems to be the first thought for the St. John in the Vatican Coronation. The Children Dancing and Children Playing with a Pig are the forerunners of the Children Quarrelling in the Louvre, the Children Playing at Oxford, and the 42 Raphael. Dance of Cupids, engraved by Marc Antonio. The landscape described by Kahl under the number 105 may be fairly called a pendant to one preserved at Oxford (Robinson, No. 17). And mark the likeness between the Head of a Young Girl (page 38) and the Lute Player at Oxford — might they not be brother and sister ? And this is not all. A whole crowd of types, attitudes, costumes, from the Sketch Book reappear in the collections at Oxford and Lille, and in the pictures of Raphael's early manner. Sometimes we find these motives expanded and rendered much more complex at this second use ; sometimes they are repeated just as they first presented themselves. As to this a bare statement of facts will be the most eloquent demonstration. PORTRAIT OF A GIRL. (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice.) Head of an Old Man, seen in profile (Kahl, No. 89). This is reproduced as it stands in : 1, The Adoration of the Magi, a drawing in the Stockholm Museum; and, 2, in The Adoration of the Magi in the Vatican. A Man's Head, Leonardesque in character (do.). Repeated in a drawing at Oxford. Head of a Young Man, with his eyes turned upwards (Kahl, No. 59). Repeated in a drawing at Oxford (Robinson, No. 10), in a drawing in the Malcolm collection, and finally in the Coronation of the Virgin, at the Vatican, (figure of St. John on the right). Angel Throwing Flowers, used in the Holy Family of Francis I., and in the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche. The Venice Sketch Book. 43 Study of Draperies (Kahl, No. 26), used in the Duke of Devonshire's drawing of Apneas Sylvius before Eugenius /F., a drawing which will presently be shown to be authentic. 2-VERG* MARON1- M A.NTVAU® PORTRAIT OF VIRGIL. (Drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice.) Landscape (Kahl, No. 103), used in reverse, in the Terranuova Madonna, Berlin.1 1 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Raphael, vol. i. p. 231. 44 Raphael. View of Fossombrona; another landscape (Kahl, No. 36), reproduced almost literally in a drawing at Oxford (Robinson, No. 17). Young Man Standing, Nude (Kahl, No. 23) ; a study for one of the kings in the Adoration of the Magi, in the Vatican, perhaps also for the Apollo and Marsyas. Study of Three Nude Figures (Kahl, No. 17) ; one of these, according to Crowe and Cavalcaselle, is the first idea for the shepherd crowning Apollo, in the Apollo and Marsyas of the Stanza della Segnatura. Head of a Man Crying Out (Kahl, No. 22). Passavant long ago pointed out the relationship between this drawing and the study for a Gorgon pre served at Oxford (Robinson, No. 71). This served in its turn for the head of Medusa on Minerva's shield in the school of Athens. In order to explain this coincidence Mr. Kahl takes refuge in the notion that the sketch at Venice was made from the Vatican fresco. Two Men seen from Behind (Kahl, No. 3). By combining these two figures Raphael has created the personage who stands on the left in the Wicar drawing already quoted, and in the Vatican Presentation in the Temple. From the older man he has taken the type and the pose ; from the younger the arrangement of the lower limbs and the drapery which covers them. Will it be asserted that here too the author of the Venice sketch has copied a picture of Raphael's ? It is a droll sort of copyist that sets himself to make two figures of one. It would be easy to multiply these points of comparison, and to point for instance to the Woman Suckling a Child (Kahl, No. 46), which is identical with the drawing at Oxford numbered 22 in Robinson ; to the Player on the Bagpipes (Kahl, No. 29), which is repeated in Robinson, No. 2; to the Kneeling Virgin (Kahl, No. 8), which corresponds to a figure in the Adoration of the Shepherds, at Oxford (Robinson, No. 7). Our belief in the authenticity of the Venice Sketch Book rests, then, on three general arguments : 1, On its congruity with what we know of the early studies and works of Raphael ; 2, An analogy of style and handling ; 3, On the numerous points of contact between the motives it figures and those after wards made use of by the master. Such as it is, too, the collection bears witness to the variety of Raphael's tastes, to his inquiring spirit, and to his fidelity of interpretation. The young painter attacks subjects of the most various kinds. Heads, hands, torsos, draperies, ornaments, landscapes, copies of pictures and original designs, all occur among these pages. The destination of the work explains its variety. It was evidently a book into which Raphael wished to collect materials for future use. More than once, when hurried or fatigued, he had to be contented with sketching in the fewest of lines the The Venice Sketch Book. 45 object he wished to fix in his memory. As a rule, however, his drawings were carried much farther. Again, it must not be forgotten that an interval of perhaps ten years separated the earliest from the latest. During that time Raphael advanced with the steps of a giant. From the most timid interpre tation he passed to a broad and lively treatment, sacrificing detail to devote himself to the leading lines, which were put down rapidly, and with extra ordinary life and power. CHAPTER IV. The earliest original productions of Raphael— His works at Perugia and at Citta di CasteLo. —Madonnas and Holy Families.— The Coronation of the Virgin.— The Sposalizio. When Perugino returned to Tuscany, Raphael was nineteen years of age, and old enough, therefore, to begin work on his own account. His master, who was at that time overwhelmed with orders, was glad to let him have the benefit of the popularity which attached to what was so well called the Peruginesque style, and doubtless recommended him strongly to his friends and patrons in Umbria, which had become a second country for Raphael. While he underwent the influence due to the beauty of its sites and the mystic tendencies of its inhabitants, the Umbrians themselves became much attached to him, and it was owing to their spirit of generous piety that he was able to execute some of his most admired pictures. These encouragements were necessary to preserve him from the sufferings which, after the departure of his master, he would have undergone, and Raphael showed his gratitude by remaining amid the Umbrian mountains until he went to reside at Rome in 1508. Notwithstanding his lofty intelligence and distinguished manners we must fancy Raphael leading all this time the essentially modest and bourgeois life of his master and comrades. It is incumbent upon modern research to clear away the obscurity which surrounds one half of the lives of the artists of the Renaissance. To give anything like a faithful picture of that movement, so subtle and so varying in its phases, one must penetrate their inmost thoughts, and see them in their daily lives. This will be done at the cost of a few illusions, perhaps, but what is that compared to getting at the truth ? This was a happy period, moreover, when the artist could, amid pre-occupations of a very different kind, retain an illimitable freedom of mind and a wealth of poetic fancy, and it cannot too often be repeated that the Renaissance at last set the seal upon the emancipation of the architect, the painter, and the sculptor. Until the beginning of the sixteenth century the most celebrated artists are being continually classed in the same category as artisans, or, to speak Artist and Patron in Umbria. 47 more accurately, there was no distinction between the two. It needed all the force of the genius of Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Raphael, and the tenacious will of Julius II. and Leo X., to overcome deep- rooted prejudices and to raise this class of disinherited ones to the same rank as that occupied by other representatives of thought. In a very short time, third-rate artists assumed the titles of professor, cavalier, and academician, and there were now no honorary distinctions which " Messire " George Vasari and his comrades in the second half of the sixteenth century deemed above them. It was not so in Umbria, and the greatest of painters was content to be known as Master Raphael of Urbino. The mercenary ways of Perugino were not calculated to force on a revolution of this kind. It would have been different if he had been in the habit of using the noble language in which he addressed the Marchioness of Mantua, when he wrote to her that honour was of more account, than money,1 but his noble patrons were accustomed to receive appeals of another kind, and it is not surprising that they should have treated with disdain men whose characters were not as lofty as their talents. They were wont to treat them in a most cavalier way, making them wait years for payment, and compelling them to sue in the most abject terms for an advance upon the sum due for a picture or a statue, while they heaped their liberalities upon men of letters. Many poet laureates and philologists received hundreds of ducats for the dedication of volumes, and this because they knew how to make themselves respected, and even feared, after Aretino had shown them how. Before showing how Raphael received numerous orders from the patrons of art in Umbria and entered into agreements with them, it may be well to see what were the respective relations of artist and buyers. Some of the rules may seem to us now strange and even humiliating, while others, which have since become obsolete, were very well calculated to protect the independence and dignity of the artist. 1 " Mio onore, et quale sempre ho preposto a ogni utilita." Almost identical words are to be found in the oldest autograph extant of any painter, a letter of Taddeo Gaddi, in 1342 :— " Renditi sicuro," writes the pupil of Giotto, " che solo per onore avere io voglio dipignere la tavola, e renditi sicuro che cosi sara " (Pini and Milanesi, La Scrittura di artisti Italiani, No. 1). But what was, from the artist of the fifteenth century, the expression of a real feeling was a mere form of politeness on the part of Perugino. The Marchioness of Mantua had been obliged to reproach him for neglecting to execute the picture which was to be placed beside those of Mantegna :—" Qnando fusse stato finite (el quadro) cum magior diligentia havendo a stare appresso quelli del Mantinea, che sono summamente netti, sena stato magior honore vostro et piii nostra satisfactione " (Letter of June 30th, 1505). There is something very happy in the way in which the Marchioness refers to the word " honour," so imprudently pronounced by the painter. 48 Raphael. In most cases the price of the work was fixed in advance, and the artist undertook to supply all the materials with the exception of the gold and the ultramarine, which two colours, so much used in the pictures of the early Renaissance, were nearly always provided by the person who had ordered the picture. This arrangement was always giving rise to disputes, as when Sixtus IV. complained that the painters of the Sistine Chapel had not used enough of these colours,1 and when the committee for the decoration of the dome of Orvieto complained that Pinturicchio was using too much of them, and so brought on a quarrel which led to the work being suspended.2 Another peculiarity which deserves notice is that payment was often made in kind. Perusrino several times received wheat on account of his Cambio frescoes, and Pinturicchio was obliged to consent to buy from the steward of Cardinal Piccolomini the corn and oil and wine which he wanted during his decoration of Siena Cathedral. It may be added that the contracts sometimes contained a stipulation that a supplementary sum should be paid, at pleasure, by the person who had given the order in the event of his being satisfied. Thus Giovanni Tornabuoni promised to give Domenico Ghirlandajo 200 ducats over and above the 1,200 which were to be paid for painting the choir of Santa-Maria Novella, if he were pleased with the work. Ghirlandajo did the work we know so well, and Tornabuoni was obliged to acknowledge his success, but he did not pay him the extra sum ; and the artist consoled himself with the reflection that honour is above riches.3 Yet, — so strange a medley of meanness and generosity were the habits of that day, — Tornabuoni hearing some years afterwards that Ghirlandajo was ill, sent him a hundred ducats as a present.4 In some cases, the most celebrated artists worked by the month, or even by the day, and when they lost a few hours the time was deducted from their wages. Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo, for instance, received a fixed wage of fifteen ducats a month while they were working at the cartoons of the Battle of Anghiari and the War of Pisa. But here, too, it was customary to make distinctions which are very much in contrast with modern usages. In many cases the artists were lodged and boarded, and they then received a lower wage. The fare with which they were provided was agreed upon in writing, and from some of the bills of fare which are still in existence, we see that the masters of the fifteenth century liked to live well. Thus in 1430, the tapestry worker, Jean Hosemant of Tournai, who was employed at Avignon by the Pope, had for bis daily allowance three measures of wine, six loaves of bread, a dish 1 Vasari, vol. i. p. 30. 2 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting, vol. i. p. 274. 3 Vasari, vol. v. p. 72. 4 Ibid. p. 81. Remuneration of Painters. 49 as of meat, fish, eggs, and vegetables.1 Though Fra Angelico at Orvieto w only allowed bread and wine, and three ducats a month, to buy other thin, he was being paid a salary of sixteen florins a month, which is equivalent to £400 per annum at the present value of money. There was another mode of payment which has gone out of fashion, obvious as are the advantages which it offers, when the contracting parties, being unable to say beforehand what the exact value of a work would be ao-reed to leave it to experts to decide after its completion what it was worth. This enabled the artist to work with perfect freedom, assured as he was that a fair valuation would be put upon his labours, and Raphael was one of those who had a great liking for this system. In a letter to his uncle Simon in 1508, he mentions not having fixed any price for one of his pictures, preferring that it should be valued when finished. After he had completed the Sibyls for the Church of the Pace, he requested that the work might be valued ; and the expert selected, as we shall hereafter see, was Michael Angelo, who fulfilled the same functions at the request of Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici and Sebastiano del Piombo, after the latter had painted the Resurrection of Lazarus. There can be no doubt that Raphael had, from his earliest years, given proof of the singularly delicate feelings which distinguished him from the great majority of his contemporaries, and especially from his master. He did not despise money, but he knew how to employ it aright ; and when he might have sold the most trivial of his sketches for its weight in gold, he was always ready to make a present of it to a friend or patron. A Florentine noble received from him as a wedding gift the Madonna del Cardellino. Some time afterwards, there was a regular duel of liberality between Raphael and the wealthy patron of art at Siena, Agostino Chigi. 1 See M. Muntz's work, Les Arts a la cour des Papes, vol. ii. p. 310. The monks of San Miniato did not feed Paolo Uccello so well, for he got so tired of eating nothing but cheese that he went away, and only returned upon the express condition that he should be pro vided with a greater variety of food (Vasari, vol. iv. pp. 90, 91). Domenico and David Ghirlandajo also had to complain of how they were fed by the monks of Passignano, and David, on one occasion, got so angry that he threw the dishes at the monk who brought them, and wounded him severely in the head (Vasari, vol. v. p. 81). "We may also refer as a curiosity to the agreement made between the heirs of Agostino Chigi in 1520, and the Venetian artist, Luigi de Pace, who had undertaken to finish the mosaics in the chapel of Santa-Maria del Popolo : — " The master shall receive (during the four years he is employed upon this work) bread, wine, oil, and salt ad libitum, for himself and his assistant, and also two ducats a month. He shall be provided once a year with a new suit of clothes by the Chigi family, who, on the completion of the work, shall also make over to him a house of the value of 200 gold ducats. The Chigi family shall also supply all the materials, only the salary of the assistant being borne by Master Luigi."— Ccgnoni ; Agostino Chigi, il magnifico (Rome, 1881, p. 144). E 50 Raphael. Raphael commenced, of course, with pictures of small dimensions, and with subjects which did not require a very high degree of knowledge. His earliest efforts were a series of Madonnas, drawn at half-length and in timid attitudes, for in most of them the Virgin, who is drawn full face, is standing with her eyes looking down upon her child. Among these are the Madonna of the Solly collection (Berlin Museum), the Virgin between St. Jerome and St. Francis (Berlin Museum), and the Conestabile Madonna1 (St. Petersburg Museum). The Solly Madonna is a timid work conceived entirely on Peruginesque lines. The Virgin (a half-length figure with a book in one hand) is entirely without accent. Both type and costume are conven tional ; the mouth absurdly small, the robe red, the mantle blue. The Child, with his goldfinch, is better. His modelling, at least, suggests an awakening ambition. The comparatively warm colour, with its reddish tones, belongs entirely to the school of Perugia. The date of this Madonna may be about 1501. The second of the Berlin pictures shows a firmer hand. The Virgin is seated between Saints Jerome and Francis, and holds the Child on her lap, His hand raised in benediction. Raphael's design for this picture is in the Albertina, at Vienna. What is noteworthy in these works is the sincerity of the efforts made by the young artist to strike out a line for himself. Thus it was that he succeeded in gradually giving more amplitude to his design, while the innate taste which he possessed supplied the force necessary for correcting the mannerism which disfigures so much Peruginesque work, and for giving a better balance to his compositions. The influence of his master, as of his father,2 gradually declined from year to year, one may almost say from month to month, until at last he had created a style of his own. If he still adhered to the types peculiar to the Umbrian school, especially in the Madonnas, it was because Umbria itself supplied him with a number of these soft and pensive countenances in which the depth of religious contentment stood instead of beauty. For a spiritualist like him, the painting of the soul was a nobler task than the painting of the body. There is already a good deal of landscape in these pictures, and in the background of the Conestabile Madonna, the chain of mountains was painted from nature in the neighbourhood of Perugia. Raphael had, perhaps, been to visit Lake Trasimene, for in the per spective may be seen a broad expanse of water upon which fishermen are rowing a boat. In his first landscape efforts, Raphael, like Perugino, endeavours to 1 As to the vicissitudes of this picture see the Giornale di erudizione artistica, vol. vi. The Perugia Gallery (Sala del Pinturicchio, No 20) contains a copy of the Madonna Conestabile, originally belonging to the Congregation of Charity. ^ z There is notably a great likeness between the Alfani Madonna and the paintings of Giovanni Santi at Cagli (see the Vierges de Raphael, by M. A. Gruyer, vol. iii. pp. 9-11). Coronation of the Virgin. 51 substitute simplicity of outline and breadth of design for the minuteness and the aridity of the Umbrian painters, especially of Pinturicchio, whose manner, as Vasari has already pointed out, reminds one so much of the Flemish school. It was no more than natural that Raphael, being of a less abstract genius than Michael Angelo, should emancipate himself more slowly. The sentiment of Nature had taken deeper root in him, so that it took more time for him to extricate himself from its trammels ; but upon the other hand, his principles were much more productive, and if his pupils had adhered to them instead of succumbing to the influence of Michael Angelo, the decadence of Italian art would have been put back for many years. Raphael, during all this early period, was, moreover, compelled to take into account the exigencies of the Umbrian public, for the costume, the attributes, and even the attitude of the personages were not allowed to differ from what they had been before. For a Madonna or a Holy Family to awaken feelings of sympathy among these primitive populations it was necessary that they should be of the same type as those to which they had grown accustomed. Thus, in one of the pictures in the Berlin Museum, the Virgin between St. Jerome and St. Francis, the Virgin's head is covered with a mantle, as in the Byzantine compositions. Moreover, under the blue mantle is a white veil hiding part of the forehead, an arrangement which is seen in the mosaics and frescoes of the first ages of Christianity. The golden star placed upon the left shoulder of the Virgin is also borrowed from the traditions of the primitive Church. We shall have an opportunity, when we come to speak of the Holy Family of San Antonio of Perugia, to mention other reminiscences not less characteristic, and these details have their importance, for they show us to what an extent Raphael was compelled to take into account the habits of his Umbrian patrons. They wanted him to paint them simple pictures on religious subjects, while at Florence he was allowed complete liberty of action and the choice of his own themes. Taken separately, any one of the pictures to which we have referred has so many points of contact with the works of Perugino that one hesitates to pronounce between the master and the pupil. But if we consider the early productions of Raphael as a whole, we find that they have, as mentioned above, a quite distinct personality from those of his master, and much more delicacy of finish. These qualities are as yet only latent, but in the course of time they will manifest themselves very plainly. ^ Raphael soon had more important work entrusted to him ; for soon after the departure of his master, a lady belonging to one of the most powerful families of Perugia, Maddalena degli Oddi, instructed him to paint for the church of St. Francis the Coronation of the Virgin. As the Oddis were E 2 52 Raphael. banished after the fall of Caesar Borgia, in August 1503, this work, vast in its dimensions, must have been executed in the early part of that year. Upon the 10th of September of the preceding year, Perugino had received an order for a picture on the same subject for the church of St. Francesco al Monte. These two works are still extant, that of Raphael in the Pinaeoteca of the Vatican, and that of his master in the gallery at the town hall of Perugia (Sala di Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, No. 24). This is an excellent opportunity for drawing a comparison between master and pupil. Many drawings which are preserved in the collections at Pestb, Venice, Lille, and Oxford, show us with what care Raphael prepared his work, and a STUBY FOR THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. (Drawing in the Wicar Museum.) very interesting account of this is given by M. Grayer in Les Vierges de Raphael. He says : " The Lille Museum contains the drawing for the principal group of the Coronation of the Virgin. At that time the women of Umbria were not often seen in public, and though they might have sat for a celebrated painter like Perugino, Raphael did not venture to ask this favour, and was obliged to take his comrades for his models of the Virgin. He selected then two of them, and placing them opposite each other made the silver-point drawing now in the Wicar collection [see above]. These two youths, with their beard less countenances, and attired in the tight-fitting hose which shows off theii well-shaped bodies, entered into the spirit of the work, and their attitudes are J THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. (In the Vatican.) CoROxMATION OP THE VlRGIN. 55 not only candid and ingenuous, but full of religious fervour. The one meant for the Virgin bends before the other, not so much perhaps as in the picture itself, and he shows rather too full a face, but the arms are in the right position, and the hands respectfully joined together, while the legs, when they come to be covered with drapery, will retain the movement which they have here ; and even the feet, which will be bare in the picture itself, will be in the same position as those of the living model. In the same way, there will be no change in the position of the figure which is to represent Jesus; the attitude of the arms and hands, the postures of the body and of the legs, being definite, and the only change which will be required being to slightly raise the head and draw it rather less in profile. This simple sketch carries with it a freshness inexpressibly charming, and Nature is questioned so sincerely that she seems to have been loth to keep back any of her secrets." 2 This profound respect for Nature is, as cannot too often be repeated, one of the distinctive traits of Raphael's genuis. It is the bond which unites him to the primitive and quattrocentist artists, whereas in so many other respects he shows himself free from all prejudices, and obeys no law but that of his own taste. He puts all his heart into the copying of a leaf or a flower, and there never was an artist more enthusiastic about the beauties of creation. Given his prodigious facility and his unfailing memory, he could soon have done without models and have painted pictures out of his own head, but he is continually falling back upon reality, and, like Antaeus, gaining fresh strength by his contact with the ground. Before composing these figures, which seem to us the most remarkable triumph of the ideal — those Virgins radiant with beauty, those Christs, some of them so full of majesty and others of tender ness — he placed the living model before him, in the dress of the period, and familiarized himself with the make of the body and the laws of motion. For the Coronation of St. Nicolas of Tolentino and for the Coronation of the Virgin he first drew his characters from Nature, with their close-fitting • garments, their caps and their cropped hair. It was only after he had done this that he proceeded to arrange the draperies, and to give the required expression to the faces — in short to compose the picture. We find him, too, making studies from a skeleton for the figure of the Virgin in the Entombment. In a red-chalk drawing in the Lille Museum (No. 740) he made use of a man model to prepare the Virgin of the Casa Alba; and in another red-chalk 1 Les Vierges de Raphael, vol. ii. pp. 553, 554. A fact pointed out to us by Commander Paliard shows how closely Raphael at that time copied Nature. In one of his studies for the Angels in the Coronation of the Virgin (see engraving at page 56) he, while drawing a portrait of one of his comrades, reproduced a slight physical defect, which any one else would have omitted. If the right eye is examined, it will be seen that there is a reversal of the lower eyelid, known to modern science as " ectropion." 56 Raphael. drawing (Louvre Museum, Drawing No. 314), a man in bis shirt-sleeves and not at all idealized is the model for the beautiful figure of Christ entrusting His flock to St. Peter. These changes are very remarkable, and show that the yV, "-' :.-'>iV? . '"-',- "3ST"^ J'-r ': ;" -: ;¦' :' '''^'r7r~'.!nw^ ¦¦'-'-. ¦M fm STUDY FOR ONE OF THE ANGELS IN THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. (Drawing in the Wicar Collection.) artist had a wonderful power of self-abstraction, for while his pencilreproduced with scrupulous fidelity the model placed before him, he was foreseeing the Coronation oe the Virgin. 57 harmonious and divine figure which was to take its place in the final composition. To go back to the Coronation of the Virgin : the picture is composed of two distinct parts. The one, which may be called the terrestrial portion, comprises the Apostles assembled around the tomb of the Virgin, just as in pictures of the Assumption. The other shows us Christ seated upon the clouds, amid a glory of angels, and placing a crown upon His mother's head. Several of the Apostles are looking upwards, and see Christ and His mother above them. This action suffices to connect the two scenes and to give complete unity to the whole. The moment selected by Raphael is that at which the Apostles have reached the tomb of the Virgin. Several of them are astonished to find that the tomb is empty, and they look into the sarcophagus in which lilies and roses have taken the place of the body. While some of the Apostles, among them St. Paul, are overcome with astonishment, others, especially those who are standing at the two ends, as well as St. Thomas, who is holding the Virgin's belt, are looking heavenwards for an explanation of the mystery, and their eyes beam with delight at the joyful spectacle which meets their gaze. It was not, assuredly, an easy task for a follower of the Umbrian school to render with the necessary force and precision the impression produced by this spectacle upon all these men of such varying origin and age, to pourtray twelve times upon twelve different physiognomies, and without repeating himself, a feeling almost identical. Such a problem called for an effort of dramatic power greater than could have been expected from a young man of twenty. Perugino himself in his pictures of the Ascension and the Assumption, had never quite succeeded in overcoming obstacles, which, indeed; were almost insurmountable for a contemplative nature such as his. No wonder, therefore, that there are traces of hesitation and inexperience in the work of his pupil. Thus, the figures of some of the Apostles express but feebly the admiration or the fervour which they are supposed to feel, and it would be impossible to define what expression there is on the faces of the two Disciples who are standing at the two extremities right and left. Then again there is something stilted in the attitudes, and in the grouping of the figures there is not so much ease and harmony as Raphael displays in his later compositions. But it would be ungracious to insist upon these defects when one reflects upon the transcendent beauties of the composition; and several of the figures, notably those of Christ and His mother, are of a marvellously pure and rounded type. Some of the heads are remarkable for their grace and juvenile freshness, and others for their majesty. The arrangement of the draperies is 58 Raphael. excellent, and the landscape deserves high praise, being more picturesque than in any of his previous works. There is a pleasing alternation of wooded hills and pleasant dwelling-places, the general effect produced being one of delightful tranquillity. Lastly, there are the Angels who form the escort of Christ and His mother. Their expression is one of mingled grace and pride, which reminds one more of the Florentine than of the Umbrian school, and would not have been disowned by Botticelli. The one who is placed beneath Christ, his eyes lifted to heaven with an expression of undefinable melancholy, is a prototype of the Angels which Raphael painted in the Madonna di San Sisto. There was a vast difference between this Coronation and the one which Perugino painted about the same time. In the work of the pupil we are struck by the vigour of conception and the exuberance of life and poetry, while in placing the Apostles round the Virgin's tomb Raphael introduced an element of interest which was lacking in Perugino's picture. In the latter, the Apostles, divided into two groups, merely express by their gestures their admiration for the spectacle which they have before them. But the heads are poor and inexpressive compared to those of Raphael, and they, as we have seen, are in many respects open to criticism. There is a great monotony about the outstretched necks and ecstatic looks, with the exception of the Apostle on the right, who, with his body violently thrown back, and his arms stretching towards the ground, gives eloquent expression to the fervour which animates him. This was an idea which Perugino had previously employed in his Ascension, now in the Lyons Museum, and which he had doubtless borrowed from Giotto, the dramatic painter par excellence. In the upper part of the picture he also shows his attachment to previous models, and he did well to' retain, as in his Lyons picture, the almond-shaped halo — the "mandorla" — which is so well calculated to enhance the brilliancy or solemnity of the composition. This large circle, studded with cherubim, forms an appropriate framework for the figures of Christ and of the Virgin, and brings out the beauties of the group, the attitude and expression of which are really excellent. I should even be tempted to say that in his picture there is more majesty about the Son and a more reflective expression about the Virgin, and that the whole composition has a more religious character. Upon the other hand, he has failed in the drawing of the four Angels who are hovering about the divine couple and holding over them a garland of flowers. This is where some novelty of design was required. The movements of the Angels have not sufficient unity or cadence, for those beneath are flitting in the opposite direction to those above. This detracts from the effect of the whole composition instead of improving it, and Raphael took care to avoid a similar mistake. Raphael and Pinturicchio. (59 We have compared Perugino's work with that of his pupil, but there is another comparison which one cannot avoid making. At a few paces from Raphael's picture, and in the same room, is another Coronation, painted at the same period by another of his masters, Bernardino Pinturicchio. This picture, as might be expected, is painted more in conformity with the traditions of the Middle Ages, and in many points possesses a hierarchical character which is not to be found in that of Raphael. In the one case we have a generous nature anxious to free itself of all trammels, in the other a man of mediocre powers who seeks the elements of strength in his attachment to the rules traced by his predecessors. In Pinturicchio' s picture, the Virgin, instead of being seated by the side of her Son, is kneeling in front of Him. Fra Angelico, who knew and adhered to the rules of sacred iconography more closely than any other painter of the fifteenth century, has painted the Virgin in both postures, sitting and kneeling. The Mother and Son are seen upon the edge of a " mandorla '' with a gold ground studded with cherubim. There is a preponderance of gold, too, in the halos, which form solid discs, while in Raphael's picture they are mere circles. As a composition the inferiority is very marked. There is a want of expression about the faces of the Apostles, or rather they express only enniti and indifference. It is only in the left group that there are a few juvenile and" pleasant faces, and even here the artist does not display more warmth of tone. There is the same imperfection in the colouring — yellow, blue, red, and light-green alternating in the draperies with out due proportion — and one might imagine that Pinturicchio had never heard of tonality and scale. There is nothing in the landscape background to make up for these defects ; it is inferior not only to those of Raphael but even to those of Perugino, which, in spite of their weakness, always have a certain amount of warmth and luminosity. It must have been grievous to be wanting both in science and inspiration ; still worse to be eclipsed by a youth of twenty, after having been the favourite painter of the Borgias. Underneath the Coronation of the Virgin there was formerly a sort of ledge, or "predella," to use the correct term, upon which were traced, in much smaller dimensions, scenes in the lives of the Virgin and of Christ, which supplemented the principal picture. This predella, though separated from the main part of the work, is still in existence, and is preserved in the Vatican, in the room which leads to the picture gallery. Raphael's predella represents in three compartments divided by red arabesques on a black ground, the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation in the Temple.1 1 The cartoon of the Annunciation is on view in the Louvre, Salle des Boites, No. 1606 ; that of the Adoration of the Magi, in the Stockholm Museum ; and that of the Presentation in the Temple at Oxford (Robinson, p. 122). All three are reproduced here. 60 Raphael. These, as we know, were very familiar subjects in the Umbrian school, but in this more limited space the artist has given a looser rein to his own fancy. Raphael is quite himself in this picture, with his infallible surety of hand, his exquisite taste, his force and vivacity. He might there and then have inaugu rated a new art, but he did not know the full extent of his own powers, and he was ever and again falling back beneath the banner of Perugino. The scene in which Mary receives from the heavenly messenger the assurance of her future greatness takes place beneath a lofty and elegant portico, supported by Corinthian columns. There is an unimpeded current of air through this beautiful and harmonious piece of architecture which tells one of the Renaissance, and the quiet landscape in the background adds to the serenity and spaciousness of the composition. A framework such as this was well calculated to bring the figures into relief, so that Raphael had no need to multiply them in order to bespeak attention for them. To the right, the Virgin is seated, with a book on her knee, slightly bending the head, and full of candour and resignation ; to the left is an Angel, who is rapidly advancing towards her with extreme joy depicted on his face ; and in the background, soaring in the air, is God the Father, confirming the promise borne by His messenger ; — these are the sole actors in this scene, at once so complete and so harmonious. In the Adoration of the Magi, Raphael has made use of more varied resources, that being a subject which lends itself more fully to a display of luxury and a multiplication of episodes. There was much in such a theme both to tempt and to intimidate a beginner, but Raphael was not to he stopped by the latter consideration, and set to work with unflinching courage. For a picture of the Umbrian school, as full of life and movement, of grace and of force as this, we must go back to the Adoration of the Magi painted in 1423 for Palla Strozzi by Gentile da Fabriano, which, as soon as it appeared, excited the warmest admiration amono- the artists of Florence. These two pictures, painted at an interval of eighty years, have the same fire and exuberant life in the male figures, the same exquisite grace in the figure of the Virgin, and the same vivacity in action — which last-named quality is, however, more concentrated in the case of Raphael, who reduced the number of personages from seventy to fifteen, and who, by more simple means, produced as striking an effect. To the right, near a ruined hovel, the Virgin is seated with her Son upon her knees, to whom one of the kings is offering rich presents. Here, it must be admitted, Gentile has the better of his young rival. In his picture, the senior of the Magi, prostrate before the Infant Jesus, humbly kisses his feet, while the Child gravely lays his hand upon 'the worshipper's head. This , CARTOON OF THE ANNUNCIATION. (In the Louvre.) Predellas of the Coronation. 63 scene, which is made more brilliant by the richness of the costumes, has about it a solemnity which is wanting in Raphael's work, and is, as it were, a final echo of the pomp of the Middle Ages. The Virgin is radiant with joy, while the attitude and visage of the Child express both curiosity and surprise. Behind the principal group, Raphael, by one of those bold inspirations for which he is remarkable, has placed three Shepherds, who, by the simplicity of their costume and the modesty of their offering (a lamb), contrast with the splendour of the three kings. Hitherto, the two scenes — the Adoration of the Magi and that of the Shepherds — had always been represented separately. By putting them into one, the artist showed how thoroughly he had mastered the meaning of the Gospel, and how well he had learnt to bring out the human and touching side of its pages. We shall have more than one oppor tunity of referring to bis biblical knowledge, which was proved even thus early to be far in advance of that displayed by all other artists of the period. The remainder of this composition is in keeping with its commencement, though framed in a different spirit, as the two other kings and their suite, made up of dashiDg horsemen, are gazing in pensive admiration at the spectacle before their eyes, while the scene is completed by some splendidly- drawn horses. The left group is put together with consummate art, and Raphael, outdoing his master, has hit upon a flow of line, a balance of masses, and a freedom and correctness of movement to which Perugino could never attain. For the third and last division, the Presentation in the Temple, Raphael has selected, as for the Annunciation, an architectural framework, at once simple and imposing, of the Ionic order. Thus the Adoration of the Magi, which forms the centre of the predella, and in which landscape plays an important part, has very picturesque surroundings ; and this fact deserves notice, for it testifies to Raphael's superior taste, details of this kind having been much ' neglected by the school of Perugino. In the centre of the composition stands the aged Simeon, who is the only personage with a halo, and he takes the new born Child from Mary with a gesture full of grace and modesty. But the Child is afraid of the stranger, and turns towards His mother, stretching out His little arms as if to implore her help. This is one of those touches of nature which testify to Raphael's originality in observation. St. Joseph, reserved and thoughtful as usual, completes this group, the arrangement of which is perfect. At the two extremities of the picture are the men to the left and the women to the right, one of the women carrying the traditional turtle-doves as a gift. The costumes are those of the fifteenth century, red, black, or green shoes, felt head-dresses of fantastic shapes, and long mantles, yet this anachronism and want of local colour spoil the work so Uttle that they may be regarded as a presage of future merit. 64 Raphael. Perugia was not the only town in Umbria which assisted at the dibnt of Raphael, for he received very cordial hospitality from Citta- di Castello, where STUDY FOR THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. (Drawing in Oxford University.) Luca Signorelli and Pinturicchio had already been employed.1 The Vitelli family, then the leading family in the city, were the allies of the Dukes of 1 It was thought that Bramante also had done some work at Citta di Castello, but M. de Geymuller, whose opinion carries great weight, attributes the construction of the dome to the architect Elia di Bartolommeo Lombaxdo (les Projets primitifs pour la basilique de Saint-Pierre de Rome, p. 105). Pontani, in his Opere architettoniche di Raffaello Sannio (Rome, 1845, p. 6), has built up a regular romance upon the imaginary meeting of Bramante and Raphael at Citta di Castello. Work at Citta di Castello. 65 Urbino, and on one occasion (in December, 1502) Raphael's legitimate sove reign, Duke Guidobaldo, took refuge with them from Caesar Borgia. His flight was so precipitate that he only took a single day to reach Citta di Castello from Urbino. This fact, which Raphael's biographers do not seem to have noticed, explains to some extent how it was that he soon felt himself at home. It is probable that he did not come till after the visit of Duke Guidobaldo, or even until after the town, having been captured by Caesar Borgia, regained its liberty on the death of Alexander VI. (August 18th, 1503). Upon the strength of an assertion made on very insufficient evidence by Lanzi, it has been said that all the works executed at Citta di Castello dated, with the exception of the Sposalizio, from the year 1500. But as the Sposalizio was painted in 1504, the other pictures were probably painted about the same time, for in 1500 Raphael, as we have seen, had only just entered Perugino's studio, while three or four years later his reputation was firmly established throughout Umbria, and would have been well known to the inhabitants of Citta di Castello. The paintings executed by Raphael at Citta di Castello number four — viz., the Banner representing on one side the Trinity and on the other the Creation of Eve ; the Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino ; Christ on the Cross ; and the Sposalizio. The banner is still in existence, but in a state of ruin. It has been removed from the Church of the Trinity, for which it was painted, to the town gallery of Citta di Castello. Raphael did not deem it beneath his dignity to accept this order, knowing that the most illustrious painters were glad to paint those banners which held the place of honour in the processions, and which were generally as well-paid as oil-paintings. The Umbrian school had, so to speak, the monopoly of them, and Perugino had set his pupil the example by painting fourteen small standards for the Panicale Church, in which they were used for the Corpus Domini procession. On one side of the banner Raphael has represented God the Father seated on a cloud of glory and holding a crucifix in both hands, while above Him hovers the Holy Ghost. At the bottom are to be seen St. Sebastian to the left and St. Roch to the right, both on their knees, and with their eyes lifted towards God. Upon the reverse side God is depicted advancing toward Adam, who is asleep, while above are the figures of two Angels. Passavant, from whom these details are taken, adds that the paintings are on slightly prepared canvas, and that they have a blue bord.er ornamented with gilt tracery and palms ; the letter R traced upon the hem of the garment worn by God stands for the signature, and the whole work, though conceived in the qq Raphael. style of Perugino has more breadth and grace, especially in regard to the landscape. The Coronation of St. Nicholas cf Tolentino, executed for the church of St. Augustine, remained at Citta di Castello until 1789, when it was sold for the sum of £200 to Pope Pius VI. The picture was on panel, and difficult to move on account of its size ; and as it was only injured in the upper part, the- Pope had it sawn in two, so as to make a complete picture of the lower part, while the figures in the higher part formed distinct pictures. These fragments were to be seen in the Vatican until after the entry of the French army into Rome in 1798, when they were undoubtedly sold by auction together with Raphael's tapestries and many other objects which have since disappeared. Thanks to the descriptions of Lanzi and Pungileoni, and thanks also to two drawings preserved respectively at Oxford l and Lille, it is possible to furnish a tolerably clear description of the picture. According to Lanzi, Raphael represented St. Nicholas as being crowned by the Virgin and St. Augustine,' , who are half hidden in a cloud. Beneath St. Augustine's feet is the prostrate figure of the demon, and to the right and left are two Angels holding inscrip tions in honour of the saint. In the upper division is the majestic figure of the Almighty surrounded by a glory of angels. A sort of temple with pilastersti charged with ornaments after the manner of Mantegna, forms a framework for the composition, and the draperies are of the period. It will be remarked in this drawing that Raphael, instead of representing the devil in his' conventional hideousness, has given him the appearance of a negro. The Lille sketch differs but very slightly from Lanzi's description. St. Nicholas, placed in the centre, is holding a book in one hand and a cross in the other, and is naked. Above is the half-length figure of a young man in the close- fitting dress of the period — this was a study for the figure of the Almighty- while the two flanking figures are the Virgin and St. Augustine, both half-length. The whole is enclosed between two pilasters surmounted by a full arch; and' M. Gonse, who mentions these details, dwells with encomium upon the juvenile and Peruginesque style of this picture and its combination of ingenuousness with skill.2 The Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino is not at all in keeping with the traditional view, and another painter would, as Lanzi has remarked, have 1 Robinson, A Critical Account of the Drawings by Michel Angelo and Raffaello in the University Galleries, Oxford, No. 4. 2 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1878, vol. i. p. 48. The Lille drawing has been photographed by M. Braun, and is numbered 95. It is a black-chalk drawing upon white paper, squared and with the upper part curved. Crowe and Cavalcaselle mention a fine copy of" the principal group in the Citta di Castello Museum. B-»aS THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN. (In the Brera, Milan.) V 2 The Sposalizio. (59 grouped his figures around the throne of the Virgin, and have engaged them in one of those " pious conversations" which were so much in vogue during the fifteenth century. Raphael, on the contrary, concentrates all the interest of his picture upon the Saint in whose honour it was painted ; and his composition is, in reality, an apotheosis which celebrates both the victory of St. Nicholas over the demon, who lies prostrate at his feet, and his celestial triumph. The vigour of this conception should be compared with the soft outlines and general want of character to which Perugino and his scholars were so prone. Raphael is not content with simply carrying out an old programme with unusual skill ; he distances his predecessors by his invention as well as by his style. Christ on the Cross, which from the Gavari Chapel in the Dominican church has found its way, after many vicissitudes, into Lord Dudley's gallery in London, is among the most important of Raphael's youthful productions. The subject, it must be admitted, was scarcely adapted to his genius, and one can under stand his taking refuge in ready-made ideas. In proportion as he displays inspiration and spirit when he has to represent grace and beauty, so does he give evidence of indecision in the portrayal of passion or grief — at all events during his early period ; so that one would fancy that the idea of evil and suffering could find no place in so ethereal a mind. While Michael Angelo astonishes and terrifies us by the spectacle of moral and physical tortures, Raphael is the interpreter of tranquil and pure feelings, and fails whenever he attempts to force his talent ; for even the Entombment, many as are its beauties, betokens too much effort. It follows, therefore, that the predominant feature in the Christ on the Cross is that of meek resignation, without any of that poignant suffering which Giotto, Mantegna, and Signorelli put into their compositions. This brings us to the fourth, and doubtless the last, of the pictures painted at Citta di Castello, viz. the Sposalizio or Marriage of the Virgin, which was painted in 1504 for the Church of St. Francis. Removed from there in 1798, it is now in the Brera Museum at Milan. It is natural, when one examines this picture, to be reminded of that on the same subject painted by Perugino,1 for there seems, at first sight, to be a striking resemblance between the two ; but it is incorrect to speak of Raphael's work as a repetition or a copy. Raphael no more copied Perugino's picture than the latter reproduced those of his predecessors. In 1 We have already pointed out that Perugino's picture was painted, not in 1495, as gener ally alleged, but subsequent to 1500 (see Marchesi's II Cambio di Perugia, p. 322 ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, vol. iii. p. 221 ; Vasari, Milanesi edition, vol. iii. p. 611). 70 Raphael. all pictures of this subject the general arrangement is almost identical; in the centre is the high-priest taking the hands of the betrothed to join them together, while right and left the rivals of Joseph" show their disappointment by breaking the rod which has borne no flowers, and the companions of Mary are looking on with an air of satisfaction or pensiveness ; the background of the picture is a temple in a landscape. If Raphael is to be accused of copying Perugino, many of the greatest artists and greatest poets are plagiarists in the same degree. Examining the two pictures in detail, we find that there is something very stiff and heavy about the central group in that of Perugino. ¦ There is a want of dignity about the high-priest, of youth about Mary, and of grace about Joseph ; and the attitudes, expression, and draperies strike one as poor and affected. Nor is he more happy in the accessory figures, for, taken! individually, there is a want of character about them, while, considered as a whole, they fail to satisfy the laws of arrangement,, each of them appearing to look in a different direction, and to take no interest in the principal chief events. : There are as many beauties in the pupil's picture as there are defects in that of the master ; or, to speak more correctly, it is by comparing the one with the other that the defects of Perugino are brought to light. In Raphael's picture there is a world of candour and modesty in the expression of the Virgin, the very way in which she gives her hand to the high-priest shows by itself that tho work is that of a born painter, of a subtle. observer, of a true poet The companions of Mary are meet sisters of those women of Florence with whom Ghirlandajo has peopled the choir of Santa Maria Novella. They are full of grace and distinction, and the whole group has a vivacity and picturesqueness hitherto unknown in the Umbrian school, the influence of which is, however, apparent in the figures of St. Joseph's rivals, whose heads are without energy of expression. This is because Raphael learnt to portray feminine "beauty long before he knew how to embody the qualities of pride and force which are peculiar to men. He was born to paint Madonnas and Angels. From their first beginnings there was a profound opposition between his genius and that of his rival, Michael Angelo, whose figures of women— when by chance he painted any — had always something masculine about them. Nature delights in these contrasts. The background of the Sposalizio deserves special mention, for though apparently imitated from Perugino, it is original in the best sense. Only a man of genius like Raphael could thus dare to follow in the footsteps of his master, confident of overcoming the obstacles that to him had proved insurmountable. In Raphael's picture, a polygon temple, which would have done, credit to any The Sposalizio. 71 architect, takes the place of Perugino's hybrid edifice, and the whole background is full of light and air. The young artist, who here shows much in common with his compatriot, Bramante, was, with good reason, proud of his work, and instead of merely signing his initials in a corner, as he had hitherto done, the words Raphael Urbinas, MDIIII. appear in full on the faqade of the temple.1 Among the doubtful works belonging to this period in Raphael's career we may quote : The Resurrection ; in the Convent of the Trinita, Cava dei Tirreni, near Naples. An unknown portrait in the Borghese Gallery, Rome (Morelli believes it to represent Perugino ; Minghetti, Pinturicchio). The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian ; Chaber collection, Montpellier. The Marys ; in the sacristy of San Pietro Maggiore, Perugia. This picture, ascribed by Passavant to Raphael, is, in fact, a copy from a Perugino in the Marseilles Museum. Cartoon for The Coronation of the Virgin; formerly in the "Wellesley collection, at Oxford. The picture, which is by Perugino, is in the gallery at Perugia. The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel ; in the possession of S. Baseggio, at Rome. Martyrs ; in the possession of Mr. Waters, London. Formerly in the Borghese, Ottley and Stuart collections. Pax Vobiscum ; Brescia Gallery. Portrait of a man, Haussmaun Gallery, Hanover. Saints, Magdalen and Catherine ; Alnwick Castle. The Diotalevi Madonna ; Berlin Museum. Tlie Alfani Madonna ; in possession of the Countess Fabrizi, Terni. CHAPTER V. Journey of Raphael to Siena.— Pinturicchio's Frescoes in the Cathedral Library.— The group of The Three Graces.— First contact with Antiquity.— The old Sienese School and Sodoma.— The Vision of a Knight. The period comprised between the years 1504 and 1508 is undoubtedly the most eventful one in Raphael's life. We find him in turn at Perugia, Citta di Castello, Siena, Urbino, Florence, perhaps at Bologna, and then again at Perugia and Urbino; but the date of these different journeys cannot be fixed with certainty. While at Urbino he figures at all the ceremonies of a brilliant and enlightened court ; while in his peregrinations through Umbria he devotes himself with ardour to work, making lasting friendships in one place, and painting famous pictures in another. There is an equal variety in his style and his choice of subjects, for he tried his hand at sacred and profane history, at portraits, at easel-pictures, and at fresco. At one time he is influenced by Masaccio, by Signorelli, by Leonardo da Vinci, by Fra Bartolommeo ; and then he suddenly goes back to the Perugino manner, so that we are puzzled to follow the apparent contradictions of his ever growing genius. These journeys had the good effect of preventing him from being paralysed by the traditions of the Umbrian school, for had he adhered to the principles of Perugino he would never have become the prince of painters. But the evolution was gradual, as might be expected from so well-balanced a mind, and, as M. Charles Clement remarks, " the transformation took place un consciously as age and circumstances modified his impressions." -1 A sincere admirer of the Umbrian school, he remained faithful to it, not only loDg enough to penetrate all its secrets, but to make it take a long step forward. Then, feeling that greater destinies awaited him, he took service under another standard, after bidding an affectionate farewell to his former companions in arms. 1 Michel- Ange, Leonard de Vinci, Raphael, fourth edition, Paris, 1878, p. 267. Raphael at Siena. 73 The date of Raphael's sojourn at Siena is uncertain, for Pinturicchio, who invited him to come and advise him in the painting of the frescoes which Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini had ordered for the Library, was several years at this work, off and on.1 He began and finished the decoration of this ceiling in 1503, but he does not appear to have commenced the side-walls before 1504 ; and it was in the course of the same year that he painted a Nativity in the Church of San Francesco for the altar of Filippo Sergardi (the first owner of the Belle Jardiniere, for which Raphael, according to testimony which must be received with caution, executed a predella. Both picture and predella were destroyed by fire in 1655. It is not, therefore, rash to conjecture that Raphael came to Siena in 1504, just as his friend was about to resume work in the Library. The work entrusted to Pinturicchio by Cardinal Piccolomini, afterwards Pius III., was as interesting as any historical painter could desire. He had to reproduce in the town of Siena, so dear to the greatest of the Piccolomini family, the achievements of him who, after gaining celebrity in the world of letters and diplomacy under the name of iEneas Sylvius, became Pius II., and one of the lights of the Church. Siena teemed with recollections of the illustrious pontiff who had raised so many splendid monuments in the town itself, at Pienza, and other neighbouring places. The only fault which an im partial historian could find with him — that he showed too much favour to his family and his native place, to the detriment of the Church and of Rome — was an additional merit in the eyes of the people of Siena. There was no one more popular in this ancient Republic, which so long disputed with Florence the primacy of Tuscany, and Pinturicchio was more agreeably employed than when he was acting as official painter to the Borgias. The life of Pius II. afforded ample scope for the graphic powers of Bernardino Pinturicchio. Born at Siena in 1405 of poor but noble parents, 1 The text of the agreement between the cardinal and the painter is still extant. It is useful to repeat the principal clauses, for, in showing us the material conditions under which a work of art was produced, they give us a better understanding of the artistic habits of the epoch. Pinturicchio undertakes to decorate with " grottesche '' the ceiling of the Library (a la foggia et di segni che qggi si chiamano grottesche), himself to draw either the cartoons or the frescoes, and to paint all the heads with his own hand. The agreement also specifies when the cardinal's armorial bearings are to be brought in, and states that there are to be ten compositions illustrative of the life of Pius II. Finally, the artist undertakes to employ gold, ultramarine blue, and azure green of good quality, to use the fresco process, retouching when dry. For this immense work he is to receive a sum of a thousand ducats, about £2,000, two hundred of which are to be spent upon the purchase of colours. The bread and oil and wine which he may require are to be supplied him by the cardinal's steward at market price, and their value to be deducted from the cost of the pictures, while the cardinal is to find him a free lodging. 74 Raphael. .Eneas Sylvius had from the first a hard struggle for fame. In turn secretary of the Council of Basle, where he attracted notice by his attacks upon the legitimate Pope, then secretary to the Emperor Frederick III., poet laureate, amanuensis, ambassador, he made himself indispensable by means of his versatility and tact, while his erudition, his manner, and general urbanity, won him universal popularity. During his long stay in Germany he set himself to study a country then very little known to his compatriots, and his letters and works of geography and history still give us not only the most correct -but the most vivid picture of the German Empire in the fifteenth SIENA AT THE TIME OF THE RENAISSANCE. century. While Italy acquired from Mnens Sylvius more accurate ideas about Germany, he, upon the other hand, taught Germany those principles of the Renaissance, which were upon the point of transforming society by the substitution of modern civilization for that of the Middle Ages. On quitting Germany, ^neas Sylvius left behind him a long trail of light, and becoming reconciled to the Church, he rapidly reached the highest honours, being proclaimed Pope in 1458, after having been Bishop of Siena, and then Cardinal. His reign was brief but brilliant ; for we find him at one and the same time engaged in restoring the authority of the Church, in organizing a The Siena Library. 75 crusade against the Turks, in writing, under the title of Commentaries, a history of his own time, and of perpetuating his memory by the erection of vast buildings. The Congress of Mantua, the foundation of the city of Pienza, the transfer to Rome, amid signs of indescribable enthusiasm, of the relics of St. Andrew, his departure as Pope for a new Crusade— he only got as far as Ancona, where he died of grief at seeing the breakdown of the enter prise upon which he had concentrated his efforts for a quarter of a century — were all episodes calculated to stimulate the imagination of an artist. The subjects selected by Pinturicchio or by the family for the frescoes on the walls of the Library were ten in all:— (1) Departure of Apneas Sylvius for the Council of Basle ; (2) Apneas Sylvius in the presence of King James of Scotland ; (3) Mneas Sylvius proclaimed Poet Laitreate at Frankfort ; (4) Mneas Sylvius taking the Oath of Fidelity to the Emperor before Pope Eugene IV. ; (5) Mneas Sylvius affiancing the Emperor Frederick III. to Eleanor of Portugal ; (6) sEneas Sylvnts made Cardinal ; (7) Mneas Sylvius elected Pope ; (8) Pius II. at the Congress of Mantua; (9) Canonization of Catherine of Siena ; (10) Death of Puts II. at Ancona. Commenced in 1504, this grand series was not completed until 1506. The best judges are of opinion that Raphael had nothing to do with the actual execution of the frescoes in the Library, and that his share in the work was confined to giving Pinturicchio some sketches of which the latter made more or less ingenious use. Some critics have even, of late years, attempted to cast doubt on the theory that Raphael helped Pinturicchio in any way. They ask whether it is probable that a practised and established master like Pinturicchio would accept aid even from such a pupil as Raphael. But a series of designs of unquestionable authenticity corroborate the words of Vasari, to whom we owe our knowledge concerning the help given to Pinturicchio by Raphael. A comparison between the drawings and frescoes dispels all doubts, and shows the crushing superiority of the younger man. Look, for instance, at the Departure of Mneas Sylvius for the Council of Basle. In a drawing at the Uffizi the landscape is largely and confidently treated ; in the fresco it has the look of a Chinese picture. In the drawing the horsemen sit firmly on their steeds, their action easy and noble, while the horses themselves are full of fire and vitality ; in the fresco all this is almost childish. The Umbrian master has not in the least understood the spirit of his young assistant's work, and in making use of it has introduced passages which are mere nonsense, such as the greyhound held in a lead by one of the horsemen, which stands motionless while the rest of the cortege moves on wards. The whole drawing, in fact, glows with the imagination of Raphael 76 Raphael. and displays the subtle firmness of his style, while the picture, on the other hand, shows all that was mannered and poor in the art of Pinturicchio. It remains to add that MM. Grimm and Schmarsow are confident that the inscription on the drawing is in the handwriting of Raphael. There are several frescoes for which Raphael does not appear to have made designs, or for which designs have not come down to our day, but there are many analogies of style between them and his own undoubted handiwork. The fresco which represents Mneas Sylvius receiving the Poet's Crown is strikingly like the pictures which Raphael painted during his stay at Perugia. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle have with good reason compared the figure of the youth whose back is turned on the spectator 1 with the figures in the Adoration of the Magi, which is placed, as we have already noticed, beneath the Coronation of the Virgin. There is the same easy bearing and boldness of conception in both. It may also be noted that, according to a well- authenticated tradition, Pinturicchio has painted a portrait of himself and of Raphael in the Canonization of St. Catherine of Siena, each of them being represented carrying a taper, and Pinturicchio looking at Raphael with an air of tender affection. It was during his stay at Siena that Raphael seems for the first time to have found himself in the presence of a masterpiece of antique statuary. Struck by the beauty of The Three Graces, which Cardinal Piccolomini had transferred from Rome to the Siena Library,2 he made a copy of it, which is 1 This figure is missing in the Oxford collection, which contains only a group of four soldiers. 2 In 1857, Pope Pius IX., with an excess of religious scruples, had this work removed from the cathedral itself, on the ground that it was of pagan character, to the Academy of Fine Arts. It is now placed in the small museum which has been formed in the chapter house of the cathedral. The general belief is that the group of The Three Graces was discovered at Borne in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and in support of this theory the well-known passage from Albertini's Oposculum de mirabilibus novrn et veteris urbis Romce (edition of 1515, folio 86 vo) has often been quoted : « Domus Rev. Francisci Piccolomini cardinalis senensis non longe est (a domo Ursmorum), in qua erant stature Gratiarum posits" But all that A bertim, who wrote in 1509, says is, that at a certain time the group was in Cardinal Pic colomini s palace at Rome, and it does not at all follow that it was not discovered long before. Three different medals of the last quarter of the fourteenth century (Maria Politiana, Giovanni Pica della Mirandola, and Giovanna Albizzi, wife of Lorenzo Tornabuoni) have on their obverse The Three Graces in exactly similar positions. The same motive reappears in the frescoes of the Schifanoja Palace. It will be objected that representations of this kind were very frequent m ancient art (see Miiller's Monuments de I' Art Antique, vol ii. pi. Ira.), and that the Italian medallists may have taken their idea from some cameo or bas-relief dis covered before the Siena group. (I myself know of a bas-relief of this kind engraved in the Epigrammata antique Urbis, by Mazzocchi, Rome, 1521, folio 105 vo, as well as in a print ol Marc Antonio, and representing three nymphs in precisely the same attitude as in Raphael and the Antique. 77 still preserved in the Academy of Fine Arts at Venice, and which, as might be expected, was full of faults due to the artist's inexperience, and, as Raphael himself found out in course of time, there was a vast distance between the Umbrian manner and the classic style. His efforts at Siena to vie with the original were fruitless, for he failed to reproduce the rounded and harmonious shapes of the marble. In Raphael's drawing there is a meagreness and poverty about the head and neck of the figure to the left, as may be seen by comparing the two engravings on pages 78 and 79. We may add that at this time Raphael had no more power to give classic subjects their true local colour than he had to reproduce the masterpieces of the antique sculptors. This he was shown in some drawings at Oxford.1 There can be little doubt that, even before this, Raphael had had oppor tunities of examining the products of classic art, as the passion for gems, medals, bronzes, for anything which recalled the Greek and Roman civiliza tion, was at its zenith. There was scarcely a town in the Italian Peninsula which did not possess at least one cabinet of antiquities, and even before the Renaissance, in the early part of the fourteenth century, Venice had begun to make collections of the kind. Petrarch gave a new impetus to the fashion. What struck the Italian poet in the effigy of a Greek or Roman hero was more the historic recollec tions which it revived than the beauty of the style or the perfection of the handiwork. He himself tells us in the letter in which he relates his inter view with the Emperor Charles IV. at Mantua in 1354, that, after offering to that monarch several coins, including one which bore the effigy of Augustus, he said : " These are the sovereigns whom you should imitate. Regulate your conduct by their example ; form yourself after their image. You alone among men are entitled to this gift from me ; your greatness has induced me to despoil myself of so precious a treasure in your favour." In the fifteenth century there was a rapid increase in the number of collections, and regular museums were formed, not only at Florence, Rome, Urbino, and other capitals, but in the remote towns. Raphael, therefore, had the study of the antique almost forced upon him, and if he began it rather late in life, the fault doubtless lay with his early education ; for Perugino was not a partizan of the Renaissance like Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Mantegna, and never thought that a struggle the Siena group. The original marble is in the Albani palace, at Urbino. It bears the in scription batinia. peiscilla. nymphis. sacrom.) But, as this motive was so often repeated, there must have been some recent discovery of a rare specimen of the antique. It is reason able, therefore, on the whole, to suppose that the marble designed by Raphael was discovered at Rome in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, and then removed to Siena. 1 Robinson, Nos. 18, 19. 78 Raphael. was in progress between the Middle Ages on the one hand and antiquity on the other, in which the latter would come out victorious. So that his pupil, while admiring the works of sculpture, and the Roman edifices at Urbino and Perugia, did not think of making them his models ; and subject as he was to THE GROUP OF THE THREE GRACES. (Cathedral Library at Siena.) Umbrian influences, it was only later in life that he felt the necessity of im proving his style by studying the antique, and, while never losing sight of nature, by consulting its eternal models of truth and beauty. The Three Graces. 79 Raphael not only rendered permanent by a few strokes with the pen his V'^^^"'™eC^^2S£T$''K two OF the three gbaoes. — Drawing by Raphael. (In the Venetian Academy.) recollection of the masterpiece which had so impressed his imagination, he 80 Raphael. even attempted to restore the mutilated group, as we shall see when we come to speak of the famous little picture of The Three Graces now in the Due d'Aumale's collection. It is somewhat singular that it should have been at Siena, the last bulwark of the Byzantine school, that Raphael's eyes should have been opened to the crushing superiority of antique art, for he might well have learnt a different lesson from this ancient city, which was and is so full of the recollections of the Middle Ages. Where one would have expected to find a recrudescence of mysticism, his imagination became the prey of pagan antiquity. Siena shared the attachment of Perugia for the ideas of the Middle Ages, but this, amid many differences, was the only point of contact. There is this peculiarity about Italian cities, that having nearly all of them been capitals and the centre of some great intellectual movement, they have not become subject to the monotonous uniformity which pervades the rest of Europe. And if there are distinct differences of local character in our day, how much more marked must they have been at the time of the Renaissance, when political contests intensified literary and artistic rivalries, and when cruel wars were continually widening the gulf which separated neighbouring cities. Thus, though Siena and Perugia were only a few leagues apart, each had a civilization and an art of its own. The fact of there being several points of similarity in the landscape and the mediaeval physiognomy of the two towns themselves must not blind us to the fact that the inhabitants of Siena were a refined and intelligent race, to whom artistic production was a vital function, while the duller Umbrians needed the excitement of religious senti ment to appreciate art at all. It may be said that every street and every house testifies to the distinguished genius of the Sienese, and there was a time when this small Republic supplied architects, painters, sculptors, and goldsmiths, not only to the neighbouring provinces, but to Rome, to Naples, and even to Avignon. During the whole of the fourteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth, Florence alone could compare with Siena for the intensity of its artistic life. In the latter city were born and worked Duccio, Sirnone Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Taddeo Bartoli, Sano di Pietro, and many other famous painters: Lorenzo Maitani, the architect of the Cathedral of Orvieto ; Antonio Federighi and Francesco di Giorgio Martini represented architecture, Giacomo della Quercia and le Vecchietta, sculpture, to mention only a few of the best known. Foreign artists — for the people of Siena took no narrow and exclusive view of patriotism — deemed it a high honour to contribute something to the brilliant concert ; and so it was that Niccolo Il Sodom a. 81 Pisano sculptured the Cathedral Pulpit, that Giovanni Pisano designed the facade of the cathedral, that Ghiberti modelled the statues of the Baptistery, and that Bernardino Rossellino built the magnificent Palazzo Piccolomini. At a more recent epoch Michael Angelo himself carved statues of Apostles or Saints for the chapel of this palace.1 If Raphael had commenced his career at Siena instead of at Perugia, the whole future of painting might have been changed. But at the time of his accepting the invitation of Pinturicchio his early impressions and tendencies had been very much modified. Though he had not finally broken with the past, he seemed to see a wider horizon before him, so that the majestic pictures of the Virgin on a gold ground by Duccio di Buoninsegna, and the grand allegory of Ambrogio Lorenzetti made but little impression upon him. His thoughts were not for them, and there was nothing that they could have taught him. In his eyes the group of The Three Graces eclipsed all these remains of an extinct civilisation, and we may say that it prevented him from doing justice to the work of Niccolo Pisano, whose only fault was to be too far in advance of his age. The influence of the Greek marble was rivalled only by that which a young stranger — whose escapades and whose prodigious talent were beginning to be the talk of the town — exercised over Raphael. This was Antonio Bazzi, nicknamed Sodoma, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci's, and a few years the senior of Raphael (he was born at Vercelli in 1477) ; he had been invited to Siena in 1500 by the Spanocchi,2 a wealthy family of bankers, and his Descent from the Cross, now in the Academy of Fine Arts, his frescoes in the refectory of Santa- Anna in Creta, near Pienza, and those at Monte Oliveto, soon made him celebrated. His colouring had even more suavity than that of Perugino, . while his easy and voluptuous style of composition, with its feminine elegance and soft though proud distinction, seem to have fairly dazzled Raphael and given him a glimpse of the wonders done with palette and brushes by Leonardo himself. It must have taken him a considerable time to recover his head, aud to make a cool and fair estimate of the style of this hardy innovator. He little thought that within a few years time he would meet Sodoma in another arena, and take a signal revenge upon his seducer by painting out his work at the Pope's order and substituting his own in its stead. Sodoma , was, with all his brilliance, very superficial, and qualities such as his 1 These statues were delivered at the latest in 1504 (contract of the 11th of October , published by Signor Milanesi in his Lettere di Michel-angelo Buonarotti, Florence, 1875, p. 628). Raphael may therefore have seen him during his stay at Siena. 2 See, with regard to Sodoma, the vivacious essay of M. C. Timbal in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (January and February, 1878). G 82 Raphael, stood no chance against the serious convictions and superior genius of a Raphael. There was another painter of whom Raphael must have heard a good deal at this period, and whom he often met afterwards, though they were never very intimate ; this was Baldassare Peruzzi, who, born at Siena of parents who belonged to Volterra, took his line both from Sodoma and Pinturicchio. He was already very well thought of in his native town, when he determined about 1503, to try his fortune at Rome. There he got into favour with the wealthy banker of Siena, Agostino Chigi, who was afterwards one of the hest patrons both of Raphael and Sodoma. Being both a painter and an architect, he associated his name with frescoes and palaces ; and in architecture there came to be such a close analogy between his style and that of Raphael, that it is often impossible to tell one from the other. The most competent judges are at a loss to decide which of them designed the Goldsmith's Church of St. Aloysius, the Farnesina and the Chigi Chapel at Santa-Maria del Popolo. So great, indeed, was Peruzzi's reputation as an architect, that after Raphael's death he was appointed to succeed him, in conjunction with Antonio da San- Gallo, as director of the works at St. Peter's. Yet another Sienese artist, the wood-carver, Giovanni Barile,- eventually formed part of the circle gathered around Raphael at Rome, and it was he who carved and encrusted, under the direction and after the designs of Raphael, the doors of the Vatican Stanzi. Thus Raphael seemed to recruit right and left allies and rivals to take part in the great artistic tournament which ,was about to be held at Rome, and to become the wonder of after generations. It was upon the Eternal City that all ambitions were concentrated, and many of the artists who were poor or obscure when he first knew them at Urbino, Perugia Siena, and Florence, were destined to appear with him upon a larger stage, and to form part of the splendid cortege in which Julius II. and Leo X. march to immortality. It was at about this time, in all probability, that the charming little picture called the Vision of a Knight, and now in the National Gallery of England was painted.1 For the first time we see Raphael painting a lay subject, and treating it with a grace and an elevation worthy of the most eminent masters; and no doubt he would have enriched the world of art with many such pictures, if he had not by the force of circumstances been brought back to the more immediate service of religion. It has been argued with some 1 The National Gallery has been so fortunate as to be able to supplement the picture with the original sketch, a pen-drawing, pricked for pouncing. The Vision of a Knight was bought in 1847, and cost only a thousand guineas. The Vision of a Knight. 83 show of reason, that in painting this picture he had in his mind the fable of Hercules placed between Virtue and Pleasure,1 for the influence of antique recollections was at that period too strong for him to escape. But, RAPHAEL PINXIT THE VISION OF A KNIGHT. (National Gallery, London.) supposing for an instant that he had to depict the Grecian hero between the two traditional figures, there can be no doubt that, with all his i In his recent work upon Raphael's study of antiquity (Beitrdge zu Raphaels Stadium der Antike, Leipsic, 1877, p. 13), Herr von Pulszky seeks to show that the artist really in tended to rep esent Hercules between Virtue and Voluptuousness. But rt is scarcely poss We to admifthat in the sixteenth century Raphael would have failed to give the Grecian dierc hi two most characteristic attributes : the club and the lion's skin. So complete an ignorance G 2 84 Raphael. talent, he would have produced nothing but a more or less lifeless and hackneyed allegory. But there is something more than this in his picture, for by a stroke of genius he put mythology on one side, and sought his in spiration in a tradition less remote and more vivid. He went for his subject to those Middle Ages so rich in poetry which Boiardo and Pulci had brought to life again, and he evoked that chivalry which, with its generous aspirations and knightly deeds, was worth}' of comparison with the heroic episodes of antiquity. The form of a dream or vision given to the scene adds, if possible, to the delicacy and depth of the artist's conception. Exhausted by the fatigue of a long journey, a Knight, as rich in the gifts as in the illusions of youth, is sleeping beneath a laurel tree. Like a true warrior, he has not taken off his armour, and he has made a pillow of his shield. During his sleep, two women appear to him, both marvellously beautiful, different as is their expression one from another. One, pensive and grave, though her features are instinct with grace and sweetness, holds out to him a sword and a book, as if to incite him to warlike deeds and study. Her yellow tunic and flowing robe of purple give additional nobility to her carriage. The other, her rival, has a more coquettish garb. The red hue of her tunic brings into relief the brilliancy of her blue dress shot with rosy tints ; she wears round her throat a coral necklace, and a white veil floats at the back of her head, while she holds in her hand a flower, the emblem of games, pleasures, and worldly amusements. This is Voluptuousness, such, at least, as it appeared to the ingenuous imagination of Raphael, the antithesis of austerity rather than of purity, and representing, may we not say, the genius of Antiquity in contradistinction to that of Christianity. Thoughts such as these must have more than once flitted through his brain when he left Umbria. Not that he ever hesitated as between pleasure and labour, but a new world was opening before him, and amid the profane society which he frequented at Urbino and Florence, there were many convictions which he would be called upon to sacrifice. These were the complex struggles which Raphael sought to depict in his dreaming knight, ' but while intending only to interpret his personal feelings, he traced a story eternally true and eloquent. Such is the privilege of genius. of ancient mythology would be all the more surprising because Hercules was, of all the divinities of Olympus, the one most familiar to the Middle Ages. We shall, therefore adhere to the recognised title of the Vision of a Knight given to this picture. CHAPTER VI. Return of Raphael to Urbino in 1504. — Guidobaldo's Court. — Baldassare Castiglione and the Cortegiano. — The St. Michael and St. George in the Louvre. Raphael, during his long stay at Umbria, had not forgotten his native town, and as soon as he had fulfilled his engagements at Perugia and Citta di Castello he resolved to go and see his own friends — his uncle Simone, who had always been so kind to him, and the Montefeltro family, of whom his father had been rather the friend than the subject. This journey was undertaken in 1504, probably on his return from Siena. The little Duchy had during his absence been subjected to severe trials, but they were trials which elevate rather than depress the courageous. The ambition of Alexander VI. and of his son had convulsed Italy. Guidobaldo, driven from his principality, had returned in triumph, but he was once more compelled to meet the attack of an adversary as cruel and truculent as he was audacious. This was in November of 1502. The enthusiasm of the people had risen to fever height, and it was a stirring scene when the ladies of Urbino came before their prince and cast at his feet rings, necklaces and bracelets, pearls and diamonds, begging him to accept their offerings for the salvation of the country. But what chance could a few thousand citizens have against a fierce soldiery led by a man in whom seemed incarnate the spirit of evil ? Guido baldo, it is true, had been, like his father, a " condottiere " all his life, and had often distinguished himself upon the battle-field ; but he was more valiant than he was fortunate, more gifted with knowledge than tactical skill ; and his good qualities were not sufficient to enable him to cope with a man like Csesar Borgia. The young Duke soon saw that resistance would be hopeless, and that he would be shedding the blood of his subjects to no purpose. He preferred, therefore, to sacrifice himself rather than bring fresh misfortunes upon his country. Nevertheless, before going a second time into exile, he resorted to a measure as wise as it was generous, razing all the fortifications of his duchy to the ground. "For," as he said, "what is the use of these ramparts ? If I keep my duchy, I have no need of fortifications to hold my 86 Raphael. subjects in obedience ; if, on the contrary, they fall into the hands of the enemy, they will enable him to hold his conquest all the longer." The people of Urbino comprehended the patriotism of this decision, and they set to work with such a will that towers, redoubts, and buttresses were soon level with the ground. Having secreted his treasures, Guidobaldo then set out for Citta di Castello, accompanied by a crowd of two thousand people. At Urbino, Csesar Borgia, who was as wily as he was ambitious, adopted new tactics. While he spread terror throughout the Romagna, he assumed a moderate attitude in the duchy ; but his yoke was none the less burdensome to the faithful subjects of the Montefeltros, and it was a grievous trial to the magistrates of Urbino to be compelled to do homage to one so universally detested. But there was no help for it, and the people were obliged to simulate joy. Timoteo Viti had to embellish shields with the fierce Spanish bull — the emblem of the Borgias. The children alone could not be got to conform to the new state of things, and neither promises nor threats could induce them to shout " Valentino ! Valentino ! " " Ma non ebbero tanto potere di far gridare a' putti : Valentino ! Valentino ! ancorche vollesser salariarli." 1 The death of Alexander VI. (August 18, 1503) brought the rule of the Borgias to an end. No sooner was it known than the inhabitants of the duchy rose in a body, and the return of Guidobaldo was one long series of triumphs. Henceforward the young prince, whose health was undermined by suffering, and who was prematurely aged, was able to devote all his time to the re-establishment of public prosperity and the cultivation of literature and art. He had no children, but the adoption of his nephew, Francesco- Maria della Rovere, son of his sister Giovanna, and nephew of Pope Julius II, reassured the people of Urbino as to the continuity of the Montefeltro dynasty, while it connected the latter still more closely with the pontifical court. Guidobaldo was appointed grand gonfalonier of the Church, and in November, 1503, he made his triumphal entry into Rome. Since Guidobaldo's accession, the intellectual tendencies of the Court of Urbino had undergone a great change. His capital had always been the refuge of the Muses, but the enthusiasm which distinguished the early Renaissance and the passion for fresh creations felt by his father (Duke Frederick) were followed by a period of more tranquil and perhaps more refined pursuits. The artless — one eminent critic has called them pedantic- aspirations of the preceding age had been followed by a greater independence, 1 Ugolini, Storia dei Conti e Duchi d' Urbino, vol. ii. p. 112. The portrait of Ceesar Borgia in the Borghese Gallery, ascribed to Raphael, was not painted by him. It is gener ally allowed now to be by Parmigianino. Minghetti thinks it is by Brouzino. \ The Court of Guidobaldo. 87 especially in regard to literature. " While deriving inspiration from the examples of antiquity," says Viscount Delaborde, " modern requirements were taken into account ; and the ideas of the time expressed in the national language. For the first time the expression of these ideas was placed upon the stage, and the comedy of the Calandra, which is supposed to be the most ancient theatrical piece in Italy, was represented at the palace of Urbino. The new Duke of Urbino did all he could do to encourage this re action against the systematic imitation of classic work with which he was as familiar as possible, and was constantly studying, although, being less absolute than his predecessor he did not sacrifice the furtherance of new endeavours in servile worship of the past." 1 Nowhere, perhaps, was a more earnest effort made to cultivate the rarest and highest qualities of the mind than here. There was not in all Italy a more select, a more able, or a more refined society; and there, as at Mantua and Ferrara, female influence predominated. Ignored and disowned by the theologians of the Middle Ages, who saw in them the auxiliaries of the evil one, women had, on the other hand, been worshipped by the knights of chivalry with a fervour too ardent to be lasting, and like divinities exalted to inaccessible heights, they could take no effectual part in human affairs. 2 It was reserved for the Renaissance, with its rectitude of judgment and its healthy aspirations, to assign to women their true place, and to give them a part in. the great work of intellectual reorganization. Their beneficent in fluence upon manners was soon apparent, and thanks to them, Italy became what is better than an educated nation — a civilized, one. It would be difficult to find elsewhere great ladies speaking Latin, conducting the discussions of an Academy without falling into the errors peculiar to " blue stockings," discussing the most delicate questions of sentiment without affectation ; kind, artless and affectionate, and yet not unmindful of the duties which their rank entailed upon them. They cared little for personal celebrity, being content, as M. Delaborde has pointed out, to influence from the retirement of their palaces the labours of the writers and artists who came to them for inspiration and advice. « Perhaps, as the same writer adds, the germ of that gallant sentimentalism which afterwards flourished at the Hotel de Rambouillet was to be traced to the Court of Urbino ; but there too were to be found higher literary teachings, as well as more benevolence, sprightliness and grace. There, if anywhere, one would expect to find 1 Etudes sur les Beaux- Arts en France et en Italie, vol. i. pp. 168, 169. 2 See the interesting treatise of Herr Janitschek, Die Gesellschaft der Renaissance m Italien und die Kunst, Stuttgart, 1879, p. 51. 3 Etudes sur les Beaux-Arts en France eten Italie, vol. i. p. 174. 88 Raphael. the gentleman of the Renaissance, the ideal courtier and cavalier, the " Cortegiano " as he would be called in Italy. The moving spirit of this society was the Duchess Elisabetta Gonzaga, a granddaughter of one of the most illustrious Princesses of the Renaissance, the Marchioness of Mantua.1 Her husband Guidobaldo, infirm and prematurely aged, was glad to leave to her the task of directing the Court entertainments, such as theatrical representations and literary or moral discussions. One of her relatives, Emilia Pia, the widow of the Duke's illegitimate brother, assisted her in these duties. The habit was to assernble in the Duchess's apartments immediately after supper, sometimes to join in games, dancing or singing, sometimes to form a circle around the Duchess, the guests seating themselves without regard to rank, and discussing the most varied topics. We are told, by the writer who has immortalized these gatherings, that there was a flow of wit and drollery, and that by the smiles in which each face was wreathed, one would have imagined that the palace was the home of Mirth. " Nowhere else," says Castiglione, " were the charms of pleasant society so potent, and we seemed bound by chains in one common affection. Nowhere could more concord or cordiality reign among brethren ; and it was the same with the ladies, for each of them was free to seat herself beside the one she liked best, and to chat, joke, and laugh with him or her. But such was the respect in which the Duchess was held by all, that this very liberty acted as a restraint." It was in the interval between the years 1504 and 1508 that the society assembled at the ducal palace of Urbino was most numerous and select. Among those who shone there in 1506, when Raphael returned for the second time to his native town, were Giuliano de' Medicis, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and brother of Leo X. ; the two brothers Fregoso of Genoa ; the poet Pietro Bembo, Cassar Gonzaga and Count Louis of Canossa ; Bernardino Divizio da Bibbiena, the author of the famous comedy, the Calandra, played for the first time in 1508 ; Bernardino Accolti, surnamed Unico Aretino,- a famous singer; the Roman sculptor Giovanni Cristoforo, who distinguished himself in the service of the Sforzas and in that of the Marchioness of Mantua ; and Raphael's friend, the warrior, diplomatist and poet, from whom we have derived all these particulars — Baldassare Castiglione, the author of the " Cortegiano." Most of these men were destined to attain the highest rank as commanders, diplomatists, or prelates. One of them, Giuliano de' Medicis, was for a short time at the head of the Florentine Government, and afterwards his brother made him Captain-general of the Church. Fra Giocondo dedicated to him in 1 This was the Marchioness who was so good a friend to Mantegna, as we know from the letters she wrote to her brother, Francesco Gonzaga, in 1511. The Court op Guidobaldo. 89 1513 the second edition of his Viirwvius ; Leonardo da Vinci was his travelling companion when he went to Rome in 1513; Raphael painted his portrait, and Michael Angelo carved his tomb. Ottaviano Fregoso became Duke of Genoa, while his brother Frederick, Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, received the Purple. Louis of Canossa, in turn Papal Nuncio to Louis XII. and Francois I., Bishop of Bayeux, and ambassador of Francois I. to the republic of Venice, afterwards ordered from Raphael the celebrated picture in the Madrid Museum, The Pearl; and it was he who built in his native town of Verona the beautiful palazzo of Canossa which was the chef d'ceitvre of San-Micheli. We may pass over the host of bishops and archbishops, of generals and ambassadors, the mere mention of whose names would occupy too much space, and just add that by one of those lucky chances of which Raphael had so many, he met here many friends and patrons who were destined to shine with him at the Courts of Julius II. and Leo X. The historian of the Court of Urbino, Baldassare Castiglione, has furnished us with the summary of some of these memorable debates, in which all these distinguished men took part. There we find the purest and highest morality preached, but the discussions on aesthetic questions are disconnected and superficial. In the passages which refer to the fine arts, and make up what Giovanni Santi would call a Disputa della Pittura, there is infinitely more declamation than thought for truth. We must confess that Cas tiglione, like Raphael himself, had a good deal to learn before he could become the arbiter of taste whose fiat was to be accepted ten years later at Rome. The interest displayed towards Giovanni Santi by the ducal family of Urbino justifies the supposition that they accorded a very friendly reception to his son, who returned to his native place, if not celebrated, at all events much appreciated by all those who had watched his progress. The letter of introduction given to Raphael by Guidobaldo's sister, the Duchess Giovanna della Rovere, for Soderini, the gonfalonier of Florence, is one proof of this, while another is to be found in the title of " familiar" (in other terms, officer of the court) which was given him by her son, the future Duke Francesco Maria of Urbino.1 Then there is the evidence of the architect Serlio, who includes the Duchess Elisabetta as being, next to Julius II. and Leo X., the warmest patron of Raphael: "If the virtuous Duchess Isabella (sic for Elisabetta) of Urbino had not first brought Raphael into notice while yet young, if Julius II. had not afterwards rewarded him so splendidly, as did also Leo X., the father and patron of fine arts and of all meritorious artists, he could not 1 In a letter to his uncle, Simone Ciarla, in 1508, Raphael expresses an earnest wish to be recommended to the young prince as his ancient servitor and " familiar " :— " A quello me ricomandate infinite volte come suo anticho servitore et familiare." 90 Raphael. have raised painting to so high a pitch of celebrity, nor have left behind him so many masterpieces of painting and architecture." It is possible that Raphael may also have made the acquaintance at this period of Baldassare Castiglione, as we know that the author of the Cortegiano visited Urbino on the 6th of September, 1504,1 before the departure of Raphael for Florence, which did not take place, judging by the date of the Duchess della Rivere's letter of introduction, until the beginning of September. Notwithstanding their sympathy for the fine arts, Guidobaldo and his courtiers gave but little direct encouragement to artists. Compared with the liberal endowments of Duke Federigo, those of his successor seem very poor; and it would be difficult to name a single artist of mark attached to his house, with the exception of Timoteo Viti and Giovanni Cristoforo Romano the sculptor. Raphael, therefore, did not find in his native town the multiplicity of lessons and encouragements which he derived from his stay at Siena and Florence. Although the kind of instruction which he got there was altogether novel, good judges will be of opinion that it was none the less valuable, as it associated him, on leaving the modest studio of Perugino, with the intellectual refinement of the most brilliant Court in Europe, and must have had the best influence over a mind constituted like his ; and when brought into contact with this society his ideas acquired an elevation and distinction which they would never have gained in Umbria. He soon made himself familiar with the highest questions of philosophy and morality, while at the same time. he grew to like classic literature, and possessed himself of the knowledge known as " the humanities." Finally — and this was an advantage of no mean kind — the association with Castiglione and so many other eminent individuals developed in him the urbane manners which afterwards won him so many friends. He, too, became a perfect courtier : and it may be that, following his father's example, he took his part in the poetical compositions of the Court, for we know that later in life he often tried his hand at the writing- of sonnets. In respect to painting, the Court of Urbino supplied Raphael with several motives of composition as varied as they were picturesque. The learned discussions conducted by the Duchess Elisabetta, the theatrical representations, the frequently invoked recollections of classic antiquity, were in turn treated by him. He was able to depict, as Mantegna did about the same time for Elisabetta's sister-in-law, the Marchioness Isabella of Mantua, Apollo cm Parnassus presiding over the Dances of the Muses ; to delineate, as Perugino had done, The Combat of Love and Chastity ; or, like Lorenzo Costa, whose picture is still preserved in the Louvre, to combine allegory and contemporary 1 Dnmesnil, Histoire des plus ceTebres Amateurs Italiens et de lews relations avec les Artistes, Paris, 1853, p. 22. The Louvre St. George. 91 history, and represent the Duchess surrounded by musicians, poets, and warriors, and crowned by Love. But the hearts of the people of Urbino, after the cruel trials which they had just undergone, were stirred by deeper feelings just then, and Raphael did not fail to portray their patriotism. There can be no doubt that in his STUDY FOB THE ST. GEORGE IK THE LOUVRE COLLECTION. (Uffizi Museum.) pictures of St. Michael and of St. George, painted for Guidobaldo, he meant to symbolize the defeat of Cassar and the triumph of the Montefeltros. These free and bold allegories are just suited to his genius. To embody in official colours the combats and the achievements of his patrons would, in his view, be unworthy of him, and he deemed it necessary that the contemporary struggles 92 Raphael. and the passions of the age should be presented in an allegorical form, which should be as enduring as the virtue of patriotism itself. Raphael had not hitherto attempted to deal with such stirring scenes. For the first time military incidents find their places in his compositions, and the painter of Madonnas becomes the composer of battle-pieces. But in all these pieces, he chooses the Christian rather than the pagan warrior, and more than that, all his soldiers are saints, such as in the Middle Ages personified' the military element — the archangel Michael and St. George, the Cappadocian prince who suffered martyrdom under Diocletian, after having, like another Perseus, rescued a princess from the claws of a dragon. The young knight who, in the picture in the National Gallery, we saw asleep beneath the laurel tree, with Virtue and Pleasure behind him, has awakened. Urged on by the voice of Virtue, he has seized his arms and is fighting with the spirits of darkness — the dragons, and the foul monsters with heads of dogs and tails of serpents. Vast is the change which has come over him. His air is martial; the manly vigour of his features, and the energy with which he plies his weapons, prove that the youth has expanded into a man. I know nothing more proud and life-like than this St. George : Raphael, obeying the injunction of the poet, transports us into the very centre of action — in medias res. Mounted upon a magnificent white horse 1 with arched neck, covered with bright armour, the saint has charged the dragon and struck him full in the chest. But the shaft of the lance has broken, the pieces are scattered on the ground, and the monster, howling with agony and rage, rushes after his assail ant, whose horse is galloping off. Like the skilled horseman that he is, St. George pulls the horse up short, and, brandishing his sword, makes ready to deal a final blow at the dragon. This is the moment of the fight which the artist has depicted. The horse is trembling, the dragon is howling and writhing : the princess, terror-stricken, takes to flight : the whole scene is full of life and passion. The St. George is a masterpiece of colour as well as of composition, and Raphael shows us by his judicious selection of tones and by his vigorous and distinct touches that he was equally in his element as a painter and as a draughtsman. Nothing can be more delicate and harmonious than this picture, all the details of which are completely worked out. The red saddle brings out the whiteness of the horse, and in turn forms a telling contrast with the steel 1 As we shall have occasion presently to notice, Raphael has here taken hints from one of the famous horses on the Quirinal, at Rome. See also Louis Courajod, Leonard de Vineiet la Statue de Francesco Sforza, p. 31, (Paris, 1879). The Baron Liphart also draws our attention to a horseman offering a very great resemblance to Raphael's St. George in the Coi-onation of the Virgin, painted by Nicolo da Foligno for the Church of San Nicolo, at FoliJ£mjDerejI-^^lae_wa^^ the pupil the ill-will he felt for thejoaster. Raphael's stay at Florence was the starting-point of other intimacies which show how rapidly he gained the sympathies of those with whom he came into contact. We know from Vasari that he became specially intimate with Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, son of the famous painter of the frescoes of Santa-Maria Novella. When Raphael started for Rome he intrusted his friend with the painting of a blue drapery in a picture which he had not time to finish : probably the Belle Jardiniere. In after years, when he had reached the summit of his fame, he did all he could to attract Ridolfo to the Pontifical Court, but the painter, encumbered with a family of fifteen children, and much attached to his native town, would not make the change. A member of another family, with a name not less famous in art, Aristotele da San Gallo, also made friends with Raphael, with whom he was afterwards associated at Rome. Many as were his friendships, Raphael, during his four years' residence at Florence, was compelled to work for amateurs of the second order, and even for foreigners. There is nothing to show that Pietro Soderini intrusted him with any work in compliance with the request contained in the letter from Joanna della Rovere, as Raphael Avrote to ask for a second letter later on. Then, again, the religious communities and the civil corporations reserved their orders for native masters, so that the young stranger had to rely upon the connoisseurs who, by taste or for motives of economy, preferred his easel pictures to the vast compositions of other painters. The Dei were the only family who ordered him to execute a retablo— the Virgin of the Baldacchino. This mere chance determined in some measure the character of his works, and an incident of this kind is sometimes sufficient to change the current of a whole school. The sojourn of Raphael at Florence might very properly be called the Madonna period. All the large works which Raphael painted between 1504 and 1508 were, with the exception of the Madonna del Baldacchino, ordered not by Tuscany but by Umbria, as it was for his native place that he executed or commenced the altarpiece in the 1 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting, vol. iii. p. 193, note 29. 118 Raphael. monastery of St. Antony, the San-Severo fresco, the Ansidei Madonna, the Coronation of the Virgin for the Monte-Luce monastery, and the Entombment. Among the Florentine patricians who helped Raphael to make himself known, Taddeo Taddei deserves the first place. He was an enlightened patron of letters and art, and a great friend of the poet Bembo. He ordered, among other works, a famous bas-relief from Michael Angelo, the Virgin and Child. Taddei took so great a liking to the young artist that he proffered him board and lodging, and Raphael readily accepted the offer, but gave his host in return two pictures, one of which, the Madonna in the Meadovj, now in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna, ranks among his most beautiful works. In 1508, he wrote as follows to his uncle, Simone Ciarla, informing him that his patron was contemplating a journey to Urbino : — " In the event of Taddeo Taddei, about whom I have often spoken to you, coming to Urbino, pray ask my uncle the priest and my aunt Santa to render him all possible honours. I will ask of you also to do all that you can to oblige him, for I owe him the deepest gratitude." Taddeo Taddei did not at that time reside in the palace which Baccio d'Agnolo built for him in the Via de' Ginori, and which is now called the Picori Giraldi palace, but at No. 15 of the Via San-Gallo (near the palace of the Medicis), in which the famous and exquisite Pandolfini palace was subse quently built after Raphael's designs. The house in which he entertained the painter is very unpretending, and would not be noticed by the passers-by but for the inscription : raffaello da urbino fu ospite di taddeo di francesco taddei in qtjesta casa NEL MDV. Another Florentine connoisseur, Lorenzo Nasi, also showed much kindness to Raphael ; and here again the painter showed much delicacy of feeling, for though he was anything but rich he resolved when Nasi married to make him a present which would stand comparison with any of the others, and gave him that Madonna del Cardellino which is one of the gems of the Uffizi Gallery. Like Taddei, Lorenzo Nasi had recourse to Baccio d'Agnolo to build him a palace. Angelo Doni, who commissioned Raphael to paint him a portrait of himself and his wife, was not noted for his generosity, and Raphael doubtless had to take what was given him ; but Michael Angelo, from whom he had ordered the Holy Family now in the Uffizi Gallery, sent in his bill, amounting to Friends at Florence. 119 seventy ducats, with the picture. Doni sent back forty ducats, which he deemed sufficient, but Michael Angelo insisted upon having a hundred ducats or his picture returned. Doni then offered seventy ducats, whereupon Michael Angelo raised his demand to 140, which Doni, whose palace was filled with works of art, at last paid.1 Vasari states that he saw, in the galleries of Doni's son, the magnificent Cupid in bronze by Donatello, now in the National Museum at Florence,2 also a Madonna executed by Fra Bartolommeo, now in the Corsini Gallery at Rome. Vasari also speaks of the grotesques with which Morto da Feltre decorated a room in the Doni palace.8 Foreign connoisseurs helped to keep the Florentine studios busy, for Spaniards, French, and Germans were constantly ordering easel pictures. During the last thirty years of the fifteenth century, Lorenzo di Credi sent Madonnas into Spain,4 while Filippino Lippi sent to Mathias Corvinus, at his own request, two paintings referred to by Vasari. The export of pictures afterwards became quite a trade, and Ridolfo Ghirlandajo's studio supplied pictures for England, Spain, and Germany.5 Raphael took advantage of the favour in which the works of the Florentine school were held, and iii the letter addressed to his uncle Simone in 1508 he says that one of his patrons has given him orders amounting to 300 ducats for Florence and France. This he considers a great stroke of luck. As will have been gathered, Raphael's Florentine period was more beneficial in the lessons which it enabled him to gain and in the technical progress which it enabled him to make, than it was financially. The young artist rapidly reached maturity and produced masterpieces, without either the government or the wealthy protectors who, after the expulsion of the Medicis, had taken art under their patronage, such as the Rucceliais and the Strozzis, seeming to dream of his existence. There is not a good word about him to be found in the writings of the Tuscan authors, who shower upon third-rate painters the epithets of Zeuxis and Apelles. Albertini, in his valuable Memoriale di molte statue et pitture sono nella inclyta eipta di Florentia, printed in 1510, does not so much as mention his name. There is not a line about him. But for all that Raphael never forgot what he owed to Florence, as, but for the instruction he received there, he would not have become the unrivalled master of design who was worthy to work for Julius II. and Leo X., and who founded the Roman school. 1 Vasari, vol. xii. pp. 1V6, 179. 2 Ibid., vol. iii. p. 262. 3 Ibid, vol. ix. p. 108. 4 Ibid, vol. viii. p. 204. 5 Ibid, vol. viii. p. 132. CHAPTER VIII. Raphael at Florence (sequel).— Madonnas and Holy Families. — The Madonna del Gran DUCa. —The " Large " and "Small" Madonnas of Lord Cowper.— The Madonna della Casa Tempi. — The small Orleans Madonna. — The Madonna of the Casa Colonna.— The Terranuova Madonna. — The Virgin in the Meadow. — The Madonna del Cardellino.— La Belle Jardiniere. — The Madonna with the Lamb. — The Bridgewater Madonna.— The Madonna of the Casa Canigiani — The Madonna of the Baldacchino. — The Esterhazy Madonna. — The Madonna with the Pink. The Madonnas which the young artist painted during his day at Florence form an entirely distinct group in bis work ; for while they are exempt from the mysticism associated with his Umbrian pictures, they do not display the plenitude of shape and triumphant beauty which Raphael gave to his devotional pictures, when he had become what we may call the official painter of the Catholic Church. In these early works he endeavoured to combine beauty with truth. Maternal tenderness and the joys of childhood are expressed with a freshness and eloquence which almost obliterate their dogmatic side. Indeed with two or three exceptions, the works which he painted at this time were not altar-pieces, large compositions which occupy places of honour in church or cathedral, and before which the worshippers confess their faith, but easel- pictures for private oratorios, or perhaps for the inner rooms of wealthy connoisseurs. The Divinity is represented as coming down upon earth and sharing our joys and sorrows — more especially our joys — for amid all these Madonnas there is scarcely one which has a shade of melancholy or the presentiment of future unhappiness. It seems as if there were no place in the heart of this young mother, as she caresses her thriving child, save for affection, hope, and bright thoughts. This impression is heightened, too, by the almost complete absence of accessories, for it is only here and there that we see the small red cross of St. John the Baptist, or the streamer with the Ecce Agnus Dei. The halo is not always introduced, so that these idylls have little to remind one of the mysteries of religion. Having neither the scruples of his Umbrian patrons nor the exigencies of the Pontifical court to humour, Raphael heie gave free course to his inspirations, and at no time in his career did creation seem more beautiful Raphael at Florence. 121 to him, and at no time did he enjoy more perfect independence in his manner of treating it. One does not often encounter such a chance twice in a lifetime, and during this short period the master, breaking off with the theological tradition, shook himself free of all restraint, so that one may almost say that art for art was the sole principle he recognised. The mysterious terrors and the brilliant splendours of the Middle Ages were alike far from his thoughts, and he had no need of rich stuffs, of angelic hosts, and of sumptuous effects of architecture and decoration. Nature offered him more congenial attractions, and he liked to breathe the pure air of the country, and to carry us with him to the scenes so dear to his heart, With the four winds for his walls and the blue sky of heaven for his canopy he wor shipped the God of his fathers, rather than in Gothic cathedrals, where " the dim religious light is filtered through painted glass which, with its splendours of amethyst and topaz, and its glitter of precious stones, gives, as it were, a glimpse of Paradise." 1 Raphael, like the true modern artist that he was, un folds to our gaze hills covered with fruit-trees, lakes of still and limpid water, and smiling villages ; in short the spectacle of perfect happiness and of the eternal spring which the Latin poet so glowingly describes. To celebrate the beauties of nature, to proclaim the greatness of creation, and to glorify the most noble of feelings — maternal and filial love — is assuredly the best form of religious art. This was the close of that strong and rigorous discipline, worked out by so many generations of artists and theologians, and expounded for the use of the Greeks, upon the one hand, in the Mount Athos Treatise on Painting, and, upon the other hand, in Guillaume Durant's Rationale. As M. Taine has so justly remarked, form or shape alone did not suffice to interest people in the Middle Ages ; there must be a symbol indicating some august mystery, like the cathedral, which, with its nave and transept, represented the cross on which Christ died ; or, like the rose windows with their petals, which repre sented the eternal rose, each leaf of which is a saved soul, while the dimensions of every part of the building corresponded to certain sacred numbers.2 The smallest details were settled by rule, and had a meaning even for the most uneducated, so that art became the auxiliary of religion and the Bible of the unlettered. The artist lost, perhaps, in independence, but he was more than repaid by the current of sympathy which was created between him and the masses. This was the triumph of popular art, and even with Giotto and his pupils, the types, the attitude, the attributes, and even the position of the figures, is in strict accordance with the rules of pictorial theology. The 1 Taine, Philosophic de VArt,p. 127. 2 Taine, he. cit. 122 Raphael. painter who omitted the halo on Christ crucified would have been looked upon as a heretic ; and to have painted the Virgin with bared feet would have shocked the feelings of all religious people. The number of cherubs flitting around the heavenly couple, the colour of the angels' wings, the cut of the garments and their ornamentation, were all matters of rule. The Florentine naturalists of the fifteenth century were the first to dis regard these traditions ; and the resistance of Fra Angelico and the Umbrian school was of no avail against the bold innovators, who armed themselves with the two-edged weapon of classic antiquity and nature. The usual saints and apostles were replaced by figures from the life ; the halo, which in the picture of the early painters had been incised in the ground, became a mere thread of gold and in some of Raphael's pictures is not visible at all. Even the symbols of the Evangelists disappear in that composition which recalls more vividly than any other the traditions of the Middle Ages — The Dispttte of the Sacrament ; and angels holding the sacred books in their hands take the place of the eagle, the lion, and the ox. Above all things a sincere and a respectful disciple of nature, Raphael had great difficulty in bringing himself to sacrifice the research of life and truth to that of expression, and in this he showed himself to be the worthy successor of the Florentine naturalists of the fifteenth century. It would have been easy for him to have expressed with more force the various sentiments repre sented by the Virgin, her Son, and St. John, and to have excited more lively though perhaps less deep emotion in the mind of the beholder, had he, like the painters of Bologna, been content with arbitrary composition, and subor dinated everything in the way of truthfulness to some theatrical effect. He was two or three times tempted to do this, notably in the Terranuova Madonna (in the Berlin Museum), and in various studies for the Virgin in the Meadow, where he represents the infant St. John with his arms crossed and bowing before the Child Jesus in an attitude of profound veneration, or kneeling before him with a fervour which has nothing child-like about it. But he discovered his error, and in the final composition all trace of exaggeration disappeared. His genius— the robust and wholesome genius of the Renaissance — had no sympathy with an abstraction, and his preferences were for a figure worthy to take its own place in painting and having an individual life, while his subjects were in conformity with their character and their age. Thus his children are real children, and though it may be thought that in some cases the sentiment of filial tenderness is overdone, there is never anything theatrical or artificial about them. This, if I am not mistaken, is the secret of the charm which the Florentine Madonnas of Raphael have exercised for three centuries, and of their eternal youth. Early Madonnas. 123 Raphael had also the New Testament on his side, for St. Luke, who alone of the evangelists speaks in any detail of Christ's infancy, fells us (chapter ii. verse 40) that " the Child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom ; and the grace of God was upon Him." Comparing this passage with that in which Christ says : " Suffer little children to come unto Me," Raphael went upon the supposition that He, too, had known the joys of childhood, that He had smiled upon His Mother, that He had played with His young companion, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, and that He had grown up amid scenes of smiling plenty. This is the theme developed by Raphael in the many Madonnas painted at Florence. In order thoroughly to appreciate the character and the extent of the innovations — one hardly likes to use the word " revolution " when speaking o such an artist as Raphael — which he introduced into the painting of Madonnas and Holy Families, it is necessary to take a look backwards and to see how the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance understood the representations of these subjects. Remembering the character of Raphael, one cannot dispense with the study of earlier works, for he sums them up in his own and sets the seal of perfection upon them. Giotto and his contemporaries were not at home in painting easel-pictures; they loved to develop their ideas upon the wide walls of a basilica or a cloister, or upon altar-pieces of colossal proportions. The Madonna in the Milan Museum, with the inscription Opus magistri Jocti de Florentia, is a proof of this. The Florentine painter who was in his frescoes so free from Byzantine influence, does not display here his distinguishing originality, for the figure of the Virgin is heavy, her elongated and narrow eyes are wanting in expression, and there is something affected in the way in which the Child, wearing only his little shirt, plays with His mother's chin. Between this picture and that of Raphael there is all the distance that lies between art in the cradle and art at its apogee. The glory of triumphing over these difficulties seemed to be reserved to the purest painter of the fifteenth century — Fra Angelico. None combined a more lofty inspiration with a more vivid sentiment of grace and tenderness. But, like the true child of the Middle Ages that he was, Fra Angelico, in order to express the faith that was in him, required, like the disciples of Giotto, an ample field, and he did but scant justice to an isolated figure. As certainly as his Coronations of the Virgin, with their angelic hosts, their crowds of saints, and their elect with radiant faces, are instinct with poetry, his Madonnas are inanimate and deficient in grace. His justly famous picture in the Uffizi Gallery, the Virgin standing with her child in her arms, proves to demonstra tion that the plastic completeness which his successors owed to the study of 124 Raphael. ancient sculpture was not one of his gifts ; the two figures are badly posed, there is a want of force in their expression, and of ease in their draperies and movement. I admit that the unusual proportions of the altar-piece may have overtaxed the artist, but in his Madonnas of less dimensions there are the same imperfections. But, upon the other hand, the subordinate figures, the angels sounding their cymbals and timbrels, are full of grace, and are meet com panions for those with which Ghiberti covered the doors of the Baptistery. But the accessories of a work are not everything. In the second half of the fifteenth century, the Florentines made another effort to bring this subject, apparently so simple, the Virgin and Child, into harmony with the new aspirations, and to light upon the definite form of composition. There are innumerable bas-reliefs and pictures extant which show with what ardour they set themselves to the task. In order to bring the problem into a smaller compass they have given their compositions the shape of medallions and inclosed their figures in a circle, thus doing away with all needless accessories. There can be no denying that Donatello and Desiderio, Antonio Rossellino and Mino da Fiesole, to mention but the most eminent masters, made great progress in this direction, and cleared the way for Raphael. Nothing can be more delicate than the modelling of their Madonnas, or more harmonious than their method of grouping ; the only defect being that the heads have not the truly classic beauty which Raphael gave to his. It is the same with the Madonnas of Botticelli and Lorenzo di Credi as with those of the Umbrian school, which charm us with their grace and refinement. What tenderness, for instance, in the picture in which Botticelli shows us the infant Jesus standing on tip-toe in order to get on a level with his mother's face and to be able to throw his arms round her neck. The expression in this picture is quite equal to Raphael, who could here only hope to surpass his predecessor in nobility of style and purity of form. The Venetian school is one of those which mainly contributed to carrying the representations of the Virgin to the pitch of perfection which they reached in the early part of the sixteenth century. The Madonnas of Carlo Crivelli, one of its founders, have, with the brilliancy of the Middle Ages, a majesty and grace which are touching. Seated under a dais covered with rich ornamentation, attired in robes of gold brocade and glistening with precious stones, these Madonnas still represent the Queen of Heaven, but in the tenderness with which the mother regards her son playing on her knees, and in the vivacity of the child himself, there is a distinct progress in the direction of modern ideas. Giovanni Bellini took a further step forward, suppressing all these brilliant accessories ; and his Madonnas, generally painted half- length, do not wear any ornaments, but stand in front of a plain curtain with Early Madonnas. 125 a landscape in the background. The child is either caressing his mother or looking out to his front, the motive being a secondary consideration with Bellini. What he has in view is the combination of life with beauty ; but in spite of the very great qualities of the chief of the early Venetian school, the result is not in every case in proportion to the effort. His triumph,, like _ that of his followers, Cima da Conegliano and Vittore Carpaccio, is in the Santa ^ ^Uonversazwne, for there free scope could be given to the"wealth of their imaginations" and the resources of their palettes, in painting Virgins seated beneath golden canopies, majestic saints arrayed about them, and angels seated / in the foreground, sounding the harp or the violin. Michael Angelo's Holy Family is a great advance in this direction. Like many of his predecessors, he painted this picture in a tondo. Mary, kneeling in the foreground, turns round to take in her arms the child whom St. Joseph, standing behind, is lifting over to her, and as she does this her eyes meet those of her son, whom she looks at with infinite sadness. The group in question, though it lacks the great clearness characteristic of Raphael, is put together with consummate skill. Michael Angelo has sought, apparently, to create difficulties in order that he may overcome them. Con cerned, upon the one hand, in the solution of technical problems, and earned away, upon the other, by his aspirations, which had so little in common with the evangelic spirit, his figures have a majestic pose and his scenes an awe- inspiring solemnity which those of Raphael do not possess. There is no place here for the childish smile or the radiant happiness of the mother ; and in \ place of the idyllic spectacle of maternal love, we have the sombre preface of \ the Sibyls and the Last Judgment. The presence in the background of naked children with muscular limbs heightens this impression, and proves that / Michael Angelo put force far above grace. Without these figures, which are, / after all, mere accessories, the arrangement of the picture would be faultless. \Michael Angelo's Holy Family was painted about 1503, so that he and Raphael must have tried their hands upon the same subjects almost simultaneously. When Raphael in his turn took up this subject, he, as if better to accen tuate his future triumph, did away with all the accessories and only left the principal motive. In his pictures there are neither angels nor throne, nor brilliant costumes nor rich architectural environments. In some pictures, as in the Virgin of the Grand Duke, he even does away with the landscape and substitutes for it a blank ground. There are no " literary ideas," as they are called, and the action is reduced to its simplest expression ; moreover, he does not attempt to seek for fresh motives, for all his predecessors had, like him, represented the Virgin embracing her son and teaching him to read, or the 1 26 Raphael. infant Jesus giving St. John a flower, taking a bird from him, playing with a lamb, or quietly asleep under the eye of his mother. None of these ideas are peculiarly bis own, and yet there can be no questioning the originality and exquisite freshness of his compositions. The study of nature, fortified by that of antiquity, and, upon the other hand, the research for effects strictly suitable to painting, enabled Raphael to give freshness to a theme which seemed quite used up. In this way he suc ceeded in combining beauty in arrangement with truth in his attitudes, and in surpassing his predecessors more and more in each picture without ever goin" twice over the same ground. His grouping, for instance, is wonderful ; and it is surprising to see how much he made in the Belle Jardiniere of the three figures of a woman and two children. The nude and the draperies are made to alternate with exquisite harmony, and the movements are combined with so much skill that one does not realise the great difficulty which has been overcome. The finest groups of ancient statuary do not show more subtle science, but it must not be supposed for a moment that Raphael did more than take from sculpture the thoroughness of its methods. The mere dress of the Madonnas painted during these four years at Florence would repay long study, so prodigious is the art and so infinite the research displayed in all this apparent simplicity. With a plain gown of blue or red, a veil, a tunic, or a scarf twisted carelessly about the neck, Raphael has achieved combinations of the most varied kind. It is not easy to fix the exact dates of the Madonnas painted by Raphael during his Florentine period, from 1504 to 1508. Vasari merely mentions the Madonna del Cardellino, the Madonna Canigiani, now at Munich, two small Madonnas given to Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino, the Madonna del Baldacchino, and one which he left unfinished when he went to Rome and which was com pleted by his friend Ridolfo Ghirlandajo. Upon the other hand, there are dates to only four of the Madonnas which Raphael painted at Florence, and even these are not very trustworthy. In fact, putting on one side Lord Cowper's larger Madonna (1508), the best judges are very much divided in opinion as to whether the year marked on the Virgin of the Meadow is 1505 or 1506, that of the Holy Family with the Lamb 1506 or 1507, and that of the Belle Jardinihve 1507 or 15 OS. This is owing to the use of Roman characters, and as we cannot settle the question with absolute certainty, we will consider these pictures in their apparent order of development. There is a general agreement 1 that two pen-drawings, one in the Oxford collection aud the other in the Louvre, both of which are reproduced here, 1 See more particularly Springer's Rafael und Michel Angelo, p. 63, et seq. Early Madonnas. 127 were among Raphael's earliest Florentine efforts. The Oxford drawing shows traces of the Umbrian manner. Mary, who is drawn full face, her head surrounded by a halo, has the timid and thoughtful attitude of Perugino's Virgins, and the child raises his eyes towards her with an expression of striking melancholy which further accentuates the religious character of the composition. There is more freedom about the Louvre drawing, and it is more in Raphael's true manner. The Virgin is drawn three-quarters face, and STUDY FOP. A MADONNA. (Oxford University.) her features are more distinguished. She is represented as reading with attention a book which she holds in her hand, while her son, sitting on her knee, follows her reading and clasps his hands with childlike fervour. The attitude, dress, and expression mark a real progress, which is still further accentuated in the Head of the Virgin in Mr. Malcolm's collection.1 L This sketch, executed in black chalk, was long supposed to be the portrait of Raphael's sister. 128 Raphael. The Madonna del Gran Duca} painted at Florence, showed that he had acquired complete command over himself. The modelling became firm and precise to a degree unknown to painters of the Umbrian school, and the colouring became much clearer and more brilliant. The cast of face, too, was '¦' cfe<^ c ' •V"/"-tV- • -^ _*---?--*- ^ ,'J . ( v. V^ •'-VI ->* SKETCH FOR A HOLY FAMILY. ("Wicar Museum.) 154 Raphael. mounted by a panelled cupola, rises the throne upon which the Virgin is seated with her Child. Two angels, hovering in the air, hold back the curtains THE MADONNA DEL BALDACCHINO. (Pitti Gallery.) of the Baldacchino which hangs above the throne, as if to disclose the divine pair to the admiring gaze of the faithful. With all this the attitude of The Madonna del Baldacchino. 155 Mary is modest and retiring, and her eyes are timidly directed downwards upon her Child. The latter is looking with an air at once playful and affectionate towards St. Peter, who, standing in the foreground of the picture, is carrying on a grave discussion with a Carthusian monk, doubtless meant for St. Bernard. There is an indescribable vitality, ease, and grace about the attitude of the Child. He is no abstract figure, as in the pictures of Raphael's predecessors, but a living infant whom the artist has seen, and seen in the attitude in which he is represented, for, say what people will, there are certain motives which cannot be invented. Two other children, angels, equally elegant but more suggestive, are standing in front of the throne, singing a tune noted on a parchment roll. They are substitutes for the angels with instruments of music which are generally represented in these holy conversations. To the right, the apostle St. James the Greater, his hands crossed upon his pilgrim's staff, looks with fervour on the Divine Infant, while St. Augustine stretches out his hand towards the Child, his face turned outward, as if to proclaim his glory. In this, the most important work executed by Raphael during his stay at Florence, he shows how completely he had mastered the secrets of his art, for whether as regards grouping and colour, knowledge of drapery or of the nude figure, foreshortening or expression, there is no part of painting that he did not thoroughly understand, just as there was no obstacle which caused him any embarrassment. In another room of the Pitti Palace is a picture which at once attracts us, owing to its striking resemblance to the Madonna of Raphael. It bears the name of Fra Bartolommeo della Porta — the subject, the mystic Betrothal of the Infant Jesus with St. Catherine. One can see that the composition of the two works is conceived upon the same lines, and this impression is even heightened when one examines the cartoon of the Conception, by the same artist, in the TJffizi. Here again the community of inspiration is beyond all doubt, though the dates show that the priority belongs to Raphael. The second picture is, as a matter of fact, four years more modern (having been painted in 1512) than the Madonna del Baldacchino, while the Conception was painted later still. But given the relations of the two artists and their intellectual partnership after the years 1506 or 1507, it would be rash to decide the point in favour of the one who first put into application rules evidently worked out together. Raphael— and that is the capital point — triumphs through the possession of qualities in which his friend was deficient, and his compositions have a sincerity and an exuberance of life which will be looked for in vain in the two somewhat theatrical pictures of Fra Bartolommeo. In the one we see the complete development of the Renaissance, while in the 156 Raphael. works, meritorious though they are, of the other, wc can discern the first signs of the coming decadence. STUDY FOR THE ESTERHAZY MADONNA. (Uffizi.) The Madonna del Baldacchino was ordered by a Florentine family, the Dei, who intended it for their Santo-Spirito Chapel, but Raphael had not the time to complete it before he went to Rome, and Rosso finished it for him. Lost Madonnas. 157 Raphael's composition remained therefore in the rough,1 and we are justified in believing with Passavant that it was in his studio that Baldassare Turini found this picture, which he purchased for his native town, Pescia. In 1697 the picture became the property of the Medicis, who placed it in the Pitti palace, of which it is still one of the chief ornaments. We have not exhausted the list of Madonnas or Holy Families painted by Raphael between 1504 and 1508, and to complete it we should have to enumerate the Holy Family with the Beardless Joseph, in the St. Petersburg Museum, and the doubtful Madonna with the Two Children in the Esterhazy Gallery at Pesth. But as there are grave doubts as to the authenticity of these two pictures, and the second is unfinished, we pass them by. Two other compositions, the Madonna of the Pink and the Madonna with the Sleeping Jesus, are now only known by old copies. The multiplicity of these copies, most of which appear to have been made during Raphael's lifetime, shows how much his Madonnas were admired at the time ; many artists at once appreciated their transcendent merits, while Raphael assuredly had all the mothers on his side, for never had maternity been glorified with such poetic power. 1 Messrs. Burckhard, and Bode are inclined to think that the figure of St. Augustine was added as an afterthought by some one else, as also the angel which is in the upper part of the picture, to the left. This angel is an almost exact copy of the one in the Sibyls of the church of La Pace (Cicerone, p. 651). TORTRAIT OF ANGELO DONI. (Pitti Palace.) CHAPTER IX. Raphael at Florence (sequel) : portraits. — Return to Perugia in 1505 : the Fresco of San Severo; the altar-piece of St. Anthony; the A nsidei Madonna. — Visit to Urbino in 1506 : portraits ; the Three Graces. — Journey to Bologna. — Return to Florence : Apollo and Marsyas; St. Catherine; the Entombment. — Return to Urbino in 1507. — Departure for Rome. While Raphael was endeavouring to find a new ideal for the Virgin and the Infant Jesus, he attempted to represent nature more faithfully, and to struggle with her in an arena where nobility and poetry of imagination would fail to be of much service to him, and where he would have nothing but his brush to rely on. We refer of course to his experiments in the most difficult branch of his art, viz. portrait-painting. We have seen that Raphael reproduced both with pencil and pen, and with a precision which would not be disowned by modern realists, the models which he required as types for his religious compositions, merely modifying his sketches when he proceeded to paint the picture for which they were prepared. But he could not do this in portrait- painting. Having before him a certain model, he was unable to sacrifice or alter the smallest detail, a physical likeness being the primary condition with which he had to comply, and yet his artistic instinct told him that the most accurate copy was not deserving of the title of portrait, unless it succeeded in interesting us in the subject of it, and creating a real individuality. In the earliest of his portraits, those of Angelo and Maddalena Doni in the Pitti Palace, Raphael has only carried out the first of these conditions. His sole preoccupation is with the material likeness ; and the effort is laborious, for he had not yet acquired the liberty of mind necessary for reflecting the physical individualities of his characters. In spite of his early hesitations and gropings in the dark, the portrait of the husband has a certain degree of unity, and represents the irritable connoisseur, at once enthusiastic and avaricious, whom Vasari has described ; but there is little expression in the portrait of his wife. There is nothing to indicate that the blue blood of the Strozzis flows in her veins ; but there is a certain candour in her heavy features, which is, perhaps, reflected from the painter's own disposition. PORTRAIT OF MADDALENA DONI. (Pitti Palace.) The Donna Gravida. 161 As these criticisms may displease some of the admirers of these two portraits, I may as well lessen my own responsibility with the authority of one whose partiality for Raphael no one will question. Passavant says: "The drawing of the portrait of Angelo Doni is not in all respects accurate; it lacks the purity which we shall find in the subsequent works of Raphael. The stiff and formal expression of this portrait is that of most persons who sit to a painter. . . . Though in the portrait of Maddalena the drawing is better conceived and more carefully executed, it is that of an artist not yet practised in this kind of painting, and still very timid in the use of his brush. Never theless this picture has a wonderful charm of its own, and is painted with evident feeling." A comparison of the preliminary study with the painted portrait cannot fail to be instructive. In the study, Raphael, inspired by the recollection of the Gioconda, puts out of sight the commonplace wife of Angelo Doni, and gives us a young woman with large dreamy eyes and a sensuous mouth, fit sister of Mona Lisa Gioconda.1 In the picture, on the other hand, the imperfections and short comings of the model are the more apparent, the artist not having the power to tone down these discordant elements, and transform them into so many factors of success. It would be unfair, however, to pass away from these two portraits without adding that they testify to the magnitude of his efforts, and possess very high qualities in respect both of colouring and drawing. Just emerging from Perugino's studio, scarcely one-and-twenty, and, above all, inexperienced in i work of this kind, Raphael did better than any of his Florentine competitors, excepting Leonardo, could have done. Another portrait in the Pitti Palace, the Donna Gravida (the pregnant woman), has more decision of character, for while the head is still rather deficient in force, the attitude is easy and natural. There is much improve ment in the colouring, too, for the dress has some vigorous contrasts of tone (such, for instance, as the red sleeves and white apron) ; there is a freshness about the flesh-tints, and a transparency in the shadows, and the whole picture has an ease and breadth which are not to be found in the portraits of Doni and his wife. ,,, This first visit to Florence does not seem to have been a prolonged one, for 1 The freedom of execution we find in this drawing reappears, in the fine portrait of a youth (p. 17) at Oxford, which belongs, in all probability, to the same period. As to this portrait I have to confess my error. In the first edition of this work I ascribed it to the early years of Raphael at Urbino ; 1 now recognise that Mr. Robinson was right when he dated from about 1504, and called it the head of one of Raphael's friends, and not of his then much older self. (See above, p. 111.) M 162 Raphael. in 1505 Raphael is once more at Perugia, where he undoubtedly spent the best part of the year. Two important works date from this period, the Holy Family of the Convent of St. Anthony (begun in 1504), and the fresco of San Severo. Raphael also received on the 29th of December, 1505, the STUDY FOR THE PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL. ("Wicar Museum.) Commission for a Coronation of the Virgin for the nuns of Monteluce, near Perugia, and perhaps those for the Ansidei Madonna and the Entombment, though he did not paint them until two years afterwards. With regard to the contract for the convent of Monteluce, it shows that Raphael even then had the reputation of being the " greatest painter in the district," as those • CH GOUTZWILLER DEL HOLY FAMILY OF THE CONVENT OF ST. ANTHONY AT PERUGIA. (South Kensington Museum.) M 2 The Madonna of St. Anthony. 165 very words were used.* The nuns paid him thirty gold ducats on account of the retable, which was not, however, finished until after his death by his pupils Giulio Romano and Francesco Penni. The nuns requested Raphael to paint the Virgin, the Infant Jesus, and St. John the Baptist flanked by St. Paul and St. Cecilia on the one hand, St. Peter and St. Catherine of Alexandria on the other. God the Father and two angels are represented in the lunette, and into the predella were introduced Christ on the Mount of Olives, the Spasimo, Christ after Death, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Antony of Padua. The two last are in the Dulwich gallery. The two upper divisions of the altar-piece (the Virgin with Saints and God the Father), after having formed part of the royal collection at Naples became the property of the Duke de Ripalda, who exhibited them at the Louvre in 1870 ;2 they have for the last few years been in the National Gallery in London, but only as a loan.3 This is one of the most masterly and one of the sweetest specimens of Raphael's early style. The com position is extremely simple. The Virgin is seated upon a throne surmounted by a canopy, holding upon her knees the divine Infant, who is giving His benediction to the infant St. John the Baptist. St. John, encouraged by the tender expression of Mother and Child, advances towards the latter with clasped hands, his features and attitude being alike expressive of ingenuous fervour.4 The two female saints at the side of the throne are perfect models of grace, with a tinge of melancholy which cannot escape notice. The male saints in the foreground are distinguished by a breadth of treatment and a majesty beyond anything we have seen in Raphael's previous works. One of them, St. Peter, has an expression of severity rather than of benevolence, and one seems to recognise the passionate though generous-hearted disciple who cut off the ear of Malchus. The other, the great apostle of the Gentiles, is absorbed in the perusal of a book. Like his companion, he is of the traditional type, having the high and broad forehead and the long black beard so generally ascribed to St. Paul, while St. Peter is 1 " (La abatessa) fece trovare el maestro el niigliore si fosse consigliato da piu cittadini, et anco dali nostri venerandi padri, li quali havevano vedute le opere sue." (Pungileoni, Elogio storico di Raffaello Santi da Urbino, p. 192, 193.) 2 See with reference to the projects of purchase formed by the Government in 1870, M. Paul Casimir Perier's pamphlet. 3 At present this picture (the centre and the lunette) hangs in the South Kensington Museum, where it is deposited bjr the Ex-King of Naples, to whom it was left by the Duke de Ripalda It is in bad condition. — W. A. 4 Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle have proved that this motive, far from having been borrowed by Raphael from an obscure Umbrian, Bernardino di Mariotto (whose picture hangs in the gallery at Perugia), served as prototype to the latter, which is later in date than the Raphael Madonna. 166 Raphael. to be recognised by his curly white hair and his short thick beard. The background of the picture is a landscape, the outlines of which are very hazy, though it breathes a delightful calm. In the spandril which surmounts the altar-screen, Raphael has represented God the Father giving His benediction with one hand and holding the globe in the other. At His side float two cherubim, while two angels with outstretched wings adore their Creator, one with bis hands crossed on his breast, and the other in the attitude of prayer. Raphael had never previously executed a work so perfect in detail and so harmonious as a whole, and thenceforward he succeeded in combining the expression of life with that of beauty. His characters here acquired individuality, they became living beings ; there is an infinite variety and elevation in the sentiments expressed, from the awful majesty of St. Peter to the indefinable expression of dreaminess in the two female saints. The predella of this altar-piece, after having been in the Orleans gallery as a whole, is now divided into compartments, each forming a picture by itself, as mentioned on the preceding page. We will examine one by one the three principal fragments ; for though Raphael looked upon them as mere accessories of a larger composition, each of them has for us the value and importance of a true historical picture. Raphael had already painted Christ on the Mount of Olives for Duke Guidobaldo, and if he recurred to the same subject we may be sure that it was against his will, for scenes such as these were very repulsive to his genius, with its sympathy tor the pure and the classic. If he could have had his own way he would have banished from the domain of art the spectacle, and even the idea, of pain. The despair and the mysterious terrors which find expression in the story as told by St. Matthew were enough to make the strongest quail, and there is perhaps no scene in the whole of the New Testament so difficult to render on canvas. Raphael did not hope to triumph absolutely over these obstacles, or to discover some thoroughly artistic rendering of a subject which did not admit of one. He merely represented, with the sincerity and conviction characteristic of him, Christ kneeling before a rock and praying fervently, three of His disciples resting near Him overtaken by sleep, and an angel flying down from heaven with the cup of agony. This picture now belongs to Lady Burdett Coutts. The Spasimo, or Christ carrying the Cross, was also very little in harmony with Raphael's tendencies, and the sufferings of our Saviour as He gives way beneath the heavy burden, smitten and despised by His tormentors, the grief of His fainting mother, the hostility or indifference of the crowd and the cowardice of His friends, are scarcely the subjects to take their place in the serene regions of art. But Raphael, having once undertaken the task, set himself to perform The Madonna of St. Anthony. 167 it with the utmost zeal. His composition is in the form of a frieze. At the head of the procession come two horsemen, one of whom is represented as a Turk with his turban and flowing tunic reaching to the ankles. Then comes Our Lord, surrounded by executioners and soldiers armed with swords and halberds. One of them pulls Him by the rope which is fastened round His body, and another strikes Him. The Divine Martyr, bruised and exhausted, wears a touching look of resignation, while a personage in the dress of the Renaissance — the baretta, the short tunic, and the tight-fitting hose — Simon the Cyrenean, advances towards Him and seeks to relieve Him by carrying the cross. In the extreme left of the picture are, the Virgin — who falls fainting into the arms of three of her companions — and St. John, whose attitude is one of agonised grief. This group is borrowed from the Deposition of Filippino Lippi and Perugino (Academy of Fine Arts, Florence).1 In the last of these fragments, the Dead Christ, or Pieta (in Mrs. Dawson's collection, London), the motive is excessively simple. The artist gives us an elegy in place of a drama, and one of the most touching he ever composed. The body of the Crucified One is resting against His Mother's knees ; while one of the disciples helps her to hold her precious burden, two other disciples express their grief with eloquent gestures, and Mary Magdalen throws herself on the ground and kisses with passionate respect the bleeding feet of her Lord. This scene, at once so melancholy and so poetic, is enframed in a warm and luminous landscape. It is quite possible that about the time of his first establishment at Florence, Raphael painted a martyrdom of St. Stephen. There is at Oxford (Robinson, No. 25) a drawing representing a young saint on his knees and awaiting death, which must have been meant as a study for some such work. The Camalduli of Perugia having asked Raphael to decorate one of the walls of the sacristy of their monastery of San Severo, he gladly acceded to their request, being very anxious to try his hand at fresco-painting. The subject selected was the gathering of the saints of their order around the mysterious Trinity. It would be difficult to imagine a spot more calculated to inspire thoughts of a serious kind than that to which Raphael repaired for several months. The monastery is reached by steep and tortuous streets, with brick houses, the antiquity of which is proved by the pointed arches, now nearly blocked up. The square upon which the monastery stands is small, but there is a magnificent view to be had from it. The venerable pile, which seems destined 1 The Christ Carrying the Cross was in the collection of Sir Philip Miles, by whom it was sold in 1884. 168 Raphael. to cut one off from the very recollection of the world, forms a picturesque contrast with the smiling landscape which can be seen beyond the buildings below. In spite of certain modern improvements (the monastery is now a normal school), the general outline has a poetic aspect which does not belong to our day ; and if Raphael could return to earth, he would stop a moment before entering the building, to drink in impressions, which have nothing, in deed, in common with art, but which are none the less calculated to elevate and delight us. A modern inscription, placed upon the facade of the monastery, relates how the master and the pupil, the one scarcely arrived at his first maturity, the other bowed beneath the weight of years, both worked at the frescoes of San Severo : QVID RAPHAEL PVBEE, LOXGAEVVS QVIDQVE VALERET PETRVS, OPVS MVEO DVCTVM TESTATVR EODEM. Other inscriptions inside, at the foot of the wall, which is covered with Raphael's composition above and with that of Perugino below, give us the date of the execution of these two works ; 1505 for the one, and 1521 for the other.1 There is a nobility and a purity about Raphael's composition which shows what inspiration he had derived from D. Ghirlandajo's Coronation of the Virgin and Fra Bartolommeo's Last Judgment. While respecting the perhaps ex cessive symmetry of the Umbrian school, he distributed his figures with more freedom, put more life into the groups, and created a work which was absolutely faultless as regards arrangement. The top of the fresco, which is inclosed within a Gothic arcade, contained at first God the Father, who held in His hand the mysterious volume inscribed with Alpha and Omega. But this figure has long since disappeared, as also has one of the two angels who were depicted as standing right and left- of the Almighty. A white dove, from whose body are emitted rays of light, descends upon the head of Christ, who is enthroned upon the clouds in the centre of 1 This is the text of the inscriptions, the spelling of which has been incorrectly rendered by Passavant : — RAFAEL DE URBINO D. OCTAVIANO STEFHANI VOLATKRANO, PRIORE SANCTAM TR1NITATEM, ANGELOS ASTANTES, SANCTOSQ. PINXIT A. D. M. D. V. PETRUS DE OASTRO PLEBIS PERUSINUS TEMPORE D. SILVESTRI STEPHANI VOLATERANI A DEXTRIS ET A S1NISTRIS DIV. CHRISTIPHERAE SANCTOS SANCTASQ. PINXIT A. D. M. D. XXI. The Ansidei Madonna. 169 the composition, and thus unites the figure of Father and Son. The latter, with bare breast and shoulders, extends His bleeding band, as if to recall His martyrdom, while He raises the other as if 'to give His blessing. A large mantle covers His knees as in Fra Bartolommeo's Last Judgment, and His head is surmounted by a cruciform halo. His countenance wears a singularly soft and serene expression, while by His side are two saints of very feminine type, who adore Him with uplifted hands. Six saints, seated upon the clouds and forming a semicircle, occupy the lower part of the composition : some are gravely dis cussing with each other, while the rest are absorbed in thought. To the right we see St. Romualdus, St. Benedict the Martyr, St. John the Martyr (whose head has quite disappeared) ; and to the left St. Maurice, St. Placidus, and St. Benedict. Raphael had never before painted such imposing figures as these old men with their long white beards, and these young saints with inspired eyes, which form a fitting prelude to the groups in the Dispute of the Sacrament. The colouring is in keeping with the severity of the composition. There is a predominance of white in the draperies ; the purple mantle of Christ, the dalmatic in red and gold brocade of St. Benedict the Martyr, and the green dalmatic of St. Placidus, alone vary the somewhat monotonous hues. The fresco of San Severo has unfortunately suffered very much from the dampness of the building, and it has been further deteriorated by clumsy efforts at restoration. One is sorry, in presence of the quiet genius of Raphael, to use strong language, but no words are strong enough to brand the conduct of the Vandals who, in the middle of the nineteenth century, have dared to lay their hands upon such a masterpiece and to re-paint figures of his creation. Raphael, taken up by other works, had not the time to decorate the lower part of the wall, but this omission was of the less importance because his composition, in its present form, is complete. The Camalduli, however, were very anxious that the work should be finished, and it was only after his death that they applied (in 1521) to Perugino and asked him to carry on the decora tion of this part of the chapel. The aged artist must have sunk very low to have accepted such a proposal, but he at once painted six saints of the most lamentable description beneath the admirable work of his immortal pupil. Next to this, in order of date, is generally placed the Ansidei Madonna, which was ordered by the family of that name for the chapel of St. Nicholas of Bari, in the church of San Fiorenzo at Perugia, and which is now in the National Gallery, London, having been acquired in 1885 for the fabulous sum of £70,000, from the Duke of Marlborough.1 It was long thought that this 1 M. Timbal's collection comprises a pen-drawing (photographed by Bingham) very like that at Frankfort, which is generally admitted to be a study for the Madonna Ansidei. In 170 Raphael. picture was dated MDV., Passavant and other authors being of this opinion; but a more careful examination showed that it was dated two years later. If we were to suppose that the Ansidei Madonna was both composed and painted in 1507, it would form an anachronism in Raphael's work, for it bears unmis takable marks of the influence of Perugino. But it is not unreasonable to suppose that this work, commenced in 1505, was not finished till 1507, and that Raphael, notwithstanding the change which had taken place in him, adhered to the original composition instead of incurring the great trouble of beginning it afresh. The composition, very correct, though not possessing much originality, is that of the pictures known under the generic name of " Santi Conversazione," the only difference being that the characters, generally very numerous in compositions of this kind, are here limited to four. In the centre is the Virgin, seated upon a somewhat lofty throne and holding on her lap the divine Infant, whom she is teaching to read ; to the right, St. Nicholas of Bari, in his episcopal robes and reading from a book which he holds with both hands ; to the left, St. John the Baptist. The throne of the Virgin is surmounted by a canopy, and the background of the picture is a landscape, with a fortified town, while the whole composition is inclosed in the bay of an arcade. The predella of the Ansidei Madonna, which has for some time been separated from the picture, contains scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist, one of which, St. John Preaching, is now in England. At the Timbal sale, in 1882 the Louvre acquired a drawing which may be the first thought for the Ansidei Madonna. It contains in tho centre, th e Vi rgin enthroned and gazing attentively at a book which she holds in her right hand. The Infant Jesus seems to listen to her words, while on either hand stand St. Sebastian and St. Roch. Another, but less finished drawing, is to be found in the Staedel Museum. In 1506, Raphael is again at Urbino ; perhaps he went there direct from Perugia, as that is a shorter route than through Florence. The probability is that he did not start before the month of March, and this is all the more probable in that the plague was raging at Urbino until about then,1 and Guidobaldo, who had passed the winter at Rome, did not return to his capital until the end of February.2 It is scarcely likely that Raphael would have chosen just the time when the Court was absent and when the frightened the centre is the Virgin seated on a throne and reading from a book which she holds in the right hand, the Infant Jesus listening to her, San Sebastian tied to a tree, and St. Roch. 1 Pungileoni, Elogio storico di Raffaello Santi da Urbino, p. 72. 2 Baldi, Della vita e de' fatti di Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, duca d' Urbino, vol. ii- p. 188. "Works eor Guidobaldo. 171 inhabitants were dispersed in all directions. We know, moreover, that when Baldassare Castiglione went to England on the 10th of July he took with him as a present for Henry VII. the picture of St. George which the Duke of Urbino had ordered from Raphael. Whether Raphael remained long enough in his native city to see Pope Julius II., who passed through it on the 25th of September, 1506, and again on the 3rd of March, 1507, is open to doubt. ¦ Vasari, who only speaks of one stay at Urbino, says that Raphael painted for Guidobaldo a Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and two Madonnas of very small dimensions but singularly beautiful, in his second manner. We have already had occasion to speak of the first-named picture, which Passavant believes to be the panel now in the National Gallery of London, but which very competent judges have long since refused, to include among the works of the great artist. All that is known about the two Madonnas is conjectural, but we fortunately have other evidence as to the number of pictures painted by Raphael during this period. We know, for instance, that he executed a portrait of Pietro Bembo, then on a visit to Urbino,1 and this portrait — a black-chalk drawing — was, as late as the middle of the sixteenth century, in Bembo's house at Padua,2 though since then it has disappeared. Raphael seems ?.lso to have done the portrait of the Duchess Elisabetta, for we know that Castiglione possessed a likeness from his friend's hand of " una bellissima et principalissima signora," and that he wrote on the back of it two sonnets composed in honour of the lady in question.3 Raphael, probably in obedience to the wishes of his friends, painted his own portrait during this visit, and left it as a souvenir with them. Passavant asserts that the picture now in the Uffizi Gallery is the one painted at Urbino. The artist is represented three-quarters face, with a black cap, from under which his thick chestnut hair falls almost to his shoulders, while a tight-fitting 1 Passavant is mistaken in saying (vol. i. p. 92) that Bembo did not come to Urbino more than once ; he was also there in 1508. "We know, as a matter of fact, from Baldi's work, referred to in the preceding note (vol. ii. p. 220), that he was present at the death-bed of Guidobaldo, who died at Fossombrone, a few miles from the capital. 2 " El retratto piccolo de esso Signor Pietro Bembo, allora che giovine stava in corte del duca d'Urbino, fu de mano de Raffael d'Urbino in mta " (Noiizie d'opere di disegno nella prima meta del secolo XVI., published by Morelli, Bassano, 1800, p. 18.) 3 Passavant, basing his argument upon a passage in a letter dated April 19th, 1516, in which Bembo speaks to Bibbiena of the portrait of.B. Castiglione and of that of the late Duke, supposes that Raphael also painted in his early days a portrait of Guidobaldo. But it would have been very strange if Bembo had gone so far back for an illustration of Raphael's talent, and had mentioned a production of his early days. We therefore quite agree with M. de Liphart, who is of opinion that this is a portrait of Giuliano de' Medicis, Due de Nemours, who died on the 17th of March, 1506, just a month before Bembo's letter was written. (Notice historique sur un tableau de Raphael, representant Julien de Midicis, due de Nemours. Paris, 1867, p. 16.) 172 Raphael. black doublet, only the upper part of which is visible, brings out the elegant lines of his long and flexible neck. The complexion is rather sallow, the eyes brown, the nose pointed and straight, the chin round, while the forehead betokens nobility rather than strength of character, and the whole counte nance is somewhat elongated. There is but little regular beauty; but upon the' other hand the expression is tender and full of distinction; while the mouth is at once serious and pleasant, the expression of the eyes is as clear as it is deep. Though Raphael was then three-and-twenty, his face was still very youthful, being free from all trace of beard or moustache, and it was not till three or four years later that he began to have a little down on his upper lip. The Uffizi portrait has been much damaged by clumsy attempts at restoration, but there are, fortunately, two old copies preserved, one in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, the other in the Albani palace at Urbino, which show that no essential detail has been altered. The analogy in the handling and a certain likeness in the features, justify us in placing next to Raphael's portrait of himself that of a female in the Tribune of the Florence Gallery, which is very possibly a member of his family. It is true that this portrait is held to be anterior to those of Angelo and Maddalene Doni, as well as to that of the Gravida ; but we hold that it is, on the contrary, of later date, for it displays a freedom and a vigorous science which are not to be found in the others. Raphael is henceforward fully master of his subjects, and, while reproducing with the utmost fidelity the physical characteristics of his sitter, he succeeds in bringing out his moral qualities and raising his individuality to the rank of a type. There is a poetry and a distinction about his Tribune portrait worthy of Leonardo himself. Nothing can be more admirable than the expression of melancholy, it may almost be said of home-sickness, which characterises this woman. Still young, she seems to be undermined by some secret sorrow. With one hand resting on a balustrade and the other poised on the lower part of her arm, she is looking out into vacancy as if pervaded by the recollection of some mighty grief. The execution of this picture is, for all that has been said to the contrary, truly marvellous. Notwithstanding the many restorations, one sees in it the work of a colourist of a very high order, who has no need of bright colours to produce the most vigorous and warmest effects. The dress, elegant though simple, brings out the delicacy of the flesh-tints and their brown shadows, the distinction of the features and the beauty of the hands ; the gold chain round her neck and the two rings on her right hand give relief to the subdued tones of the green bodice, trimmed with crimson ribbon, of the LA MADONE ANSIDEI. Portrait in the Tribune. 175 loose brown sleeves, and of the white apron fastened with a red cord ; all PORTRAIT OF RAPHAEL. (Uffizi Museum.) these notes form a colour-harmony which Raphael never outdid, not even in 176 Raphael. his beautiful portraits of the Roman period. The portraits of Doni and his wife are evidently the work of a very promising novice ; but here we have the work of a master worthy to compare with Leonardo himself. Urbino seems to have developed in Raphael his most generous sentiments and most poetic ideas. While there, his horizon expanded, and he gave expres sion to feelings which one would not have suspected him to possess. In 1506 as in 1504 the gentle and retiring painter of the Madonna suddenly comes forward as a man of war, and there is as much spirit and fire in his St. George with a Lance, in the hermitage at St. Petersburg, as there is in his St. George with a Sword, in the Louvre, as may be seen fro'ia the facsimile, which we give, of a drawing which served as a study for the picture. This work, we know posi tively, was produced by Raphael for Duke Guidobaldo, who, struck by the beauty of his two 1504 pictures, the St. Michael and the St. George with a Sword, commissioned him to paint another St. George for Henry VII. of England, who had just made him a Knight of the Garter. The word "Honi," l on the garter which the saint wears over his armour, is very clear proof of the destination of the picture, which was taken to England by Castiglione when he went over to receive the insignia of the order. This picture must therefore have been finished by the 16th of July, on which day Castiglione started on his journey. After having been for some time in the royal collections of England, it has now found its way to the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. In the interval between the painting of the Louvre St. George and this picture Raphael had studied Donatello's wonderful little bas-relief at Or' San Michele. So perfect a model could not fail to make an impression upon him, and he copied it almost to the letter. In both works we have a young girl to the right in the act of prayer ; in both there is a knight with a round helmet and a mantle streaming in the wind, and in both his attitude of attack is essentially the same. There are, however, one or two slight variations which show that Raphael was no servile imitator. Thus, for instance, the left leg of the rider, which is bent in Donatello's work, is here quite straight. The horses differ, too ; for while that in the bas-relief is rearing, Raphael's horse is at full gallop ; and the dragon, too, instead of confronting his adversary, as in Donatello's work, is flat on his back. The beautiful little picture of the Three Graces seems also to have been painted at Urbino ; and the impression produced upon Raphael by the original group at Siena was so deep that he was not satisfied with fixing it in his memory by a hasty sketch, but determined to see whether he could not rival the work of the Greek sculptor. While following in it regard to the general 1 The first word of the motto of the garter. The Three Graces. 177 arrangement of the figures, he gave them attitudes and proportions which PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN. (Uffizi Museum.) seemed to him more in harmony with the requirements of painting. His N 178 Raphael. picture has not the severity of the Greek marble ; the outlines are fuller, coral necklaces or golden apples bring out the whiteness of the flesh tints, and there is a perceptible want of dignity about the pose. More especially one notices a slight bend in the limbs, whereas in the marble the three sisters stand proudly erect. Raphael has painted three Italian girls of the sixteenth century, and not antique goddesses. The general arrangement of the group is the same ; both in the picture and the sculpture two of the Graces face the spectator, while the centre figure has her back turned, and her face is only seen in profile. All three are quite naked, with the exception of the one to our left, who has a thin veil about her hips, and each has one hand upon the shoulder of her companion, while in the other she holds a golden apple. In all probability, Raphael availed himself of his stay at Urbino to make an excursion to Bologna, whither he was attracted by the wish to make the acquaintance of Francesco Francia, whose celebrity as a goldsmith and painter had long been universal. Francia, moreover, bad been master to one of his dearest friends, Timoteo Viti, and a close intimacy soon sprang up between them, though Francia, then fifty-five years of age, was so much Raphael's senior. Proofs of this intimacy exist in the letter which Raphael wrote to him in 1508 to thank him for having painted his portrait. Raphael also intrusted Francia with the task of putting in its place and retouching, if necessary, his picture of St. Cecilia, Perhaps, too, it was by Francia that Marc Antonio was introduced to Raphael, about 1510. In 1506 Francia, mature as was his age, had more to learn from Raphael than he could teach him, and many pictures still extant show that he did his best to profit by the example of his young friend. It is very possible that Francia introduced him to his powerful patrons, the Bentivoglios, who were at that time the rulers of Bologna, for Baldi tells us that Raphael, in November, 1506, painted for the head of the family before his expulsion by Pope Julius II., a Nativity or an Adoration of the Shepherds. It has long been assumed that Raphael, on leaving Urbino to return to Florence, visited the Vallombrosa monastery and painted the portraits of two monks, Blasio, general of the order, and Balthazzar ; but it is now admitted that these two portraits are by Perugino. They are in the Accademia at Florence. In the second half of 1506, or in the beginning of 1507 at the latest, Raphael returned to Florence, and in addition to the Madonnas already Apollo and Marsyas. 179 referred to he painted, at about this period, three very different works, Apollo and Marsyas, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and the Entombment, each of which demands a separate notice. STUDY FOR THE ST. GEORGE AT ST. PETERSBURG. (Uffizi Museum.) The history of the rivalry between Apollo and Marsyas was a favourite theme with the Florentine artists, in whose eyes it doubtless personified the N 2 180 Raphael. victory of light over darkness, and the triumph of the Renaissance over the Middle Ages. The old Greek myth had been popularised in Florence by a wonderful engraved stone, which was supposed to have been used as a seal by Nero, and which, in the early part of the fifteenth century, belonged to Giovanni de' Medicis, son of Cosmo the Great. Lorenzo the Magnificent, to whom this gem afterwards belonged, always held it in great esteem, and it was copied by numerous artists, among others by Botticelli, who, in a portrait of a girl of the Medicis family, now in the Museum at Frankfort, has hung it round her neck. A medallist copied it on the reverse of a medal of Pope Paul III., and to Raphael, who must have seen some of these copies, it suggested the figure of Apollo in the School of Athens, while he copied it exactly in the Loggia. In these various works the motive selected by Raphael and his contempo raries was the Punishment of Marsyas, while it was the rivalry between Apollo and Marsyas which was depicted in the picture to which we now refer. To speak of this picture is to evoke the recollection of ardent disputes, in which, it must be confessed, moderation and fairness were not always with the majority. Passavant, in particular, who has been so quick to include among the works of Raphael pictures with which he had nothing to do, has shown strong feeling on this question. He has even contested the genuineness of the picture for no better reason than because the drawing of the legs is not quite so full as in most of Raphael's works, and because the landscape is not treated in quite so decisive a style as usual. The Apollo and Marsyas has no history, so to speak. Sold in 1787 with the collection of J. Bernard, it afterwards belonged to M. Duroveray, at whose death it was once more put up to auction, and bought on the 2nd of March, 1850, at a low price x by a well-known English amateur now living at Rome, Mr. Morris Moore. The picture was then called a Mantegna; but this was absurd, and more than one eminent connoisseur applauded its new ascription to Raphael. The beauty of the composition, the firmness and the elegance of the modelling, and the brilliancy of the colour, all tend to prove this, and it is impossible to imagine a more refined, more harmonious, or more divine figure than that of the young god. Standing erect, his fair hair flowing in the wind, with one hand resting upon his flank and the other raised level with his head, he is looking disdainfully at his rival, who is sitting before him and playing the flute. Vicomte Delaborde says : " His head, radiant with grace 1 70?. 7s. Mr. Morris Moore died at Rome shortly after his treasure was bought for the Louvre. — W.A. Apollo and Marsyas. 181 and youth, is sufficient to prove that the picture is by Raphael, even if the band that painted it had not left other unequivocal signs ; the arms and the •APOLLO AND MARSYAS. (Louvre. ) torso, modelled with singular delicacy in the details, but with no loss of 182 ' Raphael. breadth, testify, even more than the features, to the study of ancient sculpture. Something of the grace which we see developed in the nude figures of Jesus and St. John the Baptist, softens and, so to speak, perfumes, the rather solemn majesty of the shape. Even the legs, which seem almost too thin, so delicate are the contours and joints, tend to convince the eye and to tell us by whose brush these touches, charming in their slight exaggeration, were made." 1 The figure of Marsyas has merits of a different order. It would have been illogical of Raphael to have given it the refinement which characterises the god, nor could be give him any expression save that of unconscious vanity and brnsqneric. But the plastic solidity of his form is equal to that of bronze, and the brown tint of his skin heightens this impression. The landscape is worthy of the two figures which it infolds ; in the fore ground there is luxuriant vegetation ; behind that some trees, and in the background a river with a bridge of three arches, a castle, and mountains. A warm and luminous atmosphere envelops the whole, and gives the picture an air of perfect serenity. If there were only certain analogies of style between the Apollo and Marsyas and the undisputed pictures of Raphael, we might have hesitated to pronounce a definite opinion. But there is more than this, for we know of two drawings by Raphael which seem to be studies for the picture now belonging to Mr. Moore. One of these is a study of a naked man in the Uffizi, while another and similar drawing is in the Academy at Venice. Competent judges also attribute to Raphael another drawing in the Academy of Venice which represents Apollo and Marsyas, one seated and the other standing up, in exactly the same attitude as they have in the picture.2 These are presumptions almost strong enough to be accepted as proofs. The Apollo and Marsyas belongs to an art more advanced than that of the Three Graces, so that we believe it to have* been executed at Florence after the second journey to Urbino, that is to say about 1507. Maternal love found its highest and most harmonious expression in the Madonnas painted by Raphael between the time of his arrival at Florence and his departure for Rome. The master, while borrowing from his pre- 1 Etudes sur les Beaux-Arts en France et en Italie, vol. i. pp. 245, 246. 2 It must be remembered, however, that very good judges refuse, rightly as it seems to me, to accept the drawings at Venice as Raphael's, or that in the Uffizi as a design for the Apollo. — W. A. In a pamphlet by M. Batt<5, Le Raphael de M. Morris Moore, Apollon et Marsyas, documents accompanied by translations, notes, and remarks (Paris, London, 1859, p. 88 and following), is found a detailed list of those drawings or paintings by Raphael which resemble Apollo and Marsyas. St. Catherine of Alexandria. 183 decessors the framework of the picture, succeeded in introducing a life and a beauty never before paralleled. The study of nature and the inspirations of his affectionate heart enabled him completely to regenerate a subject which might have been thought worn out. ¦¦¦^ 2a*: -«s STUDY. „ (Academy of Fine Arts, Venice.) Raphael shows quite as much originality in the paintings in which he celebrates the witnesses and confessors of Christianity and the proto-martyrs of the Church. He introduces a significance unknown to his predecessors not caring to imitate the immobile majesty of the mosaicists of previous centuries, the gentle resignation of the Gothic painters, or the expressive force of the realists of the early Renaissance. He attempts to bring out the joy of 184 Raphael. self-sacrifice, the fervour of intense conviction and single-minded zeal for God, which he does with incomparable energy and eloquence. Here, as in the Madonnas of the Florentine period, he prefers to be independent of tradition, for his conscience would revolt at the idea of sacrificing his art to the re quirements of religious doctrine. It would never occur to him to gain effect by depicting the physical sufferings of his heroes, to represent St. Peter on the cross or St. Lawrence writhing on his gridiron. The St. Catherine of Alexandria, in the National Gallery, is the first, in point of date, of those charming figures, which form a class apart in the works of Raphael. It precedes and paves the way for the Three Virtues in the Entombment, the St. Margaret, the St. Cecilia of Bologna, and so many others. The body thrown back in a movement of passion, the eyes raised heavenward, the right hand reposing on the breast, as if to affirm her devotion, the left arm resting upon the wheel, as if to remind us of her suffering, all testify that she is ever ready to undergo fresh martyrdom. The execution of this picture is light and spirited, and the colouring so transparent that, as Passavant has already pointed out, one can trace the outlines and other preparations upon the panel beneath it. The original cartoon, scarcely less beautiful than the painting itself, is in the Louvre. The Entombment in the Borghese Gallery dates from the stay of Raphael at Perugia, but the picture has nothing else in common with Umbria ; for in spite of Raphael's kind thoughts of the school to which he had once belonged, his motto as an artist was " forwards." This Entombment, intended for the church of San Francesco at Perugia, was ordered by a lady of the Baglioni family, who was actuated not solely by pious motives, but also by sorrowful recollections. A few years before; a tragedy more odious and more cruel than anything previously known, had scattered terror through the city. Taking advantage of some marriage festivities, Griffone, the son of Atalanta Baglioni, had massacred a whole family belonging to a hostile faction, and was in turn destroyed by the friends of the victim, when these again got the upper hand. Griffone's mother, still young and beautiful, had fled the day before with his wife, heaping imprecations upon the assassin, in whom she refused to recognise her son. When she heard of the retaliation she hurried back with Griffone's wife and found him on his death-bed. All the other persons present withdrew. Atalanta threw herself upon him and begged him to forgive his assassins. This he did, and she then gave him her blessing, and soon after he breathed his last. In commissioning Raphael to paint the Entombment, Atalanta wished to The Entombment. 185 ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA. (National Gallery, London.) perpetuate the recollection of this sorrow, and to find consolation in contemplating the grief of another unhappy mother. 186 Raphael. Raphael took extraordinary pains in elaborating this composition, as is shown by many studies preserved in the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Albertina collection, the British Museum, the University of Oxford, and the collections of Messrs. Malcolm, Bhchall, and Gay. The artist, indeed, hesitated for some time in his choice of the subject, and Sir J. C- Robinson has clearly shown that he at first intended to paint a Deposition, and that it was only afterwards that he decided in favour of the Entombment} The history of these uncertainties is very curious, as illustrating Raphael's method of work, so that we may as well trace the principal phases of the genesis of the picture, following the account of Sir J. C. Robinson. A famous picture by Perugino, the Deposition, painted in 1495 for the church of Santa Chiara in Florence, and now in the Pitti Palace, must have forced itself on_the attention of Raphael when he began the first series of_his studies^ This beautiful work wai""well deserving of his admiration. The grouping, though not exempt from a certain timidity, is lifelike and full of movement ; the attitudes, the gestures, .and the_.expression are of a beauty which has never been surpassed. The body of Christ, laid upon a rock and coveTecTwith a shroud, occupies the centre of the composition. Joseph of Arimathea, kneeling behind Him, his holding Him up, and St. Mary Magdalene is lifting up His head, while one of the disciples, kneeling on the opposite side, grasps the corner of the shroud. Mary approaches her son, takes hold of His arm and contemplates Him with ineffable tenderness and grief. Around her the disciples and friends of Jesus give themselves up without restraint to their sorrow. One woman is kneeling near the body with the marks of profound venera tion, another is sobbing, while a third, noticing the ravages caused by death, raises her arms in dismay. To the right, an apostle, with his head resting upon one of his hands, contemplates his Master as if to bid Him a last farewell, while opposite to him is St. John,_who gazes out into vacancy and wrings his hands in despair. Two other spectators contemplate with profound pity the blood-stained nails withdrawn from the wounds of the Divine victim. In spite of the diversity of these feelings, the work of Perugino is well brought together, and it expresses a melancholy and resigned sadness, which is perhaps even more touching than the accents of de spair and the cries of agony which are suggested in the pictures of his predecessors. A drawing at Oxford (Robinson, No. 37) shows that Raphael had the com position of his late master before him when he commenced the picture ordered 1 A Critical Account of the Drawings by Michael Angelo and Raffaelloin the University Galleries, Oxford ; Oxford, p. 154 and following. The Entombment. 187 by Atalanta Baglioni. The body of Christ reposes upon the knees of His mother and of Mary Magdalene ; to the left three women are sustaining or consoling the gTiet^triinEeii Virgin, and to the right is a group composed of Joseph of Arimathea, of St. John, and of two other disciples. A second 7, STUDY FOR THE ENTOMBMENT. (Oxford University.) drawing in the same collection (Robinson, No. 38) contains studies after nature for the body of Christ and for four disciples, all nude. Lastly, the beautiful Louvre drawing, reproduced here, contains so perfect a study for the STUDY FOR THE ENTOMBMENT. (Mr. V. Gay's Collection.) The Entombment. 189 central group, that it seemed as if all the artist had to do was to transfer his composition to the panel.1 SiLL^^M^B^change .came over Raphael, and he gave up the idea of the Deposition and determine^^^e^res^tthe Entom.bm.P.i7.f„ _ This time it was the leader of the Mantuan, school, . Mantegna, and not the Umbrian champion whom he took as his guide. Some time before this he had copied, as we have seen, from the Book of Studies at Venice, a print by the Paduan engraver, representing the same subject, and remembering how he had admired this powerful and pathetic work, he determined to take it as the basis of his new composition. In the studies for the Deposition, Christ is reposing upon His mother's knees, while around Him His disciples and friends give unrestrained vent to their grief. J^i^_Entam^iMi^~ihQ-~Ciom position is more, complex., and. diversified, for while some of the figures are giving free expression to their feelings, the others are carrying the body to the sepulchre which has been prepared for its reception. Thej^dea^of^phy.sical effort,, therefore, takesjhe place of, andjgutsijitojdie backgrounds that of moral suffering. Thus Raphael, who had hitherto devoted his whole strength to the faithful rendering of nature, or to the expression of poetic sentiment, suddenly yielded to the temptation of showing his knowledge of the human frame and of solving the most complicated problems of anatomy. This he must have done under pressure from without rather than from any strong inclination of his own. The influence in question was doubtless that of Michael Angelo, whose wonderful Cartoon of Pisa, in which he had multiplied difficulties only to triumph over them, deeply fascinated the younger painter. He, too, resolved to try his hand at these feats of strength which were gra dually gaining an ascendency, both with artists and the public, over the poetry and beauty of quiet nature. The David of Michael Angelo seems to have employed his pencil. The British Museum possesses a pen drawing which is ascribed, probably with justice, to him. The muscles are marked with elaborate care. But the first unmistakable sign of Buonarroti's influence over Sanzio is to be seen in the preparatory drawings for the Borghese Entombment. Up to this moment, we are pretty sure that Raphael never dissected, that he knew the structure of the human body only from the drawings of Pollajuolo, Leonardo and Fra Bartolommeo. An Oxford drawing (Robinson, No. 42) shows us a group of three naked men carrying the dead body of our Saviour. 1 Bought in 1850 at the sale of .the King of Holland, for 6261. Passavant believes that this drawing belongs to the years 1505-6. M. Reiset, on the contrary, in his Notice des dessins (Ecoles d'llalie, No. 319), assigns a later date (1508). a p a s S .3 STUDY FOB THE ENTOMBMENT. (Mr. Malcolm's Collection.) 192 Raphael. In another Oxford drawing (Robinson, No. 43), representing the body of Christ, seen to the knees only, and the lower part of the figures of the disciples, he is following out the same problem. Again in a drawing, formerly part of the Malcolm collection, exhibited in 1879 at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts} he carries his new studies so far as to copy a skeleton placed in the attitude which he intends to assign to the Virgin. Str^nger-pioof^ptlthe influence-of-MichaeL Angelo could hardly, perhaps, be given.2 But the figure of Christ isxdeariy- inspired to some extent by -that sculptured JjyJBuonarroti for St. Peter's. It is to these efforts that a passage from Vasari, which is very important in its bearing on the history of Raphael's development, apparently refers. He says : — " It was only after long efforts that Raphael succeeded in appreciating the beauty of undraped figures and in triumphing over the difficulties of fore shortening. He finally did so by studying the cartoons drawn by Michael Angelo for the Council-Room at Florence. Until he wished to change and improve his style he never made any thorough study of the nude, having hitherto only drawn after nature in the manner of Perugino, his master, and with the addition of that graceful expression which seems in his case to be a natural gift. He accordingly set himself to compare the muscular structure of bodies which had been flayed with that of living subjects, and to study the effects of its mechanism upon the various parts or upon the human body as a whole. He also studied the articulations of the bones, the junctions of the tendons, and the whole network of the veins, thus gradually building up the knowledge necessary to a painter." The influence of Michael Angelo was not confined to this matter of anatomy. The fine drawing known as the Death of Meleagcr, at Oxford, contains some figures whose proud allure and tall proportions speak unmistakably of the Tuscan master. In a drawing, now at the Albertina, for the Charity in the predella of the Entombment, Raphael has even contrived to remind us of the ruder and more downright qualities of his rival. Finally it should be noted that the kneeling female who prepares to support the 1 Robinson, Descriptive Catalogue of Drawings by the Old Masters, forming the collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch, Esq. (London, 1876), pp. 67, 68. 2 " We no longer have any painters," wrote Mariette in the last century, " who study anatomy like Michael Angelo. If he had a figure to draw, he began by the carcase, that is to say, to draw the skeleton, and when he was certain as to the position which the move ments of the figure gave to the principal bones, he began to clothe them with muscles, and then he covered the muscles with flesh. This is no vague assertion, for I have in my possession several studies of Michael Angelo for his Christ at the Minerva, in which all these operations can be followed" (Abecedario, vol. i. pp. 223, 224.) The Entombment. 193 fainting Virgin has much in common with the Mary of Buonarroti's famous Holy Family in the Tribune of the Uffizi. The Entombment was completed in 1507 (Vasari says that the cartoon was done at Florence and the painting at Perugia). In it three distinct influences are to be traced : first, that of Mantegna, from whom Raphael borrowed the f-r-, ¦¦ -y~,. STUDY- FOR THE ENTOMBMENT. (Uffizi Museum.) framework of the composition ; secondly, that of Michael Angelo ; and lastly, that of Perugino, whose Deposition, in the Academy of Fine Arts at Florence, served as a model for the group formed by the Virgin and her companions. The last-named picture had, as we have already mentioned, been made use of by Raphael in his Christ Carrying the Cross, one of the predella pictures in the altar-piece painted for the nuns of St. Antony at Perugia. o 194 Raphael. It is the duty of the critic to point out these imitations, which do not, however, detract from the transcendent merits of the Entombment. Con temporaries were not blind to its great qualities, and the impression which it produced was deep and lasting. Never before had grief been rendered in such pure and rhythmical style, and Raphael struck a happy mean between the passion of Donatello, Mantegna, and Signorelli, and the elegiac nobility of Peruo-ino. Not less striking is the scientific accuracy of the drawing, which was apparent in the body of our Lord and in those of the two disciples. Vasari, half a century later, bears his testimony to the beauty of this work in a passage which is almost as valuable as a contemporary criticism. He says : " This divine picture represents Christ laid in the tomb ; the body is executed with the utmost excellence, and the picture is so fresh that one might fancy it had just been painted. Raphael has quite caught the grief of the relatives, who are taking their last look at one who was very dear to them, and who carries with him the honour, the virtue, and the fortune of a whole family. The Virgin is in a fainting fit, and the other women are weeping ; nothing can be more touching than the expression on their faces. Special attention is due to St. John, who crosses his hands and lowers his head with a gesture which must touch the most hardened heart. Indeed, the scrupulous care, the sympathy, the art and the grace with which this work has been executed, are most surprising. It fills with admiration all who look at it, so expressive are the figures and so beautiful the draperies." Modern opinion is more divided, and Rumohr holds that the Entombment is mainly the work of Ridolfo Ghirlandajo. The author of Recherches sur V Italie says : " In spite of all the attention I have given this picture, and of my admiration for it as a whole, it does not kindle any enthusiasm in me. I can not recognise Raphael in the colouring, which seems somehow to be too smooth, nor in the contours, which are wanting in decision, and the style of painting is more like that of his friend Ridolfo, who adhered to it through life."1 Without admitting thus much, Herr Springer is also very severe in his criticism, remarking that " the effect of the picture does not correspond to the efforts of the artist. Those who justly praise the energy of expression and the truth of the characters and the beauty of arrangement, admit that the whole effect is cold, and appeals rather to the mind than to the heart. These defects are most striking in the colour. Cleanings and restorations have so modified the painting that it has been supposed that some one besides Raphael had a hand in it. But even if it were intact, the Entombment would not produce a really satisfactory effect. The rich palette which Raphael had hitherto used for isolated figures or groups was yet not rich enough for so 1 See Passavant's Raphael, vol. ii. p. 58. The Entombment. 195 crowded a composition. The want of spontaneity heightens this impression still more, to say nothing of the monotony of all these heads seen in profile and standing out against the background like shadows on a wall."1 Without going so far, it must be admitted that, in spite of beauties of the r*% Ukv THE ENTOMBMENTi (Borghese Gallery, Rome.) highest order, the Entombment is less captivating than many of Raphael's » other compositions. This was only natural, for the production of it had been too laborious. Moreover, Raphael did not then possess the skill in colour which he afterwards acquired ; and it cannot too often be repeated that such a Raffael und Michael Angelo, p. 95. 0 2 196 Raphael. subject was too much opposed to the true aspirations of the artist to be treated with complete success. This he probably felt himself, and he did not attempt a similar subject again for some time. In fact, he only made three other attempts : once in the beautiful drawing in the Louvre, which represents the Virgin standing over the body of her Son ; in the Christ carrying the Cross, or Spasimo di Sicilia, in the Madrid Museum ; and in the Descent from the Cross, engraved by Marc Antonio. The predella of the Entombment is conceived in a very different spirit. Raphael never created more nobly ideal figures than these three Virtues painted en grisaille, and each accompanied by two angels or genii : Faith, Hope, and Charity. These masterpieces of composition and sentiment are in the Pinaeoteca of the Vatican, while the spandrel with the figure of God the Father is in the museum at Perugia. There is no need to speak of this last-named figure, which seems to have been the work of one of Raphael's pupils. A document, recently discovered by Signor A. Alippi, a young scholar of Urbino, proves that Raphael paid another visit to his native town in 1507, for on the 11th of October in that year an agreement was drawn up, by which " Raphael, painter, son of Giovanni Santi," agreed to pay to the heirs of Serafino Cervasi of Montefalcone a sum of 100 ducats, of forty Bolognese pieces each, as for a house purchased from them. The agreement refers to a collusive receipt previously given to Raphael, and declares it to be null and void. The hundred ducats were intended to be applied in payment of a fine which the Cervasi family had been condemned to pay by the ducal chamber at Urbino. The artist promises to pay forthwith the sum of twelve and a half ducats into the hands of Francesco Buffo, representative of Duke Guidobaldo, thirty-seven and a half ducats whenever called upon to do so, and the remainder at Christ mas, 1507. This document proves that the relations of Raphael with his native town, his family, and the ducal court were closer than has hitherto been supposed. We now know that he visited Urbino in 1504, 1506 and 1507 ; and these frequent visits are explained by the ease with which one could get there from Perugia. It was not more than two days' journey with a good horse, and Raphael was much at Perugia in 1507, as he was busy with the Entombment ordered by Atalanta Baglioni. This was the last time he visited his home, but he was often there in spirit, and was kept well informed of all that took place in Urbino. When the Entombment was finished, Raphael reverted at once to his favourite subject, the Madonna. We have already described those which he painted in 1507 and 1508, and one of his letters proves that such works were Letter to Simone Ciarla. 197 specially sought after by foreigners. In this letter we see him cheerful and full of confidence, though little anticipating, even then, what great destinies awaited him. Raphael's letters are so scarce that no excuse is needed for FAITH. (Vatican Pinaeoteca.) giving the text of one which he wrote to his uncle Simone, under date of April 21st, 1508 : " Dear as a Father, — " I have received your letter informing me of the death of our illustrious lord, the Duke ; may God have mercy upon his soul ! I could not, in truth, 198 Raphael. read your letter without shedding tears. But "transeat." We cannot alter it, and we must submit with resignation to God's will. I wrote the other day to my uncle the priest, begging him to send me the small picture which served hope. (Vatican Pinaeoteca.) as a lid to the Madonna della Prefetessa.1 He has not done so though, and I shall be pleased if you will remind him to do so, in order that I may content 1 The author of a recent pamphlet avails himself of this passage to identify with the Madonna of the Prefetessa a picture discovered at Savona in the house of the shoemaker Basso della Rovere (a descendant of the powerful family of Sixtus IV. and of Julius II), and being similar in regard to composition to the Alba Madonna, with an oak (rovere) in the background (Casella, Le Triomphe de V Art dans les plus belles Peintures de Raphael Letter to Simone Ciarla. 199 the lady. You are aware that one may be glad to ask a service from her or hers. "I beg you also, my very dear uncle, to tell the priest and (aunt) Santa that if the Florentine, Taddeo Taddei, of whom we have often talked, comes CHARITY. (Vatican Pinaeoteca.) to Urbino, they are to entertain him with the best they can afford. You, too, out of regard for me, will show him all possible attention, for I am under greater obligations to him than to any one else. d'Urbin, la Vierge della Rovere, en Notre Dame de la Prophetesse, Genoa, 1877). The argu ments, it must be admitted, are very fairly deduced, but it is necessary to be cautious in accepting inferences of this kind so frequently drawn in Italy. 200 Raphael. '' I have not put a price upon the picture and shall avoid doing so if pos sible, for it will be better for me to leave the valuation to them. That is why I did not write to you on the subject. According to what the owner of the picture tells me, he will give me orders to the extent of 300 gold ducats, either for here or for France. After the fetes are over, I shall perhaps be able to let you know the price of the picture, of which I have already prepared the cartoon, and after Easter we will see about painting it. " I should much like, if possible, to get a letter of introduction from the Prefect for the gonfalonier of Florence. I wrote a few days back to uncle and to Giacomo da Roma,1 begging them to procure it for me. It would be very useful to me on account of a certain studio2 which his Excellency can dis pose of as he pleases. I beg of you to send me this letter if possible. I think that if the Prefect is asked for it on my behalf he will not refuse. Recommend me most specially to him as his former servitor and familiar. No other news for the moment. Remember me to Master . . . (left in blank), and to Ridolfo and all the others, xxi. April, mdviii. " Your Raphael, Painter at Florence." As Raphael is setting out for Rome, and as a new world is opening before him, let us cast a glance on this early, well -filled period. In 1508 he was only twenty-five years of age, and he had already peopled with his works Umbria, Tuscany, the duchy of Urhino, and Bologna. About sixty pictures (Passavant describes fifty-five oil-paintings), an immense fresco, and numberless drawings testify to his inexhaustible powers of production. Wherever he went he dis played the greatest modesty in regard to existing schools, and an unparalleled faculty of imitation from which he at last emerged as the rival of his former masters. Perugino and his pupils, Pinturicchio, Timoteo Viti, and Francia were not long in recognising his superior genius, and Fra Bartolommeo was proud to be able to give him a few hints. The municipalities, the monasteries, and the connoisseurs of Perugia, Citta di Castello and Florence, encouraged him, and the Duke of Urbino was glad to be his patron. Religious com positions, portraits, mythological scenes and allegories, were all treated with equal success. Thanks to him, the Umbrian and the Florentine schools alike received their supreme consecration. 1 " Pochi di fa io scrissi al zio e a Giacomo da Roma me la fesero avere.'' This is a very ambiguous phrase, which may also mean that Raphael asked them to have this letter sent to him from Rome, where the Prefect may have been staying at the time. 2 " Per l'interesse de una certa stanza da lavorare, la quale toch.i Sua Signoria de alocarc." This phrase also has a double meaning. It may be that Raphael is referring to a studio which the gonfalonier had at his disposal, but it may also have been used in reference to the decoration of a chamber, the order for which the latter could give to whom he pleased. CHAPTER X. Raphael at Rome.— The Eternal City in the beginning of the Sixteenth Century.— Julius II. ¦ and the Pontifical Court : prelates, scholars, great nobles and bankers, Castiglione, Bembo, Bibbiena, Ariosto, Ag. Chigi. — The world of Artists ; the San Gallos, Bramante, Peruzzi, Caradosso, G. Marcillat. In the month of April, 1508, Raphael was still at Florence, but by September of that year at the latest he had settled in Rome, and appears to have been at once employed by the Pope.1 The work reserved for him by Pope Julius II. was brilliant enough, for while Bramante was intrusted with the rebuilding of St. Peter's and Michael Angelo with the Papal Mausoleum and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Raphael had the decoration of the apostolic palace. Twice the capital of the world, the cradle of two civilizations which have in turn subdued humanity, Rome, sadly as she had been mutilated, was then the most beautiful of cities. Antiquity and the Middle Ages shone with equal splendour there, while the Renaissance, shedding light and life all around it, was building up a new world by the side of the old. As one approached the city, a landscape, the main lines of which were in harmonious proportion, prepared the traveller for the contemplation of Rome— of the Urbs, as the Latins called her, of the Aurea Roma, as she was styled in the Middle Ages. If the neighbourhood of Florence offered a more perfect image^ of grace, if the site of Umbria tended to meditation, here, in the Campagna broken by bold mountain spurs and bounded by the dark masses of Monte Gennaro, Monte Cavo and Soracte, the only impressions were severity and nobility. And yet, imposing as was the work of nature, that of man rivalled it : the immense line of aqueducts and the splendid row of tombs 1 A discussion as to the date of Raphael's first apparition at Rome has been started during these latter years. Some will have it that he went there for the first time in 1507, others not until 1509. But there seems to be no serious reason for departing from the accepted date of 1508. I think, moreover, that to ascribe the letter from Francia, in which he speaks of Raphael as established in Rome in September, 1508, to the year 1516, is quite un warrantable. 202 Raphael. along the Appian Way stood out in the landscape which was so fit a dwelling for a sovereign people. Magnificent was the spectacle which met the traveller's gaze when, after having passed the ramparts protected by countless towers, his feet rested upon the holy ground, and he saw before him, in its infinite variety and splendour, the seven-hilled city, with the colossal ruins of ancient monuments, the piles of fortified palaces, of cupolas like that of Michael Angelo, the brick steeples and the marble pillars gleaming across the pure Roman sky. Each street had a different style of its own. On this storied ground the point of view was ever shifting, and the landscape at each turn formed different combinations as in an immense kaleidoscope. What panorama in the world could compare to that which was to be seen from the top of the Pincio, when the observer turning his back upon the gardens from which the Collis Hortorum derived its name, had before him the lower town, with the turbid waters of the Tiber, the Tor di Nona, now demolished ; the castle of St. Angelo and its encircling walls ; the Vatican, Monte Mario, the Porto del Popolo, the half-built St. Peter's and the Janiculum ; the facade of the Ara Cceli, then resplendent with mosaics ; the Capitol, with its lofty belfry, then two- triumphal columns, the meaning of which na pious fraud had yet attempted to alter ; the Torre Milizia ; the Baths of Constantine, since razed to the ground, and many other marvels. Descending to the Campus Martius, the traveller found himself in the midst of narrow, populous, and noisy streets, frequented by citizens from every part of the world? If he ascended to the Ccelian or the Aventine Hill he found himself in the profoundest solitude, a city of the dead, with its ruins either overgrown by grass, or peering out from amidst roses, laurels, and orange-trees, the wealth and luxuriance of nature developing themselves over the relics of the past. If these souvenirs of another age still exercise so powerful an attraction, not only over every admirer of antiquity but over every sentient being, how much more profound must this impression have been in the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the. enthusiasm for the Greeks and Romans had reached its apogee, and when countless monuments, since destroyed, tended to feed the flame. In all directions incomparable works of art recalled the glorious names of Augustus, Agrippina, Titus, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Diocletian. In one direction, obelisks brought from remote Egypt, triumphal arches and trophies of every description, retraced the achievements of the conquerors of the world ; in another, aqueducts, water-towers, and baths testified to the spirit of benevolence and to the wise administration of those great pagan emperors who have been over depreciated by Christianity. The piety of the ancient rulers of the world found expression in temples more sumptuous and more Rome in 1508. 203 vast, if not more beautiful, than those of Greece. Their love of pleasure was manifested in the arenas and amphitheatres, the immensity of which stupefies us poor moderns. Nor is it rash to presume that one of Raphael's first visits was to the Forum, which sums up, as it were, all the glories of Rome. What spectacle can compare with that which is to be seen from the top of the Sacred Way, when the eyes rest successively upon the Arch of Constantine and the Coliseum, the Church of La Pace, the Arch of Titus and the Palace of the Caesars, the Temple of Faustina, the temples and the basilicas of the Forum ; and in the background, looming over them all, the gigantic masses of the Capitol, with its imperishable recollections ? Raphael did not as yet know his own strength, and the sight of these mighty works, the outcome of noble minds and of so lofty a civilization, increased his powers tenfold, giving him the will as well as the power to rival his glorious predecessors. The place which antiquity holds in the preoccupa tions of Raphael is too great a question for us to examine here, and we will devote a separate chapter to an inquiry into his indebtedness as a painter and an architect to the art of the ancients. Though second to classic Rome, Christian Rome was none the less rich in glorious recollections, and magnificent monu ments. Fifty basilicas presented to. the regard of the faithful their sUperb rows of marble monoliths, their precious mosaics-, and enamels, their gilded tabernacles. These buildings told of the. victory of Constantine, of the exploits of Charlemagne — -whose image shone in the recess of many an apse ; of the struggles of the Church with the Empire. Crescentius, the Othos, Robert Guiscard, Arnaud de Brescia, Frederick Barbarossa, Charles of Anjou, Cola di Rienzi, tribunes of the people and reformers, adventurers and sovereigns, had traversed the scene and marked their passage by rich endow ments, by terrible devastations, or by grand schemes which, if never realized, were none the less graven in the memory of the people. A series of im mutable monuments proclaimed the magnificence of the sovereign pontiffs, from the bronze gates of St. Paul-without-the-Walls, brought back from Constantinople by Hildebrand, the future Gregory VII., and the fresco by Giotto commemorating the splendour of the jubilee celebrated in 1300 by Boniface VIII., to the splendid creations of the Popes of the fifteenth century. It may be said that the history of the Middle Ages was written there in indelible characters, and not only the history of Rome, but that of the whole of Christendom. Raphael unquestionably studied these glorious creations of classic grandeur, the mosaics of St. Constantia, St. Pudentia, St. Agatha in Suburra, St. Andrew in Barbara, Sts. Cosmus and Darnianus. Some of them, such as those of St. Constantia, the supposed temple of Bacchus, may have furnished him with 204 Raphael. the most delicate models for decoration ; Psyches and Cupids, grape-gathering children, birds, flowers, and vases, treated with the most consummate know ledge of decorative effect. Others, notably those of St. Pudentia, would have made him familiar with the harmonious arrangement of ancient pictures; and with regard to the latter, everything tends to prove that Raphael was familiar with the great works in mosaic of the fourth century. M. Vitet, in his work upon the Christian mosaics at Rome, was the first to point out the analogy between certain parts of the decoration of St. Pudentia and Raphael's Vision of Ezekiel. " Look well," he says, " in the Vision of Ezekiel, at the symbolic figures of the four Evangelists, aud especially at this grotesque bull, of such archaic and yet grandiose shape and appearance, and you will see that it is the same, only magnified tenfold, as the one which is there before you on the wall ; nor can it be mere chance that so original and peculiar a type should have been produced twice over." 1 At Raphael's suggestion, his pupils also studied the monuments of the primitive Church, and they found there many useful suggestions and pictur esque motives. We may mention, among others, the foliage which Giovanni da Udiue took from the mosaics of Santa-Maria Maggiore, restored in the thirteenth century, or reproduced after an old model by Jacobo Torriti. Iu the Loggia frescoes, this ingenious decorator copied not only the graceful foliage and interfacings which have been admired by all visitors to the ancient basilica, but also the birds, squirrels, and mice, which were playing amid the flowers. Raphael so fully comprehended the advantages of mosaic — those pictures for eternity — that in the Stanze he arranged for the ground of the ceiling frescoes to be mosaic, while he afterwards had the satisfaction of seeing his compositions followed by a worker from Venice, in the chapel of Santa-Maria del Popolo. The creations of earlier epochs were scarcely less numerous and important than those of Christian antiquity. All styles and schools were represented by monuments of the highest order. The Vatican alone formed a complete summary of the history of art from the fall of the Roman Empire. From the triple point of view of architecture, sculpture, and painting, it was the richest museum in the world. The most eminent masters in the art of building, L. B. Alberti, Bernardino Rossellino, Giuliano da San-Gallo, and Bramante, had in turn superintended the construction of this immense agglomeration of buildings. The sculptors who had succeeded one another were as legion, from the author of the bas-reliefs on the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus and the 1 Etudes sur Thistoire de Tart, Paris, 1866, first series, p. 224. Rome in 1508. 205 Cosmati to Filarete, Paolo Romano, Mino da Fiesole, Verrocchio, A. Pollajuolo and Michael Angelo. Painting was perhaps even more brilliantly represented for m the apostolic palace were to be seen the frescoes of Fra Angela in he chapel of St. Lawrence and of St. Stephen, those of Melozzo da Forli in th hbrary, those of Mantegna in the Belvedere. Then came the decorations of the Stanze from Nicholas V. to Julius II., executed by famous masters, such as Piero della Francesca, Buonfigli, Perugino, Sodoma, and Baldassare Peruzzi The lower storey, the Borgia apartments, was adorned with the frescoes of Pinturicchio, who was never employed by a more odious patron. The Sistine VIEW OF THE VATICAN IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTUBY. (After an old engraving.) Chapel alone combined in itself the finest productions of the Florentine and Umbrian schools. Botticelli and Ghirlandajo, Perugino and Signorelli, the mysterious Bartolommeo della Gatta, and Cosimo Roselii had executed frescoes which seemed inimitable until Michael Angelo had outdone them by his ceiling, and even now, in spite of this formidable counter-attraction, many an eye still rests with pleasure upon these balanced and tranquil compositions, q They may be eclipsed by the Sibyls and the Prophets, but the latter cannot cause them to be forgotten. At St. Peter's the attention was mainly absorbed by the mosaics and the 206 Raphael. stained glass, ornamented in some cases with the arms of Nicholas V., in others with those of Cosmo de' Medicis. Upon entering the a.trium, Giotto's Navicella arrested attention and commanded admiration. The whole basilica glittered like a vast jewel casket, the pilgrims were dazzled by the gleam of vast surfaces incrusted with enamels, the brilliancy of which rivalled that of precious stones. There was a profusion of sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and gold. The chapel of Pope John VII., the tomb of the Emperor Otho, and the apse of Innocent III., were especially admired for the finish and richness of their incrustations. The severe tints of the bronze or marble monuments accumulated in the basilica, from the statue of St. Peter to the mausoleums sculptured by Mino da Fiesole, Paolo Romano, and Antonio Pollajuolo, were well calculated to heighten the splendour. All this, unhappily, the ardour of Julius II. and Bramante was about to destroy. We need not speak of the treasures contained in the other monuments of Rome. At each step were to be seen works signed by the most illustrious names, such as Giotto and Giottino, Agnolo Gaddi, Pietro da Milano, and Pietro Cavallini, Masaccio and Masolino, Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello, Benozzo Gozzoli and Filippino Lippi. Most of these masters were known to Raphael, but henceforward his thoughts were elsewhere, and if he looked at their works it was without attention. When Raphael settled in the Eternal City, Rome was not only the capital of the arts, she was also the arbiter of Europe. Military glory was super added, as of old, to the spiritual government of the world. Italy trembled before Julius II, whose flatterers compared him to Julius Caesar; and Spain, France, England, and Germany either sought his friendship or felt the weight of his displeasure-. He who had sent for the young painter of Urbino and had put him in the way of achieving so much, was the most energetic of sovereigns, the most ardent of adversaries, and the most spirited of commanders — a Soldier in the guise of a Pope. Born of poor and obscure parents, Giuliano della RoVere owed his fortune to the accession of his uncle, Sixtus IV., to the chair of Peter. Sixtus appointed him Archbishop of Avignon and Cardinal of S. Pietro-in-Vincoli. The young prelate was then distinguished by his spirit of enterprize, his love of truth, his passion for art, and his uncontrollable temper. Devoted and generous for those who shared his views, he was pitiless when opposed. He was able to give free vent to his passions during the reign of his uncle, and also during that of Innocent VIII. But when Alexander VI. (Borgia) came to the helm, misunderstandings arose and a rupture became in evitable. The Cardinal della Rovere came forward as the open adversary of the sovereign pontiff, and having taken refuge in France with a few devoted Julius II. 207 friends, among others the illustrious architect, Giuliano da San-Gallo, he gave his whole thoughts to revenge. But let us turn our eyes for an instant from politics and study the part played by Della Rovere as a patron of art. For some time past artists knew that they could count upon the favour of the all-powerful nephew of Sixtus IV. upon condition that they were distinguished from the general mass by some transcendent quality, for he was a somewhat exacting patron, Pinturicchio and Perugino in turn figured among his protege's, and he was so fond of the latter that he refused to let him fulfil his eno-ap-ements with the committee of the cathedral at Orvieto, and that he wrote, in 1491 and 1492, several threatening letters to messengers who sought to entice away his favourite. A man of action above all things, Giuliano did not scruple, in order to gratify momentary enmities, to conclude the most compromising alliances, only to turn on the morrow against his allies of to-day. The suddenness of his resolutions disconcerted all his foes, for no sooner was his object attained than he turned round in another direction. His choleric temper brought great misfortune upon Italy. It was he who induced Charles VIII. to make the \ famous expedition of 1494, which gave rise to so many complications, and the consequences of which were felt as late as the present century. In order to triumph over the irresolution of the king and overcome the opposition of his courtiers, he had recourse alternately to promises and threats, while it was he who, fifteen years later, uttered the fierce cry of " Fuori i barbari ! " (Out with the barbarians !) against the French. When his elevation to the pontifical throne had put the fate of the Papacy in his hands, together with that of Italy, he took under his protection the same Caesar Borgia against whom he had been so bitter ten years previously, and protected him from the vengeance of Europe. When Venice resisted his demands, he called in the aid of Louis XII. and Maximilian against her, and then by one of those sudden changes to which he was so addicted, he turned round and allied himself with Venice against them. In 1512, he once more allied himself with the emperor against Venice, and in order to drive the " barbarian" French out of Italy, he invoked the aid of equally barbarous Germans, Spaniards, and Swiss, curing one evil by another still greater. Success, however, justified his measures, and the soldier-pope died in the midst of his triumphs. His capricious ways must not make us forget the many heroic traits in his character: his indomitable energy, his disinterested efforts for the aggrandisement of the Pontifical States, and the grandeur of his political aud other conceptions. With him, as one of his biographers has remarked, nothing was done by rule. His irascibility was great, but it provoked fear rather than hatred, for there was no pettiness or meanness in his nature. In 208 Raphael. the same way, his schemes excited admiration rather than incredulity, for instead of nursing merely fancy projects, Julius II. was always thinking of how he could put them into execution. The Church had been governed by many warlike Popes in the fifteenth century, and the efforts of Calixtus III. and of Pius II. against the Turks, of the latter against Sigismondo Mala- testa, and of Sixtus IV. against the Florentines, were by no means unpopular. But there was no comparison to be made between those popes, directing warlike operations from afar, and this ardent leader, ever ready to throw himself personally into the struggle. Francis I., speaking of him to Leo X. pronounced these memorable words : " Pope Julius II. was a leader of true genius ; he would have been more at home as the general of an army than as pontiff." 1 To find a similar instance of military capacity and energy we must turn to Giovanni Vitelleschi, who first compelled the Roman barons to obedience, who utterly destroyed Palestrina, and who, having become too powerful, was assassinated by order of bis master, Eugene IV. Vitelleschi's successor, Cardinal Louis Scarampi, Patriarch of Aquileia, was a great warrior, whose valour and skill obtained the admiration of Julius II. Though he was more of a secular monarch thaU a sovereign pontiff, the glory of the Church was ever a great object with Julius ; and as his material conquests were wholly disinterested; so the protection which he accorded to art was dictated by the sole desire to make all the intellectual forces at his disposal subservient to the cause of the Papacy. Hence the grandiose character of all his creations, which is in singular contrast with the personal aims and effeminate elegancies of the reign of Leo X. Julius II. had little taste for literature. " Why represent me with a book in my hand ? " he said to Michael Angelo. " I am no scholar ; give me a sword " (Che libro ? unu spada ; chio per me non so lettere). The star of scholarship faded during his reign, as in the time of Paul II., though the indifference of the Pope did not actually prevent men of letters from mul tiplying at the pontifical court. But the Vatican Library, which Sixtus TV had increased so much, remained stationary, and it seemed as if military events took the Pope's attention from literature, though nOt from art.' While he was sparing of his encouragement to letters, he was lavish in his patronage of artists. He loved art almost too ardently, if the worship of 1 Monsignor Eabroni, Leonis X. pontificis mo.ximi vita, p. 280. 2 See Tiraboschi's Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. vii. pp. 21, 234 ; and Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X., vol. ii. pp. 162, 239. What Fea says of the fondness of Julius II. for literature and science is exaggerated (Notizie intorne Raffaele Sanzio da Urbino, p. 68 et seq.). A few isolated cases, such as the nomination of Inghirami to the post of librarian at the Vatican, that of Scipio Fortiguerra as tutor to his nephew, and the kindness shown to Bembo, are not sufficient to modify this impression. Julius II. 209 the beautiful can be carried too far ; and the grandest conceptions pleased him best. When Michael Angelo pointed out that the construction of his PORTRAIT OF JULIUS II. (Uffizi.) mausoleum would cost 100,000 ducats, he said, with a shrug of the shoulders, "You may spend twice as much." But in spite of, or rather because of this 210 Raphael. prodigality, it is questionable whether the Pope had any clear views of his own on art, and whether the nephew of Sixtus IV., eager for immortality, did not look upon architecture, sculpture, and painting, merely as a means of perpetuating his own name. These are questions which deserve serious 'examination. It is certain that when only a cardinal he sought out celebrated artists, and treated them with great generosity, only to turn them adrift when he came upon others still more famous. It was perhaps in obedience to a like motive that he formed a collection of antiques, the pearl of which was the Apollo of the Belvedere, for in those days most amateurs were more lavish than intelligent. Yet when, in view of the rebuilding of St. Peter's, Julius II. had to de cide between Bramante and Giuliano da San-Gallo, he was compelled to trust to his own judgment, and his decision is all the more creditable to him as he was very friendly with the latter. So, too, when he had to choose between Michael Angelo and his rivals ; and the same rectitude of judgment was displayed in regard to Raphael, whose abilities he divined at once. It is not surprising therefore that the Pope should have summarily dismissed the ^painters employed at the Vatican — Signorelli, Perugino, Pinturicchio, and others, whom he had assembled a few months beforehand, so as to leave the .field free to the new-comer ; but the fact that he had once chosen them for employment shows that he thought any style good enough, whether Umbrian or Florentine, provided it was practised by men of fame and ability. Just as, impelled by his own energetic nature, Julius II. sacrificed all these artists to his three favourites, Bramante, Michael Angelo, and Raphael, so he con centrated his attention on a few isolated walks of art instead of embracing all (ats forms like his successor Leo X. He got so far as to distinguish between '( the arts which embody a definite idea and those which merely serve to flatter '" the passion for luxury. While he loaded with presents architects, painters, 7 and sculptors — and this in spite of his domestic economy — he did little to I encourage the sumptuary industries. There had been many Popes more 'magnificent; and Eugene IV., Nicholas V., Pius II., Paul II., Sixtus IV, and (Innocent VIII., to mention only those of the fifteenth century, were surrounded jby a pomp in comparison with which the semi-military state of Julius II. was f ough and plain. They gave constant employment to goldsmiths, embroiderers, and jewellers, while painters and sculptors were, so to speak, lost in the crowd of ordinary artizans. We need not inquire whether the revolution brought about by Julius II. was, from an artistic point of view, beneficial or not; it will be sufficient to say that it tended to bring into strong relief the personality of individual artists. The registers preserved in the Roman Archives enable us to accurately Julius II. 211 compute the tastes and aspirations of the Pope. We find that there had not been so few goldsmiths' items in the papal account-books for more than a century, and it is only here and there that one finds the mention of a gold chain presented to some ambassador, or of some article of church furniture. This is exclusive of the swords of honour and golden roses which the Pope was compelled by custom to present to princes who had distinguished them selves in the service of Christianity. Yet even in these matters Julius II. was very capricious ; for while on one occasion Michael Angelo heard him tell a jeweller that he would not spend a farthing " on stones, big or little," in the future, he soon afterwards ordered a tiara which cost 200,000 gold ducats. The goldsmiths to whom he gave the order were the first of their day, one of them, Domenico de Sutrium, having been in great favour with Alexander VI., while the other, Caradosso, was an artist scarcely inferior to Benvenuto Cellini. Embroidery-work, which had flourished so much in previous reigns, did not meet with much encouragement, though here, again, the Pope showed great discernment, selecting, when he had occasion to employ an embroiderer, Angelo of Cremona, who was one of the most gifted artists of the Renaissance, and who had worked for five consecutive Popes. It was perhaps by his hand that the superb ornaments which Julius II. wears in the portrait by Raphael on the walls of the Camera della Segnatura (Gregory promulgating the Decretals) were worked. Tapestry was also banished into the background ; for though the Pope, previous to his accession, had bought a very beautiful series of hangings representing the History of Heliodorus} we have certain proof that he after wards ceased to care for this branch of art. An inventory, drawn up in 1518, tells us that the only hangings brought into the Vatican during his pontificate were a History of Griselda, old, but in good preservation ; a History of Alex ander the Great, in two pieces, woven with. silks and gold ; six various hangings ; a St. Gregory's Mass; eight hangings of very little value, and six Verduras. The tapestries on the walls of his antechamber, which a contemporary writer describes as so magnificent,2 doubtless dated from the time of his predecessors, unless they were one and the same with the History of Heliodorus, purchased before his accession to the Papacy. Upon one occasion, however, rejoiced at 1 "Panni IV. Magni cum Historia Heliodori, cum armis Julii tempore cardinalatus." It would doubtless be this tapestry which gave the Pope the idea of ordering Raphael to paint the fresco of Heliodorus driven from the Temple. 2 Signor A. Michiel di ser Vettori, in his Diarii, published by Cicogna (Memorie dell' I. R. Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arte, 1860, vol. ix. p. 450). "Benche fussino celebri li razzi di papa Jiulio, dell' anticamera." P 2 212 Raphael. having put an end to the schism in the Church, he determined to perpetuate the memory of this great triumph on tapestry, and he presented to the basilica of St. Peter in Vincoli, from which he had, when a cardinal, taken his title, some superb hangings representing the Adoration of the Shepherds, with the inscription : Julius II. Pont. max. schismate extindo. This piece of tapestry is now one of the principal ornaments of the church in question. Faithful to his principle of always singling out the artists whom popular opinion indicated as the first in their special line, Julius II., even in regard to the sumptuary arts, to which he was generally so indifferent, made a point of enlisting in his service the most eminent practitioners ; and so it was that the painting of stained glass windows was represented by the most illustrious artist of the sixteenth century, the Frenchman, Guillaume Marcillat, and wood- carving and inlaying by Fra Giovanni of Verona. It is easy to understand that these secondary arts, to which his predecessors had shown such great favour, failed to win the attention of a Pope who was busy with the reconstruction of St. Peter's. This gigantic enterprise was enough to intimidate even Julius ; but he foresaw that in the event of success he would eclipse all the Popes of the Renaissance. Though he created the beautiful courtyard of the Belvedere, opened the Via Giulia, restored and en larged the basilica of the Santi Apostoli, and that of San Pietro in Vincoli, and so many other edifices to which his name is attached, and though he com missioned Michael Angelo to paint the Sistine Chapel and to carve his Moses, and Raphael to decorate the Camera della Segnatura, he would only have ' ranked with some of the many great patrons of art during the Renaissance had [ it not been for the restoration of St. Peter's. / How came it about that the most warlike of the Popes took up the project I of the most pacific, Nicholas V., and became so enthusiastic in an enterprise \conceived by the noblest and purest representative of scholarship ? It is ad mitted that, previous to the reconstruction of St. Peter's, the ideas of Julius II. underwent several modifications. Being anxious to utilise the immense foundations laid by Nicholas V., he at first thought of building his mausoleum there, and requested Bramante and Giuliano da San-Gallo to study the question. They agreed with his views at first, but the project gradually assumed larger dimensions, and the final result was the adoption of a plan different from that of Nicholas V., but not less grandiose, viz., the rebuilding of the whole basilica in the Renaissance style. On the 6th of January, 1506, Julius II. wrote to inform the King of England of his resolv^ and to ask for his assistance ; and on the 8th of April following the first stone was laid with befitting pomp. All Europe was moved at the announcement, and while some regretted the demolition of so many august relics of the past, the majority Julius II. 213 approved the step. The subscriptions poured in ; a single Franciscan monk brought 27,000 ducats.1 Times had changed, for whereas in former times Rome had sent forth her missionaries to preach the Crusades and to drive all men to the East, all that was now asked was money. And even this enter prise, which was intended to tighten the bonds which connected Rome with Christians all over the world and to mark the supreme triumph of the Papacy, became a source of weakness, and detached millions of believers from the Church. For it need hardly be said that the direct and immediate cause of the Reformation was the method chosen to pay for the reconstruction of the great basilica. The Sacred College, which was then composed of thirty members — the total was raised to forty-eight under Leo X. — included several cardinals who were celebrated for their luxury and their love of art. The Dean of the College, Domenico Raffaelo Riario, who had worn the purple since the reign of Sixtus IV., displayed a truly regal pomp. When he went through the streets of Rome he had an escort of 400 men,2 but the patronage he accorded to Perugino, Peruzzi, and Bramante, and his commission to Raphael for the Loretto Madonna, contributed more to his glory than all this, while he has immortalised his name by building the great Palace of the Chancellery. It is a pity that so brilliant a reputation should have been injured by such a piece of Vandalism as the destruction of the Gordian arch, and the employ ment of its materials in Riario's new palace. The Venetian cardinal, Domenico Grimani, though he did not perpetuate his memory by any such building as this, formed a museum and a library of 8,000 volumes in the Palace of St. Mark, which was built by his compatriot Paul II , and eventually bequeathed them to Venice. He loved ancient manu scripts and Flemish pictures, and possessed, in addition to his famous Breviary, numerous works by Memling, Jerome Bosch, Gerard David and others. Albert Diirer and his master, Jacopo dei Barbari, a Germanised Venetian, were also represented in his collection. His tastes, therefore, were very catholic, and even Raphael contributed to the collection, the cardinal having managed to procure the cartoon (now lost) of one of the Sistine tapestries, the Conversion of St. Paul, the only one which ever returned to Italy. He wished also to get something from Michael Angelo, but as he wanted the latter to paint him an easel picture (un quadretto 8), and as Michael Angelo 1 Alberi, Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti at Senato, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 55. 2 Ibid. 3 Letter from Grimani to Michael Angelo, dated July 11th, 1523. (Daelli, Carte Michelangiolesche inedite, Milan, 1865, p. 22.) 214 Raphael. V called oil-painting only fit for women, nothing came of the project. Grimani lived in Rome till 1516, and then returned to Venice. Cardinal Giovanni de' Medicis, the future Leo X., was not behind him in the cause of literature and art, but his ambition did not as yet go beyond manuscripts and antiques, and we shall have an opportunity of commenting on his tastes hereafter. These men were the principal patrons of art among the cardinals ; but it may be mentioned that Ippolito d'Este, who was famous for his luxury, brought together a fine collection of tapestry. The Curia, properly so called, contributed even more than the College of Cardinals to make the pontifical court the most witty and refined in the world. Less conspicuous than the princes of the Church, but ever kept alert by ambition as yet unsatisfied, loving literature for itself and for the encour agement given to it by the head of the Church, the "Curiales" — that is to say, the draughtsmen of papal briefs, the clerks of the Chancellery, the consistoiial advocates, the apostolic protonotaries, &c. — formed a select coterie, recruited from all parts of Europe, which gave extreme brilliancy to Roman society during the fifteenth century. They numbered among others Leonardo d'Arezzo, Poggio and his colleague Antonio Loschi, Platina, and Hans Burckhardt, of Strasburg, the punctilious master of the ceremonies under Alexander VI., who in his famous Diariitm, notices with equal care small matters of etiquette and his master's crimes. A little later, at about the time of Raphael's arrival, Bibbiena, Bembo, Inghirami, Goritz, and Baldassare Turini, who were all destined to become his intimate friends, formed part of the Curia. The two first-named he had known previously at Urbino, so it must have given him much pleasure to meet them again at Rome. Pietro Bembo, who was born at Venice, of noble parents, in 1470, at first studied in Florence, whence he proceeded to Messina to learn Greek under the supervision of Constantine Lascaris, and he afterwards attended the Univer sity of Padua, where. he received lessons from the philosopher Leonico Tomeo. His Asolani, or dialogues in love, so called from the castle of Asolo where they were composed, gained for him an early celebrity on their appearance in 1505. He was in equal favour at the courts both of Ferrara and Urbino, but he even tually gave the preference to the latter city, and stayed there for six years. He paid a first visit to Rome in 1510, and in 1512 he returned to it in company with Giovanni de Medicis, whose friendship he had gained, and there he determined to remain. His deciphering of an old Latin manuscript, which had been sent to Julius II., secured him the good will of that pontiff; he was in still higher favour with his successor, who made him his secretary, with a yearly salary of 4,000 ducats, and ecclesiastical Cardinal Bembo. 215 benefices worth half as much again. These important posts did not prevent him from having a liaison with a lady named Morosina, who bore him two sons and a daughter ; 1 this connection delayed his promotion to the purple until the reign of Paul III. Bembo was one of the most refined writers of the Renaissance, expressing himself with equal ease in Italian and Latin. He was also a connoisseur of exquisite taste, and his interest in art was genuine as well as cultivated. He was equally fond of the antique and of the works of the Renaissance, while his admiration for the sculpture of Greece and of Rome did not prevent him from being an enthusiastic believer in the genius of Raphael. Though the golden opportunity of the collectors had passed away, Bembo succeeded in making without much difficulty a collection of marbles, bronzes, gems, and medals, which was considered one of the finest in Italy at the middle of the sixteenth century. He had a real passion for these beautiful things, and in 1516 he wrote to Bibbiena, begging him to sell his marble Venus, that it might find a place in his (Bembo's) gallery, between the statues of her father and her brother, Jupiter and Mars. When, in after years, he was separated from his treasures, he wrote and asked one of his friends to bring him some of them, declaring that he could not live without them The anonimo of Morelli, who saw Cardinal Bembo's collection at Padua, has left a full description of it, from which we may take the following : — " Bembo possessed a diptych by Memling, the Virgin with the Infant Jesus on one side of her and St. John the Baptist on the other ; the Circumcision and a St. Sebastian by Mantegna, the portraits of Navagero and Beazzano, and of Bembo himself, by Raphael ; that of Sannazaro by Sebastiano del Piombo ; the portrait of Gentile da FabrianO by Jacopo Bellini, some miniatures by Giulio Campagnola, &c, &c. The antique section comprised several Imperial busts (Julius Caesar, Domitian, Caracalla, Aurelian, &c.) ; statuettes in bronze and marble, medals of gold, silver, and bronze ; intaglios, and earthen vases ; finally, some manuscripts, including the works of Terence and Virgil." The fondness of Bembo for all these things increased with age, and when appointed, firstly, Conservator of the Venetian Library, and then Cardinal by Paul III., in 1539, he continued to add diligently to his collections. By his will, drawn up at Rome on the 5th of September, 1544, he expressly forbids his heirs to dispose of the works of art in which he had taken so much pride. His letters prove how intimate he was with Raphael, in whose company he visited the ruins of Tivoli, and for whom he persuaded their mutual friend, Bibbiena, to procure many commissions. He it was who, after Raphael's 1 Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. vii. p. 1364. 216 Raphael. premature death, expressed the grief of all Italy in the epitaph in which the famous phrase " Ille hic est Raphael " occurs. Bernardino Dovizio, or Bibbiena, as he is more generally called, after his native place, was as clever as Bembo, though circumstances did not admit of his satisfying his fondness for the fine arts to the same extent. Born in 1470, Bibbiena was at an early age fortunate enough to attract the attention of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and to be employed as his secretary. In 1494, the downfall of the house of Medici sent him into exile with the sons of Lorenzo, and he took refuge, like Giuliano de' Medici, at Urbino, when he composed his comedy of the Calandra (the Lark), which passes for the oldest piece in prose on the Italian stage. Notwithstanding its licentious character, it was received with great favour, and soon rendered the author's name famous. Bibbiena, however, had higher aims than this, and he was eager to make his way in diplomacy, for which he felt that he was peculiarly fitted. His suppleness and dexterity soon attracted the notice of Julius II., and thus gave him the oppor tunity of rendering great service to several artists, among others to Michael Angelo, for whom he once obtained a payment on account of 2,000 gold ducats. But it was during the conclave of 1513 that Bibbiena displayed his great diplomatic talent, and it was mainly to him that Giovanni de' Medicis owed his election. The latter did not prove ungrateful, for on the very day of his election he appointed him Apostolic Protonotary, Treasurer the next day, and six months later, Cardinal, with the title of Santa-Maria in Portico. The high honours and grave responsibilities which devolved upon him did not prevent him from taking part in the amusements of the most brilliant of courts, and he even superintended the theatrical representations of which the Pope was so fond. This excessive suppleness proved his ruin, for being suspected of intriguing with Francois I., to whom he had for a long time been accredited as Nuncio, he lost favour with Leo X., who is even accused of having procured his death by poison.1 Bibbiena does not seem ever to have amassed much treasure, although he was endowed by the King of Spain with several benefices and a bishopric /worth 7,000 ducats a year. It is very possible, therefore, that Raphael never jreceived more than his thanks for painting his bath-room, nor perhaps for the portrait of Joanna of Aragon which the cardinal had ordered for the French iking. But if he did not give much material assistance to Raphael, he de- 1 A letter from Bibbiena of May 19th, 1520 (in the National Library, Paris, fonds francais, No. 2962, folio 56), casts doubt upon this suspicion, for the cardinal speaks several months before his death, of his severe illness, of having been for a long time confined to his bed, &c. Cardinal Bibbiena. 217 termined to attach him to himself by ties of blood, and a marriage was arranged, but rather against Raphael's inclination, with his niece Maria, whose PORTRAIT OF CARDINAL BIBBIENA. (Pitti Palace.) premature death alone prevented it from taking place. The following letter 218 Raphael. from Bembo shows how much influence Raphael had over Bibbiena, for in writing to ask the latter to let him have his Venus in marble, Bembo adds, " If my request seems too bold, Raphael, to whom you are so attached, has promised to offer you my apologies. It is at his suggestion that I make the proposal, and I hope you will not pay him the bad compliment of refusing." l Bibbiena had spent the whole of 1507 and part of the following year at Rome, and as he was still there in May, 1508,2 he may have had something to do with the invitation given to Raphael by Julius II. Lodovico of Canossa, another of the Urbino group, had been resident at Rome since the reign of Guidobaldo ; and Julius II. appointed him, in 1511, Bishop of Tricarico, in which quality he was present at the Lateran Council. He was one of the links in the chain which the former satellites of the court of Urbino formed around the Papacy, and he is notable for having brought Bembo into communication with the Cardinal of Pavia, Alidosio, the all- powerful minister of Julius II.3 Although the tastes of Lodovico were rather for rare books and manuscripts, he did not neglect the fine arts, and we have him to thank for one of Raphael's masterpieces, the Holy Family known as the " Pearl," which, after having been for a long time in the Canossa Palace at Verona, is now in the Gallery at Madrid. Tommaso Inghirami owed his fortune, like Bibbiena, to Lorenzo the Magnificent. Born at Volterra in 1470, he was taken into the palace of Lorenzo when only two years old, after the sack of his native town. Having received an excellent education, Lorenzo sent him to Rome, where he was kindly received by Alexander VI., and in course of time his tact and erudition raised him to a considerable eminence. A striking instance of his knowledge of Latin has been placed on record. He was taking part in the representation of Seneca's Hippolytits before Cardinal Riario, when an accident to the stage machinery necessitated a break in the play, so Inghirami amused the audience in the meanwhile by improvising and reciting some Latin verses, on which account the sobriquet of "Pheedrus" clung to him ever afterwards. In the reign of Julius II. he became the fashionable preacher,4 and the Pope, charmed by his eloquence, made him Librarian and Secretary of the Briefs, a post which he afterwards exchanged for that of Secretary to the Sacred College. He was 1 Quatremere de Quincy, Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Raphael, Paris, 1824, p. 466. 2 Dumesnil, Histoire des plus celebres amateurs Italiens, p. 53. * Beaumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, vol. iii. part ii., pp. 74, 75. 4 See the Diarium of Paris de Grassis. PORTRAIT OF INGHIRAMI. (Pitti Palace.) 220 Raphael. in even greater favour with Leo X., and would doubtless have received the red hat if he had not died, suddenly in 1516 when only forty-six years of age.1 Brilliant as were his qualities, he would be forgotten now but for Raphael's fine portrait in the Pitti Palace. Sigismondo Conti, of Foligno, the private secretary of Julius II., is also entitled to rank among the representatives of science at Rome, though he was not a scholar in the strict sense of the term. His domain was history rather than literature, and he has left us an unpublished Chronicle of his time. His merits had been celebrated at the close of the previous century by Raphael's father in the dedication of his poem, and by a singular coincidence it was for him that Raphael painted one of his greatest pictures, the Madonna di Foligno, originally intended for the church of the Ara-Cceli. He did not enjoy the intimacy for long, however, as Conti died in February, 1512. The President of the Chancellery, Baldassare Turini, of Pescia, in Tuscany, born in 1481 and died in 1543, does not seem to have sought literary fame, like most of his colleagues, but he was a great friend of art, and especially of Raphael. His gallery contained a Madonna by Francia and two pictures by Leonardo da Vinci, which the latter painted for him in 1513 and 1514. He had also a small statue of a Satyr carrying on his shoulders a flask which acted as a fountain, and of which Raphael spoke in terms of high praise to Castiglione.2 The villa which Giulio Romano built for him on the Janiculum, and which is still in existence, is a striking testimony to his magnificence and good taste. Turini had become friendly with Raphael in 1508, as is proved by the letter which the latter wrote to Francia, and we continually find him rendering service to the painter or urging him to. hurry on with some of his work.3 So much confidence did Raphael put in him that he appointed him his executor, and Turini justified this choice by the solicitude which he showed in honouring the memory of the departed artist. It was he who purchased from Raphael's heirs the Madonna del Baldachino, and placed it in the church of his native town (Pescia). We have already seen it in the Pitti Palace. Judging these men from the importance of the functions they fulfilled and from the severe etiquette to which they were subject, one might suppose that there could be nothing like gaiety or cordiality among them. Their poetry was full of pedantry, written as it was in a dead language, and the cold and formal character of their correspondence excluded anything like vivacity, fancy, 1 Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X., vol. iv. p. 133 et seq. 2 Dumesnil, Histoire des plus celebres amateurs, &c, p. 115. 3 Gaye, Carteggio, vol. ii. p. 146 et seq. Baldassare Castiglione. 221 or expansiveness. But in their private lives they were full of joviality and did \ not deem it beneath them to take part in the fun of the carnival,1 and even ; to appear on the stage before a select company. Moreover, they made the grave Latin language serve for the expression of their pleasantries, one framing his invitations to dinner with a grace which would have done credit to Horace, and another, the austere Sadolet, singing in Virgilian verse the praises of the fair Imperia. In the reign of Pope Julius II. Goritz of Luxemburg, a foreigner who had become a Roman in feeling and habit, was the principal champion of good humour and joviality, qualities to which he added one unknown to his new fellow-citizens — hospitality. This popular old man — Corycius Senex, as he was called — had for a long time been the collector of petitions ; and his enthusiasm for antiquity, his vivacity, and his petulance, made him universally popular. Although he was not rich, he had made his villa near the Forum of Augustus the rendezvous of all the wits, and once a year, on the festival of St. Anne, his patron-saint, he gave a grand banquet to all the men of letters of Rome.2 The Coryciana, a pamphlet published in 1524, has preserved the memory of these high festivals, and has done as much to make him famous as the beautiful marble group with which Andrea Sansovino decorated his chapel at St. Augustine's, or the fresco of the Prophet Isaiah, which Raphael painted for him on one of the pillars of the same church. At the head of the lay scholars came Count Baldassare Castiglione, one of; the most eminent members of the Urbino society, who seems to have come to \ Rome soon after Raphael. His latest biographer, M. J. Dumesnil, is disposed J to think that he spent September or October, 1508, at Rome, and returned there again in 1510 to spend the best part of the spring and summer. In 1511 he passed the month of June at Rome, and in 151 3 part of the spring, taking up his residence there permanently in that year. On the expulsion of his master from Urbino in 1516 he went back there, but he returned to Rome in 1519, and spent the months between March and November in the society of Raphael, whom he then saw for the last time. Baldassare Castiglione was a native of the marches of Mantua, and, born in 1478, he was five years the senior of Raphael. His family, connected with the Gonzagas, gave him a brilliant education, and sent him while still very young to the court of Lodovico il Moro, where he perfected himself in 1 See in the Cortegiano and M. Dumesnil's A mateurs Italiens (p. 33) the account of a ludicrous adventure which befell Bibbiena during the Roman carnival. 2 See with reference to Goritz the Storia della letter atv.ra italiana by Tiraboschi, vol. vii. pp. 209-210, and Gregorovius's Storia della citta di Roma, vol. viii. pp. 357, 407, 408. 222 Raphael. physical accomplishments and the knowledge of classic antiquity. His different masters were, Georgio Merla, Demetrius Chalcondyles, and Beroaldus the Elder ; and his favourite writers were Homer and Plato in Greek, and Cicero, Virgil, and Tibullus in Latin. The fondness he retained all his life for these great writers did not prevent him from studying the most remarkable works in his own language, and he was particularly fond of Dante, Petrarch, Lorenzo de' Medici and Politian. He admired the force and the science of Dante, the tenderness and the elegance of Petrarch, and the natural fire and freedom of the two others.1 The influence of these studies was so great that Castiglione, when he became a diplomatist and a military commander, was not bitten by the overweening ambition which seemed to seize upon all the dwellers in Rome. In spite of his great abilities, small fortune, and the decided talent which he showed in the negotiations carried on for his employers, he never failed to display the utmost moderation and disinterestedness. When after long and faithful services the Duke of Urbino made him a present of a domain at Ginestrelo, he looked upon himself as amply rewarded, and yet this fief brought in only 200 ducats a year, or just a fifteenth of Bembo's salary. His writings show that he was gifted with a very tender heart, and there runs through them a strain of melancholy, which does not, however, interfere with their purity of diction. M. Dumesnil has got together in his Histoire desplus cSUbres amateurs italiens several specimens of Castiglione's poetic talents. This is how he begins the most celebrated of his love songs : " The flower of my youth is over ; I feel vague desires in my heart, and perhaps my countenance no longer reflects, as of yore, the fire of love. The lamented days fly more rapidly than an arrow, and the time in its flight carries off without hope of return all things which are subject to death. This fragile life of which we are so fond is a shadow, a passing cloud, a smoke, a light vapour, a sea troubled by a storm, a dark prison. As I reflect on all this, reason gives me her pure light amid the darkness, and enables me to see that my heart has hitherto been the sport of the tricks of Love, who has been the cause of all my trouble." Castiglione was not only one of the greatest poets of his age, but he was a very good judge in matters of art. His influence upon Raphael, whose genius he was one of the first to discover, was very great; and there can be no doubt that he often pointed out to him subjects which it would be worth his while to treat. His advice was not of less value during the actual execution of the pictures, and there is every reason to believe that he, more than any one 1 Dumesnil, Histoire des plus celebres amateurs italiens et de leurs relations avec les artistes. Ariosto. 223 else, encouraged Raphael in the study of the antique. His verses upon the Cleopatra in the Vatican, his letters, and his passion for marbles and gems, show how very great was his predilection for works of ancient art. He also assisted Raphael in preparing his report to the Pope on the restoration of ancient Rome, proclaiming in enthusiastic terms the greatness of pagan civi lization. Castiglione was, like Bembo, a connoisseur, and he was always on the look-out for any rarity, preferring, as he said himself, one really valuable object to fifty commonplace ones ; but his modest income did not admit of his making so large a collection as many of his friends. While giving the first place to the antique, and offering the then considerable sum of thirty ducats for a certain cameo with the head of Socrates, he also felt a great admiration for modern art. On intimate terms with Raphael and his two favourite pupils, Giulio Romano and Gian-Francesco Penni, frequenting in turn the salons and studios, he was able to render a great many services to his friends, suggesting now some mythological or allegorical composition, and again enabling them to become acquainted with powerful protectors, or obtaining from Cardinal Giuliano de' Medicis, afterwards Clement VII., the payment of some old debt. It was he who persuaded Giulio Romano to remain at Mantua. His collection of contemporary works grew almost of itself. Raphael twice painted his portrait, and gave him the sketch for two medallions which he wished to have made. Giulio Romano decorated some of the rooms in his palace at Mantua, and Castiglione, after Raphael's death, did all he could to save some of his works from oblivion, such as the portrait of Frederigo Mantovano, the statuette of a child, and the picture belonging to the goldsmith Antonio da San Marino. Ariosto, the most illustrious of the Italian poets, also visited Rome during the reign of Julius II., and made the acquaintance of Raphael. His sovereign, Duke Alfonso of Ferrara, twice sent him as ambassador to the Pope (the first time in December, 1509), but he was not very well received. Upon one occasion the pontiff got into such a passion with the duke and his envoy that he threatened to throw the latter into the water.1 But while engaged in these diplomatic negotiations, the future author of Orlando Furioso did not fail to seek the society of his literary brethren and of artists. We know by a letter, now unfortunately lost, that Raphael, while painting the Dispute of the Sacrament, asked the advice of Ariosto as to the personages whom he should bring into the composition.2 The beautiful epitaph in Latin, in which he deplores the premature end of Raphael, is also a proof of the cordial terms upon which they stood. Ariosto returned to Rome soon after the accession of 1 Tiraboschi, Storia, etc., vol. vii. p. 1815. 2 Passavant, Raphael, vol. i. p. 503. 224 Raphael. Leo X., and was very graciously received by the new Pope, who raised him from his knees and kissed him on both cheeks. That was all, however, that came of their interview, and the poet left Rome with the expressed intention of never returning, giving vent to his discontent in a prologue as caustic as it was witty. But Ariosto was a little hasty in his action, and he subsequently entertained very different feelings towards Leo X.1 To all these eminent men who honoured Raphael with their friendship, must be added the vilest of all the writers of the time, one whose name has become a synonym for extortion and moral and intellectual depravity— we mean that Caesar Borgia of literature who is known as Pietro Aretino. Born at Arezzo in 1492, Pietro came to Rome while still a youth in search of fortune. He first entered the service of Agostino Chigi, where he became acquainted with Raphael, and he has even asserted that it was on his recommendation that the great banker employed the latter to decorate his villa. Dismissed for theft by Chigi, he found a refuge at the Vatican, and remained there until Julius II. had him expelled : but he was more fortunate with Leo X., who showed him much undeserved kindness.2 It was at this period, no doubt, that he became more intimate with Raphael, and his share in the famous prints designed by Giulio Romano, and engraved by Marc Antonio, the superb portrait of him by the latter, and his correspondence with Giovanni da Udine, show that Aretino succeeded in gaining the good graces of Raphael's friends. When we come to speak of the relations between Raphael and Michael Angelo, we shall find Aretino's evidence as to their rivalry of the greatest value. Every now and then foreign scholars came from beyond the Alps to consult their Italian brethren, for Rome had become the fatherland of all learned men, as Cardinal Riario so eloquently expressed it. The most eminent of these visitors during the reign of Julius II. was Erasmus, the personification of the spirit of free inquiry, one of the most lofty figures of the sixteenth century, who only wanted more energy of character to have given his ideas a hold upon all mankind. He visited Rome in 1507, 1509, and the beginning of 1513. Passavant is of course mistaken 3 in saying that Erasmus perhaps showed Raphael some of Holbein's portraits, for the German painter was at that time only fourteen or fifteen years of age. Erasmus doubtless visited Raphael's studio, for he was not only a man of letters but an indiscriminate collector of 1 See Roscoe's Life and Pontificate of Leo X., vol. iii. p. 219 el seq. 2 On the 13th August, 1520, for instance, Leo X. sent him sixty ducats through the Marquis Bernabo. (Zahn, Notizie artistiche tratte dall' archivio segreto Vaticano, Florence, 1867, p. 30.) 3 Raphael, vol. i. p. 75. Erasmus and Luther. 225 manuscripts and coins, rings and pictures, with sufficient skill to distinguish between the free and brilliant genius of a Holbein and the deep but often confused compositions of a Diirer. Faithful to his tastes, Erasmus afterwards had the courage to take up the defence of the " images," threatened by the new iconoclasts. Erasmus was much more capable of understanding the gentle civilization of Italy, with its refinements, its doubles-ententes, its reticence, and above all its marked impartiality, than the fiery Augustine monk who came to Rome two or three years previously, and by whose ardent initiative the Renaissance was replaced by the Reformation. Martin Luther, when sent to Italy in 1510, on the business of his monastery, saw little of either scholars or artists, for he regarded their pomp and frivolity with contempt, and was indignant at the depravity of morals and of thought.1 He afterwards said that he would not have lost his visit to Rome for 100,000 crowns. From that moment his faith was shaken, and when his conscience bade him preach a religious revolution, he drew millions after him. This movement was, no doubt, a grand one ; but one cannot help regretting that the beautiful flower of the Renaissance was crushed in its bud between Protestantism on the one hand and reaction on the other. Between these violent and conflicting parties there was no room for independence and tolerance — for the noble qualities which gave us Erasmus \ in literature and Raphael in art. Although the ecclesiastical dignitaries J formed the nucleus of the pontifical court and gave it its true physiognomy, the lay element was none the less brilliantly represented. In addition to the numerous ambassadors accredited to Julius II. and the commanders of his troops — for Rome was at times an armed camp — there were often to be found in the Pope's retinue Italian'princes or foreigners, attracted to the city by the struggles which then disturbed Christendom. Among other illustrious guests, the Pope's nephew, Francesco Maria della Rovere, the successor of Guidobalbo, occupied one of the first places. He was 1 Nothing can be more characteristic in this respect than the description of Rome given by the famous German reformer in his Table Talk, and we see in it how little hold art had upon him. He says : " There are scarcely any traces of ancient Rome and of where she stood. The 'Theatrum' (Coliseum) still exists, and also the 'Thermae Diocletianae ' (Diocletian's Baths), the water for which was brought from Naples, a distance of twenty- five German miles, to a splendid building. Rome, as we see her to-day, is like a rotten corpse so far as regards ancient buildings. The houses are now on the same level as the roofs were formerly, so great is the mass of accumulated ruins. If one wishes to be con vinced of this, one need only go to the banks of the Tiber, where the rubbish is two lances deep. But Rome still has her splendour, and the Pope may be seen with his retinue mounted on well-bred horses." (See Gregorovius, Storia della citta di Roma, vol. viii. p. 283.) Q 226 Raphael. of an ardent temperament, more fiery than generous, as he showed when he had his sister's lover assassinated, and stabbed with his own hand, in the streets of Ravenna,1 a prince of the Church, Cardinal Alidosi, the favourite minister of Julius II. Francesco Maria visited Rome on several occasions, notably in 1510, when he passed the carnival in the company of his young wife, Eleanora Gonzaga. He doubtless distinguished with his favour a subject who had done so much for the glory of Urbino, and Raphael speaks of him on several occasions in the most affectionate terms, and was much affected by the misfortunes which afterwards befell him. Francesco Maria's mother, the duchess Joanna della Rovere, the "Prefetessa" as she was called, appears to have taken up her residence permanently at Rome towards the end of her life, and she died there in 1514.2 She had already done her best to assist Raphael in 1504, and she certainly did what she could for him with her brother-in-law, Julius II. Another illustrious lady, a near relative of the ducal family of Urbino, the Marchioness Isabella of Mantua, made several visits to Rome during the reign of Julius II. Isabella da Este, who was born in 1474, and married in 1490 the Marquis Francesco Gonza, unquestionably personified the aspirations of the Renaissance with more brilliance and purity than any other princess of the sixteenth century. On terms of the closest intimacy with savants and poets such as Aldo Manucio, Bembo, Ariosto, Paolo Giovio, Bernardo Tasso, and Baldassare Castiglione, the Marchioness also numbered among hex protege's or friends the most famous artists ; for while Andrea Mantegna was her regular painter, Giovanni Santi, Cristoforo Romano, Lorenzo Costa, Perugino, Giovanni Bellini, Giulio Romano, Correggio, and Sebastiano del Piombo also worked for her. Her portrait was painted by Leonardo da Vinci and by Titian. Her admiration for these masters was only equalled by her enthusiasm for antiquity ; and she determined to erect a monument to Mantua's most famous son, Virgil — a monument with the inscription, Publiits Virgilius Mantuanits : Isabella Marchionissa Mantua, restituit — and she instructed Andrea Mantegna to prepare a sketch for it.3 Her cabinet, the Grotta as it was called, gradually came to contain the finest specimens of ancient statuary and glyptics, her collection of marbles, cameos, medallions, and carved stones being without a rival in Italy, since the breaking up of the museums of Paul II. and Lorenzo de' Medici. So ardent was she in amassing these treasures, that after the capture of Urbino by Caesar Borgia she asked him to let her 1 Ugolini, Storia dei conte e duchi d'Urbino, vol. ii. p. 142. 2 Litta, Famiglie celebri d'ltalia (Montefeltro). 3 The original drawing is in the collection bequeathed to the Louvre by M. His de la Salle. Agostino Chigi. 227 have two statues which formed part of the pillage from the palace of her brother-in-law, Guidobaldo.1 The researches of the Marquis G. Campori in the achives of Mantua have made it clear that Raphael also knew this distinguished lady and that he worked for her, as his father had done fifteen years before. Her eldest son, Federigo, being detained as a hostage at Rome from 1510 to 1513, she paid him several visits, and it was doubtless at her request that Raphael commenced the. portrait of this youth, whose beauty and promising character made him very popular, and led Raphael to include him in his School of Athens. This portrait, to which we shall again have to refer, was never finished, and it was the same with a portrait which the Marchioness commissioned him to paint of herself. It is very possible that the acquaintance of Raphael with Duke Alfonso of Ferrara, the husband of Lucrezia Borgia, also dates from the reign of Julius II., for this prince was at Rome in 1512 and again in 1513, though we have no authentic evidence of their being in contact with one another before 1517. The Roman aristocracy does not seem to have followed the example of the great foreign nobles, for, faithful to the traditions of the Middle Ages, not a single representative of illustrious families, such as the Savellis, the Orsinis, the Caetanis and the Capranicas, gave Raphael any employment ; Cardinal Colonna alone gave him an order for a St. John the Baptist, a replica of which is now in the Louvre. This new society, made up of prelates, great nobles from other cities, and professional men of letters, also included a few bankers, who deserved admittance to it not only by reason of their luxury and generosity, but for their knowledge and taste. Agostino Chigi, who had acquired by his wealth and splendour the same surname as Lorenzo da Medici, was born at Siena about 1465. The son of a wealthy tradesman, he from an early age showed more inclination for business than for study, and he was, as described by one of his descendants and by his biographer, Fabio Chigi, who became Pope Alexander VII.2 " promptius ad negotiaquam ad studia disciplinarum ostendit ingenium." Agostino came to 1 M. A. Baschet, in the Gazette des Beauco-Arts (1866), M. A. Firmin Didot in his Aide Manucio et VHelUnisme a Venise (Paris, 1875, p. 411 and following), and Herr Janitschek (Die Gesellschaft der Renaissance inltalien unddieKunst, p. 66 and following) have devoted some interesting studies, from which we have taken the above details, to the Marchioness Isabella. 2 This biography, so curious in various ways, has just been published by Signor Cugnoni in the. Archivio della Societa Romana di Storia patria, vols. ii. and iii. Q 2 228 Raphael. Rome while still very young, and when scarcely twenty years of age he entered into partnership with his fellow-townsman Etienne Ghinucci. From this time forth he resided at'.Rome ; but he did not forget his native city, and always put the words " of Siena" after his family name. Farmer of the alum mines belonging to the Holy See, corn-merchant, banker, and money lender,1 he rapidly realized a fortune which made him the wealthiest man in Italy. Questioned one day by Leo X. as to the amount of his fortune, he replied that he could form no idea, owing to the multiplicity of transactions in which he was engaged, and that all he could say was that he had a hundred trading establishments in Europe and the East, that his fleet numbered a hundred vessels, and that he gave employment to 20,000 persons. The income of this great financier, who lent money to Charles VIII., to Caesar. Borgia,' to the Republic of Venice, and even to the economical Julius, was estimated at more than 70,000 florins. The wealth which Chigi accumulated in commerce he spent, to use his great-grandson's expression, like a king. No such pomp had been seen since the days of Cardinal Pietro Riario, the too famous nephew of Sixtus IV. Agostino Chigi endeavoured to outshine his contemporaries in every kind of outward display, and it might have been thought that the Saturnalia of ancient Rome had been revived, and that Sallust, Lucullus, and Trimalcion had come to life again. His splendid villa near San Giovanni Fiorentino failing to satisfy him, he had a palace built near the Porta Settimiana ; and Julius II., when he went to inspect the progress it was making, remarked, in order to excite Chigi's emulation, that he doubted whether the building would be equal to that which the Riarios were then erecting. This made Chigi so jealous that he vowed that his stables should be more sumptuous than the palace of the Riarios ; and he kept his word. His gardens rapidly became famous, and splendid works of art, studded about among the trees ; shrubs of the rarest kind were brought together, while illustrious painters covered with frescoes the walls even of the galleries which were open to the air. Raphael, Sebastian of Venice, Peruzzi, Sodoma, Giulio Romano, Francesco Penni, Giovanni da Udine, Giovanni Barile, and Lorenzetto, among others, were employed by this patron, who was second to Julius alone. Raphael was employed by Chigi in 1510, but it was not until the pontificate of Leo X. that he painted for him the Galatea, the Sibyls, the Planets, the History of Psyche, and other works to which we shall devote a special chapter. Another banker, who was quite young when Raphael came to Rome, Bindo Altoviti, born on the 24th of September, 1491, was also famous for his 1 Chigi had in pledge the cameos and tapestries of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and the tiara of Pope Paul II. Bindo Alto viti. 229 wealth and liberality. A Roman by birth, but of a Florentine family and PORTRAIT OF BINDO ALTOVITT. (Munich.) related on his mother's side to Pope Innocent III., Bindo from the first 230 Raphael. devoted his fortune to the encouragement of art. Raphael, Michael Angelo, Jacopo Sansovino, Benedetto da Rovezzano, Vasari, and Benvenuto Cellini, were of his friends and familiars. Like most of his contemporaries he was equally fond of ancient and modern art, and Cellini tells us in his Memoirs that Bindo's cabinet was " Molto riccamente ornato di anticaglie e altre bella cose." Aldroandi, in his Description of Roman Statues, completes this in formation, and speaks of the Imperial busts, the statues, and the sarcophagi which decorated the Altoviti palace, near to the bridge of St. Augelo.1 To these relics of antiquity must be added the cartoon representing the Intoxi cation of Noah, from the ceiling of the Sistine, which was given to him by Michael Angelo, the model for the statue of St. James, executed by Sansovino for the Cathedral at Florence, and many other famous works of art. Raphael became very intimate with this young man, whose portrait he has left us, and he also painted for him a Holy Family, the Madonna dell' Impannata, now in the Pitti Palace. Bindo was no epicurean like Chigi, and he was a man of martial spirit, as he showed when, at the moment of Cosmo da Medici's expedition against Siena, the ancient rival of Florence, he put himself at the head of three hundred men, whom he had equipped at his own expense, and marched to the succour of the Republic. But his effort was not crowned with success, and Bindo, defeated and humiliated, came back to Rome to die (January 22nd, 1556). Thus every kind of merit and virtue was represented at the court of Julius II. ; science and talent, courage and nobility, the qualities of the head and the heart, attained a degree of perfection greater than has been reached since, and equalled only by the magnitude of the vices of the time. There might have been more magnificence at other epochs, but never had there been so keen a relish for intellectual pleasures ; for all these favourites of fortune who constituted the most brilliant element in the pontifical court endeavoured to put an imprimatur upon their wealth by the worship of the beautiful, and thus to have something in common with the Romans, to imitate whom was their one aim and object. The privileged class of artists who derived the most profit from the growing enthusiasm for all that was beautiful, then included representatives from every part of the peninsula. In the previous century artists from Florence and Siena were so much more numerous than any others, that Rome was almost a Tuscan colony, but in the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century their ranks were swelled by artists of many other 1 This catalogue is printed in a sequel to Le antichita delta cita di Roma, by Lucio Mauro, Venice, 1562, pp. 141-143. Bramante. 231 schools, notably the Lombard; and the most eminent artists flocked into Rome from all parts of Italy, and even from foreign countries. The Romans themselves cared little for the artistic profession, and it is only here and there that we find an architect, painter, or sculptor, even of the second rank, to be a native of Rome. As in the time of Virgil, the Roman citizen gladly left to others the pacific glory of art : "Excudent alii spirantia mollius £era, Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento." The most influential of these artists, whom Julius II. did the honour of placing at the head of his vast undertakings, was a compatriot, and perhaps a relative, of Raphael, Bramante of Urbino. After having enriched Lombardy with so many works of art, Bramante came in search of fortune to Rome, where he first made himself famous by his Chancellery, and he was then selected by Alexander VI. to assist as sub-director of the works for the erection of fountains on the Piazzas of the Trastevere and St. Peter. Julius II. was not slow to appreciate the talent of an artist who had won the favour of two such judges as Lodovico il Moro and Alexander VI. He employed him both as architect and as military engineer, first giving him the tremendous task of the rebuilding of St. Peter's. Most artists would have been well-nigh overwhelmed, but Bramante, who worked with as much ease as Raphael found time to conduct all the other enterprises of Julius II. After having finished the Belvedere Court of the Vatican, he began that of the Loggie, an then built a Palace in a new street, the Via Giulia, which be had laid out. In the course of time he was invested with the supervision of all the building works of the Vatican. Bramante had long lived in poverty without losing heart, and this was why his pupil Caesariano called him the " patiente figlio di paupertate." If Caesariano is to be believed, Julius II. was obliged to have recourse to threats in order to induce him to accept benefices, and the lucrative appointment of " piombatore," or " frate del piombo" — that is, a member of the corporation whose duty it was to seal the papal bulls. When he had become ricbJ Bramante gave free expression to his liberality, and his house became the rendezvous of the most eminent artists, whom he gathered round his table J An architect of Perugia, G. B. Caporali, who, like Caesariano, translated Vitruvius and borrowed greatly from his predecessor, refers in particular to a supper at which he was present, together with Perugino, Signorelli, and Pinturicchio. This repast very probably took place in the new palace which Bramante had built for himself in the Borgo, and which afterwards became 232 Raphael. the property of Raphael. Before this Bramante lived in the Belvedere, as Vasari tells us. So many are the problems which Bramante has solved in the vast domain of architecture, that one is tempted to look upon him merely as an architect of genius, and not as one of those gifted children of the Renaissance whose variety of attainments scarcely knew any limit. Bramante was at once an architect, a military engineer, a painter and an engraver. Fragments of frescoes still testify to the success which had attended his study of the principles inculcated by Melozzo da Forli, Giovanni Santi, and Signorelli. Neglected as his early education had been, he tried his hand at poetry, and Caesar Caesariano speaks of the facility with which he improvised, a statement which is confirmed by Vasari and by the existence of some twenty sonnets, several of which are as yet unpublished.1 The style of these compositions is not in all cases very correct and clear, but they give evidence of great facility of versification and of an irrepressible good-humour. Pecuniary embarrass ment and disappointment in love are alike treated by him as a joke, and in this respect his poetry is in striking contrast with the sonnets of ([Raphael, which are full of the purest and most elevated sentiments. Bramante also differs from Raphael in respect to his facetious and sometimes aggressive humour. While he was residing at the Court of II Moro, he was always carrying on a war of words with the men of letters whom he met. Sharp as were the things which his adversaries said to him, he was able to take care of himself and to payback with interest all that he received. He was an ardent champion of Dante as against Petrarch, who had most admirers at this court ; and this preference tended to promote his intimacy with Raphael, who was also, as we know, a passionate admirer of the author of the Divine Comedy. I Bramante's ready wit made him a great favourite at Rome, and he even \succeeded in making Julius II. laugh, which was no easy matter. His reputation survived him, and three years after his death appeared the singular dialogue called Simia (the Ape), in which the author brings upon the scene the ghost of the architect, St. Peter, and many other personages. The love of banter and wit runs through every phrase used by Bramante, who having victoriously refuted the charge made by St. Peter of having ruined his basilica, assumes the offensive, and threatens to try his fortune in the kingdom of Pluto unless the saint promises to let him re-build Paradise. Bramante was not only a very kind friend to Raphael, he served also as \ a guide and even as a teacher to him. Not only did he initiate him into the 1 See in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (December, 1879) a special study upon a still un published MS. in the National Library (Paris), containing the complete poetical works of Bramante. Bramante. 233 principles of architecture, but at the time of his executing the School of Athens he sketched for him the beautiful portico which encircles the whole. V He also, according to Lomazzo, gave him some ingenious models of the human figure, and also of the horse ; l and on his death-bed he designated him to the Pope as his fit successor in the post of architect to St. Peter's. A stronger / STUDY FOR THE PORTRAIT OF BRAMANTE. (Iii the Louvre.) mark of sympathy than this he could not have given ; and Raphael was not ungrateful, for in the Dispute of the Sacrament and the School of Athens he gave Bramante a prominent place among the heroes of those two monumental scenes. Bramante's pupils were also true to his memory, and in one of the 1 " Da lui furono ritrovate le quadrature del corpo umano, che e stata una invenzione rara, e mirabile al mondo, e fu parimente trovatore delle quadrature delle membra del cavallo, delle quali se ne facevano comodamente i modelli di cio che si volea, e questi furono poi da lui dati a Rafaello di Urbino suo parente, e usati da Gaudenzio, e da altri uomini eccellenti." (Idea del Tempio della Pittura, edition of 1785, p. 14.) 234 Raphael. pictures in the Chamber of Constantine, Giulio Romano represented him holding in his hand the plan of St. Peter's, while in one of his cartoons for the duomo at Milan, the History of Moses, he placed him among the magicians of Egypt in an attitude like that which Raphael had given him in the School of Athens. Bramante was surrounded by a whole host of architects, surveyors, and sculptors, all anxious to deserve his confidence and cultivate his favour. Some of them were men of great merit, and one of them, Giuliano Leno, who was charged with administrative functions, had not only an immense fortune, valued at 80,000 gold ducats,1 but was a fine judge of art. He was something more than an ordinary assistant to Bramante, and Vasari devotes a special paragraph to him in his biography of the latter. Vasari says : ''Bramante left behind him Giuliano Leno, who played an important part in his time, and, though more fitted to superintend the execution of plans than to devise them himself, was gifted with great judgment and experience." Leno remained clerk of the works at St. Peter's under Raphael, to whom he proved very useful. There was another architect who, while holding the post of measurer (mensurator) of the works, was famous throughout Europe as a sculptor and architect : this was Andrea Sansovino, whose favourite pupil, Jacopo Sansovino, excelled like him in both arts. The latter, after having been invited to Rome by Giuliano da San-Gallo, soon became intimate with Bramante, who obtained for him a lodging in the palace of the Cardinal della Rovere. The connection between Bramante and Antonio da San-Gallo the younger, Giuliano's own nephew, was even more intimate. In the fragment of an autobiography which he wrote in 1539, when sixty-one years of age, Antonio tells us that he entered the service of Julius II. in 15 . . (he cannot remember the exact date), and that from that moment he never ceased to work for the Roman Court, first under the orders of Bramante, then as Raphael's colleague in the building of St. Peter's, and lastly as architect-in ¦ chief with Baldassare Peruzzi. The beginnings of this illustrious artist were very modest, for in 1509 he was one of the contractors for the wood-work in St. Peter's and at the Vatican, while in 1512 Bramante employed him to make the secret passage which leads to the moat of the castle of St. Angelo, after which he became head carpenter of the castle,2 an assistant of 1 Alberi, Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato, 2nd series, vol. iii.. p. 48. '- " 1514. Magister Antonius de San-Gallo, faber lignarius arcis Sancti Angeli." This term " faber lignarius,'' or wood-worker, shows with what disdain even in the early part of Leo X.'s reign the clerks of the pontifical court treated the most eminent artists. Through the influence of the Pope exceptions were made in the cases of Bramante, Michael Angelo and Raphael, but it was a long time before these prejudices disappeared. Giuliano da San-Gallo. 235 Raphael's iu the building of St. Peter's (1516), and finally chief architect (1520). Very different from his uncle, Antonio seems from the first to have sided with Bramante, and Vasari dwells in some detail on the services which he rendered to his master, furnishing the drawings which the aged architect's trembling hand could only sketch in the rough, and superintending the execution of his orders. He took it upon himself some years afterwards to criticise very severely the course which Raphael adopted in the building of the basilica ; but this does not seem to have affected their friendship, and when Raphael found the work too heavy for him to carry out unaided, the Pope gave him Antonio as a colleague. Among the other assistants or pupils of Bramante may be mentioned Antonio del Pont a Sieve, whom Albertini mentions as the equal of Andrea Sansovino; Raniero da Pisa, one of the oldest servitors of the pontifical court; Vincenzo di Dionisio, of Viterbo, son of .the famous clockmaker of Lorenzo the Magnificent ; Alberto of Piacenza, the architect of the fountains upon the piazza of St. Peter ; Giovanna Maria dell' Abacco of Florence, and Antonio dell' Abacco, who, in his Libro d' Architettura, recalls with pride the fact that his first master was Bramante. Notwithstanding their merits, most of these men held very modest posts, their salaries not exceeding five or six ducats a month, for a man had to possess very remarkable qualities to make his mark at the Court of Rome. So great was the power of Bramante at the period of which we speak, that the only artist able to measure strength with him in regard to the variety of his acquirements and the height of his genius was Michael Angelo, who, shut up in the Sixtine Chapel, could not exercise very much influence upon the mind of the Pope or the dispositions of the Court. We will refer in a special paragraph to the relations between the latter and Raphael, for Michael Angelo occupied so large a place in the life and work of his youthful rival that it is interesting to bring them, as it were, face to face. Giuliano da San-Gallo, the most important of the artists who belonged to the Michael Angelo party, and the founder of the illustrious dynasty of San- Gallo, did not possess very great influence at this period. Born at Florence in 1443, he came to Rome in 1465 to study the relics of antiquity. Two col lections of drawings' preserved in the Barberini library at Rome, and in the library at Vienna, show with what zeal he devoted himself to his self-imposed task, and he was employed by Pope Paul II. as surveyor of the works at the palace of St. Mark and the tribune of St. Peter. Though Sixtus IV. did not show him much favour, his nephew Julius II. protected him while still 236 Raphael. cardinal, and we have already mentioned how he accompanied his patron to France, and prepared plans for a palace for Charles VIII. Giuliano had good reasons for not liking Bramante, for the latter had supplanted him as architect of St. Peter's, and he felt this so much that, after having been for so many years in the Pope's service, he did little more work Vfor him. The accession of Leo X. brought him into favour again, for his family had long been allied with that of the Medici, . and it was his brother Antonio who, after the assassination of Giuliano de' Medici, brought to Lorenzo the Magnificent the latter's natural son, the cousin of Leo X. and the future Pope Clement VII. He was too old, however, to profit by this turn of the tide, though he had the satisfaction of surviving Bramante, and of being appointed to assist Raphael as architect of St. Peter's. This was his closing triumph, for he died soon afterwards, on October 20th, 1516. Among the foreign artists who had preceded Raphael at Rome, and with whom he must more than once have found himself in contact, Baldassare Peruzzi, an architect and painter like himself, occupied one of the foremost ' places. Two years older than Raphael (he was born on the 7th of March, 1481) he was very young when he left his native town of Siena, after having been in turn under the teaching of Sodoma and Pinturicchio, to seek his fortune at Rome, where he arrived in 1503, if not before. The frescoes in the church of St. Onofrio, and the mosaics in the underground chapel of Santa Croce in Gerusalemma, soon brought him into repute, and if his compositions were not all that could be desired as regards force of conception or purity of drawing, they were distinguished by elegance, ease, and judicious treatment of decorative effects. He attracted the notice of Julius II., and was commissioned by him to paint in an aviary of the palace the months of the year and their corresponding duties,2 while he afterwards had assigned to him the decoration of the Chamber of Heliodorus. It is true that he was almost immediately replaced by Raphael, who, however, did not touch his ornaments in the central part of the ceiling. The mere fact of having worked at the Vatican was, however, the best recommendation ; and his compatriot, Agostino Chigi, at once took him into his service. The construction and decoration of the villa built by the wealthy banker in the Lungara, and since called the Villa Famesina, placed the reputation of Baldassare on a solid foundation, and again brought him into contact with Raphael, who painted his Galatea in a 1 See Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's History of Italian Painting, vol. iv. p. 402 et seq. ; the Buonarotti of 1871 (vol. vi. p. 61-70), article by Signor Frizzoni ; and the Elogio di Baldassare Peruzzi, by Signor F. Donati (Siena, 1879). 2 Vasari, vol. viii. p: 222. Ambrogio Foppa. 237 room of which Peruzzi painted the ceiling. So again at Santa-Maria della Pace, where in 1517 Peruzzi did the paintings in the Ponzetti Chapel, not far from where Raphael had painted the Sibyls. Fortunately for Raphael, Peruzzi was of a gentle, retiring disposition, so that they never had a disagreement. A recently discovered document shows us Raphael taking security as early as the year 1511 (November 8) for the repairs the brothers undertook to carry out in a house rented by them on the Corso. At the commencement of Julius II. 's reign there were very few good painters, for Antonazzo, the chief of the native school, was very old, and seems to have died soon afterwards, while Pietro d'Amalio, Pietro Turini of Siena, and Michael of Imola, who were in the service of the pontifical court in 1504 and 1505,1 seem to have only been intrusted with work of secondary importance. The arrival of Baldassare Peruzzi served to stimulate the activity of the small Roman colony, but it was the decoration of the pontifical palace in 1507 and 1508 that attracted to Rome the leading representatives of the Italian school, such as Sodoma, Perugino, Pinturicchio, Signorelli, Bramantino Suardi, Lorenzo Lotto, Lo Spagna, Jan Ruysch the Fleming, Andrea Veneto,2 &c. So brilliant a gathering of artists had not been seen there since the reign of Sixtus IV.; but while many were called, few were chosen, and even the latter eventually made way for Raphael, "the painter of painters." Assuredly, although Perugino may have been gratified to find his pupil \a in this illustrious company, he must have been deeply mortified when hey had to retire in his favour, and when the Pope instructed the young genius to paint out his master's compositions. The industrial arts were represented by very few masters, but those few comprised some of the most celebrated of any age or country. The greatest goldsmith at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, Ambrogio Foppa, surnamed Caradossa, worked for Julius II. ; and like many of his contemporaries, Caradosso was at once goldsmith, sculptor, and medallist. He first made himself a name in the service of Lodovico il Moro, who not only intrusted him with work of different kinds, but with negotiations which presupposed a complete knowledge of the works of ancient art. After a flying visit to Rome in 1487,3 the Milanese artist came to reside there per manently in the closing years of the century, and in the interval Lodovico had 1 Documents preserved in the secret archives at the Vatican. 2 Andrea Veneto received on the 29th March, 1508, a payment on account of ten florins for some painting for the Pope. (Zahn, work quoted, p. 23.) 3 Gaye, Carteggio, vol. i. p. 185. 238 Raphael. charged him with the very delicate mission of getting together at Florence the scattered relics of the Medici Museum. In a long series of letters x Caradosso informed the duke of the results of his efforts, and after the fall of the Sforzas he went to seek his fortune at Rome, where he met one of his Milanese friends, Bramante, whose features he has handed down to posterity in a medallion of rare workmanship. Julius II. was not slow to recognise his merits, and two medallions, which have been often engraved, testify to the relations which were established between them. When, at the instigation of the Pope, the Goldsmiths' Company at Rome was reconstituted in 1509, and the church of their patron St. Aloysius rebuilt, Caradosso was one of the founders of the " University of Goldsmiths." Although then advanced in age, he lived, full of honour and riches, for fifteen years more. Two Frenchmen, Master Claude and the friar Guillaume de Marcillat, represented the art of painting on glass ; and here again Julius II. was fortunate in his choice, for while the former was one of the best artists of the day in that kind of work, the talent of the latter is still attested by the windows in Santa-Maria del Popolo at Rome, and by those in the Duomo of Arezzo, and in the churches of San Francesco and San Domenico. The most famous of the wood carvers and inlayers of the Renaissance, Fra Giovanni of Verona, was also brought to Rome by Julius II. and put to work with Raphael, and it was he who did the woodwork in the Camera della Segnatura. We have now given a short description of the circle in which Raphael was destined to pass the remainder of his life, and there can be no doubt that he, at the very outset, took the conspicuous place to which he was so well entitled. The youth had grown into a man, and we have only to compare the manly portrait of himself which he has left us in his School of Athens with the somewhat effeminate picture in the Uffizi, to see what a transformation had taken place. To his natural qualities of good humour, vivacity and wit, were superadded suppleness, experience, and an honourable ambition. Strong in his genius, and backed by influential friends, he soon gained the good graces of the Pope, though even before that he had been recognised by all Rome as the restorer of painting. 1 Published by M. Piot in the Cabinet de V Amateur, 1863, p. 25 and following. CHAPTER XT. Raphael in the service of Julius II. — The Camera della Segnatura. — The Disputa, The School of Athens, The Parnassus. — Raphael's poetry. Raphael was at Rome on September 5th, 1508, for a letter of that date addressed to Francia shows that he was in communication with several prelates, Cardinal Riario among others, and at the head of a studio with numerous pupils or apprentices. This letter ran as follows : — " Dear Messire Francesco, " I have this instant received your portrait, which has just been handed over to me by Bazotto in a perfect state of preservation and quite faultless. Very many thanks : it is so well done and so lifelike that I seem to see you and to hear you speaking. I hope you will be indulgent with me, and forgive me for being so long in sending you mine, but my incessant and important engagements have prevented me as yet from painting it myself as we agreed. You would not have been pleased, perhaps, if I had sent you one painted by one of my pupils and touched up by me : or, should I not rather say, this would have been the proper course, for -I should thus have confessed my inability to equal your work.1 I pray of you to be indulgent towards me, for you, too, know what it is to be deprived of one's liberty and to be dependent on others. "In the meanwhile, I send you by this same messenger, who will be going back in six days, another drawing, viz. an Adoration of the Shepherds, which, as you will see, differs very much from the picture I painted, and of 1 Passavant seems to have entirely misunderstood the meaning of this phrase, which he translates, " It is true I might have had it painted by one of my pupils and put the finishing touch to it myself, but I would not do this, for I want everyone to know that I am incapable of attaining the perfection of your portrait." In the original, Raphael, on the contrary, after having said that it would not be becoming to send his friend a portrait painted by one of his pupils, corrects himself, and adds in very delicate terms : " and yet that would be more correct, as I despair of attaining myself the perfection of your portrait." 240 Raphael. which you were kind enough to speak in such favourable terms. You always praise my work, and I blush at the thought of it, just as I do at sending you this trifle. You will simply accept it as a proof of my devotion and affection ; and if you will send me in return your History of Judith, I will give it a place among the most precious objects in my possession. " The Datarius is awaiting his small Madonna with as much impatience as Cardinal Riario is expecting his large one, and this you will learn from Bazotto. I, too, shall contemplate the pictures with the sympathy and satis faction which I derive from all your works, for I know none more beautiful, more saintly, or better executed. In the meanwhile be of good cheer, do not fail in your customary prudence, and rest assured that I feel your sorrows as if they were my own. Love me as I love you — with all my heart. " Rome, September 5th, 1508. " Always and altogether at your service, " Your Raphael Sanzio." l Everything combines to suggest that it was from this moment that Raphael worked for Julius II. With regard to the considerations which dictated the Pope's choice and the influence which was exerted on Raphael's behalf, Vasari tells us that he vVas summoned to Rome at the instance of Bramante ; and this assertion is deserving of full credit, as he was a compatriot and very probably a relative of Raphael. He was, moreover, on very intimate terms with Perugino, who would naturally have spoken to him more than once of so brilliant a pupil. /His natural good-nature, fortified by a wish to strengthen his party by a vrecruit who_would_be so fJay-Qted-.-a-ntl'-who-^reu-ld help_him in resisting the Michael-Angelo_cpj^ie,jnay also hayejnduced him to plead Raphael's cause *> wrthThe Pope. — -The recommendations of the Court of Urbino and of Duke Francesco- Maria della Rovere, the Pope's nephew, may have helped to gain his cause, for great as was the charm of the works which he had already executed, without the support of the chief architect of St. Peter's and of the Pope's nearest relatives, Raphael would scarcely have triumphed over so many rivals, as he had done nothing in the shape of monumental painting to bring his name prominently before the world. The decoration of the papal palace had been begun by eminent painters 1 The original of this letter has been lost. The text of it was published for the first time by Malvasia in his Felsina. pittrice. (Its authenticity is now seriously doubted— W.A ) The Stanze. 241 before Raphael arrived at Rome, for beneath the rooms in which he was about to create such immortal works were the Borgia apartments,1 the walls of which, under Alexander VI., had been covered by Pinturicchio with frescoes, which are the best specimens of his work. Several generations of painters had embellished those "Stanze" of the second storey with which the name of Raphael is now indissolubly connected, and to this day a modest escutcheon, carved in the key-stone of the arch, and so concealed that it seems to have escaped the notice of all previous biographers, proclaims the glory of Nicholas V., the ardent champion of the Renaissance and the founder of this part of the palace. If the presence of his arms amid these frescoes, where everything seems to speak of the magnificence of Julius II. and of the genius of Raphael, has hitherto been unnoticed, the reason must be that Nicholas V., instead of selecting his emblems, like most of his pre decessors, from the titles of his family, or composing some pretentious coat of arms, adopted the crossed keys of the Church. Those writers who have previously treated of the " Stanze " must have supposed that these insignia formed part of the arms of Julius II. instead of being, as they are, the genuine signature, so to speak, of a Pope who laid the foundations of the project which Julius carried out to completion. In the building accounts of Nicholas V. there are frequent references, after the year 1450, to paintings executed in the palace of the Vatican; and the artists to whom the Pope intrusted this task were Benedetto Buonfigli of Perugia, one of the most eminent forerunners of Perugino; Andrea del Castagno, the celebrated realistic painter of Florence; Bartolommeo di Tommaso, of Foligno, one of the chiefs, of the Umbrian school ; Simone of Rome and others. Bramantino the Elder also took part in this work, according to Vasari, but modern writers question whether such a person ever existed. It may be added that at the same epoch Fra Angelico, assisted by 1 Julius II. did not occupy the second storey of the palace, that is to say, the apartments which communicate with the Stanze, before the anniversary (November 26th) of his coro nation in 1507. The idea of redecorating these rooms very probably dates, therefore, from this period. This supposition receives the authority of Paris di Grassis, the pontifical master of the ceremonies, who says : " Hodie Papa inccepit in superioribus mansionibus palatii habitare, quia non volebat videre omni hora, ut mini dixit, figuram Alexandri prsedecessoris sui." (National Library, Paris, Latin section, No. 5165, vol. i. p. 392.) The small chapel of Nicholas V., decorated by Era Angelico, was used as an oratory by Julius II., who said mass there every morning. In the brief biographical notice devoted to Raphael by P. Giovio, the Constantine room is spoken of as the "amplius ccenaculum" (large dining-room), that of the Incendio del Borgo as " penitius Leonis X. triclinium," or private dining-room, of Leo X. In the Elogia virorum bellica virtute illustrium, Giovio speaks of this room as the " ccenaculum," which amounts to the same thing. (Edition of 1561, p. 466.) R 242 Raphael. Benozzo Gozzoli and several of his other pupils, painted in the oratory contiguous to the Stanze his celebrated compositions from the History of St. Stephen and of St. Lawrence. Undoubtedly the Dispute of the Sacrament and the Mass of Bolsena have more freedom and brilliancy than the frescoes of the humble Dominican artist, but the latter are equal even to Raphael's work in intensity of expression. Even at the present time, when, after having admired in the Stanze the masterpiece of Raphael, one enters the modest chapel of Nicholas V., one cannot repress one's feeling of respect and gratitude to Fra Angelico and his illustrious patron. After this, according to Vasari, Piero della Francesca and Bartolommeo della Gatta distinguished themselves upon these historic walls; and then came Perugino, Luca Signorelli, Sodoma and Peruzzi, whose talents would have barred the way to any successor of less genius than Raphael. At the time ofLRaphael's -advent to Rome, the decoration of the Stanze was still incomplete. Sodoma, as is proved by a document recently published by Signol: XTugnoni, the Chigi librarian, was painting the second of the rooms, the one known as the Camera della Segnatura. He continued at the work for some time afterwards, for we find that he received on the 15th of October, 1508, a date which it will be necessary to note, a payment on account of fifty ducats.1 The Pope then dismissed him, apparently with very little ceremony. Perugino, at that time far advanced in years, and Signorelli, also failed to please, and with regard to the latter it may be remarked, that his work must have been done between the end of 1508 and the beginning of 1509, for he was at Cortona from December 1507, to August 1508, at Siena in the early part of 1509, and then again at Cortona.2 To these painters must be added Bramantino Suardi, generally spoken of by his christian name alone, Lorenzo Lotti, and the Fleming, Jan Ruysch, who, according to hitherto unpublished documents which have been examined by Signor Cerroti, worked in the Stanze at the end of 1508 and in the early part of the following year.3 Julius II., struck with admiration for RaphaeTsJirst worJiSr-shrrwed^no 1 "Die 13 Octobris 1508 magnificus D. Sigismundus Chisius promisit quod magister Johannes Antonius de Bazis de Vercellis pictor in Urbe pinget in cameris S. D. papffi superioribus tantam operam quanta extimabitur facta per 50ducatos de carlenis X pro ducato, quos prsedictus Jo. Ant. confessus fuit recepisse per manus D. Hier. Erancisci de Senis eom- putis (tam) fabricarum praedicti S. D. N. ad bonum computum." (Archivio della Societa romana di storia patria, 1879, p. 486.) 2 R. Vischer, Luca Signorelli und die italienische Renaissance. Leipzig, 1879, pp. 357, 358. 3 These masters continued to paint during part of 1509, as is proved by the following extract from Albertini, who published in the same year his Opusculum de Mirabilibus urbis Romae. "Sunt prseterea aulse et camera; adornatse variis picturis ab excellentissimis pictoribus concertantibus hoc anno instauratae " (folio 850). Raphael's Remuneration. 243 mexc.yJhr.ihe labours of his predecessors, and ordered, him to obliterate them. ' Raphael, to_hJS-crejdit--b.e it spoken, courageously fought for that principle of\ toleration which-is-.the-distinguishing_characteristic . of the early Renaissance, and hesu.cj^^le^d iji.jaxing, some of _ the, compositions of Perugino, Peruzzi, andSodoma. The ceilings of the room containing the Incendio del Borgo, of/ the Heliodorus room, and of the Segnatura room, still contain a certain number of figures and ornaments by the three above-named artists. But their celebrity would have been better served by less indulgence on his part, for their compositions suffer very much by immediate contiguity to his. ^-T-be-- ' frescoes which_were destroyedliejtook copies of, and this Lwas Jhqw he_came to reproduce the portraits with which Piero della Bxancesca had, decorated the walls of one room. These copies afterwards came into the possession of P. Giovio, the historian, who treasured them up in his museum at Como. Raphael's conduct in this matter was more than impartial, for how many monuments have~"bjggn_ destroyed in the Jeyenteenth,_eighteenth, and. even in thenineteenth centuries, without any one following his example and_ pre serving, if bnly by a, simple sketch, the image of what it jias been necessary to ^ sacrifice. This is_not the least useful of the lessons which are to be learnt \ from a study of the men of the Renaissance. It would be interesting to show how Raphael was paid, and whether Julius II. gave him more than he had given to his rivals. According to all probability, he received for the painting of the Camera della Segnatura the same sum as for the decoration of the Incendio del Borgo room, that is to say, 1,200 ducats, or 200 more than for the tapestry cartoons. Julius II. was ^ generous but not lavish, and, as we have seen, he was often very short of j money. A comparison of the price paid to Michael Angelo for painting the ceiling of the Sistine, and that which he was promised by the Republic of Florence for the Battle of Anghiara, shows that the Pope did not throw his money away. In each case he received 3,000 gold ducats, but, as Michael Angelo himself said, when he had completed the Florentine cartoon,1 he con sidered that his work was half finished, whereas the decoration of the Sistine Chapel cost him four years' constant labour, from 1508 to 1512. A few other figures will show that the predecessor of Leo X. did not over-pay the artists whom he employed, for a private individual, Lorenzo Tornabuoni, had at Florence, a quarter of a century before, paid D. Ghirlandajo 1,200 ducats for his frescoes at Santa Maria Novella ; Pinturicchio had received 1,000 ducats for the decoration of the Duomo Library at Siena, and at about the same ' Lettere, Milanesi edition, p. 426. R 2 244 Raphael. period Cardinal Caraffa had given 2,000 ducats, exclusive of ultramarine and the salary of his assistants, to Filippino Lippi, for the decoration of his chapel in the Minerva Church at Rome. These 2,000 ducats represented little more than the artist's pay, for the material expenses were very trifling, with the exception of the ultramarine and the gold, as we know from Michael Angelo that he only spent twenty ducats in the purchase of the colours which he used on his ceiling. However, the actual payment in money down conveys a very incomplete idea of the position of the artists who worked for the Pope, as many of them were inducted into livings which very much increased, or in some cases even stood in the stead of, their pecuniary remuneration. In the time of Nicholas V., his favourite architect, L. B. Alberti, received a large revenue from prebendaries, and many others, such as the sculptor, Paolo Romano, occupied very lucrative posts, those of mace-bearer, or sergeant-at-arms to the Pope, for instance, or like Bramante, held the still more coveted appointment of " piombatore." Giulio Romano was made by Leo X. Prefect of the Tiber, an appointment which he made over to some one else on payment of an annual sum of ninety ducats ; 1 and Michael Angelo was granted the tolls of the Po, while Leonardo da Vinci had obtained the privilege of drawing water from the canal of St. Christopher at Milan.2 The artists attached to the pontifical court occasionally received presents in kind — a mantle, a doublet, or some cloth for a tunic. In 1478, Sixtus IV. gave a ducat to the painter Paul and the same sum to his colleague Denys to buy themselves a pair of shoes. Raphael doubtless received favours of this kind, but it is very certain that but for his prodigious activity, thanks to which he was able to carry on the decoration of the Vatican, to superintend the building of St. Peter's and to /work for private individuals at the same time, he would have been a long v time in making anything like a fortune. Before considering the magnificent series of the Stanze, it is necessary to explain briefly the disposition of the chambers which Raphael was com missioned to decorate, and to describe the battle-field upon which he was fated to achieve such distinction. The four chambers known as the " Stanze" vary both in dimensions and shape. While the immense chamber of Constantine, which is the first on coming in from the Loggia of the external corridor, is only lighted on one side, the chamber of the " Segnatura" and the chamber of Heliodorus have windows on two sides, one looking out on to the Belvedere 1 Gennarelli and Mazio, II Saggiatore, vol. i. p. 66. - Amoretti, Memorie storiche su la vita, gli studi e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci, Milan, 1804, p. 97. The Stanza della Segnatuea. 245 court, the other to the Sistine Chapel. In the fourth, the chamber of the Incendio del Borgo, or of Charlemagne, the windows do not correspond ; for while one of them is in the centre of the wall which faces the Belvedere, the other is at one end of the opposite wall. It seems as if the architect had purposely accumulated every possible difficulty for a painter, both as regards bad light and irregularity of line, in all these chambers except that of Constantine. Raphael commenced his work in the third room from the Loggia, which , being the one where the Pope generally signed the documents submitted to V him by his ministers, was called the Stanza della Segnatura, a title which, acording to Paris di Grassis, it bore as early as the time of Leo X. Passavant has suggested the title of the Chamber of Facilities for this room, because, he says, " Raphael has represented in Theology, Philosophy, Poetry and Jurisprudence, the sum of the knowledge which brings man near to divine truth." 1 It may be added that the artist endeavoured also to express the fresh ideal aimed at by the Renaissance, to give a tangible shape to the aspirations of the great epoch of which he was the most gifted interpreter. Upon the one hand was the glorification of Religion and upon the other that of Philosophy, or of science untrammelled by dogma. Then came the Parnassus, or Poetry, and lastly the consecration of Civil law by Justinian and of Canon law by Gregory IX. The theology was no longer dominant as in the Middle Ages, aiid religion, science, jurisprudence, letters and arts developed freely, side by side, completing one another and making up a civilization worthy to rival that of the ancients.1 The general plan being thus arranged, Raphael apportioned his com position as follows. Upon the two large walls were the Dispute of the Sacrament and the School of Athens, in the space above the window looking on to tho, Belvedere courtyard, the Parnassus, and beneath, Alexander depositing Homer's MS. on the Tomb of Achilles, and Augustus preventing the friends of Virgil from Burning the Eneid, while in the recess on the other side were the three Virtues representative of Justice : Force, Moderation, and Prudence. The ceiling was covered with allegorical figures inclosed in medallions and serving, to use Passavant's description as emblems for the four great wall paintings below, of Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Justice. In each of the four corner compartments, Raphael represented a scene in harmony with the corresponding painting : next to the Parnassus, Apollo and Marsyas ; next to the Dispute of the Sacrament, Original Sin ; next to Jurisprudence, the 1 This ingenious definition is due to Hettner (Italienische Studien, Brunswick, 1878, pp. 190, 191). The chapter which Springer has devoted to the Camera della Segnatura in his Rafael und Michael Angelo (p. 144 and following) is also well worth reading. 246 Raphael. Judgment of Solomon, and next to the School of Athens, Astronomy. Passa vant has undertaken to prove that each of these subjects related to two of the frescoes beneath it. But his thesis, based on very far-fetched arguments, is now- almost universally repudiated. According to this view, the Judgment of Solomon would be connected both with the School of Athens and Jurisprudence, because this famous judgment, which may be in a certain sense termed philosophical, was not dictated by written law, but by knowledge of human nature. Nothing could have been more ably conceived than this plan; it was. worked out to its smallest details before it was begun to be put into execution; and no necessity arose for the slightest alteration. There is some difference of opinion as' to who was the author of this grandiose conception. Passavant, indeed, attributes it entirely to Raphael. The German critic says : " In our day Raphael has been denied the credit of the plan for these pictures, which has been ascribed either to the Pope ''or to some erudite member of his court. But a conception so spiritual in all its details could hardly have proceeded from the brain of Julius II., who was above all things of a practical turn of mind.1 We are quite ready to admit that Raphael, as indeed may be inferred from his letter to Ariosto, had recourse to certain scholars for aid as to his personages and details, but it is none the less true that the general invention belongs to him. At the eginning of his stay at Rome the scholars with whom he was acquainted were not then residing there, for Castiglione did not come until rather later, Pietro Bembo not till April 1510, and then for a very short time, while Bernardo Divizio da Bibbiena was still at the court of Urbino." We cannot agree in this view, believing, on the contrary, that the men of letters who were Raphael's intimates had a very great influence upon the composition of this plan, which is the ablest and the most profound any artist ever produced. If Castiglione, Bembo and Bibbiena, were not in Rome, it does not at all follow that Raphael did not ask their opinion by letter, and, moreover, the pontifical court numbered in 1508 many distinguished men of letters, such as Inghirami, who was, as we know, a friend to Raphael ; Sadolet,' who was intimate with Raphael's friends, and Beroaldus the younger, the translator of Apuleius and the friend of Agostino Chigi. f The^ artistsj)f the^ Renaissance were -4a -theJiabit_j3f_j^cei-viBg--£c om_ their ' I patrons an exact indieation of the subjects— whieh -ihey were to paint. 1 It is surely going too far to say that the Pope had no influence upon the choice of paintings for his own apartments. A contemporary writer, Giovio, tells us that Raphael decorated the Camera della Segnatura and the Chamber of Heliodorus after the instructions of Julius II. " Pinxit Vaticano, nee adhuc stabili auctoritate, cubicula duo ad prseseriptiira Julii pontificis." THE STANZA BIXLA SEGNA'flTRA. The Stanza della Segnatura. 249 Michael Angelo was one of the rare exceptions to this rule, and Varchi, in his \ funerf\T^fMfon7d-w-elLejQi.phatieally "upon, the fact that he painted entirely from his own invention the vast series of frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. It is true / that Michael Angelo might have been himself classed as a scholar, and though some of his~ contemporaries may have been more gifted in this respect, the Old Testament, from which he derived so much of his inspiration, did noW require so great an erudition as the subjects which Raphael had to treat in the Camera della Segnatura. The curious correspondence which had taken place a few years previously between Isabella di Gonzaga and Perugino shows us into what minute details the art-patrons of this period often entered. When the Marchioness ordered the Triumph of Chastity, now in the Louvre, she herself told the painter what figures she wished to have painted, and assigned to each its place and attributes. The mythological knowledge displayed in this picture is at first surprising, as coming from Perugino; but the truth is that he was but a scrupulous and even servile interpreter of the ideas which had been placed before him.1 To Raphael, doubtless, was given much more latitude ; but there is every; reason to believe that the main lines of the, composition were laid down by' some scholar attached to the papal court, and that Raphael was continually consulting him while engaged in his work. The original idea of the paintings in the Camera della Segnatura seems to have been borrowed from Petrarch, who in his Trionfo dell' Amore arrays " around the chariot of Cupid the poets who sing of love — Orpheus and Dante, Pindar, Sappho, Tibullus, Propertius, &c. ; while in his Trionfo della Fama he celebrates, in addition to the warriors, the philosophers and poets, such as Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Socrates, Homer, Virgil, Zeno, and Diogenes, Heraclitus, Democritus, and Zoroaster. This subject had already been selected by painters and sculptors, aud had been reproduced in frescoes, pictures, marble and tapestry ; 2 but in these works of art the triumphs of Chastity, Death, Time, and Eternity were almost invariably associated with those of Love and Fame. Moreover, Petrarch's poem gives the idea of a procession following a triumphal car, not a body of men talking together as in the School of Athens, the Dispute of the Sacrameat, and the Parnassus. It may be assumed, therefore, that if the Triumphs were the origin of a number of compositions, half historical, half allegorical, they only supplied 1 See Braghirolli, work already quoted. 2 See in the Revue critique d'histoire et de litterature (number for January 11, 1879) an attempt to catalogue these representations, the furore for which was not confined to Italy. 250 Raphael. Raphael with a part of the elements which he brought into play. The study of Dante and of Marsilio Ficino, the famous commentator on Plato, gave him several other motives, and the influence of the former is specially notable in the treatment of Theology, while that of the latter is more apparent in the School of Athens. Thus it is that the Combat of Naked Men and the Rape of a Nereid by a Triton, represented in this fresco under the statue of Apollo, are evidently inspired by a passage in the Commentaries upon the Republic of Plato, where Ficino says : " Apollo is the god of harmony, the doctor of the passions (Phoebus humani generis medicus) ; thanks to this harmony (temperantia), we triumph over our greatest enemies, lust (libido) and evil temper (iracundia)."2 The other ideas to which Raphael gives expression must be credited to Inghirami, Bembo, Castiglione, or some one of the same class. Compositions, half historical, half allegorical, such as those with which Raphael was about to decorate the Camera della Segnatura, were familiar to 'the Italians of the Renaissance, though allegory had been in higher favour during the Middle Ages, and few works were executed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which would compare with the monumental paintings of Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, Simone Memmi, and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, in [the palaces and churches of Florence, Pisa, Siena, Assisi and Avignon; The frescoes, indeed, of the Sala di Cambio at Perugia, of the Borgia rooms at the Vatican, and of the Caraffa Chapel at the Minerva Church, were conceived upon the same lines ; they were not to be compared with the earlier compositions, whether as regards depth of idea or amplitude of style. From this point of view the example of Perugino could have been; of no more service to Raphael than that of Pinturicchio or that of Filippino /Lippi. This was perhaps all the better for him, as, not being in any way tied by tradition, he was able to give free scope to his imagination, and create entirely by himself the works which have made him immortal. His first care /was to make a distinct separation between the reality and the ideal ; putting ^history on one side and fiction on the other. He rightly held that the intro- /duction of allegorical figures into the domain of history would clog the action and lessen the interest. He therefore placed the latter in special compart ments, and the figures personifying Religion, Science, Jurisprudence, and Poetry occupy the medallions on the ceiling, while Force, Prudence, and Temperance are on the wall facing the Parnassus. First we will take the Dispute of the Sacrament? or Theology, which was the first in point of date. 1 See the Italienische Studien by Herr Hettner, p. 211. 9 Passavant has raised objections to this title, but they seem rather futile, for the word disputa means m Italian discussion as well as disagreement. The Disputa. 251 There can be no doubt that Raphael intended from the first to represent the triumph of the Church, and to celebrate, in addition to the great manifestation of faith, the glory and the happiness of the elect— of patriarchs, prophets and martyrs. His only doubt was as to the number and selection of the personages to be introduced, and as to how he should group them. FIRST STUDY FOR THE DISPUTE OF THE SACRAMENT. (Windsor Castle Collection.) The fact of his having made at least thirty preliminary studies would suffice to show how much uncertainty he felt, even if we had not his letter to Ariosto asking for advice in his difficulties. Two drawings, preserved, the one at Windsor, the other at Oxford, represent the left side of the fresco, as Raphael conceived it in the first 252 Raphael. instance. They are executed in sepia heightened with white. The patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and saints are in two ranges, whereas in the fresco they form but one, and the Christ, instead of being between the Virgin and St. John the Baptist, is isolated. The composition is in a very rudimentary condition; indeed, in the Windsor sketch one can scarcely distinguish the groups or attitudes. One notices, however, a female figure to the left with her finger pointed heavenward, which in the fresco itself has undergone a singular metamorphosis. She there becomes a handsome youth, who, standing up against the balustrade, points to the altar as the source of all truth. We have already had occasion to notice how often these changes of intention which may be taken as a proof that Raphael's mind was always on the alert, are to be seen in his works. A drawing in the Stsedel Museum at Frankfort shows that the central group has assumed more consistency, and the attitude of the two personages who are seated, each of whom has a volume in his hands is very nearly the same as that of St. Gregory and St. Jerome in the fresco itself. Raphael has also kept in the fresco the figures of the worshippers kneeling before the throne, whose shape is still very vague. The other figures do not offer any likeness to those of the Dispttte as it was finally painted, and they are all undraped. An excellent drawing in the Louvre shows us a fresh and more advanced study for the composition ; here we see St. Gregory seated upon the throne and three persons kneeling by his side (there are only two in this position in the fresco, the third being upright), while in the foreground the youth referred to above is replaced by figures standing with their backs to the spectator. A still further advance is marked in the beautiful sketch which was bought out of M. Reiset's collection by the Due d'Aumale. In this drawing, which comprises twenty figures, and which reproduces all the lower part, the centre or nucleus of the whole composition is not given, nor is there any trace of the consummate grouping of which Raphael was the first master. The figures are too close to one another, their gestures are wanting in fullness, and the whole lacks the majesty which gives such a charm to the fresco itself. As we cannot describe all these preliminary studies, we will merely mention a drawing in the Albertina (Braun, No. 173), which, like most of those still extant, relates to the left part of the composition, The artist has here reached the aim which he had in view : one step more, and he will be ready to begin the final cartoon. The differences between this sketch and the fresco are very slight, and we need only mention the change in the attitude of the figures at the extreme left, near the youth leaning against the balustrade. In the drawing, he is in profile, while in the fresco he is three-quarters face. The Dispute of the Sacrament occupies one of the large side walls, and 1 E %*fe^ 'Ss i ^s^^^?y . ^finj^^^BL : WQlAk ^Bf * ' c m ¦»£ ML» 3M ¦ if WmjJ^tfA ^J% L mi-. ^EEl STUDY FOR THE DISPUTE OF THE SACRAMENT. (Stsedel Museum, Frankfort-on-the-Main. ) The Disputa. 255 though the surface upon which it is painted is flat, it is composed upon the lines of a re-entering semicircle, thus imitating the majestic arrangement of the mosaics and frescoes which decorate the apses of so many Italian churches. He has divided his figures into four grand zones. At the top, God the Father, grave, solemn, and sublime, raises one hand in the act of benediction, while with the other He holds up the globe ; there is a diamond- shaped halo about His head, and choruses of angels and cherubim form His escort and sing His praises. Words are vain to give an idea of the effect produced by these countless figures, transfixed with admiration, shining with a supernatural light, and rising and descending amid inexpressible joy. One seems to hear the songs of the angels and to see the heavens opening in all their glory, and giving us a glimpse of the infinite realms beyond. Lower down, and relieved upon a disc resplendent with gold, is seated Christ. As in the fresco of San-Severo, the upper part of His body is nude, while a large mantle covers His knees, and, as at San-Severo, He shows His bleeding hands in sign of the mystery of the Redemption. To His left St. John the Baptist points to Him whose coming he had announced, and to His right the Virgin, bending in profound veneration, covers her head with her mantle, as in the severe pictures of the Byzantine school. Underneath these figures, which are enlarged to indicate their divinity, are seated twelve patriarchs, prophets, apostles, confessors, representatives of the old and of the new faiths, champions of the " Ecclesia ex gentibus " and of the "• Ecclesia ex circumcisione," some full of majesty, and others preserving, even in the celestial regions, the gentle resignation of martyrs, or lost in contemplation of the infinite. These figures are among the grandest creations of modern art, and they express with a force such as Raphael had never shown the loftiest sentiments which the Sacred Books can inspire. Never before had Moses and David, St. Paul and St. John the Evangelist, St. Lawrence and St. Stephen, been so nobly portrayed. A symbolic idea runs through the grouping of all the personages, and the representatives of the ancient faith, arranged in chronological order, alternate with those of the new. The extremities nearest to the spectators are, as a matter of course, filled by the two princes of the apostles— St. Peter, to the left, holding the key and the book ; and St. Paul, to the right, armed with the sword. Next to St. Peter comes Adam, who, disdaining to clothe his athletic form, offers, as he sits with one leg over the other and his hands crossed on his knees, the most striking and poetical image ever traced of primitive man. Beside Adam are seated St. John writing the Revelation, and David playing the harp, and then come St. Stephen, transported with admiration, and a personage as to whose identity 256 Raphael. there is much doubt (Herr Springer believes him to be the prophet Jeremiah). To the right, beside St. Paul, is Abraham, holding the knife with which he is about to sacrifice Isaac ; and next to him St. James the Greater, Moses show ing the tables of the Law, St. Lawrence turning round to contemplate the angels which are hovering above him, and then a warrior who has been taken for St. George, the patron of Liguria (of which Julius II. was a native), and Judas Maccabseus. Amidst the clouds upon which this august assembly is seated, these twelve champions of the old and the new alliance, these representatives of the militant and of the contemplative elements in the Church, are to be seen myriads of Angels. Some of them are scarcely distinguishable from the light vapours which float around them, while others, standing out more distinctly, animate and light up the background. Raphael had in his mind the beautiful lines in which Dante tells us of the spirits with faces of fire, with bodies whiter than the snow, and with wings of gold, which are ever ascending and descending like swarms of bees, shedding from their wings the peace and devotion which they have brought from the bosom of God. These winged multitudes, adds the poet, do not break the view, for the divine light so penetrates the universe that nothing can arrest its progress.1 Four other angels carrying the Gospels — for Raphael, as we see, disre garded the traditionary symbols of the Evangelist, — serve together with the dove, which represents the Holy Ghost, to connect the upper part of the com position with that which is below. The animation which distinguishes this lower part is in striking contrast with the calm of the celestial scene above. Old men and youths, official personages and mere adherents of the faith, are discussing with animation or listening with reverence, teaching with authority or seeking enlightenment, some of them in science, others in the text of the Scriptures. Some, wearing mitres, are proclaiming the dogmas of their faith ; others, full of learning, are inaugurating the exegesis of Scripture. Writings are here of more importance than deeds, for the doctors compose the majority. of the assembly, while the miracle-workers and the martyrs are very sparsely represented, for even St. Francis of Assisi does not appear in the fresco. An altar, upon which the Host stands out radiant from the background, serves as a centre for all these men, who differing in character and views, have yet a common faith. Around the altar are seated the four great doctors of the Church— St. Gregory the Great to the left, looking heavenwards and holding on his knees his treatise on Job, the Liber Moralium; then St. Jerome, lost in meditation on the Scriptures, with his faithful lion at his feet : to the right St. ' o 1 Paradiso, canto xxxi. verse 1 and following. The Disputa. 259 Ambrose, admiring the spectacle above, which is pointed out by one beside him ; and lastly, St. Augustine, dictating to a young man who is writing, and having before him the manuscript of the De Civitate Dei. Among the other persons who figure in this " Santa conversazione," maybe seen at the extreme left, Fra Angelico ; then to the right, Duns Scotus, St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope Anacletus, St. Bonaventura in a cardinal's dress, Pope Innocent III., and then beside him Dante and Savonarola. The force of expression, and the individualisation of the figures do not, in every instance, correspond to the illustrious character of the persons repre sented. We know nothing of the faithful kneeling near the splendid marble^ seat of St. Gregory, and they are doubtless but obscure believers, yet their! attitude is full of eloquence, and they convey an admirable idea of sub missive faith. / Raphael sought to bring into this picture of the Dispute all the feelings which have their origin in religion. After showing us the splendour of the heavenly regions, the enthusiasm, the confidence, and the resignation of the prophets and martyrs, after having glorified all the manifestations of faith, from unreasoning ecstasy to conviction fortified by critical discernment, all that was wanted to complete the picture was to typify Heresy and In- differentism. It is generally agreed that the bald and beardless old man who turns his back upon the assembly and obstinately examines the contents of a book lying open before him on the balustrade is meant for Bramante. But in a composition of this kind Raphael could not afford to leave any point in doubt, and the attention of the sceptics in the background is being won and their doubts overcome by two ardent believers, one a Christian of the Primitive Church, and the other a youth of singular beauty. Raphael has left the spectator to fill in the last scene in the drama, but one can almost see the conversion taking place. Such is this famous composition, which is deservedly regarded as the highest expression of Christianity in painting, and the most perfect summary of the fifteen centuries of faith comprised between the frescoes of the Catacombs and those of the Florentine realists. It is more than a master- / piece of art, it marks an epoch in the development of humanity. In spite of the beauty of its conception and its amplitude of style, the Dispute of the Sacrament still contains some signs of inexperience, and the landscape which forms the background of the composition has often been* found fault with, and not without reason, as being scarcely worthy of the '. subject which it inframes, and as bearing too many signs of the influence of \ the quattrocentisti. In the lower part of the composition, to the left, the / s 2 260 Raphael. figures are also open to criticism, for they are ranged on too many different levels, and their general effect has neither the balance nor the rhythm which Raphael afterwards regarded as among the most important points in the art. The handling also betrays inexperience ; and the artist had clearly not become familiar with the delicate processes of fresco. But all these defects are trifles when compared with the merits of this great work. Opposite the Dispute of the Sacrament is the School of Athens, the triumph of Science facing the triumph of Religion. Plato and Aristotle are worthy pendents to St. Jerome / and St. Augustine ; and happy was the age when doubt had not invaded men's minds, when one could admire the great men of the pagan world without detracting from the majesty of religion, and when the study of Plato was considered necessary for the full comprehension of the dogmas of Christianity. Yet Plato and Aristotle were no strangers to the painters of the Middle Ages. The Byzantines themselves, strict as they were in regard to art, admitted them into their religious compositions, not, it is true, as the repre sentatives of ancient philosophy, but as the forerunners of Christ. In the Guide de la Peinture, published by MM. Didron and P. Durand (pages 148, 159), the following instructions for artists are given under the heading " Philosophes de la Grece qui ont parle de l'incarnation du Christ ; " — Plato, an aged man with a large beard. He says : The old is new and the new is old. The father is in the son and the son in the father. The Unity is divided into three, and the Trinity is joined again in Unity. Aristotle with flowing beard. He tolls us : The generation of God is indefatigable in its very nature, for the Word Himself receives from God His essence. Apollonius, Solon, Thucydides, Plutarch, Philo the philologist, Zoralis, king of Egypt, Balaam the divine, and the wise Sibyls find a place here also. In Western art the two great philosophers have always been accorded a place, though one not quite so glorious as that which they received from Raphael. Aristotle was more par ticularly treated with contumely, as painters and sculptors had for several centuries been wont to depict him as bridled and saddled, crawling upon his hands and knees, and with the mistress of Alexander on his back. The legends of Aristotle at that time formed a pendent to those of the sorcerer Viro-il, but the leader of the Peripatetics gradually regained in art a place more worthy of him. A picture of Traini, preserved in the church of St. Catherine at Pisa, represents St. Thomas between Aristotle and Plato ; and a hundred years later Benozzo Gozzoli, in a picture now in the Louvre, reproduced the same motive. The Renaissance brought the two philosophers into still greater prominence, Plato being an especial favourite. We have already seen how Federigo da Montefeltro put them on a par with the prophets, the Fathers of the Church, vS^r- ;,;.;« illllr ' Mr iH§g a o The School of Athens. 263 and the saints,1 and his example was followed by more than one prince and prelate.2 This was the doctrine which the most illustrious of the disciples of Marsilio Ficino, Lorenzo the Magnificent, expanded in the sentence : " With out the study of Plato no man can be a good citizen or a good Christian (absque Platonica disciplina, nee bonum civem, nee Christianas doctrinse peritum facile quemquam futurum)." 3 The history of the School of Athens is more obscure than that of the Dispute of the Sacrament, for while we followed the progress of the latter composition step by step, we have only, in respect to the former, a few sketches more or less fragmentary, and a few studies of heads, hands and draperies. We find here again that Raphael is faithful to his principle of always making his sketches from a living model, and if possible from the nude. In his portrait of Bramante, now in the Louvre, which formed the prototype of the Archimedes in the fresco, he reproduced the bony hands and knotty fingers which, as we learn from Vasari, were so soon afterwards paralysed. A drawing in the Albertina collection shows us a model leaning upon a staff in a some what forced attitude, and this was developed into the beautiful figure of Anaxagoras. Nothing is more interesting than thus to assist, after the lapse of three and a half centuries, at the genesis of the painter's conception ; and the cartoon of the School of Athens (in the Ambrosian library at Milan) shows ,with what care Raphael, to the very last, corrected and completed his com positions. Though he was on the point of executing his fresco, he made many further changes, for in the cartoon there is no trace of the handsome architectural background to the fresco, nor of Heraclitus seated in the foce- ground, nor of the portraits of Raphael himself and of Perugino. These were added after the cartoon was finished. This School of Athens is so well known that we will not so much attempt to analyse its beauties as to recall the various interpretations which have been put upon it, and attempt to definitely fix the names of the persons who figure in it. The scene is represented as taking place beneath a vast portico, the arcades of which are panelled, and pierced with niches in which stand the statues of 1 Chronique des Arts, 1876, p. 4. 2 It is worthy of note, in regard to Plato and Aristotle, that it was Protestant art which constituted itself the champion of the Middle Ages, and took up the old accusations against those philosophers. In the middle of the sixteenth century, Holbein, the most brilliant champion of the Eenaissance north of the Alps, represents, in his engraving of Christus vera lux, Plato and Aristotle as being hurled into a gulf, together with the false doctors. He further stigmatises Aristotle as a fit object for detestation by placing on his head a large turban which makes him look like one of those Turks who were then so odious. 3 Valori, Vita Laurentii Medicis, Galetti edition, Florence, 1847, p. 167. 264 Raphael. Apollo and of the well-armed Pallas Athene. This splendid building, which Vasari attributes to Bramante, typifies the august temples raised by Philosophy and celebrated by Lucretius in the verses : " Sed nil dulcius est bene quam munita tenere Edita doctrina sapientum templa serena." This is indeed the sanctuary where, as the poet says, the common-place thoughts of ambition, vanity, and thirst for gold, give way to the search after I truth and the pure enjoyments of the intellect. Of these intellectual pleasures the philosophers of Raphael's creation are worthy. They are indifferent to external events and unmoved by the fear of death, for the painter has faith fully reflected the grandeur of their epoch, and has given a far more vivid delineation of it than the writers of the clay. As M. Gruyer has well said, " Out of the superficial and showy recital of a Baldassare Castiglione, a Sannazaro or a Bembo, Raphael produced something fervent and divine." r One seems to see before one those heroes of science and philosophy whose achievements have been handed down to us by history : one of them casting himself into the sea in order to hasten the moment when he should unravel the secrets of a future life ; another quietly drinking the hemlock while he is discussing the immortality of the soul ; Diogenes, the cynic, asking Alexander to stand out of his light, and Epictetus calmly saying to the master who had just broken his leg, " I told you that you would do it." The simplicity of their manners, and the poetry or energy of their features, are beautifully rendered. Some of them are as radiant as the most beautiful of Leonardo's youths, while others are sombre as the apostles of Andrea del Castagno. Raphael touched every chord with equal mastery ; but great as is the beauty of his figures and their force of expression, it is by their super- ) abundant life that they impress us most. Raphael sought for truth above all else, and his philosophers are more than the representatives of an abstract idea ; they are living men, each having his particular disposition and his special sphere of action, taking with conviction their parts in the great thought- drama of Athenian philosophy. So fervent was he in his search after truth that he, who so loved to paint all that was graceful, was not repelled by the necessity of painting what was hideous. The reason why Raphael in the School of Athens reached a loftier eminence than any painter had ever before attained, and discovered beyond Roman art in its decadence the purest inspirations of Grecian genius, was that he would not allow his artistic tendencies to be overshadowed by 1 Raphael et I'antiquite, vol. i. p. 283. The School of Atheists. 265 scientific lore, and that he kept complete independence even in respect to, the programme placed before him. It would be idle, therefore, to attempt to/ put a name to all the actors in this vast scene, and it shows little discernment on the part of Passavant and other writers that they should have attempted such a task. It is very certain that although Raphael has followed in its\ main lines the history of philosophy as it had been roughly compiled for him, he, on the other hand, was guided solely by artistic considerations in most of the figures depicted. He never hesitated, when there was any vacant place to fill up, to bring in some contemporary figure who had no apparent con nection with the main action, such as Duke Francesco-Maria of Urbino, Federigo of Mantua, Perugino, and even himself. By so doing he imparted life to the composition and gave rhythm and harmony to his groups. But if we cannot hope to discover historical figures in each of the personages in the fresco, there can be no doubt but that Raphael endeavoured to represent the development of Greek philosophy from Pythagoras and Democritus, that is to say from the sixth century before our era, to Archimedes, who died in the year 212 B.C. The more one examines this stupendous, almost superhuman work, the more admirable does it appear. Thus, while beginning the history of philosophy in the lower group to the left and terminating it with the corresponding group to the right, Raphael has also placed lower down in the composition the representatives of the exact sciences, so making mathematics the basis of speculative philosophy. Zoroaster alone is out of place, from a chronological standpoint, and in making him come next to Ptolemy the painter was certainly guilty of an anachronism — which, however, finds its excuse in the doubt which was then prevalent as to the period at which he lived. Following the order adopted by Raphael, we will begin our description with the group to the left. All the critics are agreed that the old man who is sitting busily writing is Pythagoras, the founder of the mathematical school. A pupil who is kneeling beside him is holding out the harmonic tables which he invented. According to the views of a learned German commentator, Herr Naumann, the personages next to Pythagoras are Terpander and Aristoxenus, the inventors of two musical systems different from that of the Samian philosopher, and the whole group according to this view would be an embodiment of the history of early Greek music.1 But M. C. E. Ruelle, in discussing the theory of Herr Naumann,2 has shown it to be rather far fetched. Raphael in his opinion merely interpreted the elementary notions 1 Zeitschriftfur bildende Kunst, 1879, No. 1. 2 Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris, August 17, 21, 31 ; 1879. 266 Raphael. prevalent about philosophical history and characterised its leading features. He is, however, at one with Herr Naumann as to the accuracy of the harmonic tables drawn by Raphael, and this fact may be taken as proving that he was constantly availing himself of the advice of his literary friends, for otherwise he could hardly have been so well informed on so technical a point. It is no use trying to discover the names of the neighbours of Pythagoras, and especially of the Arab who, with his hand on his breast, is expressing his admiration, and who has been taken for Averrhoes, Epicharmus, and au Egyptian member of the Pythagorean sect. Upon the other hand, it is agreed that the gloomy dreamer who is seated in the foreground, who is carelessly tracing figures upon a papyrus in front of him, his thoughts being evidently far away, is meant for Heraclitus of Ephesus. The young man standing up near him seems to be Francesco-Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, and the boy behind the Arab is supposed to be Federigo of Mantua, who was brought up at the court of Julius II. There is more doubt as to the identity of the man with the jovial face and the forehead crowned with foliage who is reading a book at the base of a column. He has in turn been taken for Democritus, the inventor of the atomic theory, for Epicurus, and for Plotinus, who, according to Ficino, was so handsome and agreeable that the women followed him with admiration, and that fathers brought to him their children to be educated. The old man standing by the side of the philosopher with a child in his arms has also elicited divergent judgments, for some critics are of opinion that Raphael intended to allude to the whole custom of bringing infants into the schools of philosophy, that they might learn to be silent, and might acquire a studious turn, while others think it is meant as an allusion to the efforts made by Democritus to induce the rich to adopt the children of the poor. Others, again, believe that Raphael intended to recall the Athenian custom of submitting infants to philosophers, in order to ascertain what career would be most likely to suit them. This, however, is a very small question, the essential thing being that this part of the fresco is aesthetically perfect. The air of conviction, reverie, or doubt, the epicurean feeling, the respect of the pupils for their master's utterances, and the indifference of the child and of the youth, who cannot see why it is needful to reflect so much in order to be happy, are all expressed with striking force and truth. Ascending the steps of the temple of science, we first meet a young man, who, half-undraped, and his hair blown about by the wind, is coming forward at a rapid pace with a heavy load of books. At the other extremity of the composition, a young man is running away ; and it has been supposed that Raphael intended to represent by these two figures the beginning and the end The School of Athens. 267 of the great Greek school. The hypothesis is an ingenious one, but we are more struck by the rhythmical intention. This motive, repeated at the two extremities of the fresco, gives it wonderful unity and movement, for the ardour of the young philosopher, who is so eager to take part in the debate that his feet scarcely touch the ground as he comes up, like one of the angels in the fresco of the Heliodorus, is in striking contrast with the coolness of his neighbour, a true type of the sophist, who, standing with his back against the wall, points out the group to his left, near Socrates, as much as to say, " There are your adversaries ! " One of the pupils of Socrates has discovered their purpose, and, with his arm raised towards them in mute eloquence, he deprecates their unfair and disloyal attacks. Passavant is perhaps right in identifying this common-looking but warm-hearted man as iEschines, the poor sausage-seller, who, " a fervent admirer of Socrates, afterwards became one of the most celebrated orators of Greece. Advancing his right arm towards the sophists, he seems as if he would repel them by his imperious gesture, as if he divined in them the future accusers of Socrates, whose hatred was gratified when the old man of seventy years, the man whom the Pythian oracle had called the wisest of his race, had drunk the fatal hemlock." We now come to one of the finest groups in the whole composition. To the left, Alcibiades, armed cap-a-pie, with one hand resting on his side and the other on his sword, is respectfully listening to the master. The sour- looking little old man, whose head is almost buried in his big fur cap, and who, with his arms folded under his cloak, does not lose a word, is, according to Passavant, whose opinion again seems to be correct, one of those humble artisans with whom Socrates loved to converse because their minds were not distorted by false principles. Thus high and low had their seat at his feast of reason. Next to him, leaning against the base of a pilaster, and entirely absorbed by the utterances of Socrates, is a young man with a soft and radiant expression, Xenophon, the great captain and historian, the favourite disciple of Socrates, whose life he saved in battle. The philosopher himself, upright, carelessly draped, is engrossed by his arguments, and ticks them off upon his fingers as if to give more force to his demonstration. Raphael in this instance did not scruple to reproduce the traditional ugliness of his here, being rightly of opinion that nobility of expression more than made up for irregularity of features. Socrates, the initiator, is still discussing, while his successor, Plato, who embodied the ideas of the master into a doctrine and set the seal of perfection upon the system, is expounding. The disciples ranged around him are listening with respect, for none of them, young or old, venture to urge objections in his presence. Very grand is this figure of the old man, with his 268 Raphael. fine forehead, his long white beard, and his broad shoulders, holding the book of Timasus under his left arm, and raising his right towards heaven, as if to show that there is the only source of truth. His neighbour, Aristotle, alone in modern art can be compared to him ; younger but more positive, he recalls Socrates to the observation of the laws of nature, and points his right hand downward as if to show that there must be sought a solution for the mysteries of philosophy. His " Ethics " balance the " Timasus " of Plato. The Romans were so struck by the more than mortal beauty of these two figures that they called them St. Peter and St. Paul, as if the two leaders of Attic philosophy were not worthy to take rank among the gods. Raphael in this work displayed a jtrodigious power of assimilation, for he had certainly not paid much attention to the literature and science of antiquity when be began the .School of Athens. Yet in a few weeks he made himself so familiar with it as to grasp its inmost secrets, and so to vivify it that after three and a half centuries of investigation criticism has failed to discover an embodiment more noble, more striking, or more clear than his, for the two great systems of philosophy which have divided the empire of the world. The formulae which scholars had sought in vain were discovered by a painter, without effort and through the mere power of his genius. Behind the chiefs of the Academy and of the Lyceum the arcades are empty. On their left we see an eclectic philosopher busily taking notes; a stoic, his robe proudly folded around him, and his attitude full of contempt for the concern which his neighbours give themselves ; Diogenes lying upon the steps, his bowl beside him, his body covered with rags, and his features the embodiment of cynicism. Coming down again to the foreground, we find the representatives of those exact sciences to which Raphael gave a new impulse ; the geographer, Ptolemaeus— whom others besides Raphael took for a king of Egypt — with his globe ; Zoroaster, also holding a globe ; and Archimedes, drawing geometrical figures on a slate, and wearing, for the nonce, the features of Raphael's [protector Bramante. So fascinating is this scene, that one does not think of I the prodigious skill with which the painter solved the most arduous problems \ of composition, of modelling, and of foreshortening — the latter in a way which Imight have excited the envy of a Michael Angelo. Never before had the /difficulties and the pleasures of deep study been so faithfully or so pic turesquely rendered. The pupils are all listening with the same attention to the demonstration of the master, but they are not all taking it in with equal readiness. The youngest, kneeling on the ground, his eyes riveted to the slate, is still puzzled ; the second, rising to his feet, begins to understand ; the third, also kneeling down, has solved the problem, and he imparts his The School of Athens. 269 information to the fourth, who has also worked it out to his great satisfaction. The two remaining figures of which we have to speak are those to the far PORTRAIT OF RAPHAEL AND PERUGINO. (From the School of Athens.)'. right, in the least conspicuous part of the picture. Vasari tells us that they are Raphael and Perugino, and without his information we should scarcely recognise the veteran chief of the Umbrian school. Four years had passed 270 Raphael. since the execution of his portrait in the Sala di Cambio, and he had aged very much in the interval.1 The portrait of Raphael, on the contrary, is strikingly like that in the Uffizi, with the same olive complexion, the same fair hair, and the same long and flexible neck. But the youth had grown into a man, and a slight moustache covers his upper lip, while his eyes are full of fire and his carriage more assured. Every form of admiration has for centuries been lavished on the School of Athens, yet fresh beauties are to be discovered in it every day, and it may be said that the completion of this great work realized the dream of the Renaissance. The works of antiquity were at length equalled, if not surpassed, and the School of Athens was the crowning point in a long series of centuries, but it is more than a point of development, it is a model to which no man has since attained. In the Dispute of the Sacrament and the School of Athens, the features which command most admiration are the, so to speak, architectural distinct ness of the composition, the grandeur of the ideas, and the ample majesty of the figures. While in the one Raphael rises to the height of an epic poem, in the other he shows with what consummate ability he could analyse the sentiments and creeds of his heroes, and render dramatic even the teaching of philosophy. The third fresco in the same room, the Parnassus, is marked by different qualities; in it Raphael shook off all anxiety as to symmetry of decorative effect, as he was justified by the nature of the subject in doing. For, in truth, while religion and philosophy each form a doctrine based upon strict rules, poetry, on the other hand, is solely an affair of the imagination- It is only right, therefore, that an artist, in celebrating poetry, should be allowed poetic licence. This is the first instance in which we see Raphael surrendering himself entirely to his inspiration, and disdaining all calculation, as if he felt certain from the first that his composition would be a success. The Parnassus is a series of lyrical effusions, and the whole composition is so pervaded by poetry, that there is no room for prose. The figures are grouped with a freedom and ease which surprise one in the case of a painter so reflective as Raphael, and the soft elegance of their attitudes and the languishing expression on their faces remind one rather of Sodoma, whose influence may very possibly have been exerted just at that time over Raphael. Seated on the summit of a sacred mount, under the shade of a laurel- grove, Apollo, one Of the softest creations of modern art, is running the bow 1 It is a mistake to suppose this represents Sodoma, then scarcely thirty-five years old, and with strongly marked features, not in the least like these. The Parnassus. 271 over his violin,1 and with eyes raised heavenward, is absorbed in a poetic transport. Around him are ranged the Muses, some pensive, others filled with enthusiasm. They are lovely personifications of grace, nobility, and poetry ; specially admirable is the attitude of infinite tenderness with which one of them leans her head on. her sister's shoulder. The other figures o abandon themselves more freely to their various impressions. Standing erect, with lofty forehead and pathetic gestures, Homer recites part of the Iliad, which a young man seated beside him is taking down as he proceeds. Behind Homer, the gentle Virgil is pointing out Apollo to Dante, whose sombre profile stands out against the blue sky. In the background and in the least conspicuous position, is a timid pensive youth who is generally supposed to be Raphael himself. Lower down, in the foreground of the picture, are four standing figures, engaged in serious conversation, while Sappho,2 seated upon a rock, is listening to them. Here again the critic comes face to face with a very difficult problem. One of the four poets in the background is un questionably meant for Petrarch; but who are the three others ? Until quite recently, they were supposed to be Alcseus, Anacreon, and Corinna. There is a wide field for conjecture, for Vasari mentions among the poets represented in this fresco, Ovid, Ennius, Tibullus, Catullus, Propertius, Boccaccio and Antonio Tebaldeo. There is just as much uncertainty with respect to the poets on the opposite side. According to Passavant, the two figures in the foreground are Pindar and Horace, and the figure next to them that of the Neapolitan, Sannazaro. Behind them is Ariosto, conversing with one of the Muses, and further on Antonio Tebaldeo, one of Raphael's most intimate friends. Thus the great modern writers, the creators of the national literature of Italy, are associated with the famous poets of antiquity. 1 It has often been asked why Raphael, instead of placing the legendary lyre in the hands of Apollo, represented him playing the violin. According to Passavant (Raphael, vol. i. p. 119), he was led to commit this anachronism either by the Pope or by some other great personage who was anxious to have the portrait of some skilful player, possibly of Giacomo Sansecondo, whom Castiglione, in his Courtier, eulogises as so accomplished a musician. This is very far-fetched, for Pinturicchio, in his frescoes in the Borgia rooms, had already represented Music under the figure of a young woman playing the violin (Pistolesi, II Vaticano descritti, voi. iii.). Lo Spagna, in his Magliana frescoes, now in the museum of the Capitol, always substituted the violin for the lyre. Raphael was also guided in his choice of this instrument by special considerations, for the lyre had already been placed in the hands of one of the Muses in this fresco, and he had also painted Apollo with it in the School of Athens and in the Death of Marsyas. He could not be continually repeating the same motive. 2 Several authors believe that the portrait of Sappho was that of the famous Roman courtezan Imperia, the friend of Agostino Chigi, who died on the 15th of August, 1511, when only twenty-six years old (Rio, Michel- Ange et Raphael, p. 171). 272 Raphael. Virgil, in his description of the Elysian Fields, tells us of the Shades who sang in chorus a hymn of gladness in honour of Apollo, as they lay recumbent amid a grove of sweet-scented laurels watered by the Eridanus. Among them were the pious singers who had sung verses worthy of Phoebus, those who had STUDY EOK THE CALLIOPE OE THE PARNASSUS. beautified life by their inventions in art, and those whose good deeds had kept their names green in the memory of man.1 Raphael seems to have been thinking of the Latin poet when he painted this picture, — suave, fascinating, 1 Eve'td, book vi. line 656 el seq. The Parnassus. 273 and full of lofty sensibility, which brings before us the inhabitants of an ideal world, detached from all earthly passions and interests. Raphael selected a very different kind of decoration for the wall which faces that on which the Parnassus is painted. It also has a window in the centre. In the upper part, he represented the three handmaids of Justice : Prudence, Force, and Moderation ; and these figures are connected by winged STUDY FOR THE DANTE IN THE PARNASSUS. (Albertina Collection.) genii, which animate a composition that would, but for them, be lacking m movement. As will be seen hereafter, a similar use is made of Angels among the Sibyls of the Pace. To the two lower compartments on each side of the window were accorded two purely historical subjects, relating to the codification of the Civil and the Canon Law, thus completing the apotheosis of Justice : The Emperor Justinian 274 Raphael. promulgctting the Pandects and Pope Gregory IX. promulgating the Decretals. It has been remarked with truth that in this last-named composition Raphael derived his ideas, at all events in the main, from the famous fresco of Melozzo da Forli, Sixtus IV. appointing Plaiina to tlie post of Librarian, formerly placed in the Vatican Library. Raphael's picture contains an innovation, the full significance of which he did not at first understand, but which eventually had a great influence upon him. Whereas in his former pictures he had rarely painted a portrait from life, he here represented Gregory IX. under the features of Julius II., in company with Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, the future Leo X. ; Alessandro Farnese, the future Paul III., and another prelate of that day, Antonio del Monte. In this he was following the example of the KAfliAEl.,.: PRUDENCE, FORCE, AND MODERATION. Florentine painters of the fifteenth century, and notably of Masaccio, to the study of whose compositions he had devoted considerable time and attention. The frescoes on the vaulted ceiling are quite worthy of those on the walls, and, like the latter, are remarkable for their nobility of style, their splendid colour, and their marvellous comprehension of decorative effect. These qualities are the more striking if we compare Raphael's work with that of Sodoma, who, as we have seen, preceded him in the decoration of the Camera delta Segnatura, and who had decorated the ceiling with mythological subjects.1 1 It is very possible that the two artists worked at the Camera della Segnatura con currently, for we know that in October of 1508 Sodoma received a payment on account for the paintings which he had been executing in the Stanze. The Ceilings of the Stanze. 27; In leaving his rival's compositions untouched, except in the upper part of the ceiling, Sanzio offered a rare example of toleration, but he was also actino- in his own interest, for, much as we admire Sodoma, we are compelled to admit j^tl'l'"!!!'!!!!!!;!!!!^ Wllllllllllllliiiillil'l'1".!!''.;!!"1"' ia^uier.ju.. RAPH4f L.Bin-'' TRi:HOIU-..1-NWI;..IJ-.= GREGORY IX. PROMULGATING THE DECRETALS. that in this work he was not seen to much advantage. The destruction of his frescoes is not, therefore, calculated to excite much regret, if it be the case that he painted any for the Stanze, much less their making way for the T 2 276 Raphael. superior compositions of Raphael. Take, for instance, the angels or genii which form the supporters of the central medallion, ornamented with the arms ADAM AND EVE. of Nicholas V. ; nothing can be more stiff or less picturesque, for Sodoma attempted the most grotesque and unbecoming effects of foreshortening, instead The Ceilings of the Stanze.' 277 of confining himself, like Raphael, to a truly decorative arrangement. By some inexplicable caprice, he, who was so undaunted an advocate of progress, suddenly reverted to the style of Mantegno and Melozzo da APOLLO AND MARSYAS. Forli. He was no happier in the subjects which he borrowed from mythology, the hackneyed and often obscure ideas being combined with great weakness of style, with empty composition and loose and feeble 278 Raphael. drawing. The antique, instead of being a fruitful source of inspiration, with him became an arsenal from which he drew out by the handful motives which saved him the trouble of invention or thought. Even tho mere ornamentation (arabesques, tracery, &c.) is terribly commonplace. Fate THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON. was kind to Raphael in enabling him to heighten by contrast with these trite productions the nobility both in idea and style of his Adam and Eve, Apollo and Marsyas, Judgment of Solomon, and Astronomy. In painting the allegorical figures which ornament the four medallions ifpfep ntfi ''^f-tij.r'ii ¦>n;'.ci'.H Vi i »5%, . •r • * - ¦ Wrfff W' " W!'S*^^ffffmft1 * > . * . * ¦¦•* • „i|B fl-}-^l'i4i*4.,l..z^J, ASTRONOMY. 280 Raphael. of the ceiling, Theology, Philosophy, Justice, and Poetry, Raphael was treating a subject familiar enough. Thanks to the force of his genius and, in a measure, to the good fortune which enabled him, by the accident of his later birth, to profit by the example of men like Giotto, Andrea Pisano Lorenzetti, and Ghirlandajo, he was enabled to make his allegories nearly perfect. Never was Inspiration more vividly depicted than in the figure of Poetry, with her radiant brow and her wings trembling in the wind, while Meditation is incarnate in the grave and moving personification of Theology, or, to use the words of Raphael, "the knowledge of things divine'' (Divinarum rerum notitia). Besides the difficulties inherent in a choice of subjects which were new to him, Raphael had to take account of those resulting from the mode of painting. His only previous experience in fresco-painting was in the chapel of San-Severo at Perugia several years before. In the Vatican paintings we can follow his progress step by step. In the Dispute of the Sacrament there are several signs of inexperience, but in the School of Athens there is already that certainty of hand which has made Raphael the first fresco- painter of all time. M. Raymond Baize, an artist of considerable taste and well acquainted with the works of Raphael, makes some observations on this point which are worth careful consideration. "Raphael," he tells us, "began by drawing from the life — in red chalk, for choice — the figures which he intended to introduce into his compositions. These he transferred by squaring either on to canvas or cardboard. The cardboard being then laid over a sheet of paper, was pricked with the needle along the lines of the composition. The outline thus obtained was in its turn pounced with charcoal on to the wall or the panel, as the case might be. As soon as the drawing was clear, light touches of the brush fixed it, made it more precise, or corrected it. These final and most important touches were generally applied by Raphael himself, and he sometimes availed himself of the opportunity to modify his original composition. " In regard to the painting of the frescoes themselves, the mason spread the mortar early in the morning, according to instructions given by Raphael the previous evening. He of course began at the top, so that the mortar might drip without the drops of water falling on to the parts which were already dry. The next thing was to transfer the pounced drawings on to the fresh mortar, which was done by means of an iron pin. This done, Raphael began to paint, commencing with the high lights. The colours were placed in small pots, like those which may be seen in one of the Loggia frescoes and in the picture at the academy of St. Luke. Raphael made his arrangements so as to paint Rapidity of Fresco. 281 at one sitting all those parts of a figure or group which were to be of the same " value " ; if he had interrupted the work it would have been very difficult to avoid a break in the tones. " It is impossible to say how much time Raphael devoted to the execution of his drawings and cartoons, but so far as regards the mural pictures them selves, the bevelled edges of each day's work — an arrangement which was necessary in order that the mortar of one day should adhere to that of the next — enable one to follow the progress of the work step by step. I have \ calculated that, in the Incendio del Borgo, the large group to the left, composed of four figures all more than life-size, was painted in a week. In the School of) Athens each figure took less than a day. The architectural parts were executed) with prodigious rapidity, and as Raphael generally had a very large surface/1 prepared by the mason, the mortar was often still too wet when he began to paint, the consequence being that there are deep cracks in various parts of the portico. The after-touches, it is true, must have necessitated an addition of work, and this is specially noticeable in the Parnassus, where the sky is fresco, while the laurels which overshadow the Muses are a tempera, the consequence of which is that the colour comes off on the finger at the slightest touch. But about 1516 Raphael had become so proficientN in fresco-work that he rarely had occasion to go over the ground a second/ time. ' " In his Galatea, the lines of demarcation between the different parts of the fresco are very distinct, and an examination of them proves that the whole composition took from twelve to fifteen days." This wonderful facility explains how Raphael managed to paint from twelve to fifteen pictures or frescoes in a year, and how in 1518 he executed as many as twenty, or, perhaps, twenty-two. Every branch of art seems to have had its share in the embellishment of the papal apartments. Thus the monk Giovanni of Verona, the most cele brated artist in inlaid woods of the sixteenth century, was given the carving and veneering of the doors and wainscoting in the Camera della Segnatura. This eminent art workman appears to have resided at Rome from 1511 to 1514, and, according to his latest biographer, was prior of Santa-Maria Nuova.1 His work, unfortunately, had no very long existence, for the wainscoting which he had so laboriously adorned with views of cities (Spalliere di legno in prospettiva), was removed by order of Paul III., and replaced by the historical 1 G. Franco, De Fra Giovanni da Verona e delle sue Opere. Verona, 1863, in folio, p. 21. 282 Raphael. paintings, landscapes, caryatides, &c, of Perino del Vaga.1 The chamber was further embellished by a mosaic in " opus Alexandrinum." While Raphael's mind was occupied by the lofty thoughts to which we owe the frescoes of the Camera della Segnatura, feelings of a different kind were stirring his heart. For the first time in his life he knew what it was to love, and he endeavoured to allay his troubled feelings by expressing them in verse. Three of the sonnets composed at this epoch are still in existence, and it is worthy of note that they are all written upon the backs of drawings for the Dispute of the Sacrament. Raphael was probably trying his hand at verse for the first time, for the style is very laboured, the idea often confused and nearly always vague. So great is his delicacy of feeling, his reserve and discretion, that we can scarcely analyse his dominant idea. It is evident that he was continually troubled by the rhyme, and thus we find on a corner of one sheet, near a line ending with " polo," a number of words like " solo, volo, dolo," noted down, while after a line ending with " luce " the words " conduce, riduce, aduce," appear. It would be tedious to give the whole of these sonnets, but by way of a specimen we append a facsimile, a transcription, and a translation of the famous one in the British Museum : Un pensier dolce e rimembrare (il modo) Di quello assalto, ma piu grave £'1 danno Del partir, ch' io restai como quei ch' hanno In mar perso la Stella, se'l ver odo. Or lingua di parlar disciogli el nodo, A dir di questo inusitato inganno Ch' amor mi fece per mio grave affanno : Ma lui per ne ringrazio, e lei ne lodo. L'ora sesta era, che l'occaso un sole Aveva fatto, e l'altro surse in loco, Atto piii da far fatti che parole ; Ma io restai pur vinto al mio gran foco Che mi tormenta : che dove l'uom suole Disiar di parlar piu riman fioco.2 1 "We will not describe these compositions which were so long ascribed to Raphael, though Vasari (vol. x. p. 167) explicitly declared them to be the work of Perino del Vaga. 2 From the transcription into modern Italian, published in Herr Grimm's Das Leben Raphaels von Urbino. It may be given thus in English : — " Very tender is the recollection of my attack, but how. grievous it was to separate ! I was like mariners who have lost their star, if, indeed, I was not in a worse plight. Oh, my tongue, take speech, that I may tell the black treason of which love has made me the victim. Nevertheless, I thank him, and praise him. It was evening ; one sun had set but another arose in its place ; it was an hour which, favoured acts rather than words. But I was oppressed by the fire which consumed me ; the more my manhood desired to make itself heard, the more silent I became."— (See also L. Fagan, Raffaello Sanzio and his Sonnet, 1884. — W.A.) Raphael's Sonnet. 283 The key to the allusion contained in this sonnet is lost to us, but the meaning of the next presents less difficulty ; in spite of the inexperience .•**. •«¦¦ •** ^TtrnvK^rr''''1"'1 ' ¦¦^¦'r-''r'-r' ~"r ""i1"1^ /• ..Ofc iff ^ *, / ' ' ¦: 'W , The Mass of Bolsena. 293 enthusiasm of the crowd below is indescribable; some with folded hands prostrate themselves on the altar steps, some excitedly wave their arms to show their amazement, whilst others seem to be rushing frantically into the sanctuary. The whole is full of life, movement, and eloquence. But even here Raphael does not abuse his triumph ; he has placed in the angle formed by the steps a group of young mothers, who, like the Swiss to whom they form a pendant, have not yet perceived the bleeding Host. One of them is quietly caressing her infant, while another turns to learn the cause of all the tumult — in a moment they, too, will join in the general enthusiasm. The whole scene is admirable, and combines all the beauties of com position with those of eloquent expression, and to these are joined a warmth of colouring not before seen in Raphael's work. The influence of the\ Venetian Sebastiano Luciani, the representative of the tradition of Giorgione, did much to turn for a time Raphael's thoughts towards qualities in artN which, unhappily, his desire to rival the great works of Michael Angelo jj caused him soon to forget. The two last frescoes of the Stanza d' Eliodoro, the March of Attila and the Deliverance of St. Peter, were finished during the reign of Leo X. They ought therefore to be noticed in the chapters reserved for that Pope ; but, to avoid separating the descriptions of pictures that are themselves together, it seems better to notice them here. We shall see that one of them, at least, is connected with the history of Julius II. There can be no doubt that both the March of Attila and the Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple are allusions to the victories gained by the Papacy. The true Attila, says Roscoe, is the French king, Louis XII. Geraldi about this time addressed a Latin hymn to Leo X. celebrating the ex pulsion of the French under the same metaphor. He, too, compared Leo X. to Leo I. routing the Huns, but, adhering strictly to the legend, he did not introduce the two apostles whom we find in the picture, and he allowed the Pope's eloquence alone to have the credit of forcing the "Scourge of God" to retreat. Again, in 1514, we find that the Florentines, to com- memorate the success of the Italian arms, had recourse to an allegory which they called the Triumph of Camillus over the Gauls.1 Whatever the Pope's motive may have been in having the March of Attila painted, the choice of the subject was a happy one. It recalls one of the most brilliant successes of the Papacy after it had become the sovereign power iu Rome, and that a success due solely to moral force. What could be more 1 See Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X., vol. iv. p. 272 (1813). 294 Raphael. happy than the choice by the painter of a victory gained by papal eloquence in the presence of two opposed civilisations, that of ancient Rome, which was at its last gasp, and that of the invaders who were approaching their triumph ? Who thought at the time that ;but twelve years would elapse before the troops of a Christian Emperor would swoop down upon the Eternal City, with more ferocity even than the hordes of Attila, and give it over to pillage and rapine? The sack of Rome in 1527 was the barbarians' revenge for the insults heaped on them by Julius It. A fine drawing in the Louvre shows us the composition as it first occurred to Raphael.1 In it the Pope and his escort, instead of being in front and facing Attila as principal actors, are represented as spectators. They are advancing in the distance, but before their arrival in presence of the Hunnish king, the miracle has been accomplished by St. Peter and St. Paul. Attila is dazzled by the vision of the two apostles and holds a hand before his eyes. The warriors on the left, in the place occupied afterwards by the Pope, show their surprise by their gestures ; the rest of the composition differs but slightly from the fresco. A drawing at Oxford (Robinson, p. 225 — 227), which appears to us to be no more than a copy from a sketch by Raphael now lost, shows us through what numerous phases the Attila passed before the fresco was complete. The Huns are there represented dressed like Turks of the sixteenth century. Attila is haranguing the Pope, while in the drawing in the Louvre and in the final composition itself, he is represented as dazzled and terrified at the sight of the apostle hovering in the air. Lastly, and this detail is of great im portance, the • Pope (carried in an armchair instead of on horseback) bears a strong resemblance to Julius II., by whom the picture seems to have been ordered although it remained unfinished at the time of his death ; Raphael afterwards substituted for his portrait that of Leo X. who thus benefited by the initiative of his predecessor. We do not regret the changes carried out in the composition of this great work. It was necessary to condense the subject for the sake of dramatic effect. By placing the Pope in front of Attila, Raphael justifies the apparition of the two apostles who intervene in answer to his appeal. He has accentuated as much as he could the contrast between classic civilisation and the half-savage hordes whose arrival was a signal for waste and desolation. We may well say that in the Meeting of St. Leo and Attila there is more than 1 Braun, No. 235. Robinson (p. 225), and Springer (p. 204), have raised doubts as to the originality of this drawing. "We know, however, that it was in the Vendramini collection in Venice in 1530. (Reiset, Notice des dessins, p. 167.) The Deliverance of St. Peter. 295 mere flattery to the reigning Pope, there is the representation of a great historic event. The terrible scenes of the invasion have never been recalled more graphically or by a more energetic brush, and Raphael's genius for once raised official painting to the height of epic poetry. The Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison, like the Heliodorus and the Attila, contains an allusion to the successes of the reigning Pope, but the allusion is no longer obscure. It was Leo X., not Julius II., who gave this subject to his artist. The Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici having been taken prisoner in a journey from Ravenna, shortly afterwards succeeded in escaping under the most extraordinary circumstances, a year to the very day before his elevation to the Pontificate. It was this deliverance that Leo X. wished to symbolise under that of St. Peter. Vasari gives us a good description of this fresco and of the enthusiasm which it excited among Raphael's contemporaries. " The architecture of the cell," he says, "' is so grand and simple that other artists seem to put more confusion into their works than true beauty. But Raphael always endeavoured to represent such scenes as the one I have described with graceful perfection. He vividly suggests the horrors of the cell in which the old man lies bound with iron and guarded by soldiers. Equally well has he rendered the profound slumber of the guards and the dazzling splendour of the angel. The brightness emanating from the body of the latter is marvellous and seems to illumine, through the shadows of the night, the darkest corners of the prison, and to make the armour shine like burnished steel rather than paint. Nor is the figure of the apostle inferior. . . . The face of Peter looks like that of a man in a dream. One can see, too, the terror of the other keepers as the noise made by closing the iron gate reaches their ears. A sentinel with a torch is awaking his comrades, and the light is reflected on his armour, and in the corners into which it does not penetrate play the beams of the moon. As the Deliverance of Peter is above one of the windows, it is not so well lighted as the other frescoes. The daylight streams down from the window upon the face of the spectator, and its struggles with the painted illumination on the walls around have been so clearly anticipated and skilfully managed that one seems actually to see the smoke of the torch, the radiance of the angel, and the transparent darkness of the night. All this appears so natural and lifelike, and so great was the initial difficulty of the conception, that one can hardly believe oneself in the presence of a mere picture. The shadows and reflexes, the smoke and fire of the torches, the varied light playing upon the arms of the soldiers, are all so true that they prove Raphael to have been the painter of painters ; so far as the imitation 296 Raphael. of a night event is concerned, painting has never produced a more divine or more universally admired and appreciated work." Modern writers, however, are more severe, and consider that such powers would have been better employed upon easel pictures than upon fresco. Raphael is also blamed for having discarded unity of action, and for representing two different scenes in one and the same composition, Peter in Prison and Peter Liberated ; but these faults ought not to make us forget the dramatic power displayed, or to prevent us from considering it a representative picture. When Raphael commenced the decoration of the Stanza a" Eliodoro, the ceiling was at least partly decorated by frescoes attributed to Baldassare Peruzzi. Here again Raphael respected the work of his predecessor as far as the Pope's commands permitted, although his own work was sure to eclipse that which was already in place. Although the four subjects represented on the ceiling have now no affinity to the side frescoes, they at least, taken by themselves, form a homogeneous whole. All four are taken from the Old Testament, and recall the promises made by Jehovah to the people of Israel. They represent God Appearing to Noah, Abraham's Sacrifice, Jacob's Dream, and the Burning Bush} Raphael at this time saw only the grand and terrible side of the Old Testament. Later, in- the Loggie, he penetrated into the poetry of its oriental tales, and extracted from it ex quisitely graceful idylls. We have no fear of being taxed with presumption in comparing two of these scenes, God Appearing to Noah and the Burning Bush, with the great works in the Sistine. Raphael was at this time no doubt inspired by Michael Angelo, whom he has at least equalled in the first of the two compositions to which we refer. As regards the other two frescoes, some connoisseurs are of opinion (and their opinion continually makes converts) that they must be assigned to Giulio Romano rather than to his master. The caryatides in grisaille — greatly restored in 1702-1703 by Maratta— complete the decoration of the Chamber of Heliodorus. In these single figures Raphael has forcibly symbolised the power of the papal states. They are Religion, Law, Peace, Protection, Aristocracy, Commerce, The Navy, Navigation, Abundance, Agriculture, Rearing of Cattle, and The Vintage. Our engraving reproduces in all but colour a sketch for the figure of Commerce, now preserved in the Louvre. The original drawing is in red. To these allegorical figures there 1 Mr. Robinson (p. 228) goes so far as to say that the Burning Bush is amongst the productions of Giulio Romano, but this assertion is refuted with success by Herr Springer. Decoration of the Stanza d'Eliodoro. 297 are small corresponding pictures in bronze and gold. As they were much repainted by Maratta in 1702-1703 their description will not be of great commerce (Study for Caryatid in the Stanza d'Eliodoro). (Louvre. ) interest. The same may be said of tho small pictures in the embrasures of the windows, in which everything Raphaelesque has been restored and 298 Raphael. i'enovated away. One of them represents, after Diirer's engraving, the man with the brazen feet in the Apocalypse.1 We may repeat before leaving the Stanza d'Eliodoro, that it is conspicu ously free from those references to antique civilisation of which there are so many in the Camera della Segnatura. The arms and armour in the Attila, copied, as Vasari had already noticed, from the bas-reliefs of Trajan's Column, form the only exception. In this chamber Raphael seems to have been mainly occupied with purely pictorial questions, and to have been bent on proving himself a great colourist as well as a master of design. The painters of the Renaissance did not despise the most humble works of decoration. It was thus that Raphael, famous as he was, readily consented to paint above the fireplace of a room, said to be that of Inno cent VIII., the arms of Julius II. sup ported by two nude children. One of these figures still exists; it was be queathed by the painter Wicar to the Academy of St. Luke at Rome. Our engraving may give an idea of its beauty, though unhappily the original is greatly damaged. We may remark that this childish figure is in many ways similar to those placed at the side of the Isaiah in the church of St. Augustine at Rome. From a document preserved in the archives of the church of St. Peter we "find that Julius II. also confided to Raphael the decoration of the corridor connecting the Vatican with the Belvedere, and that, of the seventeen bays which form this corridor, Raphael had decorated one. before the death of CHILD SUPPORTING THE ARMS OF JULIUS II. (Academy of St. Luke, Rome.) See Passavant's Raphael, t, ii. p 136. THE MADONNA WITH THE DIADEM. (Louvre Museum.) Roman Madonnas. 299 Julius, for 200 ducats. For four others done in the time of Leo X. he only received 150 ducats each.1 According to a statement received from M. de Geymuller these pictures were intended for one of the two storeys then finished of the right arm of the corridor to the Belvedere. On the ground- floor, now converted into coach-houses, the Doric arcades form an open corridor. The first floor, now used as a studio for the mosaic workers, was ornamented with Ionic pillars, and lighted by rectangular windows. A considerable portion of this building fell down in the reign of Clement VII.,2 and it is probable that the pictures in question perished on that occasion ; thus only can we account for the total oblivion of so interesting a series of works. The decoration of the " Stanze " would have been sufficient to engross the whole life of a less able and prolific artist than Raphael. But in spite of the vast amount of painting in the Camera della Segnatura, and the Stanza d'Eliodoro, the frescoes in the pontifical palace form only a small portion of the work produced by Raphael between the years 1508 and 1513, in which latter year Julius IL died. During this period several altar-pieces were completed, such as the Madonnas di Foligno, di Loretto and della Pesce, and the Holy Family at Naples ; as well as easel pictures like the Madonna delict Casa Alba, the Aldobrandini or Garvagh Madonna, the Louvre Virgin with the Diadem, a fresco ordered by Goritz for the church of St. Augustine; the Isaiah; a number of portraits, Julius II, Bindo Altoviti, Federigo of Mantua ; the beautiful drawings for Lucretia and the Massacre of the Innocents, so grandly reproduced by the burin of Marc Antonio, &c, &c. Raphael was also busy at this period with works of archi tecture, as we shall see in our chapter dedicated to that branch of art. Let us examine in succession the pictures, frescoes, and engravings which belong to this, the most productive and the most glorious period of the young master's life. We shall commence with historical compositions, and we shall find that they all belong to the domain of religious art. Although in the Madonnas and Holy Families of his Florentine period Raphael has often sacrificed the expression of religious sentiments to that of more human feelings, such as maternal affection, the joys of youth, &c, in the compositions executed at Rome Religion reasserts her fullest rights, and the master returned to the traditions of the Umbrian school, but with a brilliancy and power of style which had little in common with the teachings ' See the Gazette des Beaux- Arts of August 1st, 1879. 2 Vasari, t. vii. p. 132. 300 Raphael. of Perugino. Working under the direction of the Pope and addressing himself to all Christendom, "Urbi et orbi," he gave to the fundamental doctrines of his religion all the elevation in the power of art. The immortal masterpieces which we have enumerated above, together with others, such as the" Madonnas della Scdict and di San Sisto, and the Holy Family of Francis I, show in turn Mary as the Queen of Heaven enthroned amid a glory of angels, and the young Mother of scripture embracing with virgin tenderness the Son who had so much to suffer. Never since the great and austere creations of the primitive Church, since the struggles of the faith in the Middle Ages, had painting told its story so eloquently ; grandeur of conception, beauty of form, brilliancy of colour, all unite in making Raphael's Madonnas the most perfect expressions of Christian art. Other compositions, of equal celebrity, complete the cycle. In the paintings of the Vatican the master has retraced the most remarkable events of sacred history ; in the Spasimo and the Transfiguration, the miracles and sufferings of Christ; in the cartoons the Acts of the Apostles ; in the St. Cecilia and St. Margaret the triumphs of the martyrs. Is there, in all the annals of religious art, anything, as a whole, so admirable ? In the Virgin with the Diadem, of the Louvre, Raphael shows himself desirous of composing a well-balanced scene in which figures and background should blend with perfect harmony. To the left is the "bambino," gently slumbering on a folded mantle, one hand resting by his side, the other placed under his head in an attitude both natural and graceful. Mary kneels beside him, and raises with one hand the veil which covers him, whilst with the other she draws forward the little St. John, whose fervour and infantine enthusiasm contrast well with the seriousness of the Virgin, who regards her Son with mingled tenderness and devotion. This composition is more pictorially effective than some of Raphael's works, and it appears as if, not content with the composition of a fine group, he was desirous of making all the parts of his picture help out the story; this intention he has carried out most skilfully, and the background, the principal feature of which is a fine old ruin, is much more important than usual. This is the first time we find any reminiscence of the antique introduced into his Madonnas, which have hitherto been entirely single-minded. The Madonna di Loretto, only known by its copies (the original having disappeared during the last century),1 was painted by order of Cardinal 1 It is generally supposed that the oiiginal disappeared about the end of the last century. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, however, declare that all trace of it was lost as early as 1615. (Raphael, vol. ii. p. 108.) The Madonna di Loketto. 301 Riario for the church of St. Maria del Popolo at Rome, where it remained a long time, together with a portrait of Julius II. The Virgin is here raising MADONNA DI LOKETTO. (From a copy preserved in the Louvre.) ' the veil which covers the child, whilst St. Joseph contemplates the scene. In one of the Madonnas of the Bridgewater Gallery, formerly in the Orleans 302 Raphael. collection,1 Raphael has again represented the Virgin at half-length, the infant Jesus lying in His Mother's lap, has taken hold of the veil which covers her head and is looking at her with affection. The Madonna della Casa Alba, now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, recalls, both in composition and style, the Madonnas of the Florentine period. Sitting on the ground in the midst of a rich landscape, Mary holds a book in STUDY FOR THE MADONNA DELLA CASA ALBA. one hand, while with the other she draws the little St. John towards her Son. The former is kneeling, and brandishing his little cross with childlike joy. The eyes of the Mother are turned fondly on the two children. We reproduce two drawings in the Wicar collection, by means of which we may study the method of the artist. His first model for the general 1 An ancient copy of this painting has recently been added to the National Gallery of London. The Garvagh Madonna. 303 grouping was a man, whom, however, we shall find transformed in the second drawing into a perfect Madonna, and in another step the final composition is completed. The Madonna of the Aldobrandini Family, which from the collection of Lord Garvagh has passed into the National Gallery of London, displays a severity which strongly contrasts with the grace of the Madonna delta Casa STUDY FOR THE MADONNA DELLA CASA ' ALBA. Alba. In this picture, one of the gravest and most noble of Raphael's works, is seen, more than in all the preceding ones, the influence exercised over the artist by the beauty of the Roman women, so different from those whom he had painted in Umbria and Tuscany. The model employed pleased him so much that he repeated her nearly without change in the Madonna with the Standing Jesus (collection of Lady Burdett Coutts). 304 Raphael. For beauty of conception, freedom of handling, and harmonious colour, the Madonna di Foligno, painted about loll, is greatly superior to the works wo THE ALDOBRANDINI, OR GARVAGH, MADONNA. (National Gallery, London.) have already studied ; and among all Raphael's Madonnas that of San Sisto The Madonna di Foligno. 305 alone can be placed above it. Seated in the clouds in a golden glory, her Son standing by her side, Mary, at once shy and happy, casts her eyes down towards the donor, Sigismondo de' Conti, who is kneeliDg below clothed in the superb scarlet mantle worn by the Pope's private chamberlains. Innumerable Angels surround the Queen of Heaven, making the air vibrate with their joyous chants. The Child, while playing with his Mother's mantle, follows the glance of her eyes, and smiles at the devout old man who worships Him. Upon the earth, which is illumined by a rainbow and covered with luxurious vegetation, St. John the Baptist and St. Francis are offering homage to the divine couple, while St. Jerome presents the donor to the holy Mother. Here we must quote the words of a contemporary, Vasari, who describes the Madonna di Foligno in terms to which posterity can add but little : — ¦ " One sees in St. John the Baptist," says Vasari, " the traces of the fasts which he had imposed on himself. St. Jerome, wrapt in thought and with eyes raised to the Madonna, has a face full of the wisdom of which he has given proof in his writings. His portrait is so life-like that it appears almost alive. The figure of St. Francis is not less beautiful ; kneeling with arms extended and head raised, he feels himself strengthened and consoled by the gentle regard of the holy Mother, and by the vivacity and beauty of her Child. In the centre of the picture, below the Virgin, and with his head raised towards her, Raphael has represented a lovely child holding a cartouche. Lastly, the landscape comprises all beauties and all perfections." What Vasari has forgotten to tell us is that the Madonna di Foligno is distinguished by warm and luminous colour, a quality which is attributed, not without reason, to the influence of Sebastiano Luciani, who about this time appeared in Rome, where his style excited universal admiration. This is not the only occasion on which we have seen Raphael affected by the work of this brilliant pupil of Giorgione, and we can understand how these proofs of esteem from so great a master deluded the ambitious Venetian into thinking himself a fit rival to Sanzio. The engraver, Boucher-Desnoyers, who, in 1802, saw the Madonna di Foligno transferred to canvas in the Louvre, has left us some technical details of this picture which are worthy of being repeated : " After all the wood had been removed from the picture I had the happiness of seeing its reverse side before the canvas was attached. This great picture was laid flat on its face, upon a table. Nothing was to be seen but a thin white film which looked like paste. Through it, however, I could distinguish the outlines of the figures drawn with a pencil. An important pentimento, or change .of intention, was visible. The position of the right hand of St. Jerome had been entirely altered, so that, to one looking at it as I did, it appeared as if x 306 Raphael. the venerable Saint had two right hands. Only one had been carried out in paint."1 The Madonna di Foligno was painted by order of Sigismondo de' Conti (died 23 February, 1512), and appears to have been commissioned in fulfilment of a vow. The bomb which is bursting in mid-air is an allusion to the dangers incurred by Conti during the siege of Foligno, his native town. From the high altar of the church of the Ara-Cceli, where it was first placed, this picture was taken to Foligno, thence to Paris by Napoleon, whence, after Waterloo, it returned to Italy and was placed in the Vatican, where it still remains. We leave with regret this work painted by Raphael during the brightest days of his youth : nevertheless, the work of which we are now about to speak, the Madonna with the Fish, is no less celebrated. The Madonna del Pesce is at once the most grave and the most touching of Raphael's Madonnas. A youth with long fair curls, the young Tobit, is about to present to the Virgin the miraculous fish whose liver has restored his father's sight. In his respectful fervour he hardly dares approach the throne, and the Angel who acts as his protector draws him. towards the Queen of Heaven. Mary casts on the suppliant looks in which nobleness and gentleness are combined, while her Son, rising on her knees, extends towards him His right hand as if to give him His blessing ; the other he lays upon the book which St. Jerome is reading. His meditations thus interrupted, the Saint looks across to the group on his right. This is the theme in all its grand simplicity. One feels inclined to believe that the painter has reproduced an actual scene. The faces and attitudes are most natural, there is great exacti tude in costumes and accessories, and when we look at the fish which the young Tobit holds in his hand we are convinced that the most realistic of the early masters could not have painted it with more truth. St. Jerome's lion has also been painted from nature, and, moreover, has been most carefully studied. These details have great importance, as they give to the composition that look of reality which astonishes and enchants us ; but although Raphael sometimes borrowed from his predecessors, he is far superior to them in harmony and freedom of movement, and in colour, which is brilliant even when compared with Velasquez and Murillo. " Those who regret with foolish sincerity," says Viardot in his Musics 1 Appendix to De Quincy's Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Raphael, 2nd edition ; Paris, 1853, p. 72. See also Le Rapport sur la restanraiion du tableau de Raphael connusous le nom de la Madonna di Foligno, par les citoyens Guyton, Taunay et Berthollet, Paris, pluvoise, anx.,4°. STUDY FOR THE VIRGIN WITH THE FISH. (Uffizi.) THE MADONNA DI FOLIGNO. (Vatican. ) x 2 THE MADONNA DEL PESCE. (Madrid Museum.) The Madonna del Pesce. 309 d'Espagne, " that Raphael is no colourist, may easily console themselves before this picture as before the Transfiguration, or even the Holy Family of Francis the First. Here we clearly see not the imitation, but at least the study of Fra Bartolommeo, who taught Raphael to be more vigorous in his colouring and more ample in his design, while he learnt in return the secrets of perspective and the subtle delicacies of the brush." The significance of the Madonna del Pesce has been often discussed. The most satisfactory explanation has been given perhaps by Passavant. It appears that diseases of the eye are and were very prevalent at Naples, and a chapel was erected where persons so afflicted were wont to go to pray. As Raphael's Madonna was painted for this chapel, it was natural that the artist should introduce into it the young Tobit with the fish which cured his father's blindness. As to St. Jerome, be probably was introduced as having translated the first book of Tobit and being chiefly instrumental in its being added to the Bible. This Madonna was painted about the close of the reign of Julius II., and the commencement of that of Leo X., for the church of San Domenico at Naples, where it remained until 1638, when the Viceroy of the King of Spain, the Duke of Medina, had it taken to his palace in spite of the resistance of the monks. In 1656 it became the property of Philip IV. of Spain. After these compositions the Madonna with the Standing Child (Passa vant, No. 90) is usually placed. It is now only known by ancient copies. Also the Holy Family of the Naples Museum (Passavant, No. 91), painted for Leonello de' Carpi and afterwards bought for the Farnese family, with whose other treasures it entered the Museo Borbonico. The only fresco painted by Raphael for a private patron in the time of Julius II. was the Prophet Isaiah in the church of St. Augustine, ordered by the Luxemberger Society, as we have before mentioned. Of this fresco Vasari tells a curious tale : " Bramante, who had the keys of the Sistine Chapel, took Raphael there secretly to study the work of Michael Angelo. After this visit Raphael began his picture of Isaiah over again, although it was already completed. It shows how greatly his style was ennobled by the sight of Michael Angelo's productions. When Buonarroti returned and saw the Isaiah he guessed what had happened, that Bramante had betrayed his trust in order to add to Raphael's glory." We do not know how much of this story is true, but it is obvious that the design of the Isaiah was greatly influenced by the style of Michael Angelo, so far as the restoration to which the fresco was subjected in the 16th century (1555) by Daniele da Volterra, will permit us to judge. At the time it was painted the Isaiah created far less enthusiasm than the 310 Raphael. group by Sansovino which is immediately under it, representing St. Anne, the Virgin, and the Infant Jesus. In looking over the poem, La Coryciana, written in honour of the chapel of St. Anne and its founder, we find only one distich which refers to Raphael's fresco, and that very vaguely : — Quid primum : Statuas, pictumve 1 an mirer utrumque zEque opus 1 iEque ambo miror et obstupeo.1 The force displayed in Raphael's Florentine portraits, and his facility in mastering the physical and moral characteristics of his sitters, appears to have obtained for him numerous orders from pontifical dignitaries, who are so often and so naturally anxious to transmit their features to posterity. The number of portraits painted by him in Rome was, nevertheless, very small, and we are told, that though in general so ready to please, he reserved his powers as a portrait painter for the popes and his own intimate friends. It would be difficult to name one single portrait of a stranger beyond those of the Violinista and of the young man in the Louvre. Julius II., the Duke Guidobaldo, Federigo Gonzaga, Leo X., Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici and Joanna of Aragon, were all either patrons or their intimate friends ; Bindo Altoviti, Inghirami, Bibbiena, Beazzano, Navagero, Tebaldeo, Castiglione and the Fornarina, formed his own entourage. All that others could obtain from him was their introduction as minor personages in frescoes, where sometimes, indeed, they appeared in very insignificant characters. It is supposed that the Pitti Julius II. is one of the first portraits done by Raphael in Rome. All the world knows this wonderful portrait, in which the artist has risen to the greatness of his model, and has rendered with a force and fire of which we should hardhy have thought him capable, the perspicacity, the energy, the passion of that man of steel who was known as Giuliano della Rovere. This is the true Julius of history, pondering his vast projects, never dejected by adversity, but prompt to take fire upon the slightest provocation ; and the picture is so real that, to use Vasari's words, " the great Pope seems to tremble as though he lived." Every one, as we have said, has heard of this picture, yet who knows where to find the original ? Many examples lay claim to the honour ; yet even if we put aside all but the two preserved in the Tribune of the Uffizi and in the Pitti Palace, the problem is still far from being solved. Twenty years ago the one in the Pitti was generally believed to be the original. " As for the original, it is certain, at least to connoisseurs, that it is in 1 In the number four of the Kunstf. freund, 1885, M. Dehio attempts to prove that the Isaiah is not by Raphael. His arguments are ingenious, but to me they do not seem to overthrow the evidence of Vasari. The Barberini Fornartna. 311 the Pitti," says Passavant ; " in both drawing and modelling this is superior to any of its rivals." Now, however, most connoisseurs pronounce in favour of the picture in the Tribune, and believe the first-named to be a Venetian copy. Ten years hence, perhaps, we shall assist in exalting some new claimant for the vacant honour. One is tempted to say, with the Abbe' du Bos, that " the art of identifying pictures by the artist's manner, is, after that of medicine, the most faulty of all the arts." 1 Be this as it may, whichever Julius II. we may finally recognise as the original,2 the picture remains one of the greatest creations of the sixteenth century. His portrait of Bindo Altoviti is very different. In place of a man worn and bent with age, we see a youth full of health and vigour, with long fair hair reaching to his shoulders, with frank blue eyes and a laughing mouth, betraying one of those expansive natures which Raphael loved.3 The portrait of Bindo Altoviti remained until 180S in the palace of his descendants at Florence ; it was then bought by Prince Louis of Bavaria, who placed it in the museum at Munich. There seems very little reason to doubt that Raphael was the author of the famous portrait in the Barberini Gallery known as the " Fornarina." It may be urged that the style of the picture does not lend itself to the support of such an opinion (this point we will discuss further on), but ancient and credible testimony in its favour enables us to pronounce strongly for it. We may quote first a letter, dated 1595, in which mention is made of a portrait by Raphael in the possession of the Countess Santa- Fiora at Rome, representing a nude female figure, half length. A second letter dated 1597, speaks of the same portrait as a "Venus." And finally in 1618, Fabio Chigi, the future Pope Alexander VII., formulates the theory that the woman of the portrait was Raphael's mistress.4 The comparatively recent date of this last hypo- 1 Reflexions critiques sur lapoesie etsur lapeinture, Paris, 1740, 2nd part, p. 384. a MM. Crowe and Cavalcaselle believe that the cartoon in the Corsini Palace, at Florence, is alone from the hand of the master himself. 3 Some authors, from a wrong interpretation of a passage of Vasari's, think tbat this is Eaphael's portrait. But this opinion, although it has had its supporters, ought to be absolutely rejected. Raphael was clearly not fair, as we can be convinced by examining the portrait that he has left of himself in the School of Athens. The resemblance of this picture to that in the Museum of the Uffizi on the one hand, and the opinion of Vasari on the other, leaves us no doubt. 4 Reumont, in L'Archivio della Societia romana di storia patria, 1879, vol. iii. p. 234 ; Bertolotti, Artisti in relazione coi Gonzaga, Signori di Mantova, pp. 30-31 ; Cugnoni, Chigi il Magnifico, pp. 30, 31. 312 Raphael. thesis has caused its rejection by many modern critics, but we think that an argument in its support which has hardly received the consideration it THE FORNARINA. (Barberini Palace.) deserves, is supplied by the existence in the Villa Lante, on the Janiculum Portrait op Federigo Gonzaga. 313 of an old fresco, representing the Barberini portrait together with a portrait of Raphael, and significantly coupling the two with portraits of Titian and bis mistress. That the portrait became popular at a very early date we have abun dant evidence from the number of copies extant, notably those in the Capitol, the Borghese Gallery, the Sciarra Gallery, and at Montepulciano. In this last, as M. Springer has pointed out, the copyist has draped the figure. As for the work itself, in the face of the girl immortalized by Raphael, there is much regularity of feature, except in the nose, which lacks refinement: but we miss the grace and nobility which we find in all other female portraits by the artist. Her expression is dull and heavy. In this even M. A. Gruyer agrees, for he says, "This portrait produces an impression very different from that usually experi enced in looking at Raphael's works. One is interested without being captivated, attracted without being greatly charmed. It is like an enigma. Raphael's hand is seen in the picture but his mind is not there." x From a technical point of view the work is a masterpiece. Never perhaps has Raphael given such delicacy and subtlety to his carnations ; never did he create a fuller life ; we can see the blood circulate ; we can feel the beating pulse. To all these portraits we must add that of Federigo Gonzaga, son of the Marchioness Isabella of Mantua. It was begun shortly before the death of Julius II. " Federigo," writes the agent of the Gonzagas to his master on the 11th January 1513, '•' commenced sitting for his portrait yesterday." Some days later, on the 15th of February, Giovanni Francesco Grossi, the prince's tutor, writes as follows of the portrait : " On the subject of D. Federigo's portrait I continually solicit Messire Raphael : he tells me to have no fear, that he is working at it hard, and is most desirous that it should meet with the approbation of your Excellency ; " but on the 19th of February the work was interrupted by the last illness of Julius II., and, Federigo leaving Rome immediately afterwards, the picture was never finished. In 1521, a year after Raphael's death, Baldassare Castiglione, in a letter to Federigo, who ha 1 meanwhile become Marquis of Mantua, speaks of the portrait that Raphael had taken of him in his youth. He writes : " I know of a portrait of you by Raphael which is now in Rome in the possession of one of Cardinal Colonna's servants. I endeavoured to buy it, but the owner could not be induced to part with it; so I made known the circumstances to the cardinal, telling him that your Excellency knew of the portrait, and that 1 Les Portraits de la Fornarina par Raphael, Paris, 1877, p. 11. 314 Raphael. I had received instructions to get it. In the end I think the cardinal will be able to procure it, and will present it to your Excellency." LUURETIA. (Facsimile of the engraving by Marc-Antonio.) Waagen and Passavant both thought that they had discovered this portrait in the Lucy collection at Charlcote Park near Warwick, but M. G. Campori, to Letter of the 1st of May, 1521. Published in I'Inventaire des autographes et des documents historiques composant la collection de M. Benjamin Fillon, series ix and x Paris 1879, p. 126. THE MASSAOKE OF THE INNOCENTS. (Facsimile of the Engraving by Marc-Antonio.) Death of Julius II. 315 whom we are indebted for many of these details, thinks that it perished at the sack of Mantua in 1630.1 It is also from the reign of Julius II. that the first engravings of Marc- Antonio date ; viz. the Lucretia and the Massacre of the Innocents. The Lucretia is justly considered a masterpiece. " The correctness of the drawing, the expression of grief, the exquisite fall of the drapery, the beauty of the landscape, all show that Marc-Antonio took infinite trouble with the work, and did his best to gain Raphael's approval. The landscape background is copied stroke for stroke from an engraving by Lucas van Leyden, representing the story of Susannah and the Elders. The Massacre of the Innocents, the studies for which are now in the Albertina Gallery, was treated about the same time as the Judgment of Solomon, that is about 1510. In it Raphael returned to a subject he had been attracted by in extreme youth. This attachment to ideas once held is a distinctive trait of his character. The winter of 1513 was a sad one for Raphael. On the 20th of February died the greatest of his benefactors and the greatest of the Popes, that Julius II. who had been the first to give him a task worthy of his powers ; he who, hard and stern towards others, had treated the young painter with almost fatherly affection. Raphael had been about four years and a half in the service of the Soldier-Pope. The mere recapitulation of the works executed in this short period fills us with admiration and amazement ; one would say that the fiery old man had imparted some of his own consuming energy to the artist, as well as some of his grandeur of conception. No doubt Raphael created great works during the reign of Leo too, but none which can be put before the School of Athens, the Dispute of the Sacrament, and the Miracle of Bolsena. 1 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1872, t. ii. pp. 357-359. CHAPTER XIII. Leo X. and the New Pontifical Court. When Cardinal Giovanni was raised to the Papal throne, the name of Medici had for almost a century been celebrated throughout Europe in con nection with literature and art. Cosmo, the " Father of his country," had willingly paid for the establishment of his power, not only with his regal fortune, but also with his personal sympathy with all the eminent men of Florence. He understood that for a simple citizen to make himself worthy to govern so illustrious a town he ought to place himself at the head of the intellectual movement which was then making Florence the Athens of Italy. During thirty years his influence was almost that of a king. He gave his treasures to found an academy, to build palace after palace, to fill those palaces with frescoes, and to found a museum of antiquities that had no equal. His name is indissolubly connected with those of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Michelozzo, Filippo Lippi, Niccolo Niccoli, Traversari, and Ficino ; in short, with all the great Florentine leaders of the Renaissance. Not content with energetically helping the onward progress of art, he also placed at the disposal of artists the most perfect existing models of classic antiquity. His collection, which was under the superintendence of Donatello, in time contained an un equalled store of marbles, bronzes, gems, and medals. Rome was Rome no longer, and Florence took her place. His son Pietro followed in his footsteps ; but both he and his father were no more than forerunners of the most brilliant of their family, the Maecenas of the fifteenth century, the Magnificent Lorenzo, the father of Leo X. Born and educated in such an atmosphere, a disciple of Politian, of Mirandola and of Ficino, intimate with all the illustrious men of science, art, and letters of Florence, it was but natural that Giovanni, the favourite son of Lorenzo, should have been from his boyhood initiated into all intellectual delights. His father neglected nothing that could improve his character. After Giovanni, then scarcely fifteen, had obtained the Cardinal's purple, Lorenzo, who had paid a fabulous sum for this honour (200,000 golden ducats, Leo X. 317 if we may believe his contemporaries), wrote him an admirable letter in which he recommended him among other things to prefer a true antique to the richest ornaments, jewels, or embroidery. " Silks and jewels," he says, seldom become a prelate such as you now are. Interest yourself rather in fine books and curious pieces of antiquity, ' qualche gentilezza di cose anticbe.' " x Good advice which it would sometimes be difficult for so young a cardinal to follow. Everything favoured his love of luxury, even in bis earliest days, when the nobles of Florence, to show the pleasure they felt in his preferment, presented him with a splendid silver service weighing 1,000 lbs., and valued at 15,000 florins. But fortune soon turned her back on the Medici, and for a time it seemed as if their star was for ever eclipsed. Their expulsion from Florence, the pillage of their treasures, the dispersion of their collections, were blows to crush the strongest. But Cardinal Giovanni never despaired. Remaining in Rome, he continued to be the ardent patron of arts and letters. His palace was dis tinguished by its severity of good taste, and for a time, at least, he continued to follow his father's teaching. It was a memorable day for the friends of his family, as well as for men of letters generally, when Giovanni de' Medici re purchased, for the considerable sum of 2,625 ducats, his father's library, which had been pledged by the Florentine Government to the monks of San Marco. He occupied himself also in forming collections of pictures and antiques. Albertini, writing in 1509,2 gives a description of his palace near the church of St. Eustachius ; it was especially celebrated for its library, which was full of pictures and statues. Amongst these pictures, as we learn from a trusty source, were several works by Fra Bartolommeo, amongst others a Nativity.3 Albertini mentions also, in terms of warm praise, a statue of a Satyr. A Latin poem, written about this time by the cardinal, shows how well he appreciated the beauty of expression in antique art. The poem in question was addressed to a statue of Lucretia, found in the Trastevere, and has been published by Roscoe ; 4 it is in very good Latin. The restoration of the church of the Navicella, from which Giovanni took his title as Cardinal, placed the son of II Magnifico among the first of the Roman art-patrons ; it has often been said that Raphael directed this work. With all this, it is not surprising that Giovanni, on mounting the Papal throne, was crippled with debt. , Happily the treasures left by Julius II. permitted him to indulge to the full his inherited love for magnificence. The election of the new Pope created, both in Rome and throughout Italy, indescribable enthusiasm. The people 1 Fabrioni, Laurentii Medicis Magnifici Vita. Pisa, 1784, t. ii. p. 311. 2 Opusculum, edit. 1515, fob 87, 88, 90. 3 Vasari, t. vii. p. 157, i Life and Pontificate of Leo X. ; vol. iv. p. 471. See also p. 226. 318 Raphael. were tired of the stern and warlike temperament of Julius II., and his suc cessor had long been known for his gentleness and liberality. His accession raised hopes of peace and tranquillity in the bosoms of all. Leo X. did not fail to come up to the estimate which the Romans had formed of his character. Seldom had a Pope shown more humanity and generosity. One of his first acts was to recall from exile the great enemy of his family, Pietro Soderini — the former gonfalonier of Florence — and to beg the " signory " of that town to give freedom to those who were in prison for their opposition to the Medici : among those who were thus liberated was Niccolo Machiavelli, the author of the Prince. The tolerance of the Pope in religious matters was equally great. At the entreaty of Bembo he absolved Pietro Pomponace, who was accused of denying the immortality of the soul. We also find him the declared opponent of slavery ; but still he did not allow his sympathetic feelings to interfere with the interests of his family. In all that concerned the greatness of the Medici he was the hardest and most egotistical of men; and in after years did not hesitate to commit a crime if it helped on the realization of his ambition. Considerations of his own personal safety had a similar effect upon him. This he clearly showed in 1517, at the time of the conspiracy of Cardinal Petrucci.1 But these faults took time to develop themselves, and in 1513 there was no one who felt anything but uumingled pleasure in the preferment of the Cardinal de' Medici. Leo X. deserved to be called " magnificent " quite as much as his father or his friend Chigi. His liberality had no bounds, he loved to give for the sake of giving, and to make others happy ; but, on the other hand, he never scrupled to obtain money by any means in his power, and few sovereigns have displayed more cleverness in accumulating treasure. His father's example seems to have stimulated him, but never to have warned him ; we now know that actual distress was often hidden under the prodigality of Lorenzo, and that he was often forced to have recourse to extraordinary shifts to meet his engagements ; once, at least, he robbed the public treasury. His son was not more scrupulous: He traded in everything, even in cardinals ; once he created a batch of thirty, and honours and appointments of every kind.2 He even made money by the conspiracies which were contrived against himself; for Cardinal Riario, who was implicated in the plot headed by Petrucci, bought his pardon by a payment of 50,000 ducats. 1 Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X. vol. ii. p. 102. 2 He instituted an order of knighthood comprising 400 members, besides 60 chamber lains and 140 equerries, who had to pay,— the first 90,000 ducats, the latter 112,000 ducats of gold. (Fabroni, Leonis X. Pontificis Maximi Vita 1797, p. 292.) Character of Leo X. 319 His contemporaries were dazzled but frightened- at the sight of the heaps of gold which poured into the Papal treasury, only to pour out with still greater ease. Let us look at some of the amounts. The Venetian am bassador estimated the revenue of Leo X. at about 400,000 ducats. But presents and the expenses of gambling absorbed at least 8,000 ducats a month, as much as the returns of all the vacant sees ; table expenses came to nearly as much, so that 200,000 ducats a year were spent over these two items.1 If Leo X. was lavish for himself, he was equally so for those about him. Ou the marriage of his brother Giuliano in 1515 to the aunt of Francis I. the Pope granted him, in addition to his monthly pension of 500 ducats, the town dues of Parma, Piacenza, and Modena, which amounted to nearly 50,000 a year more, and assigned also for his wife's use a monthly pension of 300 ducats.2 Again, on the marriage of his nephew Lorenzo to Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, and on the baptism of the son of Francis I., Leo X. sent the Queen and the bride presents which were carried by thirty-six mules : amongst these gifts was a litter ornamented with ivory, mother-of-pearl, and other costly materials. Their value was estimated at 300,000 ducats, about twelve million francs at the present value of money.3 But who can calculate the actual sums spent annually upon Greek refugees, destitute prelates, and on the Pope's personal friends ! The Florentines came down upon Rome as upon a conquered city, and pillaged it. " When those who had procured for him the richest of mantles," says Ariosto, in a famous satire, " are satisfied, the Pope will think of those who took his part against the gonfalonier Soderini. One will say, ' I was with Pietro, the brother of Leo X. at Casentino, and was nearly killed or taken prisoner.' Another will say that he lent him money. A third will write, ' He lived for a year at my expense : I furnished him with arms, clothes, money and horses.' As for me, if I wait until all the others are satisfied, I may be dying of thirst but will find the well dry." 4 And in fact, the pontifical court consisted almost entirely of citizens of the old Tuscan metropolis, the Pucci, the Tornabuoni, the Gaddi, the Acciajuoli, the Salviati, the Ridolfi, the Rossi, the Accolti, the Strozzi, the Ruccellai, to say nothing of the miuor retainers of the Medici.5 Generosity and benevolence were certainly the chief causes of the prodigality and ostentation of Leo. The Pope loved seeing people happy. One of his historians relates that every 1 Gregorovius, Storia della citta di Roma, t. viii. p. 275. 2 Fabroni, loc. cit. p. 281. 3 Ibid. p. 279. " Roscoe, vol. iii. p. 222. 5 Gregorovius, Storia della citta di Roma, t. viii. p. 274. 320 Raphael. morning he had brought to him a dish covered with crimson velvet, and full of gold coins ; these were given away during the day, and before evening the dish was always empty.1 This prodigality had for pendant an intellectual epicureanism such as Italy never before had seen. Every department of science and art, every branch of literature, obtained a share of the Pope's attention, without, however, causing him to neglect the interests of the Church, or still more those of the Medici. He was the incarnation of the Renaissance, not in its purest, but in its most brilliant form. However great the power of Nicholas V. and of Sixtus IV. had been, those Popes had never grouped round them so many illustrious men. From the very commencement of Leo's reign the pontifical court became the centre of a political and artistic movement. On one side were sages and writers — such as Ariosto, Bembo, Bibbiena, Sadoleto, Inghirami, Castiglione, Beroaldus, Beazzano, Tebaldeo, Navagero, Colocci, Acciajuoli, Aleandro, Andrea Fulvio, Raphael Maffei da Volterra, Paolo Giovio, Giovanni Lascaris, Aretino, and many others. On the other, men such as Bramante, Michael Angelo, and Raphael, surrounded by a phalanx of pupils who themselves soon became masters; then Baldassare Peruzzi, the two Sansovinos, Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo, Fra Bartolommeo, Sodoma, Signorelli, Sebastiano, Fra Giocondo, Marcillat, Giovanni Barile, Caradosso, and many others. It was more like an assembly of the gods than of simple mortals. The great Leonardo himself once mixed in the brilliant crowd, surrounded by his pupils, Beltraffio, Melzi, Salai, Lorenzo, and Fanfaia. We hear of his going to Rome in 1518 with Giuliano de' Medici, father of the Pope, and that he was granted, as a favour, rooms in the Vatican ; but that was not the only kindness received from the Medici by the Florentine painter, for a document still preserved in the archives of Florence tells us that Leonardo remained in the service of Giuliano till 1515, and was granted by him a pension of thirty-three ducats a month besides seven ducats for his pupil Georgio Tedesco. Historians who compare Julius II. and Leo X. generally favour the former. It is not to be denied that his devotion to the interests of his church, his personal energy and the grandeur of his conceptions, assign him a place apart in the annals both of the Papacy and of the Renaissance. The man who recommenced the building of St. Peter's, and commissioned the frescoes in the Sistine and in the Vatican chambers, stands first among art-patrons, ancient and modern. But there is more than one way of under- 1 Passavant, t. ii. p. 271. Leo's Magnificence. 321 standing and encouraging the beautiful. Elegance, grace, and magnificence ought to go hand in hand with nobility ; and in those qualities no one has equalled Leo. The universality of his knowledge and the refinement of his tastes made him rank as the first amateur of the sixteenth century. Fortunately, Raphael's portrait of him, which is now in the Pitti Gallery, shows him in this character. Who remembering the works begun under Leo X., the Loggia and the Cartoons, does not feel some of their intellectually voluptuous influence ? It is clear to all those who consider beauty as inseparable from austerity, that Leo X. had carried the ideas of the Renaissance to their utmost limits. No man was more gay ; his court was a perennial fite ; among all his worldly amusements the teaching was continually heard of his father's beautiful song, " The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne : " " Quant' e bella giovinezza, Che si fugge tuttavia ! Chi vuol' esser lieto sia, Di doman non ci e certezza, &c." 1 The coronation fites and those of the procession (il sacro possesso) by which each Pope's reign is inaugurated, are calculated to prepare the Romans for the greatest pontifical splendour. The "possesso" of Leo X. is the most magnificent recorded in history. Innumerable sculptors, architects, painters, embroiderers, and goldsmiths were employed. The direction of all wood-work was given to Antonio da San-Gallo.2 Some otherwise unknown painters, Brianxa, Balduino, Evangelista, and Alexo, superintended the execution of all works in paint. Amongst those to whose care the Pope confided the banners and other such ornaments, we find a native of Urbino called Girolamo, doubtless Girolamo Genga, Raphael's former fellow-pupil, who, as we learn from Vasari, worked in Rome.3 Raphael, without doubt, personally assisted ; and he had for justification the examples of two other illustrious painters, Benozzo Gozzoli and Perugino, who had not disdained, one under Pius IL, the other under Innocent VIII., to arrange the coronation fetes. Never before had Rome seen such a gorgeous display. In the streets through which the procession passed the houses were hung with the richest 1 " How lovely is our youth, and yet how fast it flies ! Those who wish for joys must take them now ; they must not trust to to-morrow." The song is given in Roscoe's Life of Leo X. ! From an unpublished document in the Roman archives. 3 Vol. xi. p. 87. Y 322 Raphael. tapestries, and at certain distances flowed fountains of wine; chapels and HI 1 TOKTRAIT OF LEO X. (Pitti Palace.) triumphal arches were decorated not only with foliage and flowers, but with Leo's Magnificence. 323 statues, with pictures specially painted, and even with valuable antiques. Two arches were especially distinguished by the novelty of their decoration. One of them, in front of the Palazzo della Valle, had upon it a number of busts and statues of Ganymede, Venus, Bacchus, Mercury, and Hercules. The other, decorated by the Roman patrician Evangelista de' Rosci, upheld an alabaster Diana, a Neptune armed with a trident, an Apollo and Marsyas, Mercury, Pluto, and the busts of a dozen emperors.1 The coronation and the procession were but the prelude to other fetes not less dazzling. Those that were given, two months later, in honour of Giuliano de' Medici, gave the Romans a further opportunity of displaying their attach ment to the Pope and their love of pageantry. Six of the most celebrated artists of the time were commissioned to paint the scenery. Peruzzi's Treachery of Tarpeia wa.s universally admired.'2 Then came the triumphal entry of Leo X. into Florence, another dazzling fete, which put all the Tuscan artists on their mettle. Vasari describes some of the ephemeral masterpieces to which this fete gave birth. Among their authors were Baccio da Montelupo, Giuliano del Tasso, the elder Antonio da San-Gallo, Baccio Bandinelli, Granacci, Aristotele da San-Gallo, Rosso, Jacopo Sansovino, Perino del Vaga, and Andrea del Sarto. The same year the meeting of Leo X. and Francis I. at Bologna was an excuse for more rejoicings, and the courts of the Pope and the King rivalled each other in magnificence. For the first time Leo X. met a sovereign who was as passionately fond of beautiful things as he was himself; and Francis, thinking discretion to be a quality unworthy of a prince, calmly asked his host to present him with the Laocoon.3 One can imagine the feelings of Leo X. and his court. Give up the Laocoon, the joy and pride of the New Vatican ! Hurriedly they ordered a copy to be made, and so contrived to avoid the catastrophe. In his passion for triumphal fetes the Pope was met more than half-way by his subjects, who were no longer contented with the old imperial cry of " Panem et circenses." Most of Leo's predecessors had annually celebrated in the Piazza Navona the magnificent " feste agonali." Leo thought the management of these rejoicings no unfit work for the papal librarian, and he therefore ordered Inghirami to make the necessary arrangements. According to a document published by M. H. Janitschek,4 he chose for the subjects of his painted decorations those virtues which, as he imagined, were most appreciated by his master: Friendship, 1 Cancellieri, Storia de' solenni possessi de' sommipontefici. Rome, 1802, pp. 60 et seq. 2 Vasari, t. viii. p. 224. 3 Alberi, Relazioni, 2nd series, t. iii. p. 116. 4 Repertorium fiir Kunstwissenschaft, t. ii. pp. 416, 417. Y 2 324 Raphael. Gaiety, Benevolence, Magnanimity, Liberality, Magnificence, Temperance, etc. Eighteen chariots were ornamented with allegorical figures executed by able artists, amongst whom was PeUegrino of Modena. In delicate allusion to the Pope's name, there was on one car a Lion licking the foot of a Slave— Benevolence ; and on another, two Lions drawing the chariot of Eternity. During the Carnival more exciting amusements were provided. In 1519, a bull-fight, which ended in the death of three men and five horses, was enthusiastically approved. The most unique, perhaps, of all the fetes organised by Leo X. was one in which Baraballo da Gaiita, the least scrupulous poet of the time, was the hero. This grotesque personage was so impressed with his own greatness that he thought himself a second Petrarch, and his one ambition was to be crowned on the Capitol. The Pope and his suite accepted the idea gleefully, and the fete day of the Saints Cosmus and Damianus was fixed upon for the ceremony. It was decided, in order to give additional ielat to the affair, that Baraballo should be dressed as a triumphant Roman general, and mounted on an elephant which had been presented to the Pope by the King of Portugal. In vain the poet's family, who were of distinguished rank in Gaeta, sent him messages imploring him to abandon his ridiculous project. Baraballo, thinking that their remonstrances came from jealousy, only repaid them with reproaches. The day arrived, and he was conducted to the Vatican, and placed on the gigantic quadruped. It would be difficult to describe the mirth excited by the sight of this old man, with his snow-white hair, clad in a gold- embroidered purple robe, passing through the streets on his elephant amidst the shouts of the people and the bray of trumpets and tambourines. At the bridge of Saint Angelo the elephant, wiser than its rider, refused to lend itself any longer to the public diversion, and Baraballo was forced to dismount. Thus ended a memorable ceremony, which was long the talk of Rome.1 Leo wished Raphael to perpetuate the remembrance of it, and Giovanni Barile carried out the young painter's design in a mosaic which still exists over the door of the Camera della Segnatura. The old poet is seated on a throne supported by an elephant, and bearing the inscription : POETA BARRABAL. Baraballo himself disappeared from the scene after this adventure, but the elephant continued to play a conspicuous part at the papal court. It had the honour of being painted by Raphael in a picture of colossal dimensions. The animal died in 1516, and Leo, to assuage the grief of the people, had it 1 Roscoe, t. iii. pp. 370, 372. Leo's Magnificence. 325 painted by his favourite artist on a high tower at the entrance to the Vatican. Below the portrait was the following inscription : — JO. BAPTISTA BRACONIVS AQVILANVS A CVBICVLO ET ELEPHANTIS CVRjE PR.EFECTVS POSVIT MDXVI. 8 JVNII LEONIS X. PONT. ANNO QVARTO RAPHAEL VRBINAS QVOD NATTJRA ABSTVLERAT ARTE RESTITVIT.1 Some may think the acceptance of such a commission lowering to the dignity both of Raphael and his art. But the painter could console himself by the reflection that the Pope's chamberlain, Giovanni Battisti dell' Aquila, had to look after the elephant. It was not, therefore, astonishing that the Pope's painter should do its portrait. The Vatican, and sometimes the castle of St. Angelo, were the scenes of other fetes, more private and therefore more interesting. Leo X., faithful to the traditions of his family, adored comedy, and did not disdain to take part in the Calandra of Bibbiena and in the Suppositi of Ariosto.2 Painting, as we have seen, played a principal part in these representations. Raphael saw nothing undignified in undertaking the scenery of the Suppositi. He could justify himself by many illustrious examples. Had not Mantegna in 1501 painted the cartoons of the Triumph of Ccesar and the Triumph of Petrarch in the theatre of Mantua Is In 1513, when the Pcenulus of Plautus was given in honour of Giuliano de' Medici, created a Roman prince, did not Baldassare Peruzzi paint the scenery for the theatre erected on the Capitol ? A little later the same artist painted scenes for the Calandra} The intervals between the fetes and the theatrical representations were filled up by splendid banquets. The Pope spent 8,000 ducats a month on his table.5 Yet all his biographers describe it as having been of the simplest character, as he gave to his guests neither expensive wines nor delicate viands. 1 Cancel! ieri, Storia de' solenni possessi de' sommi pontefici, p. 62. 2 See the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1863, vol. i. pp. 443 et seq. 3 Campori, Lettere artistiche inedite. Modena, 1866, p. 2. 4 Vasari, t. viii. p. 227. 5 Under Pius II. (1458-1464), these expenses did not exceed 250 ducats a month for the Pope's table and that of the 270 or 280 persons who formed the court. Under Alexander IV. they rose to no more than the sum of 700 ducats a month. 326 Raphael. Intellectual pleasures were foremost even at his feasts ; when any one gave him a composition, either in prose or verse, he at once read and discussed it; and the rapidity of his judgments amazed his companions as much as their correctness.1 To complete the picture of this gay and worldly existence, we must not omit to mention the hunting expeditions of which Leo was so passionately fond. Those which took place at the Villa Magliana and in the country about Viterbo are still famous in the annals of venery. The court, of course, followed the lead of its master, and Rome seemed almost to have returned to the time of paganism. The banquets given to the Pope by Agostino Chigi displayed a pomp worthy of the Roman Empire itself. In the biography of his grandfather, Fabius Chigi, the future Pope Alexander VII., has devoted a chapter to these festivities. The feast given in 1518 by the Siena banker to Leo X., to fourteen cardinals, and numerous ambassadors, deserves special mention. It took place in the famous stable just completed by Raphael. We may premise that it took place before the rightful four-footed owners had taken possession. The walls were hung with superb tapestries of golden tissue, which concealed the racks and mangers. On the floor was laid a gorgeous silk carpet made in Flanders. The repast cost 2,000 golden ducats,2 and Leo X., amazed at all this magnificence, said to his host : " Agostino, your banquet has made me afraid of you." " Do not alter your feelings, Holy Father/' replied the artful banker, " this place is more humble than you think," and, raising the hangings, he showed his Holiness that the dining-hall was no more than a stable. Leo laughed good- humouredly at this rather dangerous pleasantry, and promised to come again. Upon the same occasion Chigi gave a better proof of his savoir-faire. Eleven massive silver plates of great weight having disappeared, doubtless stolen by some of the Pope's retinue, Chigi ordered the fact to be kept secret, to avoid annoyance to his guests. As soon as the feast was over, a hundred horses took their places in the hall. In a second banquet given to the Pope a few months later, Chigi showed that he possessed wit as well as a love of magnificence. The feast was held in his pavilion upon the bank of the Tiber, and each splendid dish, as it was emptied, was cast by the servitors into the water, which was as much as to say that Chigi was so rich in silver plate that he could afford new dishes for each course. The wonder of the guests was great. They did not know that their cunning host had spread nets below the surface of the yellow water, and that, 1 Roscoe, vol. iv. p. 510. 2 Among other things, there were two eels and a sturgeon which cost 250 ducats. Leo's Magnificence. 327 after the feast, his servants would go a-fishing for silver. At a third banquet the Pope himself, twelve cardinals, and a crowd of prelates, were served upon silver dishes, each of which bore the arms of him before whom it was placed. In applauding all this rather vulgar magnificence, Leo X. was a traitor to the teachings of his own family. The ostentation of the Siena banker had little in common with the refined luxury of Cosmo, the " father of his country," of his son Pietro, or of his grandson Lorenzo il Magnifico. The Medici palaces had sheltered as many treasures as the villas of Chigi, but a delicate taste and a true love of art had alone dictated their collection. Before these amusements, before these excesses, worthy of ancient Rome, moralists veiled their faces and gave vent to sinister predictions. Strangers more especially heaped reproaches on the Roman court. One of the most noble and sympathetic among them, Ulrich von Hutten, who visited Rome in 1516, was so indignant at the frivolity and luxury Which he saw on every side that he wrote a long series of sarcastic epigrams, and published in the same year his famous Epistolce obscnrorum virorum, that thunderbolt which presaged the storms of the Reformation. No amusement seemed too profane to the Papal court. The more severe historians go so far as to accuse Leo X. and those who surrounded him of paganism. This accusation springs from a misconception of the true character of the Renaissance. Intellectual culture and the imitation of the antique went so far as to become an intellectual debauch, but actual beliefs remained unaltered, the paganism of the time was merely a matter of form. The preachers who, before the Pope, invoked the ancient gods and goddesses to the great scandal of half the audience, did so with no wrong intention.1 But although these revivals did not, from the religious point of view, play the part which has sometimes been attributed to them, none the less did they profoundly affect both literature and the arts. As to the former the harm had already been done before the time of Leo X., and the attempts of Bibbiena and Ariosto had rather the effect of restoring her rights to the vulgar tongue, than of taking them away. But as to art it was different. Here the influence of Leo X. and of his family in favour of the antique was indisputable. A few figures will be of use in showing the share which artists obtained in the liberality of the Pope. He devoted for a time an annual sum 1 " Sermonem habuit quidam scholaris Narniensis satis scholastice et potius gentilitio more quam christiano, invocans deos deasque in exclamatione, quod multi reprehenderunt et irriserunt." (Diarium of Paris de Grassis, Bibliotheque Nationale, Fonds Latin, 5165, vol. iii. fol. 570.) 328 Raphael. of sixty thousand gold ducats — nearly three million of francs, about £120,000 — towards the rebuilding of St. Peter's. The completion of the Loggie, the building of the churches of San Giovanni Fiorentino and of San Lorenzo at Florence, of the Villa Magliana, and of that at Loretto, and many other great works, also involved enormous sacrifices. Then came the purchase of rich stuffs, of valuable furniture, and of jewels. Tapestries alone absorbed at least 50,000 ducats: 16,000 for the scenes from the Acts of the Apostles; 20,000 for those from the Life of Christ — not including the cartoons, &c. ; while immense sums were spent upon mere curiosities — 1,000 ducats for a clock and some musical instruments bought of Conrad Trompa of Nuremburg; 1,500 ducats for a narwhal's horn. The decoration of the Vatican was, all things considered, the least expensive of his undertakings, as Raphael received but 1,200 ducats for each room. Musicians were equally well treated. The famous improvisatore Bernardo Accolti, surnamed Unico Aretino, whom we have already encountered at the court of Guidobaldo, received such good pay from the Pope that he purchased for himself the title of Duke of Nepi. A Jewish lute-player, Giammaria, obtained the title of Count and a castle.1 The singer, Gabriel Merino, acquired still greater distinction, as Leo named him Archbishop of Bari.2 In face of all this, we can hardly treat as a fable Vasari's assertion that Raphael hoped and wished to be made a cardinal. It was truly a golden age for all who cultivated, however humbly, the noble art of music. Two quite unknown artists received each 276 ducats a year, only 24 ducats less than the sum assigned to Raphael for superintending the works at St. Peter's.3 The papal " pifferi " received eight, ten, and even fifteen ducats a month,4 while architects and sculptors of the rank, of Giovanni Barile, Antonio da Ponte a Sieve, Andrea Milano, and others, received no more than five. The richest presents never ceased to pour down upon the disciples of Euterpe. On the 27th August, 1519, the singers, " pifferi," trumpeters, jugglers, &c, were gratified by a present of 200 golden ducats.5 We may observe, that at no previous epoch had the system of fees been so universal in Rome. Voung (he was only thirty- eight), debonnair, and extravagant, Leo rapidly transformed the Roman Court into a reflection of his own pleasure-lovino- self. 1 Gregorovius, t. viii. pp. 403, 427. 2 Roscoe, vol. iv. p. 393. 3 Archivio storico italiano, 1866, t. iii. pp. 226, 233. 4 II Buonarroti, 1871, pp. 246, 247 s Ibid. loc. cit. Giuliano de' Medici. 329 A golden age succeeded one of iron. The warlike virtues of Julius II. were succeeded by polished manners and the most brilliant qualities of modern civilization. But the new Pope was a clever politician, and he did not fail to conciliate the relations and favourites of his predecessor. The Duke of Urbino and Cardinal Riario were marked for ruin indeed, but at a convenient season. Leo lost no time in rewarding his own friends and compatriots. The day after his election, Bibbiena was appointed papal treasurer, and six months later received a hat. Innocenzio Cibo and Giulio de' Medici, the Pope's nephew and cousin, obtained similar promotion. Bembo and Sadoletto became apostolic secretaries. The Florentines in time secured all the best appoint ments, and Rome became little more than a suburb of Florence. First among the personages distinguished by their birth or talent was the younger brother of Leo X., Giuliano de' Medici, whose lofty mind and noble character made him a truly great man. It was a strange thing to see a member of this ambitious family preaching disinterestedness and preferring intellectual pleasures to worldly grandeur. Placed at the head of the Florentine government after the re-establishment of the Medici in 1512, Giuliano soon resigned the post and retired into private life. But the greatness of his brother did not allow of his living in seclusion, and in 1515 he was created Captain-General of the Church amid universal enthusiasm. When Leo X. and Francis I. became allies, he was granted the title of Due de Nemours, and the hand of a princess of Savoy, the king's aunt. Unhappily this sage and wise counsellor, who might have exercised so good an influence over his brother, left him too soon; Giuliano was only thirty-eight when he felt his end approaching. His last act was worthy of his noble life, and ought to have been a lesson to his house, as it has been admired by posterity. Two days before his death he summoned the Pope, his brother, to his side, and implored him to renounce his designs against Urbino, reminding him of all the kindness their family had received from that of Duke Guidobaldo. The Pope simply replied, " Giuliano, think of how to get well ; it is not the time to speak of such matters," and notwithstanding the entreaties of his dying brother, he refused to make any promises.1 Both painting and sculpture have immortalised the features of Giuliano de' Medici. A short time before his death Raphael, with whom he had been on intimate terms ever since his stay in Urbino,2 painted his portrait. A copy 1 Alberi, Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato, 2nd series, t. iii. p. 51. 2 When Giuliano became Due de Nemours, and was occupied with his household, he did not forget Raphael. The name of the Umbrian artist stands among those of his friends, in 330 Raphael. of the picture, unfortunately much damaged, was found a few years ago in the possession of the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia. The statue of Giuliano has been more fortunate ; a masterpiece of Michael Angelo, it is still in the famous chapel of the Medici. Fra Giacondo and Leonardo da Vinci were also intimate with the Pope's brother. We know that Leonardo accompanied him to Rome in 1513, and remained in his service until 1515; and it was doubtless owing to his recommendation that Leo accorded to him such a warm welcome. Very different was Lorenzo, the nephew of both Leo and Giuliano and the worthy father of Catherine de' Medici. Not content with almost unlimited authority at Florence, he never ceased to dream of becoming titular sovereign prince. The Venetian ambassador to the Holy See describes him as another Cassar Borgia,1 but without the energy and audacity which have given to the son of Alexander VI. a kind of epic grandeur. It was he who, for his own profit, induced his uncle to undertake the odious expedition against Urbino; a crime which disgraced his reign, exhausted his finances, and plunged Italy into new troubles before she had recovered from the turmoils of Julius II. Lorenzo did not live to enjoy the fruits of his plots. He died in 1519, at the age of twenty-five. Lorenzo de' Medici occupies a conspicuous place in the history of art. He was the original of Michael Angelo's Pensieroso. Raphael, too, was often obliged to serve the same sinister patron, the man who had despoiled his , benefactor, Francesco-Maria della Rovere. He sketched his portrait for a medal which was struck iu his honour; and it was for Lorenzo that he painted the Holy Family of Francis I. and the St. Michael. The Pope's cousin, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the future Clement VII, also exercised great influence over Leo. The commission for the Transfigura tion and the building of the Villa Madama ensures him the gratitude of posterity. He, alone of all the Medici, kept a just balance between the two rivals who at this time were disputing the crown of art : for without ceasing to admire Raphael he had the courage to appreciate Michael Angelo. It was under bis auspices that the great artistic tournament was held between Raphael on the one hand, and the friend and champion of Buonarroti, Sebastiano of Venice, on the other. Among the many relations and friends of Leo X. we must also mention Franceschetto Cibo, his brother-in-law, and his son Innocenzio, whom he made a cardinal; another nephew, Lodovico Rossi, whom Raphael, in his celebrated a list made in 1515, and signed by Giuliano (State Archives of Florence, Strozzi No. 10, fol. 179). ' 1 Alberi, loc. cit. Leo's Court. 331 portrait in the Pitti, has painted standing at the Pope's elbow. All these people were remarkable for their love of display. We have already made acquaintance with a vast number of prelates, diplomatists, and bankers attached to the Roman Court. But amono- the friends and patrons of our painter we must not forget Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci. It was he who ordered the St. Cecilia ; and Raphael also executed his portrait. In later years Pucci was connected with Perino del Vao-a — who decorated, by his order, the Church of the Trinita del Monte 1 — and with Michael Angelo, whom he commissioned to make designs for a bridge, and also for a church.2 With Michael Angelo he seems indeed to have been very intimate, calling him Carissimo quanto fratello — '• dear to me as a brother." Giannozzo Pandolfini, bishop of Troja, was another of Raphael's friends and patrons. His portrait was introduced into the Coronation of Charlemagne, and for him Raphael designed the famous palace in the Via San-Gallo at Florence. For Giovanni Battista Branconio dell' Aquila, Raphael built the beautiful Palazzo del Borgo and painted the Visitation, which is now in the Museo of Madrid. Branconio was one of Raphael's executors. One of the Pope's doctors must also be included among the friends of the painter, who built a palace, for him which may still be seen in the neighbourhood of the Vatican. Among the numerous poets and scholars who formed part of the same circle, we may mention the Venetian Andrea Navagero, who was born in 1483, the same year as Raphael, and Beazzano, who was also a confidential agent to the Vatican. Finally we must not forget Antonio Tebaldeo, whose portrait Raphael painted, and Giacomo Sannazaro, the author of a famous poem, De partu Virginis. A letter of Bembo gives us a glimpse of the happy company making an excursion to Tivoli. " To-morrow," writes the apostolic secretary, " after twenty-seven years, I shall again see Tivoli, with Navagero, Beazzano, Castiglione, and Raphael ; we want to see everything, ancient and modern, and are going there for the amusement of Andrea (Navagero), who returns to Venice to-morrow after the sacrament." Archaeology was probably not the only subject of conversation during this excursion, of which further details would have beeD interesting. Leo X. was able to discern merit even through a humble exterior. It was he who brought to Rome the old savant, Marco Fabio Calvo, who exercised 1 Vasari, t. x. p. 149. 2 Daelli, Carte michelangiolesche inedite, p. 13. 332 Raphael. such an influence over Raphael. Born at Ravenna, in the first half of the fifteenth century, Calvo, one of the noble family of the Guiccioli, devoted himself early in life to the study of Latin and Greek, and afterwards utilised his knowledge of those two languages in translating Hippocrates and in various other researches into classic literature. On his deciding to remain at Rome, Leo X. created him first a prior and afterwards archpriest of San Piero in Trento, besides giving him other honours and a pension, which enabled him to devote his whole time to study. His contemporary Calcagnini, in a letter often quoted, calls Calvo an old man of stoic probity, whose courtesy equalled his erudition. We are told that he cared nothing for money beyond what was sufficient for his actual necessities, and that he shared with bis friends and relations the annual sum granted him by the Pope. His frugality was extreme. Like the Pythagoreans, he lived entirely upon vegetables. Calcagnini compares his house with the barrel of Diogenes. Notwithstanding his age and infirmities, he studied with all the vigour of youth. Raphael, who at this time amused himself by an imaginary restoration of ancient Rome, and wished to obtain the help of Calvo's antiquarian know ledge, took him to live with him, and tended him with a son's devotion ; and Calvo repaid the obligation by translating Vitruvius for him. We shall hereafter have occasion to speak of the works that they undertook together. Calvo survived his young friend, and in 1525 published his translation of Hippocrates. The sack of Rome, in 1527, brought upon him the severest trials. Made prisoner by the savage bands who poured down upon the eternal city, he was despoiled of all that he possessed, and as he was unable to pay the enormous ransom demanded of him, his tormentors dragged him with them wherever they went, until at last he died of hunger and fatigue in a hospital not far from Rome. His work, Antiqitce Urbis Romce simulacrum cum regionibus (Rome, 1532), appears not to have been published until after his death. Its dedication to Clement VII. may very possibly have been written some years before. Two other treatises by him, De nummis and Uncim divisio, are still unpublished, and are to be found among the manuscripts in the Vatican.1 A gathering of artists, such as had never before been known, added to the eclat of Leo's court. Bramante was the leader of this often insubordinate army, but he was now old and infirm, as were also his rivals, Fra Giocondo and Giuliano da San-Gallo ; their day was past, but the Pope still held them 1 "We have drawn up this notice with the help of Mazzuchelli's unpublished biography of Calvo (Cod. Vaticanus, No. 9263, fol. 275ro et seq. and Tiraboschi in his Storia della lettera.tura italiana, ed. Milan, t. vii. p. 984). Art in Leo's Rome. 333 in high favour. A new generation was springing up, composed chiefly of Bramante's scholars, amongst them Antonio da San-Gallo, Giovanni Francesco da San-Gallo, Aristotele da San-Gallo, Baldassare Peruzzi, and the numerous architects who were employed in the rebuilding of St. Peter's. Painting was also well represented, for, besides Raphael, we hear of Leonardo da Vinci, who executed, at the end of 1513 or the commence ment of 1514, two pictures for Baldassare Turini; of Fra Bartolommeo, who signalized the spring of 1514 by painting the Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which are still preserved in the Quirinal ; of Sodoma, who presented to the Pope a picture of the Death of Lucretia, and received a knighthood in return. About the same time Luca Signorelli again tried his fortune in Rome. Coming here shortly after the accession of Leo X., he hoped to gain favour by recounting the persecution which he had undergone in consequence of his devotion to the Medici, but in this he failed entirely. Michael Angelo tells us that he lent Signorelli eighty Juliuses, of which he never heard again.1 Timoteo Viti, Raphael's friend and fellow-countryman, also arrived during the early part of Leo's reign, and assisted, as we shall see, in the Sybils of the Pace. Besides Viti, we find an Urbinese, Girolamo Genga, also working among the assistants of Raphael.2 As for the eminent chief of the School of Ferrara, Benvenuto Tisio, better known as Garofalo, he only seems to have paid a flying visit between 1510 and 1512.3 But the chief place among all these painters must, be assigned to Sebastiano Luciani, the Venetian, who had already begun to give indi cations of that spirit of envy which poisoned his whole existence. Without at first daring to be at open war with Raphael, he yet painted the same subjects. As to Raphael's pupils, they now began to form a compact group which was rapidly to develop into a legion. The most promising among them were Marc Antonio, Giulio Romano, and Giovanni da Udine. Sculpture was represented by the great Michael Angelo, Raphael's illustrious rival, who, out of favour with Leo X., was working at the statues for the tomb of Julius II. But Leo X., who never gave much encouragement to sculpture, as it was too severe for his taste, confided to Buonarroti the com pletion of San Lorenzo at Florence, the patron church of the Medici. Decoration obtained many brilliant recruits under Leo X. The Sienese, Giovanni Barile, succeeded Giovanni of Verona, and was employed under Raphael in carving doors and other ornamental details in the Vatican Stanze. 1 Letters, ed. Milanesi, p. 391. 2 Vasari, t. xi. p. 87. 3 Catalogue of the Berlin Museum, p. 463, (ed. 1883). 334 Raphael. We hear also of his executing the frame for the Transfiguration, Raphael's last work. As this eminent artist, who was so much associated with Raphael, is but little known, we shall give here some particulars of his life, borrowed from the Roman archives. On 1st of December, 1514, Giovanni Barile was attached to the works going on at St. Peter's, with a monthly salary of five ducats. The brief containing his nomination mentions a wooden model made by him for the Basilica after the designs of Raphael.1 In 1519 the Sienese artist received eighty ducats for carving certain benches in the Sistine Chapel ; but he still continued to work, and down at least to 1521, at the recon struction of St. Peter's. He was in Rome in 1527 (6th January) repairing the wood carvings in the chapel of Nicolas V., and was probably one of the many victims who fell at the sack of Rome in 1527, as from that time all trace of him is lost. A member of the illustrious family of della Robbia, Luca the younger was also called to Rome at the request of Raphael. He executed the pavement of the Loggie and of several rooms in the Vatican. Amongst the gold and silver smiths Antonio da San-Marino was, according to BenvenUto Cellini, the first of his time ; Caradosso alone could compete with him. Antonio is interesting to us on account of his close connection with Raphael, a connection which his biographers have overlooked. Living in Rome during the latter part of the fifteenth century (he was born in 1492), Antonio combined the trade of goldsmith with the dignity of ambassador, as he represented his native country, the Republic of San-Marino, in its not very onerous negotiations with the Holy See. In 1509 we hear of him as one of the founders of the brotherhood of St. Aloysius, and in 1513 as remarkable for the magnificence of his decorations at the inauguration of Leo X. He exposed in front of his shop a fine antique statue of Venus, upon the pedestal of which he had written in letters of gold the following Latin verse, which seems to allude to Chigi's famous motto — Olim habuit Cypris sua tempora : — "Mars fuit, est Pallas : Cypria semper ero."2 (Mars has had his day, now Pallas hers : I, Cypria, shall flourish ever.) As neighbour and friend of Agostino Chigi, Antonio soon became ac quainted with Raphael. The painter presented him with a picture — the sub ject of which is unfortunately not stated — which Castiglione tried afterwards to procure.3 In his will Chigi desires his two friends to superintend the 1 Archioio storia italiano, 1866, t. iii. p. 218. 2 Cancellieri, Storia, p. 74. 3 Lettere pittoriche, ed. Ticozzi, t. v. pp. 239, 240, 242. Leo's Court. 335 finishing of his chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo.1 So great was Raphael's affection for Antonio, that he bequeathed to him a great portion of the lands that he had purchased near the church of Saint Blasius.2 The goldsmith did not long survive the painter ; he died in 1522. We must next mention Santi Cole Sabba of Rome and Gaio of Marliano. The former was goldsmith to the Vatican and also sergeant-at-arms to the Pope. It was his business to provide the golden roses and swords of honour distributed by Leo X.3 Gaio confined his attention mainly to jewelry ; he was also the head of the Milanese colony then in Rome. Benvenuto Cellini, who visited Rome in 1519, speaks of Gaio as being clever but presumptuous. With all these venerable scholars, these brilliant artists, and these prelates, distinguished, some for the sobriety of their character, some for their political abilities, some for their magnificence, were mingled a few grotesque in dividuals whose privilege it was to provide laughter for the Pope and his companions. Some of them enjoyed valuable offices. At the death of Bramante, the coveted place oipiombatore — custodian of the papal seals — was given to a certain Mariano Fetti, whom all his contemporaries agree in calling an arrant buffoon.4 The Pope caused his visage to be painted upon the curtain which was used at the performance of the Suppositi. But Mariano had something of more value than his character. It was he who entertained Fra Bartolommeo on his journey to Rome, and the grateful painter gave him the pictures of St. Peter and St. Paul, which were till 1870 in the Quirinal. Mariano also commissioned Baldassare Peruzzi to paint a St. Bernard in camaieu for his garden.5 Nothing was wanting: to the whole of that brilliant society but that feminine element to which the courts of Ferrara, of Mantua, and of Urbino owed so much of their prestige. At one time it was hoped that the marriage of Giuliano de' Medici would supply the want. Bibbiena allowed himself to rejoice prematurely at the prospect of at last seeing a lady presiding at the festivities of the court. " It seems to me," he wrote to Giuliano, " that yet a thousand years have to pass before the arrival of your excellency and your noble consort ; the court here awaits her with an impatience which is quite 1 Fea, Noiizie intorno Raffaele Sanzio da Urbino, p. 7. 2 II Buonarroti, new series, t. i. p. 101. s See Armand's Les Medailleurs italiens des quinzieme et seizieme siecles. Paris, 1879, p. 69. i 4 " In ecclesia Sancti Sylvestri, ubi frater Marianus, familiaris ridieularius ejus (Papse) habitat." . . . (Paris de Grassis, Diarium, Bibl. Nation., Fonds Latin, No. 5165, t. iii. p. 617.) 5 Vasari, vol. viii. p. 225. 336 Raphael. indescribable. . . . All the town says, ' Thanks be to God, at last we shall have what we have so long desired, a court of ladies.' This noble dame, so gifted, so fair, and so good, will at last put the seal of perfection upon our Roman court." 1 But Giuliano, as we have seen, hardly survived his marriage, and the hopes of the Romans were never realised. 1 Lettere di Principi, liv. i. fol. 13. CHAPTER XIV. Painting in the Vatican under Leo X. — Completion of the Chamber of Heliodorus.— The Chamber of the Incendio del Borgo. — The Hall of Constantine. Raphael feared for a moment that the death of Julius II. would put an end to his success, in bringing to the papal throne some one less favourably disposed towards art. We find traces of these thoughts in his reply to the tutor of the youthful Frederick of Mantua, on the 19th of February, 1513, the day after the death of Julius II. " Messire Raphael of Urbino," writes the tutor to his master, " has returned me the vestments of Messire Federigo that he had taken for his portrait; he prays your highness to forgive him, as at present it is impossible for him to rouse his spirits to continue the work."1 The accession of Leo X. reassured him. His election resulted in the elevation to the highest dignities of most of Raphael's friends. Giuliano de' Medici was made a Roman patrician, and later Captain-General of the Church ; Bibbiena, a cardinal ; Bembo, Apostolic Secretary. As to other friends and protectors of the young master, they were as ready to help him, at least for several years, as they were in the time of Julius II. ; we mean the Duke of Urbino, Castiglione, Inghirami, Chigi, and others. Even had he not possessed so many powerful and devoted friends Raphael would not have been long in coming into favour with the new Pope. He had not only become the most celebrated painter, he was the most finished courtier of his day. Left to himself whilst still a boy, the young Urbinese had felt the necessity of developing those diplomatic qualities with which nature had so richly endowed him, and he easily acquired the power to charm by gentleness and courtesy. Connected during his life at Perugia with ecclesiastics and people who were above the struggles of life, his manners had been formed before his first return to Urbino. In Florence he learnt all the intrigues of the artistic 1 Notxzie e doeumenti per la vita di Giovanni Santi e di Raffaello Santi da Urbino, by G. Campori, p. 7. Z 338 Raphael. world; at Rome, under the teaching of Bramante, he got an insight into those of the papal court. Four years passed in the service of such a despot as Julius II. taught him to yield when it was necessary, to turn the flank of obstacles, and generally to make the best of his social qualities. It cost him little to be conciliatory and pleasing. Unselfishness and amiability were natural to him ; but, nevertheless, he knew on occasion how to make himself feared without having recourse to other arms than his mother wit. His repartees were both lively and keen, and reduced more than one great noble to silence. One day two cardinals came to his studio and amused themselves by finding fault with his pictures of St. Peter and St. Paul, saying that the faces of these two apostles were too red. " Do not be surprised, your eminences, at that," replied Raphael, " I painted them so deliberately ; may we not think that they can blush in heaven when they see their Church- governed by such men as you ? " 1 His reply to Michael Angelo, who said to him sarcastically, "You go about with a suite like a general." — "And you alone, like the hangman." A Roman lady, " una bella gentil donna," Giovio tells us, having found fault with certain details of costume in one of his paintings in the Farnesina, received an answer which made every one laugh except herself.2 The qualities which were most required for success with a pope like Leo X. were complaisance and expedition. Leo heaped work of all kinds upon Raphael. One day the artist had to improvise the scenery for a theatre, the next to paint the portrait of an elephant. Again, he was asked to sketch out a design for some building, or for a medal. Imagine the Pope making such a demand to Michael Angelo ? What would the proud Florentine have said to it ? Raphael himself had no cause to repent his conduct, from the standpoint of his own material interests, but posterity is more severe, and reproaches Leo X. with having too often taken advantage of his readiness to please. In this respect the death of Bramante, which took place soon after the accession of the new Pope, was a great misfortune for Raphael. It deprived him not only of a true friend, an adviser full of tact and experience, in fact a second father; it compelled him, alone, to undertake the crushing burden of the erection of St. Peter's. Nor was this all. Raphael succeeded Bramante as General Superintendent of the Fine Arts also. He had at one and the same time to wield the brush and the compass, to arrange fetes and to superintend excavations. Amongst modern artists, Le Brun, the favourite 1 Castiglione, Cortegiano, liv. ii., as to this picture and its connection with Fra Bartolommeo's St. Peter and St. Paul, see the History of Italian Painting, by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. - Lettere volgari di Mons. Paolo Giovio da Como. Venice, 1560, fol. 15, vol. 15. Letter to Simone Ciarla. 339 painter of Louis XIV., has alone been invested with as many functions as these. Full of youthful confidence and facility, Raphael accepted from this easy-going court the multitudinous tasks imposed upon his shoulders. Never was athlete more anxious for the struggle than was this young painter to take up all these responsibilities. His shortened life hints, perhaps, that he taxed his strength too much. His feelings about this time are seen in the beautiful letter written to his uncle Simone. He is conscious of his talent, and happy in being an honour to his country and family. The future rises before him in the most rosy colours. " To my very dear uncle Simone, son of Battista di Ciarla of Urbino, at Urbino. " Thou who art dear to me as a Father, " I have received your letter ; it was doubly welcome, as it showed me that you were not angry with me, although you had reason to be so ; but you must not forget how difficult it is to write when one has nothing to say. To-day I have many things to tell you. As for a wife, I must tell you that I am daily thankful that I did not take the one you destined for me, or indeed any other. In this instance I have been wiser than you, who wished to make me change my state ; and I am sure that you must now see that I am better as I am. I have capital in Rome worth 3,000 ducats, and an assured income of fifty more. His Holiness allows me a salary of 300 ducats for supei intend ing the rebuilding of St. Peter's, which will not fail me as long as I live, and I am certain to make more by it in time. Besides this, they give me whatever I ask for my works. I have commenced the decoration of a large hall for his Holiness, for which I am to get 1,200 golden crowns. Thus, you must see, my dear uncle, that I do honour to my family as well as to my country. But still I keep you in fond remembrance, and when I hear your name it sounds to me like that of a father. Do not complain of my not writing. It is more difficult for me to do so than for you, who, though having pen always in hand, allow six months to pass between your letters. Nevertheless, you are not going to make me angry with you, as you, unjust one, were with me. Having prematurely left the subject of marriage, I must return to it for a moment to tell you that (the cardinal of) St. Maria in Portico wishes me to marry a relation of his, which I have promised to do on getting your consent and that of my reverend uncle. Having so promised, I must not break my word. The affair will soon be settled now, either one way or the z 2 340 Raphael. other. If it ends in marriage, you must forgive me; if not, I shall be at your orders. You must know that if Francesca Buffa can make a good match, so can I. There is in Rome a young lady with a dower of 3,000 gold ducats (and 100 ducats here are worth more than 200 in Urbino), of good birth, and with an excellent reputation, who is ready to marry me. " As to my living in Rome, I can no longer help myself, on account of the building of St. Peter's, where I have succeeded to Bramante. But is there any place better than Rome ? Could any undertaking be more noble than the building of St. Peter's, the premier church of the world ? It will be the largest building ever seen, and will cost more than a million in gold. The Pope has resolved to give towards it 60,000 ducats a year, and thinks of nothing else. He has given me as a colleague a very learned monk, who is more than eighty years old, and whose reputation is great. Knowing that he has not long to live, his Holiness expressly gave me him as a colleague that he might teach me the secrets of architecture and make me perfect in the art ; his name is Fra Giocondo. The Pope sends for us daily, and enters into long discussions about the work. " I beg you to go to the Duke and Duchess, and to tell them all that I have told you, for I know they will feel pleasure in hearing that one of their subjects has distinguished himself. Recommend me to their Highnesses, as I recommend myself to you without ceasing. Greet all my relations and friends from me, especially Ridolfo, who regards me with so much affection. " Your Raphael, " Painter at Rome. "July 1st, 1514." So numerous were the works undertaken by Raphael during the reign of Leo X. (that is to say from 1513 to 1520), that it is impossible to follow them step by step. It seems, then, preferable to consider them according to subject, and not in their chronological order. We shall, then, study successively the frescoes of the Stanze— those of the Loggia— the Cartoons— the paintings for Agostino Chigi— easel pictures— and, lastly, works in architecture and sculpture. The completion of the pictures in the Stanze was doubtless the first work < assigned to Raphael by his new patron. We have already had occasion to study two of the frescoes executed under the auspices of Leo X., the Discom fiture of Attila and Heliodorus driven out of the Temple. We need, therefore, say no more about them, beyond remarking upon the excessive egoism of the STUDY FOR ONE OF THE GROUTS IN THE INCENDIO DEL BOKGO. (Albertina Collection.) The Stanza dell' Incendio. 341 subjects chosen by the two popes. The second Stanza, that of the Heliodorus, was finished in the year 1514. About the middle of the same year Raphael received the commission for the frescoes of the third room, that which is known as the Stanza dell' Incendio del Borgo. In the letter to his uncle Simone, given above, the artist tells him that the Pope has confided to him the paintings for this new ball, and that he is to be paid 1,200 crowns in gold. A little later, in 1515, he sent to Albert Diirer the famous study for one of the groups in the Battle of Ostia — one of the four frescoes in the hall in question. However, it was not until the year 1517 that Raphael could find time, amid his innumerable occupations, to complete this great work ; although, as we shall soon see, he painted but a very small portion of it with his own hand. The date, 1517, is given in an inscription in the hall itself; it is also known by a letter from the Ferrarese charge d'affaires, dated the 6th of June of that year, in which he states that in two days Raphael will have finished the paintings of the Stanze for the Pope.1 A letter from Bembo to Bibbiena, written about this time (19th July, 1517), shows with what favour these new compositions were received by the pontifical court. "The Stanze painted by Raphael are quite beautiful, not only on account of the skill shown in the execution, but also on account of the great number of clergy whose portraits he has introduced." 2 The admiration which they aroused was not, however, unqualified. Speaking of the frescoes recently completed at the Villa Chigi, the saddler Leonardo writes to Michael Angelo that they excel those of the last hall of the Vatican — that of the Incendio del Borgo. "Peggio che l'ultima stanza di palazzo assai." (Letter of January 1st, 1518.) Considerable prejudice has been shown by the friends of Raphael, as well as by his enemies, in their appreciation of the frescoes of the third Stanza. In their lavish expressions of praise and of blame, both seem to forget that the master could paint but a very small portion of these compositions himself. In fact, the Incendio del Borgo is the only one among them that can be considered as his own personal work. In the Battle of Ostia, still more in the Coronation of Charlemagne and the Oath of Leo III., the assistance of pupils is only too evident. Overwhelmed with work, Raphael had only time to compose the Cartoons, leaving to his scholars the labours of tracing and paint ing them. Hence the want of life in the heads, the coldness of the colouring, and the want of delicacy in the details. Sometimes he was obliged to allow 1 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1863, t. i. p. 351. 2 Passavant, t. ii. p. 158. 342 Raphael. others to help in the execution of the Cartoons. The time had passed when he could ponder a subject, and wait for its execution till his ideas were ripened by meditation. Both Pope and artist had presentiments of their early deaths, and their one thought was to increase the already numerous proofs of the magnificence of the one and the genius of the other. Rarely has there been seen, in the whole history of art, such a fever for production. Let us add, that notwith standing these prodigious efforts, Raphael's ideas preserved to the last their first freshness. Is he to be blamed because his scholars expressed those ideas weakly and imperfectly ? In the first of the frescoes in the Torre Borgia, the Incendio del Borgo, Raphael carries an episode of the Liber Pontificalis to the height of an epic poem. The representation of a miracle accomplished six or seven hundred years before by Pope Leo IV. — who, by making the sign of the cross, stopped the flames which threatened to destroy the Borgo — was not a subject likely to inspire an artist of the Renaissance. But Raphael's imagination clothes this event of mere local interest with splendid pictorial capabilities. It is not the Borgo which is burning, as Burckhardt has so eloquently expressed it, it is Troy. The admirable group on the left, composed of ^Eneas, Anchises, Creusa, and Ascanius, forbids any doubt upon the point. The subject sug gested by Leo is relegated to the background : reminiscences of the AZneid eclipse those of the papal chronicle, and the artist has created a splendid and typical conflagration, equally adapted to all ages and all countries, which no other man has portrayed with equal force. Stupor, resignation, despair, devotion, heroism, are here personified once for all. In this celebrated work qualities of the first order are blended with great faults. In it Raphael has renounced that unity and rhythm which had formerly ruled his compositions. Here, in place of a large and excited crowd, there are but a few groups, some times even solitary figures, all without any very intimate cohesion. Everyone is thinking of himself, and not of his neighbour. Hence the scattered interest, which in some degree lessens the effect of the work. The individual figures are admirable — the weeping mothers, the desperate young man letting himself down by the wall, the water-carriers with robes blown about by the wind. Maternal solicitude, stupefaction, and individual heroism, are marvellously rendered ; the energy of the expression is equalled only by the boldness of the design. The modelling is perfect, and Raphael shows, by the Incendio del Borgo, that anatomy had no secrets from him. There is much in its tours-de force which reminds us of Michael Angelo. It is to be regretted that a motive more adapted for a melodrama than an epic should have been allowed to diminish the effect of "so great a conception — we mean that of the mother STUDY FOB, ONE OF THE FIGURES IN THE INCENDIO DEL BORGO. (Uffizi.) STUDY FOE A GROUP IN THE BATTLE OF OSTIA. (Albertina Collection.) The Stanza dell' Incendio. 343 who hands her infant over the wall to its father, who, escaping half-clothed, stands on tip-toe to receive the precious burden. Such an episode would not have been out of place in the naive compositions of the Quattrocentisti, but it would have been better omitted from the Stanze of Raphael. The unity and harmony that are wanting in the foreground of the composition are to be found in full force in the farther groups. Painting has never given us a passage more warm in feeling or more pure in line than the group of women who kneel beneath the balcony which supports the Pope. This scene is admirable both in expression and composition, and may be fairly compared to the finest passages in the Stanza della Segnatura. We pass rapidly over the other pictures of the third room; Raphael's part was confined to the Cartoons, and it is not certain that even those were done by his own hand. The genuineness is disputed of many of the figures, and critics are quite unable to agree as to the part that may be attributed to the master himself. Innumerable restorations, the earliest dating from the reign of Clement XII., further tend to diminish our interest in the Battle of Ostia, the Coronation of Charlemagne, and the Oath of Leo III. The first of these compositions was, however, prepared with much care ; several sketches exist, which show with what solicitude Raphael studied even the secondary figures in the Battle of Ostia. The superb drawing in red chalk, which is now in the Albertina collection — the drawing which Raphael sent to Diirer in 1515 — is enough to prove this beyond all contradiction. This fine academy served as a study for the group on the Pope's left. The great German painter treasured it carefully, and wrote on it the famous inscription: "1515. Raphael of Urbino, who has been held in high esteem by the Pope, drew these naked figures, and sent them to Albrecht Diirer, of Nuremberg, to show him his hand." In the Battle of Ostia, as in the other works in the same room, the true hero is Leo X., and not Leo IV. He it is who, sitting on the bank with his cardinals, Giulio de' Medici and Bibbiena, bestows on the soldiers the benedictions of heaven, and accepts the submission of the vanquished, who are prostrate before him. Here, also, as well as in Hcliodorus and the Attila, present events are mingled with those of the past. At the very time when Leo X. gave Raphael the commission to proceed with the decoration of the third Stanza, the Turks were attempting to land in Italy, while the Pope, on his side, was forming an alliance with the emperor, and the kings of France, Spain, and England, against those implacable enemies of Christendom ! l The coincidence of all these events has been lost sight of 1 Roscoe, vol. iii. p. 392. 344 Raphael. too much. It shows that the intellectual disinterestedness to which the Camera della Segnatura owed so much of its grandeur was almost non existent at the court of Leo X. The Coronation of Charlemagne is but an echo of the interview between Leo X. and Francis I. at Bologna, in 1515. The Pope, who is placing the crown on the head of the great ruler of the Franks, is not Leo III. but Leo X., and Francis I. is acting the part of Charlemagne. The costumes are those of the sixteenth, and not of the eighteenth- century ; the page standing beside the French monarch is none other than Ippolito de' Medici, nephew of Leo X. And among the bishops we may easily recognise Gianozzo Pandolfini, for whom Raphael designed the beautiful palace in the Via San-Gallo, at Florence. The intrusion of contemporary politics into the domain of historical painting is still more visible in the last of the frescoes of the Torre Borgia— the Oath of Leo III. The council of the Lateran, at its meeting on the 19th December, 1516, had renewed and consecrated the provisions of the famous bull, Unam sanctam, launched by Boniface VIII. against Philippe le Bel. One of its articles declared that the Sovereign Pontif could only be judged by God : " Si vero (deviat), suprema (potestas), a solo Deo, non ab homine poterit judicari." As an illustration and memorial of this resolution, Leo X. caused Leo III. to be represented clearing himself by oath, before Charlemagne, of the ac cusations brought against him. The epigraph upon the fresco leaves us no room for doubt ; it is an almost literal transcript of the passage given above : "DEI, NON HOMINIS, EST EPISCOPOS JUDICARE."1 It is now generally agreed that the Oath of Leo III. was painted by a scholar working under the direction of Raphael. When Raphael first began to paint in the Torre Borgia, he found the ceiling covered with religious ^pictures by his old master, Perugino. He respected them rather out of regard for their author than for their intrinsic merit. They are, in fact, among the weakest productions of the Umbrian master in his old age. In the chapel of San Severo at Perugia, the gap between master and pupil was already wide enough ; and here, where the old man finds himself in competition with Raphael at his best, the contrast is absolutely crushing to him. The portraits of those sovereigns who had deserved well of the Church — Constantine, Charlemagne, Lothario the Lombard, Astolpho, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Ferdinand the Catholic — with the small pictures placed in the embrasures of the windows, complete the decoration of the Torre Borgia. As these have nothing to do with Raphael, 1 Hettner, Italieuische Studien, p. 230. The Hall oe Constantine. 345 and were, moreover, almost entirely repainted in the eighteenth century by Maratta, we need say no more about them. In the Vatican yet one more Stanza had to be decorated before the Pope's apartments could be called complete. It was the immense saloon at the corner of the court of San Damaso, which is now known to us as the Hall of Constantine. Although we have had to condemn some of the subjects pre viously chosen by Leo X. for illustration, we must acknowledge that in this case the adopted programme could hardly be objected to by the severest critic. The history of the emperor who assured the final triumph of the Church, and the glorification of so many illustrious popes (St. Peter, Clement I., Urban I., Damaso, Leo I., Felix III., and Gregory VII.), were subjects perfectly adapted for commemoration in the chief papal dwelling.1 But this superiority of programme has not sufficed to raise the fame of the Hall of Constantine to a level with that of the other Stanze, because, among all the vast paintings which it contains, there is not one which comes from the hand of Raphael. It has been said that Raphael meant to use the oil method for the decoration of this hall. Some attempts were made in that direction, and they obtained the approbation of Bibbiena, who belauded them in the presence of Sebastiano del Piombo, declaring that from thenceforward people would think nothing of the rooms painted in fresco. But Raphael's successors soon changed their opinion, and caused the parts executed in oil to be destroyed.At the death of the master in April, 1520, the work in the last of the Stanze was not even commenced. The Pope had not even definitely fixed upon the subjects to be illustrated. A letter addressed to Michael Angelo a few months after Raphael's death, by Sebastiano del Piombo, informs us that the decision had been suspended with the following scenes : the Vision of the Cross, a Victory of Constantine, a Battle, and the Leprosy of Constantine. This list was in no way final, as two of the subjects, the Victory and the Leprosy, were afterwards rejected and replaced by others, with which Raphael had absolutely nothing to do, as they were commissioned long after his death. We shall not describe this series of pictures, most of which owed nothing to Raphael beyond their general arrangement. His pupils seem to have respected his instructions in the Battle of Constantine — as we may convince ourselves by comparing with it the beautiful drawing now in the Louvre 1 This drawing seems to have been done from a sketch of Raphael's, and under his direction, by Polidoro da Caravaggio. See Notice des dessins . . . du Louvre, by M. Reiset, p. 250. 346 Raphael. but in the other scenes, suggested, in their general lines, by him, they made numerous modifications and alterations. The Vision of the Cross proves this clearly. In the fresco two young men carrying the arms of the emperor appear at the feet of Constantine, and a little beyond them is a hideous dwarf. None of these figures are to be found in Raphael's sketch,1 where they are replaced by some soldiers. These latter do, indeed, find a place in the fresco, but only in the background. But with all its imperfections, the Battle of Constantine, as we now see it, produces' a great impression. Our attention is not broken up between the episode of a combat, as in the works of Paolo Uccello, of Leonardo, and of Michael Angelo ; what we see is a real battle, with its crowded masses, learnedly arranged, indeed, but with all the confusion of mortal strife. The victory, however, is in no doubt. The young emperor has forced himself clear, as if by supernatural energy, of the crowding ranks of his own army ; his head high, his looks proud and assured, he curbs his charger with one hand, while with the other he directs his javelin against the unhappy Maxentius, who, but a few paces away, sinks into the muddj^ Tiber and carries with him the last hopes of the pagan world. 1 The Duke of Devonshire's collection at Chatsworth : Braun, No. 98. In comparing this drawing with that of the Attila at the Louvre, which also shows us soldiers alarmed by a celestial apparition, one cannot but doubt its authenticity ; it is so full of inequality ami hesitation. CHAPTER XV. The Loggia.— The Bath-room of Cardinal Bibbiena.— The Frescoes of the Magliana. Leo X., in his anxiety to complete the decoration of the pontifical palace, wished that Raphael, before finishing the paintings in tfie Stanza, should commence those of the Loggie, so that both works could be carried on simultaneously. The Loggie are the galleries which run round the court of San Damaso, and form on the south the facade of the old palace of the Vatican. Commenced by Bramante in the reign of Julius II., the Loggie were finished after the death of their first architect by Raphael himself. They were finally completed by two wings, designed upon similar lines, which contain the apartments inhabited by the present Pope. The first story of the Loggie, properly speaking, communicates with the Borgia apartments ; the second, with the Stanze. Until the beginning of the present century these splendid galleries were open to the air. An inclosure of glass now protects them from the occasional inclemency of the Roman climate, from which they have suffered much. Nothing certain is known as to the decora tion of the Loggia called Raphael's. We are not only in ignorance of the date when the work was begun, we do not even know what part Raphael took in it. Vasari, indeed, gathered some information from the contemporaries of Raphael, according to which he composed the designs both for the stucco work and for the paintings of this Loggia. He entrusted the execution of the stucco work and the painting of the grotesques to Giovanni da Udine, that of the figures to Giulio Romano, who, however, did little to them. The artists commissioned to paint the pictures were Gian-Francesco Pcnni of Bologna, Perino del Vaga, PeUegrino da Modena, Vincenzio da San-Gimignano, Polidoro da Caravaggio, and many others. Vasari mentions elsewhere the frescoes done by Giulio Romano, 'and cites among others the Creation of Adam and Eve, the Creation of Animals, the Ark of Noah, the Sacrifice of Noah, and the Finding of Moses. Elsewhere again he attempts to determine the part taken in this great work by the colleagues of Giulio Romano, but his assertions are far from being conclusive. 348 Raphael. According to Passavant, Raphael undertook to furnish the sketches only, leaving the entire execution of the work itself to Giulio Romano, who drew the Cartoons and directed the actual works. Several of these original sketches are still preserved in English and foreign collections. They are distinguishable by their white high lights and their shadows in bistre. Herr Springer is still more sceptical. He considers the sketches in question the work of pupils, done after the frescoes. The original sketches, now very rare, were, he says, drawn either with the pen or with red chalk. Herr Springer also affirms that Raphael had nothing to do with most of these compositions, more especially with those of the three last arcades. This assertion is probable enough. These works are as remark able for carelessness and indifference as the early ones are for grace and freshness. To suppose them the work of Raphael would bo almost an outrage to his memory. It is more than likely, that, preoccupied by the works of St. Peter's, he left to his scholars a task that was beyond their powers. We do not risk much in conjecturing that Raphael's attention was not directed to the Loggie till the year 1515 or 1516, at which time he had so many things on hand that he was only able to overlook and inspire the work of his pupils, without being able to take part in it himself. Although the exact date of the work is uncertain, we are able to affirm that these ' famous decorations were completed much later than is generally believed. A document which, though published, has escaped the attention of all our predecessors, gives proof of this. One of Raphael's contemporaries, the Venetian Marc Antonio Michieli di Ser Vettor, says in connection with the first and second stories of the Loggie, in a letter written from Rome on the 27th December, 1519, " The lower Loggia of the Palace is now. being completed ; I mean one of the three which, one above another, look down on Rome. It is ornamented with foliage, grotesques, and other such matters. It is a work without much finish, and in it one discovers that economy has been considered, but nevertheless it is very elegant. They have not spent : much on this Loggia because it is open to every one, even tor those on ' horseback, although it is on a level with the first story. The same cannot be said of the Loggia immediately above it, which can only be seen by an order from the Pope. In this gallery, which was completed a short | time previously, there are paintings of great beauty done from designs <: by Raphael of Urbino. The Pope has also placed in it some fine statues| which had been long stowed away after being collected, perhaps for this end, by himself and by Julius II. These statues are placed in the wm m m ww ^Mumiuiuuiuiiiliiiiiiiiininiinrtmmiiii- ji ui" ' »' ' iimiiiiiiiuii u,, 3,i i , "-•<¦* ^aKT, -<-_.; IK. ¦^KmM * I its ' ' ' 0° 'X' Vv Stlte 8 II ^Vfiiiin S3BB, ,,.i fli'V'-i \'Wll ; ¦ — " mmmmmMmW'':' -MM w aft- '"''fife ffltlir" TnE LOGGIA OF HAI'UAF.L. 350 Raphael. niches which alternate with the windows of the saloons used for the conclaves." J The arcade that was intrusted to Raphael for decoration consists of thirteen bays, the ceiling forming as many little domes. Each bay contains four frescoes, making fifty-two in all, representing scenes taken from the Old and New Testaments. The pilasters, the door-frames, the embrasures of the windows, are ornamented with flowers, fruit, grotesque animals, &c, &c. ; some of these are painted in fresco, others modelled in stucco. The subjects are varied. A pavement of enamelled tiles, put down by Luca della Robbia the younger (born 1475, died 1550),2 completes this wonderful work, one of the finest and most various of the Renaissance. These frescoes are often happily called Raphaels Bible. The idea of pre senting the chief events of the Old Testament in a pictorial form was not a new one.- As early as the fifth century Pope Sixtus III. had the nave of Santa-Maria Maggiore ornamented with mosaics representing the history of the Children of Israel ; and in the ninth century the Pope Formosus en dowed the basilica of St. Peter's with a cycle of frescoes on the same subject. Such works increased rapidly in favour. Under the touching name of Biblia Pauperum, the Middle Ages have given us innumerable paintings and miniatures of scenes taken from the Old Testament and the Evangelists, and establishing between them a sort of mystic bond. The Renaissance took up the theme, but with a somewhat different purpose, as we see by the bas- 1 (1519,27 de'cenibre). . . " In questi giorni istessi fu fornita la loggia di sotto del Palazzo, de le tre poste una sopra I' altra, rivolte verso Roma a greco, et era dipinta a fogliami, grottesche et altre simili fantasie assai vulgarmente, et con poca spesa, benche vistosamente. II che si fece perche l'era comune, et ove tutti andavano, etiam cavalli, benche la sii nel primo solaro. Ma in la sopra posta immediate, per essere tenuta cbiusa et al , piacere solum del Papa, che fu fornita poco avanti, vi erano pitture di gran precio, et di gran gratia, el disegno delle quali viene da Raffaello d' Urbino, et oltra di questo il Papa vi pose molte statue, chel teniva secrete nella salva roba, sua parte et parte gia avanti comprate per Papa Julio, forsi a questo effetto, et erano poste in nicchii incavati tra le finestre alternamente del parete opposite alle colonne over pilastri, et contiguo alle camere, et conclavi concistoriali del Papa." In a letter dated May 4th, 1519, Michieli informs us that Raphael had decorated four rooms, and a long gallery of the pontifical palace, and he had still to finish two long corridors " che seranno cose bellessime." (See Cicogna, in his Memorie dell' I. R. Istituto veneto di scien e, lettere ed art!, 1880, t. ix. pp. 401, 406, 407.) A document published by M. Zahn (Notizie artistiche frate daW Archivio segreto Vaticano, p. 24) shows also that one at least of the Loggie was finished in 1519 (1519, 11th June : " Ali garzoni hanno dipinto la loggia, ducati 25 "). 2 The account books of the Pontifical- Court confirm on this point Vasari's assertion. The following is to be found in a register, still unpublished, of the Archives of the Roman states : 5th August, 1518, " E piu a m° Luca de la Robia che fa el pavimento de la gran logia per parte di pagamento ducati 200."— 1518, 10th September, "E piu al frate de la Robia per el pavimento ducati venti cinque." The Loggia oe Raphael. 351 reliefs on the second pair of doors by Ghiberti, the works in camaieu by Paolo Uccello in the cloister of Santa-Maria Novella, and lastly in the greatest of all works inspired by the Bible, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When Leo X. commissioned Raphael to decorate the domes of the Loggia with the history of the Jewish people, the subject was a hackneyed one, and the artist's great wish was to introduce new life and vigour into his rendering of it. Here a double problem is presented to us. First, to determine the measure of Raphael's success in interpreting the sacred writings ; secondly to discover the amount of his indebtedness to those who had previously dealt with the same subjects. In comparing the words of the Bible with these GOD DIVIDING LIGHT FEOM DARKNESS. compositions, we feel compelled to admire the great versatility of their author's genius. These frescoes appear to reflect the sacred stories with such fidelity that the artist seems to have made no concessions to the peculiar demands of painting, and yet the beauty of the composition is such that one can hardly believe that historic truth had greatly governed the conceptions of the painter. He seems to have been solely occupied with the production of works pure in design and harmonious in colour — in a word, thoroughly decorative. Looked at from this double point of view Raphaels Bible is a miracle of art. Compared with the great work of Michael Angelo, the designs of his rival are remarkable for the sincerity with which they tell their story. 352 Raphael. Here we find none of those symbolic allusions, those sombre pre occupations, which, while they give to the paintings of the Sistine their inspired character, often, also, caused their creator to forget or confuse the historical scenes which it was his business to illustrate. In the work of Raphael we see pictorial narrative in its greatest purity; he calls up the spirit of the most distant epochs, brings before us the thoughts and senti ments of each actor, and charms us by the interest which he takes in every episode, not only for its relation to Theology, but for its own merits. JOSEPH INTERPRETING MIARAOH's DREAM. It is hardly necessary to point out the many other differences between the pictures in the Loggia and those in the Sistine— most of them are due to tho temperaments of the two artists, which were, in fact, almost diametrically opposed. The one chose for illustration the most tragic events of Hebrew history —the Deluge, the Brazen Serpent, Judith and Holof ernes, the Punish ment of Haman,— the other has devoted all his care to interpreting more smiling scenes— the happy days of our first parents, the lives of the patriarchs, and similar passages. Raphael's Bible. 353 Finally, from the point of view of style, Raphael has sought out subjects which lent themselves to pictorial treatment, while his rival could never quite draw himself free from his predilections for sculpture even when he took up his palette and brushes. In the Loggia, design and colour would have been in a perfect balance had it not been for the shortcomings of the pupils to whom Raphael had, perforce, to leave the interpretation of his drawings. With his exquisite taste as a decorator, Sanzio saw at once that — in the narrow space he had to work upon, and with such magnificence in the merely ADAM AND EVE DRIVEN FROM TARADISE. ornamental surroundings — sobriety and coherence would be far preferable to anything like exuberance. Following the practice of early artists, like Ghiberti, Benozzo Gozzoli, and Pinturicchio, he rendered each episode in the smallest possible number of figures. His compositions may thus have been narrowed in scope, but they gained in depth. A greater effect has never been obtained by more apparently simple means, and never has pictorial action been so rigidly concentrated. As proving what we say, we may instance the Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's Dream. A more harmonious composition, or one A A 354 Raphael. more full of style and grandeur, does not exist; and yet it contains no more than six, or, at most, seven figures. Equally successful are the Building the Ark, the Angels' Visit to Abraham, and the Moses striking the Rock. A simple enumeration of the subjects represented in the Loggia will suffice to mark the attitude taken up by Raphael, whether we look at it from a biblical point of view, or from one of comparison with the works of his pre decessors. His Creation is inspired by that of Michael Angelo; his Adam .^^Jx. ; ' ''1 'C.'-W-'w" '. • /-T 1 £-' {i ¦r-j ."- _,.* 1 <• , ". H ' / ° \ ' ?l f '' f':<\ ADAM AND EVE. and Eve driven from Paradise by that of Masaccio. But there his borrowing begins and ends. ¦ In all the other scenes he quits artistic tradition and contents himself with the sacred text. He chooses from the histories in Genesis and Exodus those events which appeal to his own sympathies, and neglects such things as the Sacrifice of Abel, the Drunkenness of Noah, the' Tower of Babel, the Sacrifice of Isaac, as well as many more of the subjects which were popular in the fifteenth century. His profound study of Scripture Raphael's Bible. 355 enabled him to give new life to the episodes finally selected, and to bring to the front many which had been previously neglected. Among the latter is the graceful picture of the Interview of Isaac and Rebekah with Abimelech, (Genesis xxvi. 8, 9). Consideration of space prevents us from studying separately each of the fifty-two compositions which form Raphael's Bible ; but THE DELITGE. we give our readers a list of the subjects, enumerating them in the same order as that adopted by Raphael. FIRST BAY. God dividing Light from Darkness. — God dividing the Land from the Sea. — The Creation of the Sun and the Moon. — The Creation of the Animals. A A -1 356 Raphael. SECOND BAY. The Creation of Eve. — The Fall. — The Exile from Eden. — The Labours of our First Parents. THIRD BAY. The Building of the Ark. — The Deluge. — The Coming Forth from the Ark. — Noah's Sacrifice. ABRAHAM AND THE THREE ANGELS. FOURTH BAY. Abraham and Melehizedek.—The Covenant of God with Abraliam.—Tlus Three Angels' Visit to Abraham. — The Flight of Lot} FIFTH BAY. God appearing to Isaac. — Isaac embracing Rebekah— Isaac blessing Jacob.— Esau claiming the Blessing. 1 The study for the Flight of Lot now belongs to M. Armand, who has authorised its reproduction in this work. The drawing itself has passed in turn through many celebrated collections, from that of Queen Christina of Sweden to those of Rutgers, Dimsdale, Lawrence, Woodburn, the King of Holland, and Galichon. (See Dessins des maiires anciens exposes h VEcole des Beaux- Arts en 1879, by M. de Chennevieres, p. 22.) Raphael's Bible. 357 SIXTH BAY. Jacob's Ladder. — Jacob and Rachel- — Jacob asking for Rachel's Hand. — Jacob's Flight from Laban. SEVENTH BAY. Joseph telling his Dream to his Brothers. — Joseph sold by his Brethren. — Joseph and Potiphar's Wife. — Joseph before Pharaoh. EIGHTH BAY. The Finding of Moses.— The Burning Bush. — The Passage of the Red Sea — Moses striking the Rock. JACOB AND RACHEL. NINTH BAY. Moses receiving the Tables of the Law. — The Golden Calf. — The Pillar of Cloud. — Moses shoiving the Tables of the Law io the People. TENTH BAY. The Passage of the Jordan. — The Fall of Jericho.— Joshua's Victory over the Amorites. — The Division of the Promised Land. 358 Raphael. ELEVENTH BAY. David anointed King of Israel. — David and Goliath. — Triumph of David. — David and Bathsheba. TWELFTH BAY. The Consecration of Solomon. — The Judgment of Solomon. — The Queen of Sheba. — The Building of the Temple. THIRTEENTH BAY. The Adoration of the Shepherds. — The Adoration of the Magi— The Baptism of Christ. — The Last Supper. Joseph's dream. Twelve small frescoes in gilt camaieu on the socles of the windows complete Raphael's Bible. These latter, now almost entirely destroyed, were executed by Perino del Vaga. Eleven of them are taken from subjects in ancient history (God blessing the Sabbath, the Offerings of Cain and Abel, the Rainbow, &c). The subject of the twelfth is the Resurrection of Christ} 1 See Passavant, t. ii. p. 185 et seq. Raphael's Bible. 359 The ornamentation of the Loggia is justly looked upon as a triumph of decorative art. The harmony of the ensemble is only equalled bj' the infinite variety of the details. Here we admire classic simplicity, there the play of fancy. The originator of all these marvels seems to transport us into an enchanted world with a single wave of his wand. Art, industry, and nature, contribute equally to this result, — grotesques alternate with landscapes, flowers with birds1 and fishes, arms with instruments of music, genre pictures with scenes from mythology, — and yet one looks through the whole THE BURNING BUSH. without finding one discordant note. The master has called in sculpture to the aid of painting, and upon the walls and pilasters innumerable bas-reliefs in stucco lend their quiet tones to heighten the brilliant colours which surround them. The Loggia offers a good example of the system of decoration inaugurated by Raphael about this time in his Cartoons. He made the border independent of the picture, and expressive of nothing but the individual fancy of the artist. In the borders of his great series of 1 According to Vasari, Giovanni da Udine introduced into his decorations many of the rare animals which were in the menagerie of Leo X. 360 Raphael. tapestries, the Acts of the Apostles, he has made use of a great variety of subjects — the History of Leo X., the Seasons, the Hours, the Fates. So, in the Loggia, the Bible pictures are surrounded by grotesque figures, architectural views, mythological scenes, &c, &c. A description' of all the ornaments of these galleries would be enough to dismay the most en thusiastic worker. Volpato and Ottaviani, who undertook during the last century to make them well known by engravings, stopped long before they had completed their work. Their collection comprises no more than THE FINDING OF. M,OSES. two-thirds of the compositions. We, must content ourselves with mention ing a few of the principal motives. Antiquity has afforded innumerable subjects of a purely decorative order— Victory, Centaurs, Hours, Harpies, Tritons, Dianas, Sea-horses, &c, as well as figures of Venus Victrix, of Fortune, of the Three Graces, of Apollo and Marsyas, of Orestes and ^Egisthus, of Bacchus leaning against a Satyr, &c. As Vasari remarked, Raphael and his pupils took many of their ideas from the newly-discovered paintings in the Baths of Titus, and from the many similar sources afforded by the Rome of their day. The Grottesohi. 361 But their predilection for the antique did not make them neglect contemporary civilization. In one place we see a peasant watching for birds ; in another, a collection of musical instruments ; another composition is peculiarly interesting, as it shows us the pupils of Raphael working upon these very galleries. It is a stucco relief. On the left we see a mason armed with a trowel about to cover the wall with plaster. Next to him come two artists,— the one painting, the other apparently traciDg a design on to the wall; while two of their companions bring them pots of colour and cartoons. On the extreme right a young man is at work "pricking" a drawing. According to Vasari, Giovanni da Udine was charged with the execution of the arabesques and stucco reliefs, but it is evident from the great taste shown in RAPHAELS PUPILS. (From a stucco relief iu the Loggia.) much of the ornamentation, that Raphael himself took a practical interest in the work. The decorations of the Vatican contain two more series of frescoes for which Raphael furnished designs, even if he did not take part in their actual execution. The hall of the Pope's pages still contains the figures of Christ and of His Apostles with which it was adorned under the direction of the master.1 'But these frescoes, in green camaieu, were so greatly repainted, towards the end of the sixteenth century, by Taddeo Zucchero, that it is no longer possible to recognise the hand or even the 1 Perhaps it was in connection with this work that the following payment was made :— 1st July, 1517 : " E piu a di primo di Luglio, ali gioveni di Raphaello da Urbino, che hanno dipinta la stanza avanti la guardaroba, due. 20." (Archives of the Roman States.) 362 Raphael. conception of their author. GROTTESOHI IN THE LOGGIA. of April, 1516, is of interest. Happily, the burin of Marc Antonio has preserved the ori ginal designs for our admiration. By his engravings we may see that the Apostles of Raphael would have been worthy companions to those of Diirer; » like those of the German artist they were meant to speak to the masses, and to re-establish be tween the painter and the public that bond of sympathy which had been so rudely interrupted by the Renaissance. The other set of frescoes was com missioned, not by the Pope, but by his all - powerful minister, the Car dinal Bibbiena. They were intended for the embellish ment of a bath room on the third story of the palace, close to the Loggia. In connection with these works, a letter addressed by Bembo to Bib biena on the 19th Bibbiena's Bath-Room. 363 " Thus far had I writteu, when Raphael himself entered. He seems to have guessed that I was speaking to you of him, and he begged me to add that he wished you to tell him any other subjects which you might desire to have painted in your bath-room. Send him full de tails of them as soon as you can, because those sub jects already chosen will be commenced upon the walls this week." 1 In his choice of subject Bibbiena seems to have been governed by his sym pathies as a scholar rather than by those which should have possessed him as a prince of the Church. The theme which he charged Raphael to develop was the History of Venus and Cupid. The artist painted, therefore, in seven large compositions, the Birth of Venus — Venus and Cupid borne by Dolphins — CH GOUTZWILLER^ GROTTESOHI IN THE LOGGIA. Passavant, Raphael, t. i. p. 23f>. 364 Raphael. CH.GOUTZWILt.E.a THE BATH-ROOM OP CARDINAL BIBBIENA. Venus wounded complaining to Cupid — Jupiter and Antiope — Venus drawing a Thorn from her Foot — Venus and Adonis — Vulcan and Minerva} In seven 1 This last composition is so imperfect that, according to Passavant (t. ii. p. 231), it can only be attributed to one of the most indifferent of Raphael's pupils. The Magliana. 365 smaller compartments, corresponding to those already mentioned, were painted the Triumphs of Love. In these the little god is shown, here driving a pair of swans in a chariot, there urging a pair of dolphins over the waves. The most original, perhaps, of the series, shows him with two serpents yoked in his car, and urging them on with a branch of palm. Of all the works of Raphael, the decorations of this bath -chamber show, perhaps, most of the true spirit of the antique. Before them, we might easily imagine ourselves in some Pompeian interior; their airy grace could hardly be excelled. The diffuse and fanciful ornamentation of the Loggia is not here to be found ; a more severe taste has governed the choice of motives ; symmetry, especially, is absolute ; architectural views, Greek frets and medallions, alternating with birds and flowers, are relieved against backgrounds, which are either red or black. This room still exists ; but ever since the middle of the present century it has been closed to visitors, and withdrawn from the study and legitimate curiosity of artists and amateurs. This exclusion is comprehensible enough ; according to information which we believe to be worthy of credit, the ceiling has been whitewashed over and the frescoes of the walls hidden behind battens.1 What are we to say of such an act of vandalism, committed, too, in the middle of our boasted nineteenth century ? We are reduced to study the composition in those old copies which have travelled to St. Petersburg from a villa on the Palatine. The decoration of the Vatican and the direction of the works at St. Peter's were enough to absorb the attention of the most indefatigable of artists, but Leo X., whose demands grew as fast as Raphael supplied them, ordered him also to superintend the decoration of his favourite villa, the Magliana, situated not far from Rome. This edifice, which plays such an important part in the biography of Leo X., dates from the time of Innocent VIII. (1484-1492) ; but Julius II. enlarged it so greatly that we may almost look upon it as his creation.2 Even to this -day his arms and those of his favourite, Alidosio, are to be seen in some of the saloons. In his reign, too, some of the paintings were executed — notably the Muses — which have been lately removed to the museum of the capital. They have been unanimously attributed to a fellow-student of Raphael's, Lo Spagna, who remained ever faithful to the Umbrian traditions. So greatly were the minds, both of Julius and Alidosio, set upon the fitting decoration of this villa, that the latter, in 1510, commissioned Michael Angelo to paint the Baptism of Christ 1 See the Capitan Fracassa for the 28th March, 1883. 2 See Gruner and Platner, I Freschi nella cappella della villa Magliana, etc. (1847.) 366 Raphael. for its chapel. We gather this interesting fact from a work recently pub lished by Signor Daelli.1 That the death of Alidosio did not put an end to the works, is proved by a document in the secret archives of the Vatican, bearing date 22nd October, 1511. 2 Leo X. gave a new impulse to the embellishment and enlargement of the Magliana. On the 19th April, 1513, Messer Riniero of Pisa, under the in structions of Bramante, measured the work done at the villa by Messer Antonio, called Morgante, and Messer Giovanni Lombardo.3 On the 1st September a contract was entered into for the construction of a huge stable. Six years later, in 1519, the works were still going on under the direction of a member of the San-Gallo family, Gian-Francesco.4 The Magliana was then the centre of the great hunts organised by Leo X. ; it was also a house of continual pleasure — a Vatican in miniature. This palace, which had seen so many splendid fetes under the most magnificent of the popes, was not neglected by his successors. In 1535 and 1536, Paul III. (Farnese) again took it in hand; but, according to the records at the Vatican, he turned his attention to restoring and preserving it rather than to increasing its size. Later still, Pius IV. made some additions to it, and Sixtus V. caused some of the chambers to be painted which re7 mained without ornament. " Even in the very depths of its decadence," says M. A. Gruyer in the article which he devoted to the frescoes of the Magliana "the Renaissance left its mark upon these walls, which, for more than a century, had formed a favourite dwelling for no less than twenty popes. . . . The seventeenth century, while it lowered the political power and dignity of the papacy, compelled it to be more observant of the austerities of religion. The popes, when no longer able to make war, renounced the pleasures of the chase, and the Magliana lost its reason for existence. After the time of Clement VIII. it began to be dismantled, and, less than a century afterwards, it was abandoned to the sisterhood of St. Cecilia. Since then its decay has been rapid." 5 The frescoes in the chapel, which have been so often attributed to Raphael, were executed between 1513 and 1520 ; they are the Martyrdom of St. Cecilia — also called the Martyrdom of St. Felicita — and the Eternal Father blessing the World. The former was destroyed in 1830 by the barbarian 1 Carte michelangiolesche inedite, p. 14. 2 Zahn, Notizie artistiche, p. 18. 3 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 18*79, t. i. p. 366. 4 Unpublished documents of the archives of the Roman States. On the 18th of November, 1521, Giovanni Francesco had already received a payment of 100 ducats "per la fabbrica della Manliana." Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1873, t. i. p. 338. The Magliana. 367 Vitelli, a Vandal who ought to have been put in the pillory. Not wishing to mix with his servants during the celebration of the mass, he constructed a private gallery for himself, and cut an approach to it through the middle of the Si. Cecilia. Fortunately, we are able to enjoy the most important element of the work, the design by Raphael, in the engraving of Marc Antonio. It shows us the saint plunged into the cauldron of boiling oil ; the judge exhorting her to recant; executioners standing by, some holding out to her the heads of her brothers who have been already executed, others stirring the fire. But the brave girl, affected neither by physical suffering nor by the dreadful objects held before her, has eyes only for the angel THE ETERNAL FATHER BLESSING THE WORLD. (Louvre. ) who sweeps down from the skies and brings her the palm and crown of martyrdom. Better fortune has attended the second of these frescoes. After many vicissitudes it found, in 1873, a final resting-place in the Louvre. We need not here refer to the events which led to its acquisition.1 No one has ever doubted that the design for this fresco was the work of Raphael, but that his own hand ever touched it, few are ready to admit. The catalogue of the Louvre classes it among the works of Raphael's school, a classification which well recommends itself to impartial judges. The composition is distinguished by its union of vigour with sobriety. Especially admirable are the two angels floating on either side of the Eternal and in act to throw handfuls of 1 It was purchased at public auction, the 28th of April, 1873, for 207,500 francs. 368 Raphael. flowers. The vital grace of their gestures and the skill with which the rather difficult foreshortenings are carried out both betray the hand of a consummate master. In this motive an idea which had fascinated Raphael in the early days of the Venice sketch book reappears for the fourth time and reappears with that balanced maturity of long thought which shallow critics too often mistake for the results of facility. CHAPTER XVL The Cartoons. — Coronation of the Virgin. — " Putti." — Decorative Designs. The detractors of Leo X., and they still exist, reproach him with having, in ordering Raphael to make cartoons for 'tapestry, brought down painting to the level of an industry, and put richness of material before beauty of design. In giving sush a work to his favourite artist, the Pope did no more than follow the customs of the fifteenth century. While Raphael, in accepting a work of apparently such a subordinate rank, honoured the example of his most illustrious predecessors. Cosimo Tura, the founder of the early school of Ferrara, Andrea Mantegna, and the great Leonardo himself, had all composed cartoons destined to be carried out in silk and wool. The mar vellous tapestries of Flanders, those of Arras, to which our neighbours, in memory of their origin, have given the name of " Arazzi," had at this time gained the admiration of all the best judges of the peninsula. For a long time the Flemish workshops had much difficulty in executing all the orders of their Italian clients. The manufacture which was a source of such wealth to Flanders was afterwards introduced into Italy, workmen being brought from Arras, Bruges, and Brussels. Even in Rome itself, one of Leo's predecessors, Nicolas V. of glorious memory, had founded a manufactory, from which had issued a famous work, the History of the Creation. At the accession of Leo X. the papal wardrobes were choked with these precious tissues. But rich and numerous as they were, they were insufficient to satisfy a monarch who was determined to leave the impress of his own mind upon the smallest branches of the decorative art. The execution of more tapestries once determined , upon, Leo X. did not hesitate in his choice of means ; with an unerring instinct, he saw that Italy was the place to have the cartoons prepared, and that in Flanders the work would be best translated into silk and wool. He thus hoped to avoid the manifold delays which would attend the inauguration of a new manufacture in the Eternal City itself. The first series of these tapestries was to be hung in the Sistine Chapel and was to represent scenes from the Acts of the Apostles. B B 370 Raphael. i 3P5 THE FATES. (One of the Tapestry borders. At the time when Leo X. conceived the project of completing the decorations of the Sistine Chapel — the private oratory of the Popes, while St. Peter's may be called the oratory of the Christian world — there were already existing in that famous sanctuary the following paintings : on the vaulted ceiling Michael Angelo had represented the Days of Creation, the Fall of Man, the Sacri fice of Abel, the Deluge, the Drunkenness of Noah,the Punishment of Haman, the Brazen Serpent, David and Goliath, Judith and Holof ernes ; the figures of Prophets and Sibyls served to connect these scenes with the New Dispensation, and to show the bonds which connect the Old Testament with the Evangel. The side walls were decorated, in the time of Sixtus IV., by the Umbrian and Florentine painters, Luca Signorelli, Sandro Botticelli, Cosimo Roselli, Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandajo, and others, with scenes from the Life of Moses on one side, and scenes from the Life of Christ on the other. At the east end were Moses in the Bulrushes, the Nativity, and the Assumption of the Virgin. These three dis appeared to make way for the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo. The Acts of the Apostles, destined to fill up the empty spaces beneath the lateral pictures, symbolised indirectly the institution of the Papacy. In adorning the walls of the Sistine with the splendid series of hangings which began with the Miraculous Draught of Fishes and the Charge to Peter, Leo X. wished to show that his own power descended to him from the Founder of Chris tianity, and that from the very beginning the fate of Christendom and that of the Roman Church were indissolubly connected with each other. Are these subjects as well suited to the art of the weaver as to their intended position on these walls? This is a question which we do not hesitate to answer in the negative. It would be difficult to imagine scenes less decorative than the Charge lo Peter, the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, The Cartoons. O r- -i 01 1 and the Conversion of St. Paid. Woven hangings — as the predecessors of Leo did not fail to perceive — require for effect crowded compositions, rich costumes, elegant architectonic surroundings; in short, a brilliant mise-en-scene full of life and movement. The annals of the people of Israel are as rich as any secular history in motives calculated to inflame the imagination of a de corative artist, but the New Testament, as we may declare without fear of contradiction, con tains very few episodes which lend themselves to the display of that magnificence without which the particular art of which we are speaking would have no reason for existence. If Leo X. committed a mistake from this point of view, part of the blame must be borne by Raphael. He conceived these cartoons in exactly the same spirit as thoss which he had been accustomed to make for execution in fresco, without taking account of the difference in materials and destination. Here we may fortify ourselves behind the opinion of a judge whose competence none will doubt, and whose admiration for the master is beyond dispute. " Think," says M. Charles Blanc, " of the poor tapestry weavers in the presence of these sublime cartoons, compelled to abdicate all the indepen dence of their own skill to imitate respectfully the models of a great painter, and to render, as faithfully as the roughness and hardness of their material would allow, the noble character of his figures, the deep expressiveness of his heads, the pictorial force resulting sometimes from single strokes of the brush. What must have been their feelings before this blind Elymas, that Ananias struck by sudden death, this restored paralytic, and this glorious Paul preaching to the already half-convinced Athenians ! Raphael seems to have left a certain latitude in the matter of colour to the art-workmen of Brussels; he has suggested, rather than determined, the hues, and he probably was neither shocked nor surprised to find a yellow where he had put a red, M A4 FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY. (One of the Tapestry borders.) B B 2 372 Raphael. 4$M>1^>040fea SO*. £f **£sa* THE SEASONS. (One of the Tapestry holder?.) or a green drapery changed for a blue one. But we must acknowledge that the authority of so great a name as his must have affected to some extent the conditions under which these tapestries were produced. It must have inspired the workers with a desire to rival painting on its own ground, and to enter into a competition which, from the nature of the means employed — means which, from the point of view of mere durability, were inferior to those of the rival art — could not end in success." The date of the commencement of the Cartoons by Raphael is uncertain. All that we know is that according to two receipted accounts, the one dated 15th June, 1515, the other 20th December, 1516, they were already far advanced, if not in fact completed, in those years.1 We shall not be far wrong if we assign the commencement of the work to the year 1514, the second of the reign of Leo X.2 The Pope seems to have based his intentions as to remuneration upon the sums paid for the decoration of the Stanze. For the Stanza dell Incendio he had paid 1,200 ducats ; for the Cartoons, a work of rather less labour, he gave 1,000 ducats.3 As they were ten in number, the artist was paid at the rate of 100 ducats a piece. 1 The documents which have served as a basis for this notice of the cartoons and tapestries have been published, firstly, in the Chronique des Arts, 1876, Nos. 28-32 ; 1877, Nos. 25, 26 ; 1879, No. 36, and afterwards more fully in our Historie de la Tapisserie italienne, published by Dalloz, pp. 19-30 and 87, 88. 2 One or two of the motives employed in the cartoons had existed for some time in the imagination of tlie master. Among these we may name the figure of Ananias, engraved by Marc Antonio in the Epistole Volgari, in 1512. This was pointed out to me by Dr. Bayersdorfer, director of the Schleissheim Gallery. 3 This interesting fact, which has hitherto been over looked by all Raphael's biographers, has been taken from the valuable Diarii of A. Michieli, published by Cicogna, in the Memorie dell' I. Ji. Isiituio veneto di scienxe, lettere ed arti, 1. ix. (1800), p. 405. The Cartoons. 373 In his life of Raphael, Vasari asserts that the master painted these works with his own hand ; but in his life of Gian-Francesco Penni, he accredits the scholar with having worked both upon the scenes from the Acts of the Apostles as well as upon those from the Life of Christ ; he adds that Penni was especially intrusted with all the decorative parts, such as the arabesque borders. We may also recognise in them the hand of the ingenious Giovanni da Udine. It was long thought that the tapestries of these Acts of the Apostles were woven at Arras. But that is an error which demands rectification. The manufacture of the finer class of hangings ceased almost entirely in the capital of Artois after its capture by Louis XL in 1477 ; as M. A. Pinchart has clearly demonstrated.1 Brussels succeeded to the heritage of its rival, and from that time its tapestries held the same place in the estimation of the world as had been formerly occupied' by those of Arras; but the name of the latter city long remained attached, not only in Italy, but also in England and Spain, to all kinds of woven tapestries. It is said that two Flemish painters, both pupils of Raphael, Bernard van Orley and Michael Coxie, were deputed to superintend the execution of the tapestries. But this assertion seems to be erroneous, at least as regards Coxie ; there is no documentary evidence that he ever visited Rome before 1531.2 We may, however, affirm that the weavers of the Low Countries had never before taken so much care over work conceived in such a different spirit from their own. The learned M. Wauters, of Brussels, asserts on the strength of a document which shows that the Pope caused 1,000 ducats to be paid on 18 January, 1518, to a Fleming, one Pierre Leroy, 1 Histoire generate de et seq. la tapisserie, Pays-Bas, p. 31 Passavant, Raphael, t. i. p. 342. THE HOURS. (One of the Tapestry borders. ) 374 Raphael. for certain tapestries, that the Acts of the Apostles were woven in the workshops of that artist, whose Flemish name was Peter de Coninck.1 But there is no proof that the series in question and those from, the Cartoons were identical. At. this time. Leo was continually buying tapestries, and it is now impossible to determine to which of them the payment to Leroy refers. We are better justified in assigning the great work to a more famous artist than Coninck Leroy, namely, to Peter Van Aelst, who, during the whole of the first third of the sixteenth century, was incontestably the 'chief of the Brussels tapestry weavers. Let the facts speak for themselves. As early as 1504 Peter Van Aelst was appointed chamberlain and tapestry worker to the Archduke Philip, functions which be retained under Philip's son, the future Emperor Charles V. Leo X. also designated him tapestry worker to the papal court, a title which he still retained in the year 1532, under Clement VII. We might fairly conclude, even in the absence of direct evidence, that it was a recompense for services rendered. But direct evidence is not absent ; a notarial act, dated 14 June, 1532, informs us that Peter Aelst wove both the Acts of the Apostles and the Scenes from the Life of Christ.2 The weaving of the Acts of the Apostles seems to have been completed in from three to four years. As early as the month of December, 1519, seven of them were replaced upon the walls of the Chapel, namely, the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, the Charge to Peter, the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, the Con version of St. Paul, the Healing of the Paralytic, Elymas struck with Blindness, and the Sacrifice at Lystra. The eighth piece was still unfinished. As to the other two they seem, to have been still in Flanders. It is certain, in any case, that the whole series was hung up in 1520. The rapidity with which the work was finished is astonishing, especially when we remember that under Louis XIV. they required at tho Gobelins more than ten years to weave a set of about equal importance, viz. the History of the King, which is still to be seen at the Garde Meuble National in Paris. The Flemish factories must have been thoroughly well organised at that epoch. The expenditure upon these tapestries reached the sum of 15,000 ducats, or 1,500 for each piece. . This included the cost of the gold thread, which was, no doubt, the heaviest item. This information is given to us by the Venetian, Marc Antonio Michieli, who obtained it from Leo X. himself. It 1 Les Tapi88eri.es bruxelloises. Bruxelles, 1878, pp. 102, 431. 2 "Noi, m° Angelo da Cremona et m° Joanne Lengles de Calais recamatori in Roma dicemo che la tapezeria quale Pietro Van Aelst ha consignato ultimamente a papa Clemente de la Nativita de Christo, sono bene et lialmente facte et meglior laborate del tapezaria che quelle de Sancto Pietro et Sancto Paulo, li quali dicto Pietro Van Aelst ha fatte lui et consignate a papa Leone."— Historiens et critiques de Raphael, pp. 139-144. The Tapestries. 375 was reported in Rome at the time that each piece had cost as much as 2,000 ducats, including Raphael's remuneration, and this report was believed by Paris di Grassis, the Pope's master of the ceremonies, who talks of a total expenditure of 20,000 ducats. In presence of authorities like these we may reject without hesitation, the stories of Panvinio and Vasari, whose sums of 50,000 and 70,000 crowns are purely imaginary. When the tapestries were exhibited in the chapel for the first time on the 26th December, 1519, the fete day of St. Stephen, they created an extra ordinary furore. Sebastiano alone had the courage to criticise them, and to pretend, in a letter to Michael Angelo, that his Resurrection of Lazarus was better drawn than the groups in the new tapestries. But the one envious voice was drowned in the applause lavished by all Rome upon the chef d'ceuvre of Raphael. " The whole chapel," writes Paris di Grassis, in his Diarium, " was struck dumb by the sight of these hangings ; by universal consent there is nothing more beautiful in the world ; they are each worth 2,000 ducats." Vasari, thirty years afterwards, expressed in terms no less enthusiastic the admiration which the great series had aroused in him. " These tapestries are perfectly astonishing ; their execution borders upon the miraculous. One can hardly understand how it is possible, with simple thread, to give such an appearance of reality to the hair and beards, to render so truly the morbidezza of flesh. The work is more divine than human ; water, animals, houses, are here given with such perfect truth that they seem painted rather than woven." These Acts of the Apostles have passed through many strange vicissitudes. At the death of Leo X. they were pawned for a sum of 5,000 ducats. At the disgraceful sack of Rome in 1527 they underwent still greater indignities ; the soldiers of Frondsberg and of the Constable de Bourbon laid sacrilegious hands upon them, and the Punishment of Elymas still shows the results of their brutality ; they cut it into small pieces in order to sell it the more easily. Two of the hangings strayed as far as Constantinople, whence they were restored to the Vatican through the good offices of the Constable de Mont morency, in 1554. At this time the Constable caused to be re-woven the lower part of the left-hand border of the Paul Preaching at Athens. The in scription traced on this border, the shield of the Montmorencies, and the genii supporting it were added by his direction from the design of some fresh artist. For two centuries and a half the Ads of the Apostles adorned the Sistine Chapel. No marks of admiration were denied to them. Louis XIV. had them copied in oil, and those copies, after being used for the series of tapestries now preserved in the Garde Meuble National, were taken to the Cathedral of Meaux, where they still hang. Year after year, down to 1797, the " Arazzi" were exhibited to the public in the piazza of St. Peter's on the file of the Corpus 376 Raphael. Christi. An illustrious French artist, Prudhon, who saw them in the Vatican in 1785, was so struck by their beauty that he resolved to copy one of them for the Hotel de Ville of his native city. His enthusiasm found expression in a curious letter which may be read in his biography by M. Ch. Clement.1 The French ^Revolution was the cause of new trials for the tapestries — trials which have caused much confusion among modern writers. Authentic documents, which we ourselves have discovered within the last few years, prove beyond dispute that, contrary to the usually received opinion, these splendid works were never either stolen or sold to the Jews of the Ghetto.2 Put up to auction with the rest of the papal effects after the entry of the French army into Rome — that is, in the early months of 1798, — both sets of tapestries were bought for 1,250 piastres a-piece by a clique of French brokers. These men took them to Genoa,, whence they were dispatched to Paris by order of the Commissary Faypoult. The only one left behind. was the Descent into Hell, which' was either separated from the rest at Genoa, or kept back from the sale in Rome. The whole series was deposited in the Louvre, and the Government seems to have intended to incorporate it with the permanent national collections. This intention, however, was frustrated by the state of the public finances — as we are , told in one of Chaptal's letters — and the tapestries were given, up to their owners' representatives, MM. Coen and Norvel. In the interval the most beautiful among them had been exhibited in the court of the Louvre, with some other hangings. A catalogue was issued entitled,: Notice des tapisseries d'aprfe les grands maitres des Scoles italienne et franqaise; cxicuUes a I arwienne: manufacture de Bruxelles et a celle des Gobelins de Paris. From the time of their restoration to their temporary owners until 1808, we lose .all. trace, of them. Whether they were bought from some Genoese merchants by, Pius VII., as Platner pretends, or remained in the hands of the brokers'until 1808, we do not know. It is certain, however, that in the year named they were restored to their former situation in the Vatican Chapel, never again, let us hope, to quit if. The original Cartoons fared no better. In possession of the hangings themselves, with their gold and silver bravery, Leo X. probably forgot the existence of the original designs from which they had been prepared. These long remained in the factory at Brussels, and served repeatedly as models for other sets.8 The borders were frequently, employed to grace designs which 1 Prudhon, Paris, 1872, pp. 122-124. Letter of the 20th of September, 1878. 2 Histoire de la Tapisserie italienne (Muntz), p. 21. 3 As to the fragments of the 'cartoon, Christ's Charge to Peter, preserved at Chantilly, see the article published by M. G. Lafenstre in the Gazette des Beavx-Arts, in November, 1880, p. 380. The Tapestries. 377 had nothing whatever to do with the Acts of the Apostles. Those which contain the Fates and the Hours were exactly reproduced in the History oj Henry II, which now hangs in the Uffizi. Only one of the cartoons, so far as we know, returned to Italy, viz. that of the Conversion of St. Paul. The anonimo of Morelli saw it in 1521 in the collection of Cardinal Grimani at Venice, where it still remained in 1528. Two others, the Martyrdom of St. Stephen and St. Paul in Prison, disappeared and left no trace behind them. A century later Rubens discovered the seven remaining cartoons at Brussels. Struck by their beauty, he advised Charles I. to purchase them. That prince took his advice and became the possessor, for no inconsiderable sum, of these gigantic sketches by the Prince of Painters, and again caused them to be copied in tapestry at the Royal Factory at Mortlake. When the collections of the unhappy king were dispersed, Cromwell succeeded in retaining these priceless waifs in England by the modest expenditure of three hundred pounds sterling. In the reign of William III. the Cartoons, which had until then remained in the fragmentary condition to which they had been reduced for facility in copying, were carefully pieced together and affixed to canvas. Sir Christopher Wren built a special gallery for them at Hampton Court, where they remained until their removal to the South Kensington Museum, which took place a few years ago. In spite of all the mutilation and other damage which they have had to undergo, they still retain much of their early beauty and form one of the proudest possessions of the English capital.1 When he was about to commence this great undertaking, Raphael naturally enough passed in review the works of all those who, having pre viously dealt with the same subjects, might afford him valuable suggestions. Ten years had passed since he had studied the great frescoes of the Carmine, but the creations of Masaccio had not lost their power over his imagination. We need, then, feel no surprise that he, when called upon in turn to paint scenes from the lives of the two great apostles, should have gone for inspir ation to his predecessor, should have even borrowed from him some complete figures, notably that of St. Paul Preaching at Athens. There were in the Vatican, close to where he was working-, other frescoes, dealing with the lives of St. Stephen and St. Lawrence, which demanded his attention. These com positions of Fra Angelico were in the chapel of Nicholas V., two steps from the Loggie and the Stanze. They were, and are, models of tenderness and 1 A set of excellent copies by Paul Baudry now hang in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. A comparison of the Cartoons with the Tapestries shows that the latter have shrunk considerably. I may add that the composition is reversed in the Tapestries. 378 Raphael. divine meditation. They combine, in a supreme degree, all those qualities which had once been so dear to Raphael, and had it been but a few years earlier in his life, he would have had great difficulty in keeping himself ' clear of their influence. But since his arrival in Rome his ideas had changed very rapidly, and now his preference was all shown to painting of the dramatic order, in which Masaccio would be a better guide than the gentle Dominican. The woman in the Death of Ananias who is counting money into her hand, reminds us indeed of the young girl represented by Fra Angelico in some thing like the same pose in one of his frescoes in the chapel of Nicolas V. In the Cartoons he laid himself out, far more than in any previous com position, to obtain striking contrasts and strong dramatic effects. In those vigorous pages, all is life and action ; and the artist has not hesitated, for the sake of effect, to sacrifice that beauty of linear arrangement and distinction of individual types, which had' once distinguished his work. He was also determined to show himself the uncompromising interpreter of the sacred writings, and in that he succeeded. No man has shown a more profound comprehension of the spirit of the Evangel. His Apostles are the real men of the New Testament, plebeian fishermen and artisans, rude in manner but great in heart. In them we must not expect to find the nobility which is so conspicuous in the philosophers of the School of Athens, in the deities and poets of the Parnassus, in the fathers and scholars of the Disputa. With them religious conviction takes the place of all other merit, and that con viction Raphael has expressed with an eloquence of which he had not pre viously shown himself capable. The courtier-painter forgot for a moment his aristocratic sympathies ; he renounced the pomps and refinements of the Renaissance to drawn men's attention to acts which appealed to the poorest and most ignorant. The public to which he addressed himself was no longer the exclusive society which had the right of worshipping in the Sistine, but those outcasts to whom Christianity at its birth had shown so large a heart. Thus the great works which were destined to increase with their silk and their gold the glory of the already brilliant Sistine, appealed, in reality, to the comprehensions of the people; they formed the most perfect popular achievement of modern art in the place of its birth : unhappily they were also the last. The Acts of the Apostles comprise the following subjects : the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, Christ's Charge to Peter, the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, the Healing of the Lame Man, the Death of Ananias, the Conversion of St. Paul, Elymas struck with Blindness, Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, St. Peter in Prison, and St. Paul Preaching at Athens. The Cartoons. 379 Let us study each one of these compositions separately. The first two, the Miraculous Draught of Fishes and Christ's Charge to STUDY FOE THE FIGURE OF CHRIST IN THE CHARGE TO (Louvre.) Peter, are distinguishable by a perfect gospel simplicity. Both scenes are set in those calm landscapes which appear to have been so dear to Raphael. The composition is of the greatest directness. . In the first, St. Peter and another 380 Raphael. disciple are adoring Christ, whilst their companions are busied in drawing up the net. In the other, Christ is giving the. keys to the. Prince of the Apostles in presence of his fellow disciples, who seem to be moved by a variety of emotions. The scenes in question are among the most solemn of those trans-. mitted to us by the Evangelists, and perhaps the artist might have suppressed some of the accessories, such as the fishes, nets, ropes, sheep, &c, and carried us into that ideal world which would have befitted the subject. But abstrac tion was always distasteful to Raphael. In his eyes the progress of art depended upon bringing the ideal as close as possible to the real. That was why he painted with such exquisite care the birds and shells and fish in the former, and the sheep behind Christ in the latter. It also explains the strong contrast between the serene beauty of the figure and features of our Lord and the rugged faith and humility of Peter, the passionate devotion of John, and the strong individualisation of all their companions. As to this figure of Christ we now know all the process of its birth, with what rapidity the master transformed an ordinary model in shirt and breeches, standing in an attitude which had nothing imposing about it (see illustration on page 379), into this commanding figure.1 In the Healing of the Lame Man, the decorative element, which had been banished from the first two frescoes, re-asserts its rights ; gorgeous archi tecture, the twisted columns of the Vatican basilica, which, according to tradition, had been brought from the temple at Jerusalem, varied costumes, crowds of worshippers, go to make up a brilliant, whole. This cartoon excels all the rest of the series in its suitability for interpretation in tapestry. But this decorative fitness was not obtained by any neglect of dramatic qualities; the action is as lively as in any of its companions. The pathos expressed in the figures of the two cripples, who calmly await their turn to be cured, is balanced by the healthy grace of the young mothers at the other end of the composition. The child who runs by the side of one of these young women, and carries, with the characteristic cruelty of his age, two doves dangling from the end of a stick, is especially worthy of admiration ; the antique can show nothing more full of life and grace. As a dramatic creation, the Death of Ananias is worthy of the Expulsion of Heliodorus. As in that fresco, Raphael has abandoned his research into the beautiful for the sake of expressive power ; the dominant feelings are here severity, indignation, stupor and grief. The Apostles, grouped upon a dais in the centre, have inquired into the conduct of Ananias. St. Peter, the 1 In the Windsor collection there is a drawing of the entire subject in which our figure occurs. But Raphael, in painting the cartoon, has completely changed the lines, expression, and action. (See the Notice des dessins . . . du Louvre, by M. Reiset, pp. 101, 102.) The Cartoons. 381 instrument o divine vengeance, extends his hand towards the guilty man, who falls as if struck by lightning, and rolls in his convulsive agony. Another apostle points upwards to heaven, and seems to proclaim the justice of the punishment ; while his companions allow their indignation and surprise to have free expression. Among the spectators in the foreground one cries out in amazement, another seems absolutely petrified, a third who had approached Ananias to give him help, is suddenly arrested by finding it too late ; and, finally, a fourth points with his finger to the apostles, and seems to say to the dying man that their sentence was just, and , that he had deserved his fate. All these different actions are portrayed with the utmost life. We may pass rapidly over the Martyrdom of St. Stephen and the Conversion of St. Paul; they are not up to the level of the rest, and we may conclude that Raphael's pupils had a large share in their production. The Punishment of Elymas is another pathetic episode. We cannot praise this composition better than by placing opposite to its reproduction the words of St. Luke themselves : " And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus : which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) with stood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul (who also is called Paul), filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said, 0 full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness ; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord."1 There is not a particular of all this description which has not been vividly rendered by the painter ; and where Raphael has created an admirable scene of religious history, he seems to have done no more than faithfully interpret his author. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, like the Punishment of Elymas, shows us Christianity bursting through the bonds of pagan civilisation. " And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked ; the same heard Paul speak : who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said 1 Acts chap. xiii. v. 6 — 12 382 Raphael. with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. And when the people saw wha-t Paul, had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech' of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us: in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, MercUrius, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their' city, brought oxen and. garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the: people, crying- out, and saying, Sirs, why, do ye these things?"1 This is the episode- treated by Raphael. Paul, and Barnabas have cured the cripple, who, in his joy, throws his crutches away and announces the good news to his parents, friends, and fellow-citizen's. The crowd gathers round' the miracle-Workers, believing them Jupiter and Mercury. descended from Olympus, and prepare to render, to them the honours due to immortals. The priests have -, pronounced .the sacrificial formulae, one of them has already raised his- axe over the, victim, when' St. Paul comes forward and:protests with indignant-passiOn against such-idolatrous proceedings, and tears his robes in token of his own humiliation. The whole scene is completely shown in the Cartoon. It comprehends many distinct elements, which • for their successful fusion, demanded all the science and all the dramatic genius . of Raphael. His. success has heen complete. In no other of his compositions do we find more life and coherent expression. A crowd has come together in the Iforum ; on one side we see those who are merely spectators— women and old men — fixing their looks with devout conviction upon the two apostles : on the other the sacrificial priests with their laurel crowns, haling forward the bull. The paralytic, one, of the chief heroes of the event, will not' consent to.be merely one. of -the crowd; throwing away his now useless crutches, .he launches himself towards the apostles, his hands clasped, his face full of happiness and joyful participation in the acclamations which greet his benefactors; he is the personification of simple gratitude. Three Of his fellow-citizens approach him, and seek to' convince themselves of the' reality of the miracle; one of these (and this- incident, is jvorthy of those great, Tuscan- narrators, Piero della Francesca and Benozzo Gozzoli) raises the skirts of the cripple and looks with amazement at the legs which have become, strong and straight. The centre of the composition, is occupied by the sacrifice itself. The fire kindles upon the altar ;, a child is filling the air with the sounds of the double flute; another brings the censer ; the grave downcast faces of the priests express their consciousness' of the holy presence. One; of the sacrifices, kneeling Acts, chap. xiv. v. 8 — 14. The Cartoons. 383 upon one knee, keeps in, its place the head of the bull, which is hung with garlands ; his companion, a herculean figure, swings up his axe ; the sacrifice, or rather the sacrilege, will soon be done.1 At the sight, Barnabas clasps his hands and seems to pray that the true light should descend into these poor ignorant souls ; Paul turns away his head with horror, and tears his robe. But the profanation which they fear will not be accomplished. A young man in the crowd perceives the feelings of the two strangers, he guesses their motives, and throwing himself upon the wielder of the axe, shouts to him to stop. To describe fitly the beauty of this composition,, the vigour of the drawing, the force of the expression, the variety and significance of the attitudes, would be impossible. The Sacrifice at Lystra, the Triumph of Ccesar by Mantegna, and the School of Athens, are the three fairest pages which art has borrowed from antiquity. In the first-named, Raphael has restored for us the architectural splendour of Greek civilization, its exquisite statues and pompous religious rites, as well as its enthusiastic peoples and its passionate worship of the beautiful. This noble conception almost makes us believe that its author had lived in ancient Rome, that he had been familiar with the sentiments and creeds of the subjects of Augustus, that he had even felt them sincerely himself, so great is the ardour, so deep is the obvious conviction of these worshippers of a fancied Jove. The insight of genius leads him to contrast with all these outward signs of a sensuous religion, the austerity approaching to rudeness of the apostles of the new faith. Thoroughly imbued with the words of the Scripture, Raphael has placed opposite to the figures of Paul and his companions the statue of Mercury, as' well as those of other divinities. The struggle betweeen Olympus and Christianity has begun. The Paul in Prison, also called the Earthquake, is, like the St. Stephen and the Conversion of St. Paul, one of those compositions which, being confided in great part to pupils, were foredoomed to comparative failure. The simplicity of the idea has not hindered Raphael, in the Paul Preaching at Athens, from giving us a picture as full of life and truth as the Sacrifice, though with less action. This famous work does not contain a line which fails to add to our comprehension of St. Luke's words : " And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what 1 This group is copied from a bas-relief, which, after being in the Villa of the Medici in Rome, is now in the Uffizi in Florence (photographed by Brogi, No. 4085. See also Dutschke, Antike Bildwerke in Oberitalien, t. iii. No. 29). Raphael improved upon his model, and in the Cartoon there is a grandeur of outline and a force that are not to be seen in the bas-relief. 38 4 Raphael. this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is ? . . . Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill and said, Ve men of Athens, I perceive that in all thing ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. . . And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked : and others said, We will hear thee .again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave; unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them."1 Raphael shows us in turn the surprise, scepticism, and incredulity of the audience — on the one hand, sophists driven from all their dialectical ARMS OF LEO X. (From the borders of the Tapestries.' subtleties ; on the other hand, peaceable citizens full of contempt for all hew doctrines. But the artist, charged to celebrate the eloquence of St. Paul, could not be content with these negative results, and, in order to give the scene its full significance, it was necessary to oppose to the indifference of the majority the fervour of those converted by the words of the apostle. St. Luke here comes to the assistance of the. painter, when he says, " Howbeit certain, men clave unto" him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman. named Damaris." These two are represented by Raphael at the foot of the steps, one enthusiastic and about to applaud, the other absorbed in the eloquence of the orator. Speaking of this cartoon, M. Ch. Clement quotes the eloquent words of Bossuet : " He goes, ignorant 1 Acts c. xvii. v. 19—34. Numerous Sets of the Tapestries. 385 of art and culture as he is, rude in speech and with the accent of a stranger, into Greece, the polished mother of orators and philosophers, and there, in spite of all men's resistance, he establishes more churches than Plato had gained disciples with all his eloquence." 1 The borders of these Acts of the Apostles themselves form a poem. In richness of imagination they do not fall short of the arabesques in the Loo-o-ie themselves. So great is their beauty that we have no hesitation in attributing the design of many of them, such as the Fates, to Raphael himself. In others, his pupils, Giovanni da Udine and Francesco Penni, stimulated by the example of their master, have surpassed themselves. Raphael was one of the first artists to give surroundings worthy of themselves to cartoons for decorative purposes. For the inevitable garland of fruits and flowers, CM. CDUTIWIi.'.ER.. THE GONFALONIER RIDOLFI ADDRESSING THE FLORENTINES. (From the borders of the Tapestries.) so long affected by the Flemings, he substituted storied borders, upon which he lavished all the wealth of bis imagination, all the resources of his palette. These works have been very often reproduced in tapestry. Several well-known sets date from the epoch of Raphael and Leo X. As the cartoons remained at Brussels for so long it was easy for any rich amateur to obtain reproductions. The sets in the museums of Berlin and Dresden, in the palace at Vienna, and in the picture gallery of Madrid are believed to date from the sixteenth century ; that at Loretto is perhaps equally old. A set which once belonged to Francis I. has disappeared ; that made at Mortlake for Charles I. is now in the Garde-Meuble National. It is marvel- 1 See Michel-Ange, Leonard de Vinci, Raphael, p. 306. C C 386 Raphael. lously beautiful. The set woven at the Gobelins from the oil copies made for Louis XIV. is also in the Garde-Meuble. Were we to attempt an enumeration of the painted copies which exist in France, in England, in Italy, in Spain, and in Germany, we should never make an end. We must be content with referring our reader to our Histoire de la Tapisserie italienne, where he will find ample details. The Coronation of the Virgin, which is generally regarded as a sequel to the Acts of the Apostles, was looked upon as lost until M. Paliard had the good fortune to discover it in the Vatican.1 According to Passavant, this work served to complete the decoration of the Sistine Chapel; it was the " last canto of a mystic poem, dedicated to the glorification of the Trinity." 2 CARDINAL GIOVANNI DE' MEDICI AT THE BATTLE OF RAVENNA. (From the borders of the Tapestries.) In spite of our deference for the historian of Raphael, we cannot accept his theory on this point. It is certain that Raphael made a sketch for the Coronation of the Virgin, which sketch is now preserved in the gallery at Oxford (facsimile on page 38S). Besides, the presence upon the tapestry of St. John and St. Jerome with his lion is an allusion to the two names of the Pope, Giovanni and Leo. But these facts are hardly sufficient to sustain the contention of Passavant. Leo X. may have commissioned the cartoon, but the tapestry worked from it never entered the Vatican till the reign of Paul III., whose arms are woven into it. It was given to that Pope by the Cardinal of Liege, Everard de la Marck, who obtained the hat on the 1 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1873, t. ii. p. 82 et seq. 2 Raphael, t. ii. p. 211. Coronation of the Virgin. 387 9th of August, 1520, and died in 1537. It is quite possible that this prelate, finding the cartoon ordered by Leo lying idle at Brussels, caused it to be woven as an offering to his successor, Paul III. An inventory dated 23rd April, 1555, tells us in so many words that the latter pope received from the cardinal in question the offering of a tapestry representing Our Lady, St. John the Baptist, and St. Jerome. That piece was evidently identical with the one of which we are speaking. In the inventories of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries the Coronation of the Virgin never figures in company with the Acts of the Apostles, of which, according to Passavant, it formed the sequel. It always appears in a separate category with three other pieces, the Nativity, the Virgin, and the Visitation. It was not till the last century that it was provisionally M m aw*** fcwajWBBiotja^s ENTRY OF CARDINAL GIOVANNI DF.' MEDICI INTO FLORENCE. (From the borders of the Tapestries.) placed in the Sistine Chapel, where it took its turn over the altar with the other hangings.1 It is probable that Raphael made a sketch, at the command of Leo X., for the Coronation, just as he made sketches for the Scenes from the Life of Christ. But death interrupted him before he began the cartoon, properly speaking, which was beyond doubt left to his scholars. The death of the Pope, which took place eighteen months later, undoubtedly occasioned a fresh interruption ; and the cartoon remained unutilised until the Cardinal de la Marck, wishing to pay court to Paul III., gave the order for the tapestry. The Coronation of the Virgin comprises thirteen figures. At the top is God the Father surrounded by four cherubim ; in the centre, a dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit; lower still, the Virgin and Christ between two angels; See Taja, Descrizione del palazzo apostolico Vaticano. Rome, 1750, p. 65. c c 2 388 Raphael. lowest of all, two more angels with St. John and St. Jerome. The borders show flowers, fruits, birds, and sirens upon a gold ground. They were evidently carried out from Flemish designs. The success of the Acts of the Apostles decided Leo to commission from Q> STUDY FOR THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. (Oxford University Gallery.) his favourite artist cartoons for another set of tapestries which should represent scenes from the Life and Death of our Lord. Passavant and others have made a complete mistake in attributing this commission to Francis I. The French king gave, indeed, a valuable tapestry to the Holy See, but its The Life of Christ. 389 subject was the Last Supper, after the famous picture by Leonardo da Vinci ; besides, it was presented to Clement VII., and not to Leo X. Autheutic documents exist which clearly show that Leo X. intended this second series, known as the Arrazi della Scuola Nuova, for the hall where the papal consistories were held. They were twelve in number, and were paid for by tho Pope himself. A magnificent papal throne and a huge state bed, also worked in tapestry, completed the decorations of the hall. The subjects of the series were as follows : — The Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents (three pieces), the Descent into Hell, the Resurrection, " Noli me Tangere," the Supper at Emmaus, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost. All the pieces, except the Descent into Hell, still exist in the Vatican. They have for companion a tapestry which was formerly hung behind the pontifical throne. There are great and obvious differences between these scenes and those of the earlier and greater series. One can hardly believe that a common inspiration presided over both conceptions. The coarseness of the drawing, the often repulsive ugliness of the types, the vulgarity and heaviness of the accessories, seem to indicate a Flemish rather than an Italian origin. And yet here and there we find passages, the carriage of a head, the fall of a drapery, which recall the painter of the Stanze and the Loggia. Our intellect commences a half- involuntary task of elimination and restoration, and in time we are able to trace the thoughts of the divine master through the labyrinth of defects which hide and disfigure them. It is beyond doubt that Raphael began the preparatory sketches for these Scenes from the Life of Christ in the very last years of his life. Numerous studies, widely dispersed, bear witness to the part which he took in their preparation, but he died before he could bring the work near completion, perhaps even before he had time to execute a single cartoon. The work thus interrupted was continued for the Pope by the master's pupils. All his studies were brought together, and the existing tapestries show us that they were utilised. But for some of the scenes Raphael had not even left the slightest sketch, and his successors were obliged to supply much from their own fancies. In the case of an artist like Giulio Romano the result was passable, but when men like Tomaso Vincidor da Bologna, or some Fleming who was a perfect stranger to the principles of the Renaissance, attempted to continue the work of Raphael, the consequence was disastrous. According to a document recently discovered in the archives of the Capitol by Signor Bertolotti, one of the pieces, the Nativity (and perhaps the whole series), was not delivered in Rome till 1530 or 1531. The experts 390 Raphael. who were directed to examine them on their arrival greatly praised their handiwork, and declared them superior, on the whole, to the earlier series, the Acts of the Apostles ! and Clement VII., who had paid 20,000 ducats for the new works, was probably of the same opinion, so rapidly bad the decadence advanced in a short ten years. Yet another set of tapestries is generally attributed to Raphael, that, we mean, which goes by the name of the Giuochi di puiti, or Loves Playing. Vasari however attributes this series, which was commissioned by Leo X., to LOVES PLAYING IN A WOOD. (Facsimile of an engraving by the Master of the Die.) Giovanni da Udine. The composition of the series is very regular. They are divided by three garlands of fruit and flowers, one suspended horizontally, the other two vertically ; they represent the games of winged children, fighting with each other, adorning themselves with crowns and sceptres, chasing birds, &c. &c. Here the most prolific fancy is allied with perfect grace and complete decorative suitability. They contain, however, a few rather free passages, but at those, we know, Leo X. and his court would not have been likely to take exception. In the following century, Urban VIII. was so charmed with the elegance and naivete of these compositions, that he commissioned a famous painter, G. F. Romanelli, to make copies of them, and Loves in a Wood. 391 also ordered tapestry replicas of them at the manufactory which he had founded in Rome itself about 1630. The series was originally composed of twenty pieces, but it seems to have been broken up and dispersed at about the time of the Revolution. According to information which we have received from M. Charles Ephrussi, the learned historian of Diirer, eight of these tapestries are now in Paris, in the possession of the Princess Mathilde. In our Histoire de la Tapisserie italienne we have endeavoured to bring together all available information as to these interesting works. Another work in tapestry, quite distinct from those whch we have just named, viz. Loves Playing in a Wood, displays such extreme beauty that Passavant has, without hesitation, attributed the design to Raphael. The engraving by the Master of the Die, which we reproduce, is the sole souvenir of this long-vanished composition. Innumerable designs for tapestries, woven and embroidered, have been attributed to Raphael by the various writers who have busied themselves with his works. This fact shows what an influence the author of the Cartoons exercised over the decorative arts. For a whole century the art of tapestry moved upon the lines which he had laid down ; it renounced its independence to become the mere handmaid of the painter, so easy had it seemed to put on the yoke of such a genius as Raphael. His prestige was so great that all the countries which possessed tapestry factories, — France, Italy, and Flanders, — bowed themselves after his death before the authority of his favourite pupil, the rough though powerful Giulio Romano. Defective though his compositions were in many respects, Giulio was fortunate enough to execute the cartoons for those series which, after Raphael's, were the most admired, the Triumph of Scipio, the History of Romulus, the Months, &c. His productive powers were enormous, and there are certainly more than a hundred tapestries attributed to him ; another pupil of Raphael's, Perino del Vaga, made attempts in the same art. The designs for the History of Dido are ascribed to him. By all this we may see that, far from blaming the Pope for employing the genius of Raphael in making designs for tapestry-weavers, the sixteenth century both by acts and words, showed its approval of an act which ended in uniting art and industry, beauty and utility. Raphael's talent as a designer for manufacturers was not confined to tapestries. Goldsmiths' work, wood-carving, marquetry, mosaics, were all indebted to him in turn. He even painted scenes for the theatre with his own hand. He may also have furnished Luca della Robbia with the design for the enamelled tiles which he made for the Loggie and for several of the 392 Raphael. chambers in the Vatican. His double character as painter and architect made him peculiarly well fitted to carry out such work, in which he showed his usual exquisite taste. If to all these designs we add those innumerable motives for decoration which are to be found in his fresco and easel pictures, we must acknowledge that Raphael occupies as an ornamentist a rank corre sponding to that which he holds as a painter. DESIGN FOR A BRONZE DISH. (Dresden Gallery.) His first designs of this class were, in all probability, those for plates which he made for Agostino Chigi ; they were carried out in bronze by Cesarino Rossetti, a goldsmith of Perugia. One of these designs is preserved in the University Gallery at Oxford, another, which we reproduce, is in the Dresden Gallery. On a careful examination of the latter, which represents the gambols Decorative Designs. 393 of marine deities with curious fancy and freedom, and is, at the same time, a wonder of balanced composition, I have been brought to the conclusion that, DESIGN FOR A PERFUME VASE. (Facsimile of Marc- Antonio's Engraving.) after having sketched it in red chalk, traces of which are still here and there apparent, Raphael made one of his scholars go over it with the pen, last of all 394 Raphael. retouching it himself. Pentimenti are notably visible in the heads. These are in a darker ink than that originally used. All this explains a certain cold emptiness in some parts of the design. At about the same date, Raphael furnished Fra Giovanni with the designs for the woodwork in the Camera della Segnatura, and a few years later, in the time of Leo X., he did a similar service for Giovanni Barile, of Siena. Much of Barile's work is still in place. Next came the execution of the mosaics in the Chigi Chapel. In this work the painter has followed, we must acknowledge, the same principles as those which guided him in the preparation of the Cartoons. His designs look as if meant to be carried out in fresco, and show an amount of movement and life which is hardly consistent with the peculiarities of mosaic. The engraving by Marc-Antonio which we reproduce shows us a perfume box in the form of a vase, which, if we may judge from the fleurs-de-lys and salamanders upon it, must have been designed for Francis I. It was meant, in all probability, to be of very small dimensions, yet the design has been so carefully thought out and prepared, that it would serve for the execution of a work of monumental size. The rhythmic lines of the caryatides, the grace of their attitudes, and the skill with which they are allied to the vessel which they support, are especially worthy of our admiration. It has long been thought that Raphael made many of the designs for those superb plates which have won such fame for the potters of Urbino and Gubbio, and which are now almost as much sought after as the pictures of great masters. One of the seventeenth-century authors, Malvasia, has even reproached him with having done so. He has so far forgotten himself as to call the greatest of painters a miserable potter (" quel boccalojo di Urbino "). More recently, Louis Achim d'Arnim has founded an ingenious novel upon the same theme. Passavant thought himself obliged seriously to discuss the same question, as the tradition upon which it was founded seemed to him to be of respectable age. But the researches of M. G. Campori have given us the key to the riddle. They have proved that a compatriot, nay, more, a relative, of Raphael, Raffaello di Ciarla da Urbino, was the maker of a large number of works in majolica towards the latter half of the sixteenth century. Both in his works and in those of his fellow-townsmen, the designs of Raphael, as reproduced by the burin of Marc-Antonio, were frequently made use of. The similarity of name and of subject satisfactorily explains the tradition. CHAPTER XVII. Raphael and Agostino Chigi : The Galatea. — The Sibyls. — The Planets. — The Story of Pysche. Next to the Pope, Raphael's greatest admirer was Agostino Chigi, and the works ordered by him of Sanzio are so numerous and important that they merit special study. We have made acquaintance in the preceding pages with the rich and powerful banker, and it is now time to present him to our readers as the man of taste and amateur of art. Chigi's principal undertaking, the building of his villa in the Trastevere, was commenced shortly after Raphael's arrival in Rome. As early as 1509 Albertini, in a passage hitherto unnoticed, speaks of this building as ranking among the most important palaces of Rome.1 But the completion of the work occupied several years, and it was not until 1511 — 1512 that the villa was thrown open to the admiring Romans.2 Vasari attributes the architectural part of the work to Baldassare Peruzzi, saying that it was " non murato, ma veramente nato." (Not built, but born). The decoration of the villa was a marvel ; and Agostino's descendant, Fabio Chigi (Alexander VII.), mentions, among other things, a bed ornamented with gold, silver, ivory, and precious stones, and Cugnoni estimates the cost of trimming the furniture of the magnificent apartment in which it was placed, at no less than 1,592 ducats. Costly tapestries alternated with vases and silver fountains. The harness of the hundred horses which filled the famous Stalle Chigiane, was of gold and silver, and their housings of silk. But all the banker's affairs were strictly organised, and the severest rules governed his prodigal expenditure. He intrusted his chaplain with the purchase of medals and antiques, with the placing of his pictures and statues, — in short, with the direction of his department of science and art. 1 " Domus cum vinea apud portam Septi : Augustini de Chigis Senensis." (Opusculum, fol. 88, v°.) 2 M. Cugnoni, keeper of the Chigi library has published some interesting documents concerning these works in Ms Agostino Chigi, II Magnifico. See also Forster's Famesina- Studim, Rostock, 1880, pp. 14, 15, and the notable work of M. Ch. Bigot, Raphael et la Forniirine, Paris, 1884. 396 Raphael. Chigi was what is called a " self-made man," and was obliged to make up for his lack of education by the quickness of his intelligence and the certainty of his eye. A man of pleasure as well as of business, he hated erudition. History alone, when by chance it came in his way, had any interest for him. On the other hand, he loved everything that could help to embellish his existence or augment his reputation; poets, musicians, architects, painters, sculptors, found in him an ardent protector. In order to conform to the fashion of the times, he went so far as to found a Greek printing office, and to collect medals. We may conjecture, however, that he would never have made his fortune as a numismatist. But he quickly learnt, so far as contemporary art was concerned, to distinguish the really eminent masters from the crowd of mediocrities who besieged his palace. More still, as he had opinions of his own in politics (he was a Ghibeline and, consequently, in favour of the Spaniards), he wished to have them in the fine arts also, and so he took up the cause of Raphael against that of Michael Angelo, never giving a commission of any kind, after the commencement of hostilities, either to the great Florentine or to his protdge, Sebastiano Luciani, better know as Sebastiano del Piombo. Agostino Chigi exercised very great influence over the development of art in Rome. His name is indissolubly connected with that of Raphael. The dis ciples of the master, Giulio Romano, il Fattore, Giovanni da Udine, Lorenzetto, were reckoned among his friends. In early days Sebastiano Luciani painted the Polyphemus for him, and many other frescoes. He commissioned a picture from Girolamo Genga. The two Siennese, Baldassare Peruzzi and Giovanni Barile, and another master who was Siennese by adoption, Sodoma, found in him a generous and steadfast protector. Perugino also had dealings with Chigi, who, in 1500, called him the greatest painter in Italy. We see, then, that the surroundings of the Siennese banker were almost as imposing as those of the Pope himself. He takes a high place among the art-patrons of history, and it is but just that we should do honour to one to whom we owe so many masterpieces. Raphael's connection with Chigi began soon after the painter's arrival in Rome. In 1510 he made the designs for two dishes which the goldsmith, Cesarino di Francesco of Perugia, was employed to cast in bronze.1 But the first important work which he carried through was the Galatea, which was painted in fresco in one of the saloons of the banker's new villa. A work so famous requires somewhat careful study. Certain writers, with more subtlety than wisdom, have attempted to show 1 Fea, Notizie inform Raffaele Sanzio, p. 81. See p. 392. The Galatea. 397 that Raphael had a share in the earliest decorative works at the Villa Chigi, and that he there painted his Galatea. Their contention is mainly founded upon the poem of Palladio, which describes the villa as it was in 1511 or 1512, and mentions, among other frescoes, a Venus rising from the sea and floating upon a shell : Heic Venus orta mari et concha sub sidera fertur.1 / This Venus, they declare, could be none other than the Galatea of Raphgffifc But R. Forster has proved, by unanswerable arguments, that the Venus mentioned by Palladio is identical with another fresco in the villa, which forms part of a ceiling painted by Peruzzi. Heir Forster has also shown conclusively that as early as the sixteenth century the picture by Raphael was always known as a Galatea, and never as a Venus? The approximate date of the Galatea is furnished by the celebrated letter which the painter addressed to Baldassare Castiglione shortly after his nomi nation to the post of architect-in-chief to St. Peter's, or about the middle of the year 1514. Raphael thanks his friend for the praises which he lavished upon his work. " As for the Galatea" he writes, " I should look upon myself as a great master if it contained half the qualities which your lordship has discovered in it. But your words are dictated by the affection which you bear to me. I would add that, in order to paint a beautiful woman, one must see many of them, and must have such a judge as your lordship by one to help to choose the most perfect. But seeing how rare both good judges and fair women are, I myself turn to an ideal which I am able to create in my imagina tion. Whether or no that ideal have any value from an artistic point of view, is what I do not yet know, although I am forced to use it." The terms of this letter show that the work in question must have been produced not very long before it was written. Such a collection of polite phrases would be absurd in speaking of a work already old. Perhaps we shall not be far wrong if we consider that it was executed in the last months of 1513 or the first of 1514. The origin of the Galatea has been almost as much discussed as its date. According to some the artist must have been inspired by the Icones of Philostratus ; according to others,, by the Golden Ass of Apuleius. But the differences between the descriptions of these two authors and the fresco are so great that we are forced to reject both hypotheses. Neither is there any necessity to go so far afield for an explanation. As early as 1557, Dolce, in his Aretino, referred the Galatea of Raphael to the stanzas in which Politian 1 Suburbanum Augustini Chisii. Rome, 1512, 27th January. 2 Farnesina-Studien, pp. 21, 42. 398 Raphael. celebrated the same nymph. The poem of which those stanzas form a part, the Giostra, appeared for the first time in 1494, and by 1515 ten editions had been issued. What can be more natural than to suppose that the favourite poet of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the tutor, too, of the reigning Pope, was popular at the court of his pupil, Leo X., and that Raphael had read his works ? All doubt on the point is cleared away when we examine the points of analogy between the description of the writer and the composition of the painter. The reader may judge for himself from the following simple analysis of the poet's argument. After having told us how Polyphemus attempted in vain to melt the hard-hearted nymph by his songs, Politian shows us Galatea placed upon a car and drawn by two graceful and kindly dolphins, which she guides with reins. A crowd of nymphs and tritons play about her, and she joins with her companions in deriding the rude chants of the Cyclops.1 Chigi was so warm in his championship of the Renaissance as to desire that souvenirs of antique civilisation should appear even in those works by which he meant to display his religious devotion. At Santa Maria della Pace he caused the Sibyls to be painted in company with the Prophets; and it should be remarked that the former alone were from the actual hand of Raphael, the execution of the Prophets being entrusted to Timoteo Viti. At Santa Maria del Popolo an opportunity was made, in representing the Planets, for celebrating the chief deities of Olympus. The Sibyls wrere painted, in all probability, in 1514. Raphael, who had just completed the Chamber of Heliodorus, profited by his leisure and by the presence of his friend Timoteo Viti to acquit himself of the task confided to him by Chigi. An author of the seventeenth century, Cinelli, recounts an anecdote d propos of these Sibyls and Prophets, which is too much to the honour of the painter, of his patron, and of his greatest rival, to be passed over. Raphael had received 500 ducats on account during the progress of the work, and when he claimed the balance which he considered to be due from the cashier of Chigi, the latter expressed astonishment at the demand, and, 1 Due formosi delfini un carro tirano ; Sovr' esso e Galatea, che il fren corregge : E quei notando parimente spirano ; Ruotasi attorno piu lasciva gregge. Qual le salse onde sputa, e quai s' aggirano ; Qual par che per amor giuochi e vanegge. La belle ninfa con le suore fide Di si rozzo cantar vezzosa ride. (Stanze di messer Angelo Poliziano cominciate per la giostra del magnifico Giuliano di Piero de' Medici, liv. i. strophe cxviii. p. 40 of the Rime of Politian, Florence, 1622.) The Sibyls. 399 upon the suggestion of Raphael that he should choose an expert to arbitrate between them, named Michael Angelo, the acknowledged rival of him whose remuneration was in question. The Florentine betook himself to the Pace in STUDY FOR THE PHRYGIAN SIBYL. (University Galleries, Oxford.) company with the cashier, and decided that each head was alone worth 100 ducats. As soon as Chigi heard of this decision he ordered 400 ducats to be paid immediately to Raphael, in addition to the 500 already received. " Be 400 Raphael. tender with him," he said to the cashier, " so that he may be satisfied. I shall be ruined if he makes me pay' for the draperies." : Vasari considered the Sibyls the masterpiece of Raphael. " These are," he said, " the most beautiful figures ever painted by the master." Without wishing to go quite as far as the old biographer, we do not hesitate to acknow ledge our sympathy with the great admiration which he expresses for these figures. Both in expression and in general arrangement they are among the most perfect of their author's works. In nobility and elegance the three youngest are worthy of the muses of the Parnassus, while the aged Tiburtina is distinguished by a majesty which is almost terrible. Old and worn, her head covered by a veil, her hands convulsively grasping the ledge upon which she sits, the urn upset beneath her feet, the book falling from her knees, she THE SIBYLS IN S. MARIA DELLA PACE. stares before her with haggard eyes that seem to penetrate the future. Nothing could be more dramatic than this personification of an antique ¦prophetess, such as Virgil painted. In creating her, Raphael came nearer to the Sibyls of his great rival than in any of the others. But although he was inspired by the creations of Michael Angelo, he did not copy them ; both types and attitudes were characteristic of no man but himself. Now that we have referred to the great painter of the Sistine, we may take the opportunity of saying that it was from.him that Raphael borrowed the happy idea cf giving to each Sibyl an attendant genius or angel, who bears the book of her prophe cies. In the frescoes of the Pace this happy innovation has been used, with 1 See Passavant, Raphael, t. i. pp. 157, 158. The Chigi Chapel. 401 the utmost skill, to take away the appearance of stiffness and monotony to which such compositions had previously been condemned. These winged figures, full of grace and movement, serve to draw closer the principal actors in the scene, and to add to the rhythm and unity of its lines. THE DOME OF THE CHIGI CHAPEL. Chigi was the only one among all the friends and patrons of Raphael who could boast of having profited by his genius in all three of the allied arts, architecture, painting, and sculpture." Raphael drew the plans of the chapel in which Chigi was afterwards buried in Santa Maria del Popolo, and himself directed the carrying out of the works. This was done, perhaps, as early as the reign of Julius II. Next he made the cartoons for the mosaics in the D D 402 Raphael. dome, and, finally, he modelled the statue of Jonas, which his pupil Lorcnzctto executed in the marble. THE PLANET JUPITER. (Chigi Chapel.) Raphael, influenced by the epic grandeur of Buonarroti's paintings in the Sistine, seems to have wished to give to the chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo a scheme of decoration which might also awake great and sublime thoughts in the minds of those who should behold it. If we may judge from the pictures The Chigi Chapel. 403 executed after his death, according, probably, to the scheme elaborated by himself and Cbigi, he chose the figure of God the Father to fill the apex of the dome ; for its lower segments, the Creation of the Planets, below which THE CREATION OF THE STARS. (Chigi Chapel) were to come the chief episodes of Genesis up to the Fall of Man ; finally, upon the lower walls, the Birth, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, that is to say, the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies. God the Father D D 2 404 Raphael. and the eight pictures of the Creation of the Planets were alone carried to completion. Subjects taken from astronomy had never ceased to be held in honour ever since the last days of the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages nearly every cathedral could show a plan of the zodiac ; and at the epoch of the Renaissance those symbolical and hardly pictorial figures were largely replaced by personi fications of the sun, the moon, and the planets. A vast field was thus offered to the imagination of painters, and, at the same time, an excuse was given to them for representing those Olympian divinities who were every year growing in popularity. In 1414, Taddeo Bartoli painted, in the town-hall of Siena, personifications of the two planets, Mars and Jupiter. A few years later the Palazzo della Ragione of Padua was adorned with a vast astrological cycle, comprising more than three hundred figures.1 At Ferrara, Cosimo Tura and his colleagues represented similar scenes in their frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoja. Next came the Planets of Perugino, in the Exchange at Perugia. These subjects had become so popular at the commencement of the sixteenth century, that Leo X. commissioned Perino del Vaga and Giovanni da Udine to decorate the ceiling of the Pope's Hall with astronomical compositions. Vasari 2 gives a description of this work, which is still in existence. Raphael's treatment of a theme which was, as we see, by no means new, was nevertheless quite independent of precedent. Mindful of the fact that his works were intended for the decoration of a church, he was especially careful to conciliate, so to speak, the pagan elements of his designs with the spirit of Christianity. The pages of Dante had suggested to him a combin ation which was as simple as it was beautiful. In his Convito, the poet describes angels as moving the moon, archangels the planet Mercury, and so on. Raphael has, therefore, placed one of those celestial messengers over each planet, and, at the apex of all, the majestic figure of Jehovah stretches His life-giving arms over the world. This arrangement, besides being perfectly consistent with the religious ideas of the time, had the additional advantage of enabling the painter to give a dramatic force and unity to his whole composition which earlier masters had never attempted. His angels play as important a part as the gods committed to their charge; he who accompanies Mars calmly arrests the blade which the fierce god of war raises as if to strike ; the angel seated above the pagan Jove raises his arms and points with both bands to heaven as if to say, It is up there, far above Olympus, that we must seek for the real King of kings. The compartment which 1 See the Italienische Studien, by Hettner, p. 158. 2 Vol. x. p. 144. STUDY FOR ONE OF THE ANGELS IN THE CHIGI CHAPEL. (University Galleries, Oxford.) The Chigi Chapel. 40 5 contains these two figures is happily placed immediately beneath the figure of Jehovah, whose proximity thus gives additional point to the gesture of the angel. Faithful to his love of rhythm, Raphael has placed on the opposite side of the circle an angel who, his eye fixed upon the Creator with a touching look of submission, rests with both hands upon the firmament and makes it blaze with stars, in obedience to the command which he has just received : MANX LVMINARIA IN FIRMAMENTO CCELI. The compositions of Raphael were rendered in mosaic by a skilful artist whom Chigi had brought from Venice, the great centre of that particular industry. Luigi or Aloisio, or, as he is also called, Luisaccio di Pace da Venezia, has marked his own work with the following letters and date in the order given : L. v. J), i\ v. F. 1516.1 The clauses of the original contract made with Luigi are now unknown. But we are informed in a recent publication of M. Cugnoni's that on the 30th of May, 1520 — but a few weeks after the death of Chigi — the banker's widow executed a new agreement with the artist. We have already noticed some of the stipulations of this new contract. We may here add that the Venetian engaged to finish the eight compartments between the windows of the chapel and the four medallions in the spandrils of the arches in four years from the commencement of the work. In the year 1500 Beroaldus the younger published a translation of the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, in which he called the attention of scholars to the beautiful myth contained in the work of the Latin author. We may fairly suppose that it was Beroaldus who drew the attention of Chigi, with whom he was very intimate, to the opportunities which the story of Psyche would afford to a skilful painter. It had indeed given a theme to numerous artists of antiquity. However this may be, there is no doubt what ever that from his translation Raphael obtained the elements for the vast painted poem with which he adorned the loggia of Chigi's villa. For the pendentives of the arches, he chose the following subjects, ten in number :— , 1 See Gruner and Grin, I Mosaici della cupola nella cappella Chigiana di Santa-Maria del Popolo, in Roma. (Rome 1839, p. 4.) 406 Raphael. Venus pointing out Psyche to the arrows of love ;— Cupid showing Psyche to the Graces ;— Venus reproaching Juno and Ceres for protecting Psyche ;— Venus in a Car drawn by Doves ;— Venus a suppliant to Jupiter ;— Mercury sent in pursuit of Psyche; — Psyche with the water of the Styx ;— Psyche giving the water of the Styx to Venus ; — Jupiter embracing Cupid ; — Mercury carrying Psyche to Olympus. The flat part of the ceiling received two great compositions-: Psyche in Olympus and the Marriage of Psyche. The lunettes of each bay were devoted to the Triumphs of Love. Garlands of fruit and flowers, which gave opportunities for the display of his botanical knowledge to Giovanni da Udine, enframed all these scenes, and mingled their luxuriant vegetation with the glowing life of Raphael's pagan divinities. We know now that Apuleius had changed this myth from its primitive form. Mythology with him, to make use of the expression of St. Marc LOVE AND THE BIRDS. Girardin, bordered on burlesque. " It was the last phase of religious indifferentism. His Venus speaks as Scarron would have made her speak ; she is nothing more than a querulous and scolding matron." M. Collignon has passed a similar judgment upon the work of Apuleius, in his learned and thoughtful study upon the myth of Psyche as rendered in antique art. " The fable of Psyche," he says, " as given by the Latin author, has no real mytho logical character. It does not offer to us a single characteristic of the legends created by the religious imagination of a people. The turn which Apuleius gives to the story is entirely personal, and we should make a great mistake did we attempt to see in it anything beyond an ingenious piece of playful writing intended for the amusement of intellectual epicures." 1 1 Essai sur les monuments grecs et romains relatifs au mythe de Psyche. (Paris, 1877, p. 67.) THE PSYCHE SALOON. 408 Raphael. In commissioning Raphael to employ his pencil upon this intricate and poetic tradition, Chigi was not imposing any very novel task upon the painter. In his pictures from the Old and New Testaments, Raphael had shown with what ease he could enter into the spirit of a text, with what fidelity he could interpret it, even down to the smallest details. There could be little doubt VENUS, JUNO, AND CERES. of his capability to do the same for such stories as those of the Iliad, of the Odyssey, of the AEneid, or even of Ovid's Metamorphoses. But before the almost sacrilegious narrative of Apuleius, his artistic instincts seem to have revolted. The ancients might allow Venus to be described as a virago and Jupiter as an imbecile, but such ideas made the Italians of the Renaissance positively shudder. Their worship of the pagan deities was as respectful as The Story oe Psyche. 409 it was disinterested (they had nothing to hope from them but good subjects for their pens and pencils), and it would have seemed no less than criminal to Raphael to scoff at that Court of Olympus which had been reconstituted after so many efforts. 1 -N-tf*--. ^1:5 i!k VENUS AND JUPITER. Such, at least, is my explanation of the attitude taken up by him before the work of Apuleius. Wounded in his dearest predilections, without hope of being able to make a series of really interesting pictures from such a diffuse and contradictory story, he contented himself with creating beautiful figures and groups, without caring much to make his work accord with that of the Latin 410 Raphael. poet, or even to make it very complete and coherent in itself. He thus deli berately rejects the themes offered by the old romancist; he invents incidents which are not to be found in Apuleius, and he doubles others. For instance, in the scene where Venus, according to the poet, was angry and complaining #3§k —gemens ac fremens indignatione—he makes her calm and serene. The second picture, Cupid showing Psyche to the Graces, is an interpolation by the artist. So too are the Psyche flying through the Air supported by three winged Genii, and the Psyche giving the magic Water of the Styx to Venus. Apuleius contented himself with saying that Psyche, joyfully receiving the flask of The Story of Psyche. 411 water, hastened to carry it to Venus, but that she was still unable to appease the anger of the goddess.1 But the total disappearance of the fundamental significance of the myth is a much more serious matter than the changes which we have noticed. What MERCURY AND PSYCHE ASCENDING TO OLYMPUS. has become of the love story of Cupid and Psyche, which was so often celebrated in antique art ? We are told nothing about Psyche dropping the hot oil upon her sleeping lover, nor about the sufferings she had to endure in 1 "Sic acceptam cum gaudio plenam urnulam Psyche Veneri citata retulit. Nee tamen nutum deoe ssevientis vel tunc expiare potuit." 412 Raphael. consequence of her want of trust. Indeed, she almost disappears in these frescoes, as she is absent from seven out of the ten pendentives. And yet this pagan myth contained ideas so beautiful and so profound, that nascent Christianity itself did not disdain to adopt them. " If we reject those over- ambitious interpretations from which our sense revolts," says M. Collignon, " the fable of Psyche appears to be one of those graceful allegories which spring up so easily in the Greek intellect. Its origin was but a simple play on words. The double meaning of the word tyvyfi, signifying both the soul and a species of butterfly, naturally led the Greeks to personify the former under the shape of the latter. From this beginning was developed an allegory which exercised the talent of artists and the taste of the poets of the Anthology. Such was the first phase of the myth. But philosophy did not long neglect a figure by which the ideas of resurrection and a future life appeared clearly expressed, and funeral symbolism, which first appeared about the second or third century after Christ, popularised both the ruling idea of the myth and the figures and incidents by which it was represented ; that which at first was no more than an intellectual fancy, became a dogma of popular philosophy, and was embraced with ardour by the troubled miuds of a transition period." 1 The great poet of the Middle Ages did not fail to appropriate an image so delicate. For him, as for the Greeks, the soul was a celestial butterfly, shut up in a terrestrial envelope until the hour of final deliverence : " Non v'accorgete voi che noi siam vermi Nati a formar l'angeliea farfalla."2 Raphael, after treating Apuleius with such scant ceremony, seems to have been thinking of Dante's verses in the last scene where he shows us Psyche mounting to Olympus. The fervent gesture with which she crosses her arms upon her bosom, the joy which lights up her countenance, her eloquent eyes turned upwards to the sky, all seem to recall the teachings of Christianity rather than the graceful fables of pagan mythology. They remind us much more vividly of a Christian martyr than of the inquisitive paramour of Eros. But our comparison between the text of Apuleius and the pictures of Raphael has occupied us long enough. It is time to consider the frescoes themselves, putting aside the romance which served as pretext for their creation. From this point of view we need not hesitate to say that Raphael has never created a more life-like or coherent work. The pictures in the 1 Essai sur les monuments grecs et remains relatifs au mythe de Psyche". (Paris, 1887, P- 67.) 2 Purgatorio, liv. x. STUDY FOR VENUS AND TSYOHE. (Louvre.) MERCURY IN SEARCH OF PSYCHE. (Facsimile of the engraving by Marc-Antouio.) 414 Raphael. pendentives belong to the very highest rank of art. We hardly know which to admire most in them, the youthful grace and vitality of these gods, who seem the outcome of the best days of Hellenic civilization, or their perfect suitability to the architecture they adorn. A severe taste has tempered the sometimes over-ready fancy of the artist, without taking away any of the dignity or elegance of his heroes ; and Raphael has compelled them to bow to the decorative necessities of their situation Avith an ease and a perfect taste which has been the despair of imitators. One only of all these frescoes betrays the hand of Raphael himself. Connoisseurs agree in ascribing to him the actual execution of one of the three Graces, in the compartment which shows Cupid presenting Psyche to the trio. It is the one who turns her back to the spectator. In both colour and modelling her figure displays a certainty and delicacy of handling which is absent from the rest of the compositions. We know that, at the time this work was carried out, Raphael had almost given up painting in fresco with his own hands. He contented himself with furnishing sketches, and sometimes cartoons, to his pupils, who carried them out upon the walls. The pupils who took part in the decoration of the Villa Chigi were Giulio Romano, Francesco Penni, and Giovanni da Udine. The collaboration of these men, who, whatever their merit, were yet far from possessing the genius of their master, could not fail to take away some value from the composition, and the History of Psyche bad to undergo severe criticism even on its first exhibition to the public. The letter of Leonardo the Saddler puts that fact beyond a doubt. The restorations of Carl Maratta, again, have aggra vated imperfections originally due to the shortcomings of Giulio Romano and Penni ; he deepened the blue of the background to such an extent as to destroy the colour-harmony of the composition. But posterity has learnt to look upon these drawbacks in their proper light, to admire the beauty of the great artist's invention, and to praise the enlightened liberality which has rendered inseparable the names of Chigi and of Raphael. JUPITER AND LOVE. (Louvre.) CHAPTER XVIII. Oil paintings executed under Leo X. : the Madonna della Sedia, the Pearl, the Madonna di San Sisto, the Holy Family of Francis I. — The Vision of Ezekiel. — Christ bearing his Cross. — St. Cecilia, St. Margaret, St. John in the Desert, St. Michael. — Portraits. — The Transfiguration. The number of religious pictures executed in Raphael's studio after the accession of Leo X. was so large, that it would be difficult to make a complete catalogue of them in the space at our disposal. Here again we must refer the reader to the works of Passavant, Gruyer, and Crowe and Cavalcaselle. We need only state that if the mind of the master is recognised in the beauty of their composition, the execution betrays but too often the hand of a pupil, j Among such pictures are the Madonna dell Impannata, painted for Bindo Altoviti and preserved in the Pitti Palace ; the Madonna della Tenda, in the Munich Gallery ; the Holy Family under the Oak, at Madrid ; the Madonna with the Rose, in the same collection ; the Madonna of the Candelabra, in the Munro collection in London ; and the small Holy Family in the Louvre, also known as the Vir gin. with the Cradle.1 Other compositions, such as the Repose in Egypt (Belvedere Museum at Vienna), the Madonna del Passeggio (Bridgewater Gallery, Naples Museum, &c), are now only known by old copies. Others again, like the Madonna of St. Luke, at the Acadamy of St. Luke at Rome, have been banished from the catalogue of the master's works by modern critics. The most eminent con noisseurs agree in attributing this cold and feeble painting to Timoteo Viti. The subjects portrayed by Raphael during this new period show a profound change. Either of his own free will, or at the instance of his patrons, the artist almost entirely abandoned simplicity of composition, which was at first so dear to him. The two traditional figures of the Mother and Son no longer sufficed. He was contented with them, indeed, in the Madonna of the Bridgewater Gallery and in the Madonna of the Candelabra, but he thought it 1 Painted for the Cardinal de Boisy, and formerly provided with a lid, which was no other than the panel, Abundance, also in the Louvre. 416 Raphael. necessary to add the infant St. John in many others. Even this addition at last failed to satisfy him, and henceforward he celebrated the Virgin iu the midst of the Holy Family, or as a Virgin Glorified. In other words, he sought to substitute a complete picture for fragmentary compositions or half-length figures. Numerous examples might be given of this. During his stay at Rome, Raphael painted not less than a dozen Holy Families, nearly all of monumental dimensions. The supernatural element — almost entirely excluded from the compositions of the Florentine period : scarcely an angel is to be discovered in the whole catalogue of them — reasserts itself in the religious paintings of the years 1513 — 1520. The Madonna di Foligno marks a first return to the tendencies which the master had cultivated in Umbria in his early days, and which were allowed full play in the Coronation of the Virgin of 1503. From 1513 the scene of his most important compositions is laid in the celestial regions peopled by the blessed. The Ezekiel, the Madonna di San Sisto, the St. Michael, the St.jOecilia, the St. Margaret, the Five Saints, and the Transfiguration are all ' visions*) Even in the Holy Family of Francis I. the presence of an angel warns us of the mystic character of the scene. The same tendency betrays itself in the pictures of the Loggia, where we have God appearing to Abraham, the Angels appearing to Abraham, God appearing to Isaac, Jacob's dream, The Burning Bush, God appearing to Moses (on three occasions), &c. It is scarcely necessary to say, that, in this development, Raphael took care not to break entirely with his past. Opposed, alike by temperament and conviction, to all system, he gave full scope to the inspirations of his genius, confident of never making a false step. We have proof of this in the Madonna della Sedia, which, though known to have been created at Rome, is so natural and spontaneous, that one would rather have supposed it painted on the banks of the Arno. We will not describe this well-known masterpiece, which is justly considered the highest, and, at the same time, the most popular, type of maternal affection. The Holy Family in the Madrid Museum, which by its beauty has well deserved its title of the Pearl, reminds us too in certain points of Raphael's early period, when, overflowing with happy inspirations, he commemorated on the banks of the Arno the playfulness of the Child Jesus and of his young companion. Supported by his grandmother, St. Anne, and by his mother, the "bambino," ingenuous and smiling, extends his hands to reach the fruit brought him by the infant St. John. His burst of joy recalls the most graceful of the Florentine idylls. But the Roman influence reasserts itself fully in the faces of St. Anne and the Virgin. In spite of the affection they THE MADONNA DELLA SEDIA. (Pitti Palace.) MADONNA OF SAN SISTO. (Dresden "Museum.) The Holy Family of Francis I. 417 display towards each other (Mary has passed her arm round her mother's neck) and for the Child, they are possessed by a gravity and an exaltation which would in vain be sought, in the compositions of a previous period. A rich landscape with ruins, behind the central figure of St. Joseph, affords a framework for the animated group in the foreground. At the time Raphael was working on this picture, he seems to have allowed himself no rest in his attempts to emulate the achievements of the Flemish painters. We have already noticed him, in the Deliverance of St. Peter, attempting to portray the most complicated effects of light. There is a tendency towards the same thing in the Madonna dell Impannata of the Pitti Palace. Lastly, in the Pearl, he has produced a splendid effect of dawn, which enraptured Vasari, and proves that Raphael, who placed his reputation as a technical painter above everything, would not allow any secret or any refinement of the colourist to escape him. In the picture at the Louvre which has been known for three centuries under the name of the Holy Family of Francis L, Mary is again represented rather as a mother than as the Queen of Heaven. In this masterly work, so full both of power and emotion, we admire in turn the tenderness of the young mother holding out her arms to her Son, who springs towards her beaming with happiness, the dignity of St. Joseph, and the grace of the angel who scatters flowers over the divine pair. Maternal love has not robbed Mary of that touching modesty with which Raphael formerly indued her. The young girl of Florence reappears after a long interval, so beautiful and pure that she seems rather the sister than the mother of the Child she caresses. The Child, too, is the same as in the pictures composed on the Arno. He forgets His divine mission to become the most loving of sons. Thus the sentiments which guided Raphael in the prime of his youth, during the fruitful period between 1504 and 1508, appear again, but in a more elevated form, in this Holy Family, the last, apparently, which he painted (the date is 1518). Only to such privileged natures as his is it given to be so faithful to past memories, to look back after many changes upon no early errors, to recover in mature age the lost impressions of youth. Raphael was now at -the zenith of his glory. He had founded a powerful school ; numberless students from every country accepted his advice as that of an oracle ; sovereigns contended for the slightest productions of his brush. Yet even at a time when he might have been excused for hurrying over his work we find him faithful to the principles of accuracy which governed his youth. His studies for the Holy Family of Francis I. are a proof of this. As of old, he poses a living model and reproduces him or her with a scientific E E 418 Raphael. exactness and realism that is but rarely to be found in a champion of the ideal ; he afterwards commences to refine and to ennoble, in a word, to com pose his picture. The process, indeed, has changed ; at first the artist's timid and tentative sketches were done in silver-point; then came the period of HOLY FAMILY OF FRANCIS I. (Louvre. ) those exact and vigorous drawings in pen and ink, of which the studies for La Belle Jardiniere, for the Entombment, and for so many other inimitable works, are happily still preserved. After his arrival in Rome he found this method too slow ; he then made use of red chalk, which allowed him to give importance to his leading lines at the expense of detail. Thenceforward he The Madonna di San Sisto. 419 preferred this material for studies of single figures, reserving colour-washes for those of groups. Sometimes, as in the fine portrait of Timoteo Viti, he had recourse to Italian chalk. But, we repeat, although the instrument varied, the method remained the same. The naturalism of Florence was again apparent, but with less success, in the Visitation, painted for Giovan Battista dell' Aquila, now preserved in the STUDY FOR THE HOLY FAMILY OF FRANCIS I. (Uffizi.) Madrid Museum. There is a repetition in fresco of the head of St. Elizabeth in the collection of M. E. Piot, Paris. The Madonna di San Sisto, the gem of the Dresden Gallery, has been long called the latest of Raphael's Madonnas. But recent criticism has done E E 2 420 Raphael. much to cast doubt upon its reputed date. A connoisseur, more than once quoted by us, Herr Springer, relying on facts of great weight, notably on the similarity in technique between the Madonna di San Sisto and other works which we know to have been painted in the first years of the reign of Leo X., is disposed to assign to it the date 1515.1 It is worthy of remark that no STUDY FOR THE HOLY FAMILY OF FRANCIS I. (Uffizi.) » study for the painting at Dresden is known to exist. The Madonna di San Sisto would appear then to have been the product of a single act of concep tion, the outcome of a sudden inspiration. Nothing could be more simple than the composition, yet what art there is in this simplicity ! The action 1 Raffael und Michelangelo, p. 291. The Madonna di San Sisto. 421 passes in regions where all is light and poetry. All notion of time and place is lost ; the earth is no longer visible ; the balcony placed along the bottom of the painting, against which the two cherubs lean with eyes raised to the Queen of Heaven, alone recalls us to reality. Two curtains, drawn to each side, frame the composition, and accent in some degree its supernatural character. They discover Mary soaring in the clouds, holding in her arms the divine Infant. The sweetness of her features is equalled only by their nobility ; art has created no face more ideally divine. Her Son, on the other hand, has lost the candour and naivete we have hitherto admired in Raphael's " bambini." The serious mouth, the earnest expression, the ruffled hair, all proclaim the future judge of quick and dead. Below the divine pair, paying them homage and sharing their glory, two figures rest upon the clouds, the one full of majesty, the other of grace ; the first is the pope Saint Sixtus, his tiara beside him, the second, Saint Barbara. Countless cherubim form a background to the vision, and spread around it a mysterious light. By one of those dramatic contrasts which abound in Raphael's works, the one saint lowers her eyes, while her companion raises his to Mary. And yet the Saint Barbara seems to have been profane enough in her origin ! Compare her head with that of the facile nymph in the foreground of the Gcdatea, round whose waist the triton knits his brawny arms. Has not one model sat for both ? The Madonna di San Sisto was painted for the convent of San Sisto at Piacenza; it was acquired by the Elector Augustus III. of Saxony, in 1753, for 60,000 thalers (about £9,000), and has ever since been the chief ornament of the Dresden Gallery. The primary ideas of triumph and deification, which characterize the Madonnas of the Roman period, are also found in the representations of the Eternal Father, of Christ, and of the Saints. Strife and suffering are rarely presented to us. With the exception of the Christ bearing His Cross, of the Descent from the Cross, engraved by Marc-Antonio, and the Pieta in the Louvre, Raphael during his last years only cared to express the greatness of Jehovah (the Loggia, the mosaics in the Chigi chapel, the Vision of Ezekiel, the frescoes of the Magliana), or the glory of Christ, whom we see, now throned on clouds, as in the Five Saints, now, as in the Transfiguration, glowing with a superabundant light. The glorification of the martyrs completes the brilliant group, which realized the aspirations of the artist, the hopes of his friends, and the demands of a court ever eager for pomp and splendour. In dimensions, the picture known as the Vision of Ezekiel, is little more 422 Raphael. than a miniature ; in style it is worthy of the grandest of its author's frescoes. Seated on an eagle like an Olympian Jupiter, with inspired gaze, with bare breast, and hair streaming to the wind, Jehovah extends His arms to bless the world. Two angels accompany and support Him, as in the frescoes of the Sistine. The lion and the bull raise their eyes to their Creator, and con template Him with awe. The angel of St. Matthew, with arms crossed on his breast, bows before Him. Below, at an immeasurable depth, the earth is seen. No words can express the grandeur of this group, which should have been transferred to mosaic for the shrine of some basilica of the primitive church. One of our most eminent art historians, M. Vitet, has reasonably compared the winged beasts of the Vision of Ezekiel with those of the mosaics of St. Pudentia. The inspiration is not less fervent in the works of the modern painter, than in that of his predecessor of the fourth century. Unfortunately, the Vision of Ezekiel leaves much to be desired from a technical point of view. It was either left unfinished, or was completed as we see it by Giulio Romano, whose hard and heavy colouring is, indeed, quite recognisable. But these defects do not weaken the merit of the original composition, which may certainly be reckoned among Raphael's best. The Vision of Ezekiel was painted for Count Ercolani of Bologna, shortly after the St. Cecilia, and has visited more than one Florentine gallery since the sixteenth century. The fine drawing at the Louvre, the study for the picture ascribed to Giulio Romano at Parma, the Five Saints, shows us the glorified Christ seated on clouds between His mother and St. John the Baptist. The idea is the same as in the fresco of San Severo, and the Dispute of the Holy Sacrament. As in those two great works, Jesus, undraped to the waist, extends His bleed ing hands; His mother bending before Him protests her love; St. John points out for the admiration of the world Him whose coming he had announced. Below kneels St. Catherine of Alexandria ; one hand laid on her heart, the other holding the martyr's palm, she gazes with ecstasy on Him for whose sake she died. Her gesture corresponds to that of the Virgin, and gives it additional force. Facing her, and looking gravely before him, stands St. Paul ; his right hand grasps a sword, and he is prepared to defend the sacred cause. The Transfiguration and the Resurrection should complete this series of religious triumphs, but before discussing those compositions we must describe a drawing and a picture which, though illustrating the life of Christ, are con ceived in a far different spirit. We refer to the Pieta in the Louvre, and the THE VISION OF EZEKIEL. (Pitti Palace.) 424 Raphael Spasimo di Sicilia. These two well-known works give extraordinary evidence of the versatility of Raphael's genius, and also exhibit his attachment to traditional beliefs. It is strange to find Raphael, in the frivolous society of the Rome of Leo X., enamoured of these solemn subjects, and treating them with a warmth and eloquence which would have done no discredit to the most religious painters of his time, such as Fra Bartolommeo, Michael Angelo, or Diirer. It is important to remember that, besides being an incom parable painter, he was a man of profound convictions, and that in the midst of his life of gaiety and pleasure he yet had hours' of meditation and repentance. Since his Entombment, Raphael had scarcely attempted any scenes from the life of Christ, and his Christ bearing His Cross, or Spasimo di Sicilia, is a fit companion for the picture painted for Atalanta Baglioni ; the spirit in which it is conceived is the same, aud in it the artist aimed at dramatic effect before everything. But the Spasimo is much the more pathetic of the two. In the Entombment the painter was still perplexed by the material difficulties of his subject; in the Spasimo his matured skill makes light of all obstacles. Gathering inspiration from the example of his predecessors of the fifteenth century, Raphael has here sought to multiply his figures, instead of to limit them, as he did in bis Cartoons and in his paintings in the Loggie. The figures we see in the foreground form but the tail of the procession which winds into the distance through the undulating landscape. The artist has chosen the moment when Christ is sinking beneath ' His burden, and the Virgin, overcome with grief, helplessly stretches out her arms to her Son. The expression of these two faces is admirable ; in that of Christ a touching resignation is combined with the physical suffering, while the mother's features, on the other hand, show nought but grief. The despair of the holy women is rendered with no less eloquence, and forms a most striking contrast to the roughness of the executioners, whose muscular frames are emphasized by the artist, as if to accent the brutal nature of the triumph as much as possible. Great as are the merits of the Spasimo, all parts of the picture have not equal spontaneity. It has been remarked before now that Christ's counten ance bears a singular resemblance to one which an illustrious painter and engraver of the fifteenth century, Martin Schongauer, had given iu his treat ment of the same subject.1 The executioner, whose back is towards us, is copied from the one in the Judgment of Solomon (Camera della Segnatura), 1 The analogies between the two have been established with much sagacity by Dehio, Zeitschrift fiir Bildende Kunst, vol. xvi., 1831. STUDY FOR HORSEMEN IN THE SPASIMO DI SICILIA. (Albertina Collection. ) PHrXTED E¥ TH'. AUTOMATIC EKOKAVINO 00 LIMITED. CHRIST BEARING HIS CROSS. (Madrid Museum.) The Spasimo di Sicilia. 425 who in his turn, as we shall see later, is almost identical with the gladiator of the Naples Museum. As to the woman seen in profile, who kneels at the right hand of the picture, she is copied from the figure which occupies the same place in the Entombment, and she is again represented in the Transfiguration. The Spasimo owes as much of its celebrity to the vicissitudes through which it has passed as to its artistic merit. Vasari relates the " Odyssey " of this painting with all his picturesqueness ; it is an actual romance : "Raphael," he says, "executed for the monastery of Santa-Maria-della- Spasimo at Palermo, a Christ bearing the Cross which is reputed a master piece. When completed it experienced the greatest dangers before arriving at its destination. It is related that the ship which should have carried it to Palermo, encountered a terrible tempest and broke up after striking on a rock : everything perished, men and cargo alike : nothing but this picture escaped. Carried by the billows into the Gulf of Genoa, the case containing it was found and brought to land ; then, on this divine work being discovered intact, free from the slightest stain or blemish, it was resolved to preserve it with care. It seemed as if winds and waves had determined to respect its beauty. The noise of this event spread far and wide, and the monks soon hearing of it, endeavoured to gain possession of their picture, which was restored to them through the intervention of the Pope, when they liberally remunerated the salvors. Again placed on board ship, and carried to Sicily, the picture was set up at Palermo, where it became more famous than the mountaiu of Vulcan." In the seventeenth century, Philip IV. had the Spasimo secretly taken down in order to carry it to Madrid. He ensured the silence of the monks by granting them a revenue of 1,000 scudi. Ever since then the picture has formed a part of the royal collections of Spain, only leaving that country in the time of Napoleon to figure for a time at the Louvre, in company with many other chefs-d'oeuvre. The simplicity of the Louvre Pieta contrasts strongly with the complex mise-en-scene of the Spasimo. With two figures only — the Virgin standing by her dead Son and weeping bitter tears — Raphael has composed the most touching of dramas. An equal combination of effect and simplicity is to be found in the fine composition known under the somewhat fantastic title, The Marys on the Steps (Passavant, vol. ii., p. 571), also engraved by Marc- Antonio from some drawing which has vanished. A drawing in the Albertina, earlier, probably, by a few years, a study for the Last Supper, wins its chief effect, like the Marys, from its architectural arrangement. 426 Raphael. After the glorification of the Virgin comes that of the Saints. In his illustrations of the Martyrology or of the Golden Legend, Raphael was inspired by principles analogous to those which made his Madonnas and Holy Families so successful. He was intent on creating ideal figures, on personi fying the virtues which were dearest to him, on uniting beauty with truth. The view of strife attracted him less than that of triumph ; his St. Cecilia and St. Margaret overflow with happiness. Yet the dramatic element is not wanting in them : even in those works in which the action is reduced to the extreme of simplicity the artist has been able to create, by ingenious contrasts, not only life and interest, but even emotion. The St. Cecilia is the most celebrated of these paintings, and it is not over rated. This chef-d' ceuvre of the Bologna collection deserves to occupy a place by itself, not only on account of its powerful colouring and intensity of ex pression, but also for the loftiness of its idea. Nothing could be more original or brilliant than this conception of a subject so often dealt with before Raphael, from the time of Donatello to that of Signorelli. The artist disregards tradition, carries us into the vast realms of harmony, and shows us a glimpse of a truly boundless horizon. The touching legend of the Roman girl is forgotten in sight of the splendid glorification of the art which is placed under her protection. Like the Coronation of the Virgin, the Dispute of the Holy Sacrament, the Madonna di Foligno, and the Transfiguration, the painting at Bologna con tains two parts, the one celestial, the other terrestrial. In the sky, six angels, resting upon the clouds (one of the finest of painted groups), are discoursing divine music. On the earth four saints stand round St. Cecilia, and listen with rapture. In the midst, Cecilia herself, with eyes uplifted, appears to be in an ecstasy ; she has dropped the instruments formerly so dear to her — the violin, the triangle, the cymbals ; even the organ, sacred in its superiority, is slipping from her hands. St. Paul, who is next to her, forgets all else in the enjoyment of the divine melody ; with downcast eyes, and his chin resting on his right hand, the left placed negligently on his sword, the impetuous champion of the faith, the fiery apostle of the Gentiles, is lost in profound reverie. Facing him, St. Mary Magdalene turns toward the spec tator, as if to invite him to share her feelings. Finally St. John and St. Augustine, further back, give themselves up to their delight, and express the intensity of their emotion to each other, both by look and gesture. The origin and destination of the St. Cecilia explain this outburst of mysticism. In October of the year 1513 a noble lady of Bologna, by name Elena Duglioli dall' Olio, imagined that she heard supernatural voices en- The St. Cecilia. 427 joining her to dedicate a chapel to St. Cecilia in the church of San Giovanni del Monte. She confided this to Antonio Pucci of Florence, one of her relatives, who offered to fit up the chapel at his own expense, and begged his uncle Lorenzo Pucci, the new cardinal, to order from Raphael a picture for the altar. Thus the artist, in giving so much of the mystic element to his work, was acting in conformity with the ideas of Donna Elena. By a curious coin cidence Cardinal Pucci had an intractable voice, and never contrived to sing mass with any satisfaction to himself or his audience.1 Although commissioned towards the end of 1513, the St. Cecilia was only finished in 1516. For its completion, Raphael called in the aid of his pupil Giovanni da Udine, who painted the musical instruments scattered on the ground. The engraver, Boucher-Desnoyers, has put on record certain notable peculiarities in the technical execution of the work. " I examined the back of the St. Cecilia while the picture was undergoing the same operation (transfer ence to canvas). I looked at it with the greatest attention, and I saw that the outlines had been traced with a facile certainty and celerity not to be won without the help of a preliminary cartoon. The drawing was done with a full brush of umber, as in the case of the Foligno Madonna." The master, who had never ceased to maintain the most cordial relations with the painter Francia, naturally thought of him when the time came for sending the painting to Bologna and installing it in the chapel. He wrote to him begging him to retouch the picture if he found any defect in it, or if it had suffered in the transit, and asked him to superintend the construction of the frame. Vasari tells us that Francia felt such acute pain and profound discouragement at the sight of Sanzio's chef-d'oeuvre, that it caused his death. One can understand that the old Bolognese painter was much struck by the St. Cecilia, and that it made him feel the inferiority of his own art ; yet it is impossible to believe that his death was brought about by the arrival of Raphael's work, as he had arrived at the mature age of sixty-seven when he died on the 5th January, 1517, and the rigour of the season may probably have conduced more than artistic sensitiveness to hasten his end. Marc-Antonio's burin has preserved one of the sketches, perhaps the first idea, for the St. Cecilia. It is interesting to compare this engraving with one from the picture itself. The improvements contained in the latter are immense. In the study the angels are using worldly instruments as Cecilia herself had done — the violin, the triangle, and the harp; in the painting the angelic voices alone produce on the saints ranged below that profound impression which amounts to ecstasy. In the study St. Paul looks tranquilly before him, 1 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Raphael, vol. ii. p. 375. ST. CECILIA. (Gallery of Bologna.) fe™# Bgf§g &f!fflffhi!f-jfe- ~;ot6$L i iaiu (jb^Site- ^.*s^~ Wm^ pit t ,:-¦¦¦-,• ¦¦ '? j ;#°§ asjm& Ife ST. CECILIA. (Facsimile of the engraving hy Marc- Antonio.) 430 Raphael. as does St. John, while in the painting the one is transported with wonder, the other absorbed in profound reverie. There is an equal change in the position of St. Augustine. This analysis could, if it were worth while, be carried much further, and be made to show how the artist was able to strengthen his first composition even in the smallest details. In the St. Cecilia, Raphael has personified ecstasy. In the St. Margaret, painted somewhat later, probably for Marguerite of Valois, sister of Francis I., he shows us his heroine resplendent with glory ; she is full of the joy of her triumph, and of eternal happiness. Holding a palm-branch, her foot resting on the hideous dragon which covers the ground with his monstrous coils, the saint advances towards the spectator, pure, radiant, and transfigured. Though so near to evil and deformity her thoughts are only of heavenly bliss. She is one of the most ethereal of Raphael's creations. According to Vasari, this picture was almost entirely painted by Giulio Romano, after drawings by his master. There are two examples of this St. Margaret, one in the Louvre, the other in the Gallery at Vienna. The St. John in the Desert, painted for Cardinal Colonna, who subsequently presented it to his physician, Jacopo da Carpi, unites the fervour of youth to a beauty which may be compared with that of an antique god. The saint, covered by a panther's skin, sits on a rock in the midst of a gloomy landscape ; with the left hand he holds a banner bearing the inscription DEI : with the right he points to the rays which stream from his little cross of reed. The original of this St. John is in the Uffizi Gallery ; it has been much injured. Certain imperfections in drawing and colouring justify the belief that Giulio Romano had a large share in its execution. There is an old replica or copy in the Louvre, which differs considerably from the original. The analogy between this St. John and the statue of Jonah in the Chigi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo has been often noticed. The Michael overthrowing Satan of the Louvre (signed : Raphael, vebinas. pingebat. m.d.xviii.) is the last in date of the series of compositions which so completely revolutionized the pictorial interpretation of religion. Leo X. gave Raphael the commission for this picture, intending it for Francis I., the grand-master of the order of knighthood of which the Archangel was patron saint, and it was sent in 1518 to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, who was then on his way to Paris, and who appears to have himself presented it to the French monarch. ST. MICHAEL OVERTHROWING SATAN. (Louvre Museum.) The St. Michael. 431 The picture differs little in essentials from that painted in 1504, for Guidobaldo of Urbino (see page 93). With bare head and arms, but wearing a rich breastplate, the Archangel has rushed down from heaven, and, placing one foot on Satan, is about to transfix him with his heavy lance (in the painting of 1504 he is armed with a sword only). Radiant with a divine beauty, he betrays more contempt than wrath towards his adversary, who, stretched on the ground, trembles with rage and pain. There is no trace of the fallen angel in the representation of the latter, as there was in the picture of 1504 ; the demon is drawn with a satyr's face, hooked claws, and muscular form. The artist perhaps, had his task been to paint Satan alone, would have made him, like Milton, the most beautiful of the angels. That he was capable of such an idea he has shown in the Stanze and Loggia, where he has given the tempter most perfect features. But in St. Michael overthrowing Satan, a violent contrast is absolutely required between the ugliness of the demon on the one hand, and the grace and pride of his vanquisher on the other. Raphael's contemporaries criticised the colouring of the St. Michael. Sebastiano of Venice, in a letter to Michael Angelo of the 2nd July, 1518, tells him that the figures in this picture, like those in the Holy Family of Francis I., seem to have been exposed to smoke, or rather appear to be of iron, bright on one side, black on the other. These particular defects, which are to be found in all Raphael's later paintings, should undoubtedly be laid to the charge of Giulio Romano, his crude and over-energetic associate. The colouring of the master is as transparent and harmonious as that of the pupil is heavy and opaque. To obtain a more powerful effect Giulio made too much use of black, aud greatly exaggerated his shadows. These defects made restorations necessary, which have ended by seriously injuring the Louvre picture. To complete our list of the works executed during this, his most fertile, period, we have now only to pass in review the portraits by Raphael. To many an artist it would have appeared a degradation to turn from the calm of religious painting to the representation of the men of his own day, with all their passions, eccentricities, and physical and moral imperfections. As we have observed, the members of the Umbrian school rarely essayed portraiture; the same may be said of the great Florentines, Fra Angelico, Fra Bartolommeo, and Michael Angelo. Certainly Raphael was not less earnest than any of those masters in his quest of an ideal, but he had also some sympathy for realism ; he was a man of observation as well as a poet, as we have already had occasion to remark more than once. Precision, natural simplicity of attitude, vitality, grandeur of form, 432 Raphael. and subtlety of psychological analysis, are all found in his portraits in the very highest degree. Nor can we place before him any but the greatest masters of portraiture, such as Jan Van Eyck, Holbein, Titian, Velasquez, Vandyke, and Rembrandt. Long study, combined with a quick eye, enabled the artist to detect in each subject, through all apparent contradictions, the characteristic expression by which he could raise the individual to the level of a type. "Raphael," wrote Bembo to Bibbiena, "has painted a portrait of our Tebaldeo, which is so natural, that it seems more like him than he is himself." THE VIOLINIST. (Sciarra Gallery at Home.) (" Rafaello ha ritratto il nostro Tebaldeo tanto naturale, ch'egli non e tanto simile a se stesso, quanto e quella pittura ") Nothing could be more just than this remark ; Raphael's portraits show us his sitters in their moments of perfect serenity, when their features reflect their good qualities and their faults, with unbiased truth. We should add that their defects were only physical ones, since the artist was unwilling to transmit to posterity the features of any but those who were worthy of sympathy or admiration. The speaking portrait of Inghirami proves that he did not recoil from mere ugliness, when it was redeemed by power or nobility of expression. Portraits. 433 Raphael painted from twelve to fifteen portraits during the reign of Leo X. PORTRAIT OF JOANNA OP ARAGON. (Louvre.) The Pope, his brother Giuliano, and his nephew Lorenzo,1 sat to the artist in 1 Eaphael seems to have painted the mistress of this personage. It is now known that the Beatrice of Ferrara, whose portrait he painted according to Vasari, carried on an intrigue about 1517 with Lorenzo de' Medici. (Vasari, edit. Milanesi, vol. iv. p. 35V.) F F 434 Raphael. succession. Then came Inghirami, Bibbiena, Castiglione, Tebaldeo, Beazzano, Navao-ero, Timoteo Viti, the youth at the Louvre, the Violinist, and lastly, PORTRAIT OF RALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE. (Louvre.) Joanna of Ara.gon. Several of these portraits, such as those of Lorenzo de' Medici and Tebaldeo, have been long since lost. PORTRAIT OF TIMOTEO VITI. (British Museum.) Portraits. 435 The portraits of Beazzano and Navagero, painted in half-length side by side, are now only known by old copies, such as those in the Doria Gallery at Rome (called Baldo and Bartolo), and the Madrid Gallery. Our readers have already had an opportunity of studying the portraits of Leo X., Inghirami, and Bibbiena ; that of Castiglione surpasses them, if possible. Baldassare Castiglione sat twice to Raphael. The first of the resulting portraits, executed about 1516, is now in the Louvre; this chef-d'oeuvre is too well known to need description. We need only draw attention to the tributes of admiration paid by Rubens and Rembrandt, the leaders of the Flemish and Dutch schools respectively in the seventeenth century, who were both eager to copy it. In 1519, Raphael again painted his friend. This second example seems to be the picture in the Torlonia Gallery at Rome. To this same period belongs the fine portrait of a cardinal, now in the Madrid Museum. Until quite recently it was supposed that this was a portrait of Bibbiena, and that the Pitti picture was simply a copy from it. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle were the first to point out what is now apparent even on a hasty examination — that the portraits represent two totally different persons, the similarity of pose alone having given colour to the mistake. The Madrid cardinal is a man still young, whose delicately arched nose, small disdainful mouth, and piercing eyes, all contribute to the subtle expression of elegant hauteur conveyed by the portrait ; while the Pitti picture represents an old man, having the long thick nose, the deep lines round eyes and mouth, and the crafty expression which so well accord with our notions of that arch-intriguer Bibbiena. The obvious objection that the two may be portraits of the same person painted at different times is hardly to be considered when we remember that Bibbiena was made a cardinal in 1513 ; that Raphael with one or two rare exceptions painted no portraits after 1516 or 1517, and that no face could possibly have undergone such a disfiguring change in so short a space of time. The portrait of Timoteo Viti which has passed, after many vicissitudes, from the collection of one of his descendants, the Marquis Antaldi, into the British Museum, is no more than a study, but a study almost as attractive as a finished picture. Its attribution to Raphael is by no means universally accepted. The portrait of Joanna of Aragon was a commission from Bibbiena, who intended it. for Francis I., at whose court he had fulfilled an important mission. We find from a letter published by the Marquis G. Campori, that Raphael not F F 2 436 Raphael. being able to go to Naples, where the princess then was, sent one of his " garzoni," doubtless Giulio Romano, in order to make a study on which to base the portrait itself. This information agrees certainly with Vasari's evidence, who affirms that the head alone is by Raphael, and that the rest of the picture was painted by Giulio Romano. The sketch or cartoon executed at Naples was presented by Raphael to the Duke of Ferrara. The picture itself arrived in Paris at the end of 1518. The Violinist at the Sciarra-Colonna Palace is dated 1518, and would appear, with the Joanna of Aragon, to be the last portrait painted by Raphael.1 All praise of this celebrated work would be superfluous ; it is sufficient to say that in beauty of colour it rivals the most brilliant productions of the Venetian school. In recent times it has even been associated with the name of Sebastiano del Piombo,1 to whom the connoisseurs have already ascribed the supposed portrait of the Fornarina, in the Tribune of the Uffizi. But although the pupil of Giorgione was able to contend with Raphael as a colourist, he was greatly his inferior in distinction, in poetry, and in elo quence, all three of which qualities are exhibited in a rare degree in the famous Snonatbre. . To ' these ¦ unquestionably authentic works must be added, according to Passavant, Miindler, Springer, Morelli, and Sidney Colvin, a portrait in the Pitti Palace, known under the name of the Donna Velata or the Veiled Woman. The features of this, young woman^ who is believed to be Raphael's famous mistress, bear a certain resemblance to the Madonna di San Sisto. There is, too, -an engraving .by Hollar in which the same figure is repeated in the costume of St. Catherine (formerly in the Arundel collection).2 But the treatment shows certain defects which it is. difficult to associate with Raphael. Both Burckhardt and Bode consider the Donna Velata to be a production of the Bologneso school, inspired probably by some original work of Raphael's.3 • Doubts no less grave have been thrown on the authenticity of the so-called picture of Raphael and his Fencing-master, in the Louvre. It was successively attributed to both Sebastiano del Piombo and Pontormo, but its origin is still a matter of dispute. It is certainly, however, not Raphael's portrait. A distinguished amateur, M. de Liphart, believes that he has lately 1 See especially Springer's Raffael und Michel- Angelo, p. 211. 2 See S. Oolvin, Art Journal, 1883, pp. 1—3. 3 Cicerone, edition of 1879, p. 660. In the National Gallery hangs a portrait of a lady by Sebastiano del Piombo (No. 24), in which the veil on the head and the general attitude have much affinity to the Donna Velata. HINTED RV THE AUTOMATIC ENGRAVING CO., LIMITED, The Transfiguration. 437 discovered, in a picture belonging to the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, the original portrait of Giuliano de' Medici, which had long been known only through a copy by Alessandro Bronzino,1 preserved at the Uffizi. But here again we must await a scientific examination before committino- ourselves to an acceptance of M. Liphart's opinion. In the last work of his life, the one which we may call bis artistic testament, Raphael takes us back to the history of Christ. The origin of the Transfiguration is well known. Wishing to give the town of Narb'onne, of which Francis I. had made him bishop, a token of his piety and munificence, Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici ordered in 1517 two altar-pieces for the cathedral of that ancient Gallic city. One he entrusted to Raphael, the other to Sebastiano del Piombo. Did he intend by this to set up a competition between the two masters, or did he only choose them simply because their names were naturally the first to occur to him ? This would be a difficult question to answer. It is certain, however, that their contemporaries saw in the Cardinal's choice a desire to put the two representative painters of Rome on their mettle. The ambitious Sebastiano naturally favoured this ide.a, since it was greatly to his interest that he should be considered the rival of Raphael. His correspondence shows how foreign to true art was the feeling of self-seeking with which he entered upon the contest ; it reveals, too the meanness of his ideas and the audacity of his intrigues. The picture ordered from Sebastiano was to represent the Raising of Lazarus. Recent research has placed beyond doubt a fact which the con temporaries of Raphael had passed over in silence, and which throws a new light on the memorable struggle. Raphael had in the first instance chosen as the subject of his altar-piece the Resurrection of Christ, a companion to the Raising of Lazarus ; it was an afterthought to substitute the Transfiguration. Robinson, by comparing the eight drawings preserved in the collections at Lille, Oxford (Nos. 134, 135, and 136), Windsor, and in that of Mr. Mitchell, has proved that Raphael worked in the years 1519 and 1520 at the composition of a large picture, divided, like the Transfiguration, into two parts : above, Christ in a glory of angels ; below, the keepers of the sepulchre, startled from their slumber, and dazzled by the supernatural light which shines upon them. An angel, seated on the classic sarcophagus which has formed the holy sepulchre, points to the soaring figure of the divine Martyr, who rises to heaven ; as in a celebrated fresco of Fra Angelico— The Holy Women at the Sepulchre— this figure of Christ serves to unite the two scenes, and to give 1 Notice historique sur un tableau de Raphael reprisentant Julien de Medicis, due de Nemours. Paris, 1867. 438 ' Raphael. that unity to the composition to which the master attached so high a value.1 We must not leave these sketches without calling attention to the hastiness of the execution and the rhetorical violence of the attitudes. This tendency is to be specially observed in the watchers of the tomb (Robinson, Nos. 134, 135), whose foreshortenings recall, by their boldness, that of Diogenes in the School of Athens, and betray the growing influence of Michael Angelo. Some fifteen years earlier the same motives had been treated by Raphael in some other drawings which also have found a home at Oxford (see above, p. 35). Comparing the two sets, we are tempted to believe them the work of distinct hands. We are ignorant of Raphael's motives for replacing the Resurrection by the Transfiguration. The artist, however, having spent much time in feeling his way (a great part of the year 1518 had elapsed before he commenced the painting), neglected nothing which might serve to make his work perfect. Numerous sketches preserved in English and Continental collections, show what labour he expended on each group and single figure. As in his first years, we now find him studying nature with the most scrupulous care, and renewing his ideal by the inspiring contact. The same freshness and originality are apparent in the conception of the picture. Raphael's Transfiguration resembles none of those which preceded it, yet the artist availed himself of the most natural and legitimate means possible in giving a true life to the subject. He simply re-read the text of St. Matthew's Gospel. In the first and following verses of chapter xvii., the evangelist describes the miracle on Mount Tabor ; in the 14th and following verses of the same chapter he shows us a father leading to Jesus the son whom the disciples had been unable to heal: "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them : and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. . . . And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son : for he is lunatick, and sore vexed : for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him." It is clear that in supposing the child to have been seized with a fit during the actual moment of the Transfiguration, Raphael was only interpreting literally the text of St. Matthew. But having gone beyond his predecessors in the accurate reading of the Scriptures, it was only 1 A Critical Account &c, pp. 227 et seq. The Transfiguration. 439 natural that he should interpret them with increased freedom and power. Thus we find him, to his last hour, modifying tradition by his personal research. The authority of the text of St. Matthew notwithstanding, Raphael has been reproached with representing two different subjects in the same painting, and consequently with having violated the unities. Nothing could be more baseless than such a charge. Raphael, often though he has cut his works into two parts, placing some of his actors in the celestial regions, and others on the earth, has never failed to bind them closely together. It would be strange indeed if, after having been faithful to this principle since his earliest years, from his Coronation of the Virgin in 1503 up to his St. Cecilia, he had wandered from it at the close of his career. An examination of the Transfiguration proves that the two subjects are by no means distinct, as has been asserted. The gesture of the apostle, who stands upright on the left side of the picture, would in itself suffice to establish the necessary unity of action : he points with his finger to the mountain, over which float the figures of Jesus, Moses, and Elias, and he tells the relatives of the possessed whence help for him must come. Seeing then that the two groups are thus sufficiently linked together, we cannot but applaud the striking contrast which Raphael has established, in which he opposes to each other the calm and splendour of the celestial regions and the feelings which are agitating the human crowd gathered at the foot of the mountain. Christ, Moses, Elias, even the three disciples who are either prostrate on the ground, or covering their faces with their hands, all seem to be in an atmosphere different from our own, as they obey other than natural laws. Individuality disappears, and makes room for a scene of harmony such as Dante dreamed of in his Paradiso. This impression remains undimmed by the presence of two who are strangers to the scene, St. Julian and St. Laurence, the patron saints of the father and uncle of the donor, Cardinal de' Medici. But in the lower foreground all is trouble, confusion, and suffering. Despairing men and women implore help iu vain from the apostles, who are forced to admit their impotence. Some tremble at the sight of the young lunatic ; others exchange anxious glances, or shrug their shoulders. He who is seated on the left in the immediate fore ground has vainly consulted an enormous manuscript ; and in listening to the boy's cries almost leaves his hold of the volume. One only, the apostle who stands erect beside the last-mentioned figure, has divined whence help shall come. He points impetuously to the mount, over which Christ appears- With one of those happy echoes which were so well understood by him, the artist has placed beside him another apostle, who also raises his hand, though with less decision. 440 Raphael. The contrast which is so remarkable between the composition of these two different scenes, is also found in their technical execution. In the upper division Raphael has realised an effect of light and shade worthy of Correo-c-io ; never had his brush been more bold or more harmonious. In the Do ' lower portion, on the contrary, grouping and colouring are harsh and violent, defects which must, we believe, be due to the co-operation of Giulio Romano. But Raphael himself is not free from blame. We fully agree with the judicious remarks of M. C. Clement. "We may fairly suppose," he says, " that the exaggerated effort which is so evident in the lower half of the picture, is the result of Raphael's desire to eclipse the Venetian Sebastian, who, as he well knew, could reckon upon the formidable aid of Michael Angelo. Such a supposition explains the painful want of harmony which exists between the upper and lower parts of the composition, a discord which is as conspicuous in the technical handling as in the general arrangement.'' Raphael died before the Trctnsfiguration had left his studio. Vasari relates how his last masterpiece was placed beside his death-bed, and how those who were present wept at the sight of his corpse beside a work so full of life. According to Passavant, Giulio Romano must have put the finishing touches to it, which would account for the harshness of the lower portion. The learned German grounds his opinion on a letter of Castiglione, who, in 1522, begged of Cardinal de' Medici the payment to his friend of a certain sum still due on the price of the picture. It is known that Giulio Romano and Francesco Penni had been charged by Raphael with the completion of such works as he might leave unfinished. As Giulio was the only recipient of the sum claimed by Castiglione, it is probable that he completed the painting by himself. We learn by the same letter that the Transfiguration cost 655 ducats. An eminent artist whom we have already noticed as having various transactions with Raphael, Giovanni Barile, was employed to carve its frame. The death of Raphael decided Cardinal de' Medici to send only Sebastiano's Resurrection of Lazarus to Narbonne, and to keep the Transfiguration at Rome. After causing Penni to make a copy of it, he presented Raphael's masterpiece to the Church of San-Pietro in Montorio, where it remained till the French Revolution. After visiting Paris in the train of Napoleon, it was restored to the Holy See in 1815, and since that time it has been the pride of the Vatican Pinaeoteca. CHAPTER XIX. Raphael as Architect.1— The Church of St. Aloysius.— St. Peter's.— Palaces.— The Villa Madama — Raphael as a Sculptor.— Jonah.— Child with Dolphin.-Sketch.es for Medals. Although the painter in Raphael eclipses the architect, we must not forget that he was, in fact, a great builder. He may be allowed a place among the masters of that art-science, not only on account of the greatness of the works which were confided to him, — the continuation of St. Peter's, the completion of the Loggie, the construction of the Villa Madama and of so many other monumental edifices, but also on account of the remarkable taste which he displayed in all these undertakings. It is true that his architectural talents were developed much later than his skill as a painter, but in the latter years of his life he never hesitated to make painting give way to his new studies ; the rule and compass replaced the brush and palette ; Vitruvius succeeded to Apelles in his admiration. It has been asserted that traces of relaxed endeavour are to be perceived in his latest frescoes; he has been blamed for the use of means whose only merit was their rapidity. The apparent indifference really hides the natural and legitimate evolution of a great genius, which having penetrated into every secret of one science, turns towards other horizons. Architecture, we shall see, had soon no rival in his affections except archaeology. Raphael's taste for architecture dates back as far as his sojourn at Urbino. 1 We are indebted for the elements of our inquiry into Raphael's architectural work to the learned historian of St. Peter's, M. le Baron H. de Geymiiller, who has kindly put them into shape for us. Our readers will doubtless join us in thanking M. de GeymuUer for thus contributing to our further understanding of Raphael's achievements as an archi tect. Since the publication of our first edition, M. de Geymiiller has consecrated to Raphael as architect a volume of quite peculiar inteiest, from which we shall have occasion to borrow more than once : Ra.ffaello Sanzio Studiato come Architeito con Vajuto di nuove doeumenti. Milan, Hoepli, 1884, folio. 442 Raphael. His father, Giovanni Santi, had taught him to honour the architect of the marvellous Montefeltro palace : Lucian Lauranna, huomo excellente Che il nome vive, ben che morte el cuopra. In some of his earliest efforts, such as the childish drawings at Venice and in other collections, we find Raphael sketching the pure and delicate outlines of the structure which foreshadowed the magic art of Bramante ; notably in a sketch in the Wicar Museum, described by M. Louis Gonse. M. de Geymiiller is right, I think, when he speaks of Luciano de Lauranna as the connecting link between the style of Brunellesco and that of Bramante. So far Raphael may be called the co-disciple with Bramante of the Dalmatian architect. Another native of the hill-city, Fra Carnevale, had, as we have already seen, influenced Giovanni Santi's son. Up to the time of his departure for Perugia, Raphael, though strongly impressed by the monuments both of Urbino and of Gubbio, had not made them the subject of any serious connected study. But it is difficult to over-estimate the after effects of any single note struck in his sensitive mind, which, like a generous soil, received no seed but it brought forth fruit fifty and an hundred fold. At Perugia and at Citta di Castello, Raphael so far showed his archi tectural bent, that, though he did not yet use brick and plaster, he painted buildings which might have served as architectural models. We have already had occasion to mention the beauty of the building placed in the background of the Sposalizio. It represents the Temple of Jerusalem in the form of a dome, with sixteen equal sides surmounted by a depressed spherical cupola, like that of the Pantheon, and open at the top like the latter. The lower portion of the building is surrounded by a portico, the arches of which are surmounted by an entablature, connected with the super structure by inverted consoles and reposing directly on the capitals of Ionic columns. These consoles spring from the bases of divided pilasters, which form the angles of the " drum." The latter contains on each of its seven visible sides, a window with rectangular frame and topped by a cornice. The small door in front is crowned by a pediment. The building is raised on a basement also sixteen-sided, and divided into nine steps. Let us now examine the Temple that Perugino has placed in the background of his Sposalizio. The form is that of a regular octagon, of which the four cardinal faces are ornamented with porches supported on two pillars. The design is perhaps bolder than Raphael's, but the latter surpasses it in beauty and harmony, just as in his Coronation of the Virgin his angels surpass those of his master in grace and tenderness. There is no doubt that Raphael's Raphael as Architect. 443 edifice was primarily inspired by that of his master, the, great chief of the Umbrian school. But faithful to his genius, he transfigured the original whilst appearing only to copy. In the Presentation the action takes place under a portico, the arrangement of which bears the greatest resemblance to that of Perugino's Sposalizio now at Caen. We remark, especially, similar arches springing from similar Ionic columns. Raphael contented himself with adding two arcades, and thus increasing the depth of his building. In the Annunciation, forming a portion of the same predella,1 the artist shows us a court, surrounded by a loggia of composite columns supporting arches. The perspective is irreproachable, and we can understand while studying this interior, how, after his arrival in Florence, Raphael was able to teach Fra Bartolommeo the " secret " so longed for at the time.2 The capitals recall the style adopted in the courtyard of the palaces of Urbino and Gubbio, as well as in the Palazzo Strozzi of Florence. The examination to which we have submitted these three compositions proves that, from 1504, Raphael knew how to draw and compose plans of edifices, and how to represent them either in section or elevation, in the style of the Umbrian-Florentine school. But years elapsed before he was able to make use of his knowledge and to really execute an architectural work. A little later we may date the nobly-designed monuments of architecture which fill the background of the fine drawing of JEneas Sylvius at the feet of Eugenius IV. Florence, which exercised so potent an influence over him as a painter, does not seem to have had the same effect on him as an architect. After the death of Alberti it was useless to seek instruction in architecture on the banks of the Arno ; and Alberti, moreover, was hardly represented in his native city but by the Palazzo Rucellai. There were in Florence at the beginning of the sixteenth century two masters celebrated in the art of building, Giuliano and Antonio da San-Gallo ; but we hardly think that Raphael, familiar from childhood with the works of Luciano da Lauranna, had anything to learn from the two brothers. As to his young friends, Baccio d' Agnolo, and Aristotele da San-Gallo, they also were incapable of teaching him anything more than he already knew. During his stay in Florence Raphael seems to have abandoned for the time his architectural studies. Only in one or two of his pictures of that period do we find anything to divide our attention with his figures. The Ripalda Madonna, the Ansidei Madonna, and the Madonna del Baldachino are the only ones in which architectonic motives appear. 1 See the engraving, p. 61. - "' See Vasari, t. vii; p. 156. 444 Raphael. Prepared as he was, and called to Rome on the recommendation of the greatest architect of the Renaissance, Raphael must have burned to familiarise himself with the style inaugurated by his patron on the banks of the Tiber. Thanks to Bramante, the classical forms of antiquity lived again for the first time after ten centuries in all their pristine beauty, waiting until the reconstruction of the Vatican and its basilica should give supreme consecration to their revival. Perhaps, too, Bramante, who like Raphael had made his fame by painting, had conceived the idea of insuring to himself a fellow-worker and an intellectual heir in the young artist with such varied gifts and so brilliant an imagination. In 1508 the "Urbino architect had already reached his 65th year. Though his brain still preserved its activity., his hand had become heavier, while gout sometimes prevented his using the pencil at all. Convinced that he could never complete his vast projects — St. Peter's, the Vatican, the Palace of Justice, the gigantic foundations for which are still visible in the Via Giulia — he must have more than once fostered the hope of finding in Raphael one who could complete his unfinished works. Hence the instruction which, if we may believe Vasari, be lavished upon him ; hence his collaboration in the School of Athens, for which he provided his young friend with the design for the admirable portico which enframes the scene ; hence, finally, the legacy which he left to his young compatriot of all his drawings, designs, and models. Under the auspices of Bramante, Raphael was not long in mastering the practical part of architecture, and in all probability one of his first efforts is to be seen in the small Church of St. Aloysius "degli Orefici," situated a little off the Via Giulia. Upon a drawing which is now preserved in the Uffizi, the son of Baldassare Peruzzi expressly mentions this edifice as the work of Sanzio. On the other hand, Aristotele da San-Gallo gives it to Peruzzi. Perhaps M. Geymuller's ingenious conjecture that Peruzzi carried out the con ception of Raphael may contain the key to the apparent contradiction. The guild of goldsmiths had been reconstituted in 1509 by Julius II., and it was in the same year that the erection of the church dedicated to their patron was begun. The dome, however, was still unfinished in 1526. The building of the Chigi Chapel at Santa-Maria del Popolo has also, but scarcely on conclusive evidence, been ascribed to Raphael. The ascription to Raphael of the restoration of Santa-Maria in Dominica (the Church of the Navicella), from which Giovanni de' Medici, the future Pope Leo X., took his title as Cardinal, is no less open to doubt. Finally, the honour of having built the palace he inhabited in the Borgo — which has been made familiar to us by an engraving of Lafreri — must be Raphael as Architect. 445 denied to him. This palace was constructed by Bramante for his own personal use, and only taken possession of later by Raphael. Bramante died on the 11th March, 1514, but before his death be had time to designate his successor to the Pope, and that successor-was no other than Raphael : " as thou not only excellest in the art of painting, as all men agree, but hast also been nominated by Bramante on his death-bed as being skilful in the science of architecture, and fit to continue the erection of that temple to the prince of the Apostles which he began." These are the words employed by Leo X. in the Brief in which he appoints Raphael architect-in- chief of St. Peter's. This recommendation of Bramante, however, was not judged altogether sufficient. Raphael, provisionally appointed on the 1st April, 1514, with a salary of 300 golden ducats, was only confirmed in his position on the 1st of August following, after having submitted for approval a model designed by himself and executed in wood by Giovanni Barile. As if to make himself worthy of this great trust, the artist gave himself up to the study of Vitruvius. He tells us so himself in his celebrated letter to Castiglione. " His Holiness," he writes, " has, by thus honouring me, laid a great burden upon me — I mean in appointing me to direct the works at St. Peter's. I hope I shall not fail, especially as my model pleases His Holiness, and has obtained the sanction of many competent judges ; but I aim higher. I wish to discover the principles of the beautiful forms of the antique. Perhaps my flight will be like that of Icarus. Vitruvius gives me much enlightenment, but not enough." It is most likely that, at this time, Raphael had the Roman author's ^ Treatise on Architecture translated, for his personal use, from Latin into Italian, by Fabio Calvo of Ravenna. This translation, as we know, still exists in the Royal Library at Munich. It contains this curious note : " End of the book of Vitruvius the Architect, translated from Latin into the vulgar tongue by Marcus Fabius Calvus de Ravenna at Rome, in the house and at the instigation of Raphael, son of Giovanni Santi da Urbino." x Some years later, one of the secretaries of Leo X., Celio Calcagnini, speaks of Raphael in a way which proves how much the painter-architect had profited by reading Vitruvius : " Raphael is perhaps the first of all painters, in theory as well as in practice, and is, besides, an architect of such rare talent, that he invents and executes things that the most gifted men believe impossible. I only except Vitruvius, whose principles he not only teaches, but whom he sometimes defends and sometimes attacks with unanswerable 1 Passavant, Raphael, t. i. p. 109. 446 Raphael. arguments, and at the same time with so much gentleness, that there is no bitterness in his criticisms." The impression produced by these studies was so strong, that Raphael, after having applied the precepts of the Roman author to modern construc tions, used them to attempt the ideal restoration of ancient Rome. We shall have occasion to study this gigantic project in detail : indeed in the latter years of Raphael's life, it, with practical architecture, took up more of his attention than painting itself. But let us return to St. Peter's. Leo X. determined to give a new impetus to the work, and caused two of the veterans of architecture to go into partnership with Raphael, with similar salaries, viz. Giuliano da San-Gallo and Fra Giocondo, the first seventy years of age, the second between eighty and ninety. In the letter to his uncle Simone (1st July, 1514) Raphael says, " The Pope has given me as assistant a very learned monk, at least eighty years old : as he has not long to live, I must gather as quickly as I can from this man of great reputation and learning, any secrets in architecture he may have to impart, and thus arrive at perfection. His name is Fra Giocondo." Giuliano Leno continued, as in Bramante's time, to superintend the administrative portion of the works ; whilst as under-architects, clerks of the works, &c, we find the names of Antonio da San-Gallo, Gian-Francesco da San-Gallo, Rainiero Pisano, Niccolo da Bibbiena, Giovanni Barile, Baldassare da Carrara, Desiderio di Fantellis, Andrea da Milano, &c. Raphael's two colleagues soon departed this life. Fra Giocondo died in July, 1515 ; Giuliano da San-Gallo, on the 20th of October in the following year. Raphael requested the Pope to nominate a successor, and Leo X. acceded to his wish. Towards the end of the year 1516 he appointed Antonio da San-Gallo the younger, with a smaller salary, however, as we learn from another contemporary that he only received twelve ducats and a half a month.1 Raphael had accepted with a light heart the position of -successor to Bramante. All through the years 1514-1515 there was no interruption in his work, no sign of relaxation. In the letter addressed to his uncle Simone on the 1st July, 1514, he gives full expression to his enthusiasm: "What undertaking," he writes, " could be nobler than that of St. Peter's, the greatest temple in the world. It is the grandest building ever seen ; it will cost more than a million ducats in gold. . . . The Pope sends for us every day and discusses the designs for some time.'' The ardour with which Raphael discharged his new duties did not diminish 1 See the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1879, t. ii. p. 523. Architect of St. Peter's. 447 as the years went by. A letter from the envoy of the Duke of Ferrara (17th December, 1519) shows him but a few months before his death occupied with the smallest details of the work : " The commission relative to Raphael da Urbino still remains to be done; but I will carry ;it through, and will again attempt to conquer him by gentleness, for men who are intellectually superior are always inclined to certain susceptibilities. Raphael suffers greatly from the effects of discouragement (melancholia) since he took up this architectural business after Bramante's death. He is always discussino- the practice of the art with Giuliano Leno. I found him this morning having just prepared two pillars that the Pope has ordered, to strengthen the first pier in the 'Via dei Svizzeri,' which has been threatening to give way. On asking to see. him he begged me to wait until he had written to some of the chief masters, and said that he would then receive me if I would come and see him. I will try all ways of managing him, and will tell him what happened to me at his house the other day, and if he persists in putting me off with fair words, I will tell him what your Excellency writes, and will then communicate the result to you." The progress of St. Peter's was unfortunately not in proportion to the great efforts made by the young architect-in-chief. He was obliged, first of all, as we see, to occupy himself with giving it adequate strength — an ungrateful task, which took several years to accomplish. Then came the want of funds; indeed, when Raphael died, the works had hardly made visible progress since the death of Bramante. It is most interesting to follow the changes in the ideas of the Pope and his favourite artist upon the subjects of construction and design. Bramante, we now know without a doubt, had adopted for St. Peter's the form of the Greek cross. Under Leo X., probably at the instance of the priesthood, the Latin cross was adopted. A coin struck in the reign of this Pope shows us on one side the temple as Bramante designed it ; on the other the new project, i.e. . that of the Latin cross. A plan, published by Serlio under the name of Raphael, which is unfortunately very incorrect, confirms these indications, at least in their general lines, which are again corroborated by the Memoriale of Antonio da San-Gallo, published in the later editions of Vasari, together with Giuliano da San-Gallo's plan. From these different sources we ascertain that Raphael prepared at least two different projects or models. In the first, which is roughly criticised in the Memoriale, the painter-architect considerably enlarged the length of the nave, and the size of the piers forming the foot of the cross, so as to obtain chapels similar to those which we see at the angles of the cupola. He modified, also, the design of the apse -and its aisles, in order to preserve the 448 Raphael. choir designed by Bramante, which he seems to have made up his mind to finally retain. In the second project — the one which seems to have served as a basis to the plan published by Serlio — Raphael returned to Bramante 's piers, and took up again the bounding lines traced by his predecessor. It appears, to judge by one of the criticisms contained in the Memoriale, that Raphael also conceived the idea of a new dome, more ambitious even than that of Bramante. To make St. Peter's into a Latin cross Raphael had recourse to a measure adopted later by Maderno. He added several bays to the nave. But whilst the architect of the seventeenth century contended himself with three new arches, Raphael proposed to have four : this would have been quite destructive of the splendid edifice imagined by Bramante, and as Antonio da San- Gallo resisted the idea with considerable violence, it was happily not adopted. In fact, the part borne by Raphael in the rebuilding of St. Peter's consists only of a few unimportant changes. In the nave the new architect-in-chief raised the piers, which on either side immediately adjoin those of the dome, to a height of twelve metres. In the south transept he arched, either alone or aided by Antonio da San-Gallo, at least one of the two arcades, most likely the one of the back wall. As to the north transept, it is difficult to decide whether the corresponding piers were carried out by him or by Bramante. The completion of the Loggie, and the continuation of St. Peter's were the principal works confided by the Pope to Raphael. That part of the Apostolic Palace in which the Loggie are situated had been begun by Bramante under Julius II. We find a suggestion of the Logo-ie with the same number of arcades as now exist in a plan of the Vatican designed in 1503 or 1504 by Raphael's predecessor. On the other hand, the two first stories are so strikingly alike, that it is impossible to admit that they are the work of two different architects. It is therefore fair to ascribe to Bramante the honour of the lower portion of the gallery, the more so as the profiles recall in the most striking manner those of his corridor of the " Belvedere." Raphael apparently only added the third story, solely supported by columns. Thus we interpret the expression of Vasari, who after having said that Bramante began the construction of the Loggie, tells us that Raphael continued them " con nuovo disegno, e con maggior ordine ed ornamento." Bramante's plan having only been intended for two stories, the master had not thought it necessary to inclose the arcades of the ground floor. The Palazzi. 449 addition of a third story must necessarily, therefore, have had the effect of overloading the foundations and compromising the solidity of the edifice, as the event proved. The walls cracked seriously the very night Raphael died, and at one moment it was feared the whole edifice would give way. Antonio da San-Gallo averted the danger by filling up the arches of the ground floor, leaving only the small windows, which exist to this day. Thanks to this aHLOBTiTT FACCIATA DEL EAIAZXO EI HABBITATIom: DI RAFAELE SAMTIO DA VRBrMp SVLAVIADI BORXSHOJ4DVO FABRICATO COM SVO DISEHGMO tAWMO MD-XHIK ScJaD^U g_< CIBCA.ESEaVITO DABRAkCAvrre da VHgrwn THE PALAZZO DELL AQUILA. (Facsimile of an old Engraving.) explanation, we are at last enabled to understand the passage in which Vasari tells us that Raphael, to please certain persons, left " holes in the foundations of the Loggie." Leo X. was so pleased with Raphael's work that he gave him the directorship of all the architectural and artistic departments of the Vatican. The cousin of the Pope, Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici, also appointed Eaphael his architect. He asked him to make designs for the villa which G G 450 Raphael. he proposed to build oh Monte Mario, at the gates of Rome. Raphael seems to have made several plans, for the engraving executed by Serlio differs materially from the plan kept in the Uffizi. The works seem to have been begun during his lifetime (in the Battle of Constantine, painted by Giulio Romano before 1524, the date of his departure for Mantua, we see the Villa already in its present state). But the master was not allowed to behold the accomplishment of this work, which is justly considered a chef d'ceuvre in architecture. The row of Ionic pilasters, the loggia, and the arcade which breaks the uniformity of the lower terrace, are worthy of our warmest admiration. Like the temple erected at Rimini by L. B. Alberti, they give the impression of size without being of colossal dimensions. The profiles of the pedestals, the white marble windows with their cruci form mullions, the semicircular courtyard, add still more to the effect of the whole. Their simplicity, suggestiveness, and amplitude conclusively prove Raphael's ability as an architect. The arrangement of the wing with two stories is less irreproachable Its relative inferiority arises most likely from changes introduced into the original plan by Giulio Romano, who, as we know, carried on the construction of the Villa. Designs in " sgraffiti," or stucco ornaments, should certainly have been used to complete the decorations of these portions and to hide their imperfections. Among the edifices which Raphael erected for private patrons during the reign of Leo X., we must call attention to the Chigi Stables, " Stalle Chigiane." This building, which in its magnificence rivalled many a palace, was begun in 1514, and not during the reign of Julius II. as has been hitherto believed. A document recently published by Signor Cugnoni informs us indeed that on the 23rd May, 1514, the Milanese architect, Giovanni Antonio di Pallavicini, received forty ducats on account in payment of the works to be executed on certain stables attached to the Villa of Agostino o Chigi. From the tenor of the receipt, we learn that the works were then hardly begun. Another friend of Raphael's, Giovanni Battista Branconio dell' Aquila, drew upon his genius as an architect for the erection of a palace. This building was situated in the Borgo-Nuovo, on the left hand going towards St. Peter's : it was destroyed in the seventeenth century, at the same time as the palace of Bramante which Raphael had purchased ; but an old engraving,1 1 Letarouilly, in reproducing this engraving in his Edifices de Rome modeme, seems to have wished to subject Raphael's work to the rules of the Parisian Surveyor of Public Works, who fixes the extreme projection of cornices at half a metre, a rule which contributes so G G 2 452 Raphael. reproduced here in facsimile, allows us to form an idea of the chief elevation. Stucco ornaments, executed by Giovanni da Udine, added to the beauty of the faqade as designed by Raphael. The date, 1520, which was once visible on a frieze was doubtless that of the completion of the palace. The Coltrolini-Caffarelli-Stoppani-Vidoni Palace has been more fortunate. It still stands close to Sant' Andrea della Valle. We there find, with some slight variations, the type adopted by Bramante for his own palace ; the exterior too is similarly ornamented with stucco. Let us mention also the house built by Raphael for Leo X.'s doctor, Jacopo da Brescia, in the street leading from the Castle of Sant' Angelo to the Vatican. This palace still exists, but has been very much changed and "restored." Florence also possesses a palace by Raphael, the finest he ever conceived, and, we may add, one of the finest of the whole Renaissance period. We allude to the palace that the Bishop of Troja, Giannozzo Pandolfino, an intimate friend of the artist, caused him to build in the Via San Gallo (see engraving). Raphael had not the satisfaction of assisting at the completion of this edifice; indeed, it seems not to have been begun until after his death. The works were at first superintended by Gian-Francesco da San-Gallo, one of the assistant architects of St. Peter's (he died in 1530), and, after several interruptions, were completed by another architectural colleague of the painter, Aristotele da San-Gallo. The palace seems complete in its actual form ; and we cannot understand why Pontani endeavoured to make it all of one uniform height by placing another story upon the lower part.1 It is sometimes believed that a drawing which was once in the de Crozat Collection, and is now preserved in the Albertina at Vienna, shows us the design sent in by Raphael at the time of the famous competition for the completion of San Lorenzo in Florence.2 But this design, which seems to be from the hand of Perino del Vaga, is a portion of St. Peter's at Rome, and really has nothing to do with San Lorenzo. For a long time the design of the Uguccioni Palace situated on the Piazza della Signoria, in Florence, was attributed to the great master. It certainly bears some resemblance to the Palazzo Stoppani, but is a much later work. Let us now try, with the help of M. Geymiiller, to analyse the prevailing singularly to the monotony of modern Paris. A design of the sixteenth century, preserved in the Uffizi, shows that the profile of the cornice was more bold, and the effect far nobler. 1 Opere architettoniche di Raffaello Sanzio, p. 24. 2 Engraved in the Projets primitifs pour Saint-Pierre de Rome, plate lxii. fig. 1. Palazzt. 453 characteristics of Raphael's architecture as they are revealed in these different works. In his earliest buildings Raphael employs pilasters of but little projection, sometimes equally spaced, sometimes coupled. In the Palazzi Stoppani and dell' Aquila, as well as in his design for the Villa Madama (Museum of the Uffizi) he adopts on the contrary a more vigorous style. Pilasters give place to three-quarter columns, sometimes isolated, sometimes coupled. This change corresponds with the last development of Bramante's style. Indeed, the facade of his Palace of Justice, begun in the Via Giulia, is distinguished by a ground-floor with enormous rustications, surmounted by two stories of half or three-quarter columns coupled; a similar arrangement is found in the little palace he built for himself, and the Stoppani Palace is directly taken from the latter. In the semicircular court of the Villa Madama, Raphael seems to have utilised in a concave semicircle the arrangement proposed by Bramante in the convex semicircles of St. Peter's. He reproduces, also, in the windows of the Palazzi Aquila and Pandolfini, the tabernacles placed by Bramante between his half-columns. We may add that Antonio da San-Gallo imitated his example in the Farnese Palace ; and Baccio d'Agnolo in his Florentine palaces. In the facade of the Palazzo Aquila we see him making use of moulded concrete, first employed by Bramante in the palace that he built for himself. Raphael completed the decoration of his facade with the stucco ornaments that Giovanni da Udine had brought to such singular perfection. Another innovation of Raphael's consists in the use of niches, continuing in the piers of the first story the lines of the half-columns of the ground- floor. This arrangement results in a certain freedom which might easily be abused. All these monuments are distinguished by the purity of their forms, although, if we except the Villa Madama and the Palazzo Pandolfini, the designs are not sufficiently coherent, and the arrangements do not present that appearance of logical development'which seems to express an imperious necessity. In the Palazzo Pandolfini, on the contrary, Raphael has satisfied the requirements of the most rigorous selection. The same may be said of the Villa Madama, and of the designs preserved at the Uffizi ; we may affirm without hesitation that these are the works of a really great architect. The artist has shown that he could take advantage of all inequalities of situation, that he could combine the most various forms with absolute success, and that he could unite imagination with simplicity. That marvel of nature and chef d'ceuvre of art, the Italian villa, was beyond all doubt the work of architecture which best suited Raphael's genius. The " graziosissimo Raffaello da Urbino," 454 Raphael. as Vasari has so well named him, would have succeeded in making the traditions of antiquity live again, in a form conformable to the grace and poetry which were the foundations of his character ; he carried indeed this grace and poetry into the smallest and most purely architectural details. We can verify this by examining some of the mouldings of the Villa Madama, or the windows of the second "Loggia " of the Vatican. In this Loggia, as well as in the Palazzo Stoppani, Raphael has given so graceful a bend, so elegant and natural a curve to the balustrade, that we feel the charm of their lines as if they belonged to a beautiful statue. In this quality none of the pupils of Bramante, not Peruzzi, nor the two San Gallos, not Sansovino, nor Genga, nor Giulio Romano, not even Michael Angelo himself could equal the grace of Raphael. As a painter, Raphael was able to show all sides of his genius. As an architect, he had not time to give us an adequate idea of the power that was in him, still he held a considerable and not inglorious place in the annals of the great art-science. Brunelleschi, Alberti, Bramante, and Palladio are the four great names which sum up in themselves the development of modern architecture. Alberti had known Brunelleschi personally, Bramante in his turn had been the pupil of Alberti. But between him and Palladio the tradition was broken; the architect of Vicenza was not born, in deed, until four years after the death of his Umbrian brother in art. It was the mission of Raphael to fill up the interval, and it was he who was naturally selected to represent and develop Bramante's latest manner. But he died ere he could accomplish the task, and it is in the works of a whole series of masters, in the court of the Farnese Palace, for example, in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, in the Capitol, in the Cupola of St. Peter's, the Library at Venice, the Villa Imperiali near Pesaro, the Villa Pia, the Villa of Julius III., that we must seek for the scattered remnants of the artistic inheritance left by Bramante. Who can calculate the marvels that these germs would have given to the world, had they grown to maturity in the intellect of Raphael ? Towards the end of his life, carried away by a positive fever for work, and perhaps jealous of the accumulating laurels of Michael Angelo, Raphael tried his band at sculpture. He was authorised by many illustrious examples in venturing on this ground, so new for him. Giotto had cultivated two arts — we may even say three, as he was at once painter, sculptor, and architect : the bas-reliefs of the Florentine Campanile are still there to show us the skill with which the venerated father of modern painting could handle the clay. In the fifteenth century, without mentioning the innumerable artists who excelled Raphael as Sculptor. 455 as goldsmiths and medallists, we can cite some who were at the same time distinguished in painting and sculpture. Francesco di Giorgio-Martini, Verrochio, the Pollajuoli, and Leonardo da Vinci; then Michael Angelo, the most universal of all artists. One of Raphael's rivals, Sodoma, tried sculpture also at this period. In 1515, he received a commission to execute the model of two apostles destined to be cast in bronze.1 The excitement in the camp of Michael Angelo was great when they learnt that Raphael had taken to sculpture. The saddler, Leonardo di Compagnano, immediately let the master, who was then at Carrara, know. "Raphael," he writes, under date of 16th November, 1516, "has made a model in clay of a child for Piero d'Ancona, and the latter has almost finished putting it into marble. They say it is a very good work. Be warned ! " 2 Some time passes before we again hear of this child-statue. Raphael had been dead more than three years when Castiglione, in a letter addressed to Andrea Piperario, one of his compatriots settled in Rome, after having mentioned some antiquities belonging to Baldassare Turini, charges him to ask Giulio Romano whether Raphael's marble statue of the child still exists or no, and at what price it could be bought.3 We do not know that the bargain was ever concluded. It is certain, however, that the following year, when Giulio Romano left for Mantua, he deposits with his brother in Rome, for safe keeping, the statue of a child in clay, " un puttino di creta,'' 4 — probably the sketch-model of Raphael's statue. This is the only information we possess respecting this interesting work. We do not even know whether it consisted of one figure or a group. Modern dilettantism has tried to fill the blank, and has stated that the " puttino '' of Raphael has been found in a statue at St. Petersburg, which is exactly similar to a model in the Dresden Museum, a model which had been honoured for a century with the name of the Urbinate.5 1 Milanesi, Sulla storia dell' arte toscana. Siena, 1873, p. 194. 2 See Gotti, Vita di Michel-Angelo Buonarroti, vol. ii. p. 59. s It is generally admitted that the statue belonged to Giulio Romano, but still doubt is possible, as Castiglione's expression might equally apply to Turini. See Le Lctlerepittoriche, ediz. Ticozzi, vol. v. p. 245. 4 Gennarelli e Mazio, II Saggiatore. Rome, 1844, vol. i. p. 67. 6 Perhaps Raphael in his Child and Dolphin had been inspired by an idea from the antique. We are indeed in a position to affirm that under Leo X. the Palazzo Cesarini con tained a group representing a child seated (not reclining) on a dolphin : " In sedibus Cassarinis : Ibi et vidi delphinum natantem super quo insidebat pner." (CI. Bellievre, Nodes romance, Bibl. nationale, fonds latin. No. 13,123, fol. 200.) In the following cen tury, in 1633, there was in another Roman collection, (Lodovisi) " nn puttino morto sopra un delfino ferito di grandeza del naturale." (Springer, Rafael und Michel Angelo, p. 512.) 456 Raphael. Vasari in two separate places speaks of two different pieces of sculpture, to both of which he appends the great master's name. " Raphael," he says, in describing the decoration of the Capella Chigi, at Santa Maria del Popolo, " made Lorenzetto, the Florentine sculptor, execute two figures, which are still in his house at the Macello dei Corbi, at Rome." And elsewhere he says, again, " Chigi havino- confided to Lorenzetto the execution, under Raphael da Urbino's direction, of his tomb at Santa Maria del Popolo, the sculptor began upon the work with the greatest ardour. . . . Guided by the counsels of Raphael (aiutato dal giudizio di Raffaello) he completed two figures — a Jonah naked, having just come out of the whale's belly — a symbol of the resurrection from the dead — and Elijah in the desert, with a loaf baked in cinders and a jug of water beside him. He devoted all his talent and zeal to making these two statues as perfect as possible. But he never received the reward due to his efforts, on which he had counted to satisfy the wants of his family." Chigi and Raphael died almost simultaneously, and the two statues, owing to the indifference of Chigi's heirs, remained for two years in the artist's studio. On the 8th March, 1552, two sculptors, Tommaso del Boscho and Raffaello da Montelupo, were deputed to arrange the account standing between the heirs of Lorenzetto and those of the banker. They decided that the former should deliver up the two statues to the latter, as well as different pieces of marble destined for the decoration of the pyramid which had been raised over Chigi's tomb. The price of the whole work was fixed at 1,233 ducats, of which Lorenzetto had received 1,144 ducats during his lifetime.1 We see that here, as well as in the execution of the " puttino," Raphael never touched the chisel himself. All the authors of the sixteenth century are unanimous in saying that the two statues were executed under his direction ; but none of them suggested, as Passavant has done, that he ever touched the statue of Jonah with his own hand. The master only furnished Lorenzetto with a sketch, or perhaps with a small model (a terra-cotta in the South Kensington Museum is supposed to be the model in question), and that was enough to give to the Jonah the charm which it actually possesses. The model must have been finished in 1519, for we already find a reproduction of it in the Loggie.2 Latterly people have tried to discover the " puttino " of Raphael in a statuette of a child standing, belonging to P. Molini of Florence. See Rembadi, Del putto di marmo di mano di Raffaello San-do. 1 Information imparted by Signor Narducci. 2 Eor a long time two other pieces of sculpture, the " Eontana delle Tartarughe " and the wax head in the "Wicar Museum, were attributed to Raphael, but no one attempts to do so now. The best judges are of opinion that the wax head is a work of the fifteenth century. As to the fountain it was executed as late as 1585, by the Florentine sculptor, Taddeo Landini. Raphael as Medallist. 457 The execution of several medals has also been attributed to Raphael. But here, also, he most likely gave nothing but sketches, committing the making of the moulds to special artists. One of these moulds was used for a medal cast later by Castiglione. On one side appears a portrait of the STATUE OF JONAH. (Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.) author of the Cortigiano ; on the other Apollo in his chariot, with the motto, Tenebrarum et lucis '(" Arbiter " understood).1 The other sketch seems to have been ordered by Lorenzo de' Medici, the nephew of Leo X., and usurper of the Duchy of Urbino. In a letter dated 1 Engraved in the Tresor de numismatique et de glyptique. Medailles coulees et ciselees en Italie aux quinzieme et seizieme siecles, p. xxxvi. No. 2. 458 Raphael. the 6th November, 1517, Goro Gheri, Governor of Florence, writes to Lorenzo, who was then in Rome, begging him to get Raphael or some one else to execute a portrait in profile, that would do for the execution of a medal (or coin).1 And in fact a medal, cast about this time, is known to us, which represents Lorenzo de' Medici in profile, turned to the left, his head uncovered, and a mantle thrown over his cuirass, with the inscription : LAVEENTIVS MEDICES VEBINI ETC. DVX. But Raphael had nothing to do with this. The learned author of the Medailleurs italiens, M. A. Armand, who possesses an example of it, attributes it to Francesco da San-Gallo. 1 Gaye, Carteggio, vol. ii. p. ] 15. CHAPTER XX. Raphael and the Antique. — Report addressed to Leo X. — Ideal restoration of Ancient Rome. Before his journey to Rome in 1508, Raphael had made no study of the masterpieces of ancient art. While admiring at Urbino, at Siena, at Florence, the Greek and Roman bas-reliefs and statues, he never felt bound to make servile imitations of them, and he only once, at Siena, took an ancient marble as a rigid model, that of the Three Graces ; the resulting picture shows, as we have said, singular inexperience. At Rome a magical change came over him ; the tender, religious painter of Madonnas becomes a passionate admirer of the > heroes of paganism. He imagined the School of Athens and the Parnassus, both dazzling visions of the Greek world, and from henceforward classic anti cs ' quity had no more ardent champion. After having been inspired by it as a painter, Raphael next began to study it as an archaeologist ; he devotes his last powers to the restoration of ancient Rome, which he was contemplating even whilst painting the Transfiguration, that crowning work of the brilliant career which was so soon to be cut short. The object of this chapter is to examine, by the aid of little known documents, the resources that Rome offered to Raphael ; to define the influence exercised on him by the master pieces of ancient times ; and to mention the services that he rendered to the cause of archaeology, and the history of art. If at Urbino, Florence, and Siena Raphael had had an opportunity of seeing Greek or Roman statues, it was, without a doubt, at Rome itself that he was able for the first time to study ancient painting. Many monuments still preserved their primitive decoration in the sixteenth century, and they, together with the fragments of fresco that excavations were continually revealing, ... gave opportunities which do not now exist for the study of antique work in colour. No one thought of collecting and preserving those precious speci mens, but artists eagerly studied them. Among the works of Raphael there are many which cannot be explained by the influence of ancient sculp- 460 Raphael. ture alone. The master must certainly have borrowed more liberally from his predecessors, tho painters of old Rome, than has been hitherto imagined. Under Julius II., or, to speak exactly, in 1509, more or less considerable vestiges of frescoes were still to be seen in the baths and gardens of Sallust and Titus. Similar traces were also visible in the ruins on the Quirinal, as well as in those close to San Pietro in Vincoli. On the Palatine, the villa of one of Raphael's greatest friends, Inghirami, contained several ancient walls entirely covered with frescoes. Albertini also mentions a tomb in the Via Salaria ornamented with figures of Ceres and Bacchus, as well as vases and vine leaves. Raphael himself, in bis Reports to Leo X., speaks of the paint ings in the Baths of Diocletian, which he compares to the contemporary works in those of Trajan and Titus. We know how he made use of the charming decorations discovered at this time in the latter. But we must not forget that in this respect he only followed the example of Morto da Feltri, the real inventor of what were called arabesques. Most likely the master also studied the paintings, still existing, in the Pyramid of Cestius ; and Tivoli certainly furnished him with models. We know at least that Morto da Feltri, only a few years before, had taken advantage of the arabesques preserved in this villa. The study of ancient mosaics, of which Rome and the country round, notably Palestrina, possessed such considerable remains, completed Raphael's knowledge of ancient painting. Still, although Rome excelled all the other towns of Italy in this respect, its riches in ancient painting were not great enough to deter so industrious an artist as Raphael from seeking them in other places also. Not being able, like Morto da Feltri, to extend his investigations to the Kingdom of Naples, Pozzuoli, Baiae, Mercato di Sabbato,1 he was obliged to supplement his know ledge through the medium of sculpture. His taste was matured by the study of statues and reliefs, which also furnished him with the innumerable details of costume, furniture, armour, and ornament, which were necessary for his great historical compositions. Before we go further we must pass in review the materials of this kind offered by the Eternal City to its new inhabitant. People generally are too ready to depreciate the Roman collections of the beginning of the sixteenth century. The learned author of Italian Sculptors, Mr. Perkins, has followed the errors of his predecessors in this respect. In seeking to make a list of the antiquities existing in Rome at the time of Raphael, Mr. Perkins takes his stand on the well-known passage of Poggio, in which he declares that in the middle of the fifteenth century Rome only contained five statues.2 But Poggio evidently only means the 1 See Vasari, vol. ix. p. 107. 2 Raphael and Michelangelo. Boston, 1878, p. 111. Raphael and the Antique. 461 statues standing in public places, the Colossi of Monte Cavallo, the Marcus Aurelius, &c. We know, for a fact which can be easily proved, that only fifty years later the ancient statues were numbered by hundreds in the Eternal City. At this time Rome contained two museums, that of the Vatican, the Anti- quarium, as it was called, and that of the Capitol. The first could boast, as yet, but a few monuments, but they were all masterpieces : the Apollo Belve dere, the Laocoon, the Torso, the Ariadne (then known under the name of Cleopatra), the statue of the Empress Sallustia Barba Orbana, represented as Venus, the Commodus, the Tiberius. Under Leo X., the Nile, as well as two statues of Antinous (who supplied a type for Raphael's Jonah), were added to these marvels of art.1 Andrea Fulvio, who described them in 1513,2 tells us that all the statues were placed in the Belvedere, round a fountain. Some, according to a later work, seem to have stood in the open air, others were placed in the niches round.3 Later, Leo X. caused the Loggie to be adorned with ancient statues purchased by himself and by Julius II. The Museum of the Capitol, which was founded in the reign of Sixtus IV., was larger, although its antiques were hardly so valuable as those of the ponti fical collection. There was the bronze Wolf, the bronze Hercules, the Boy with the thorn in his foot, the Lion devouring a horse, the busts of the Emperors, the Sarcophagus of Julia, the two basalt sphinxes (one of which appears in the fresco of the Farnesina, Psyche before the Assembly of the Gods), many frag ments of colossal bronze and marble statues, &c, &c.4 But who could describe the riches of the private collections ? They formed by themselves the largest museum then existing. There was not a prelate or diplomatist, a noble or banker, who did not seek with ardour every memento which recalled the ancient splendours of Rome — statues, reliefs, gems, medals, and inscriptions. In the first rank was the museum collected at the Palace of St. Mark by the Venetian Cardinal, Domenico Grimani. These collections, afterwards removed by him to his native towD, to become, at his death in 1523, the nucleus of the Museum of St. Mark, contained specimens of sculpture and intaglio of the very finest description. We know that, in 1505, he showed the Italian ambassadors a large number of marble statues and other antiquities found in his "vineyard."5 Albertini 1 Gregorovius, Storia della citta di Roma, vol. viii. p. 162 et seq. " Antiquaria Urbis, liv. i. fol. 30 vo. 3 Aldobrandini, Delle statue antiche che per tattaRoma in diversi luoghietcase si veggono, edit, of 1562, p. 115 et seq. See also Barbetde Jouy, Les Fontes du Primatice, pp. 41, 42. 4 Fulvio, Antiquaria Urbis, edit, of 1513, fol. 20 et 20 vo. 6 Morelli, Notizia d'opere di disegno, p. 216. 462 Raphael. indeed expressly mentions a bronze bead with a mural crown (" paput asneurn turritum") that was to be seen in the Cardinal's orchard.1 Many other marbles belonged to the Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, the future Pope Leo X. (we have already mentioned, on the authority of Albertini, his beautiful statue of a Satyr). Others belonged to the Colonnas, the Orsinis, the Savellis, the Cesarinis, the Massimis, the Valles, the Porcaris, the Mellinis, the Maffeis, the Pallavicinis, the Caffarellis, &c, &c.2 The collection of Agostino Chigi, and that of Bembo, also acquired a certain celebrity. Antiquities were to be found even in the houses of simple artists. One of Raphael's dearest friends, the goldsmith Antonio da San Marino, possessed a marble statue of Venus, which he exposed in front of his shop at the inaugural procession of Leo X. We may add that no one saw anything peculiar in this method of celebrating one of the great festivals of the Church. Unpublished documents preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale enable us to describe the contents of several of these cabinets of antiquities. One, situated " in domo Roscia," contained a bust of the Sibyl of Tivoli, a bust of Csesar, and another of Pompey; a statue of Diana of Ephesus, in white marble, the head, hauds, and feet in black marble ; the sacrifice of a bull ; a Neptune armed with a trident, standing with one foot in a boat ; a Bacchus crowned with vine leaves ; the wife of Bacchus (sic), a bas-relief representing Voluptuousness, Charity, and Courage ; numerous beads of nymphs ; a Venus seated on a throne, with a myrtle beside her ; a colossal head of Polyphemus ; a statue of Minerva. The greater part of these marbles were also shown on the occasion of the procession or " Sacro Possesso '"' of Leo X. We are in a position to affirm that Raphael and his disciples knew, studied, and copied two at least of these antiques, the " Diana of Ephesus " and the "Sacrifice of the Bull." We find, indeed, these two compositions represented in the Loggia, one above the other, in the same order in which they are mentioned by the author of the manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Although the artist has made changes in the figure of the Diana, he has, on the other hand, faithfully copied the bas-relief with the three sacrificial priests, the bull, and the three women playing the flute. The Loggia contains many other subjects which are evidently taken from the antique. The learned Claude Bellievre of Lyons, to whom we owe this information on the Roman collections in the reign of Leo X., saw besides, at the house of a lady member of the Orsini family, near the church of Sant' Eustachio, the " Combat of the Horatii and Curatii " (The Fighting Gauls, at Naples) ; statues 1 Albertini, Opusculum, fol. 62 vo. Ibid. fol. 61 vo. Raphael and the Antique. 463 of Cato the Censor, and of a child seated on a dolphin, in the Palazzo Cesarini ; and in the Palazzo Massimi, statues or busts of Julius Caesar, Brutus, and Seneca. If we add to these treasures, which people were beginning to appreciate at their true value, all those which the public buildings offered to the admiration of visitors, we can easily see that no city in the world could afford more varied and complete instruction in art than Rome. It is hardly necessary to mention here the Colossi of Monte Cavallo, the statue of Marforio, and that of Marcus Aurelius ; the bas-reliefs on the arches of Titus, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, and of Constantine, as well as the small arch of the "Orefici;" those of the columns of Antoninus and Trajan (as early as 1506 Raphael Maffei da Volterra speaks of drawings from the column of Trajan, made by the painter Jacopo da Bologna — Jacopo had invented a machine by which he was enabled to reach any part of the outside of the column for the purposes of study), and those of the " Colonaccie " near the forum of Augustus ; the sarcophagi distributed in the 300 churches of the city ; the stuccos on the Baths of Titus, those in the tombs of the Via Appia, the Via Latina, and many others. Vasari dates the revival of modern art from the discovery of the Laocoon, the Torso, Apollo, Venus, Hercules, and the so-called Cleopatra. We need no further example than that of Raphael to justify the old biographer's assertion. Everything urged him to seek inspiration from these models, his own aspirations as well as the advice of his friends. The most devoted of his patrons, his second father, Bramante, had made classic art the study of his life. The greater part of the monuments of ancient Rome had been drawn and designed by his orders. Lomazzo, who gives this information, saw these drawings, then dispersed all over Italy.1 One of Bramante's pupils, Antonio Labacco, confirms Lomazzo's assertion, by telling us how his master made several drawings of a temple situated close to the Forum, on the site of Sant' Adriano.2 Hardly had Raphael arrived in Rome ere the architect-in-chief of St. Peter's began to test his knowledge of archaeology : having had copies of the Laocoon made by several different sculptors, he asked him to decide which was best. Sanzio declared that Jacopo Sansovino's work was the most like the original, and his decision was confirmed by an illustrious connoisseur, Cardinal Domenico Grimani.3 1 Idea del tempio della pittura, edit, of 1785, p. 14. 2 Libra d' Antonio Labacco appartenente all archiiettura net qual sifigurano alcunnotabili antiquita di Roma. Rome, 1559, fol. xvii. 3 Vasari, vol. xiii. p. 72. 464 Raphael. Bramante studied classic art as an artist. Other friends of Raphael did so as amateurs or archaeologists. Among them Pietro Bembo, the future cardinal, merits the first rank. We have already learnt from the Anonimo of Morelli how rich his museum was in bronzes, marbles, medals, and gems. He was an enlightened and kind friend to the young Urbinese artist. Baldassare Castiglione was soon bitten by the same craze; now we find him singing the praises of the Cleopatra, again seeking for bas-reliefs, cameos, or masterpieces of painting.1 It was with these two friends that Raphael went in 1516 to Tivoli, to study both ancient and modern art. It is most likely that at this period his intimacy began with the archaeologist, Andrea Fulvio ; in company with whom, as we shall see, he prepared his plans for the restoration of ancient Rome. We know that Fulvio published, in 1517, through Mazzocchi of Rome, a work on numismatics, the very carefully executed engravings of which were of the greatest help to those artists who studied Greek or Roman iconography.2 The influence of the antique over Raphael is to be traced in three distinct ways : by changes in his style, by his direct imitation of ancient models — paintings, bas-reliefs and statues — and by the choice of subjects borrowed from Greek and Roman mythology and history. The modifications that the study of the antique made in his style are so numerous that, to describe them properly, we ought to notice, one by one, nearly every figure executed by the master. He made use of the admirable models contained in the Roman collections to give style to his draperies and greater purity to bis types ; to make his manner of treatment larger and nobler. They enabled him to discover that scientific basis of beauty which had previously escaped all but his intuition. In place of impressions more or less vague and personal we see him depending upon principles. Thus was the Roman school founded. Although Raphael had won admiration at Perugia, Urbino, and Florence, it was at Rome that he succeeded in founding a school. It did not take the master long to pass from general imitation to frank borrowing. Vasari has already pointed out the influence that ancient art exercised over the frescoes in the Camera della Segnatura. In his description of the Parnassus, he tells us how Raphael had recourse, for the portraits of the poets represented on the famous mount, to statues, medals and ancient pictures. It is certain that the artist neglected nothing which could help him to be accurate. In painting the heads in the School of Athens we know for 1 Dumesnil, Histoire des plus celebres amateurs italiens, p. 161 and following. 2 Illustrium imagines. — Imperatorum et illustrium virorum aut mulierum vultus ex antiquis numismatibus expressi : emendatum correptumque opus per Andream Fulvium diligentissimum antiquarium, 12mo, cxx. pages. Raphael and the Antique. 465 certain that he copied one ancient portrait, most likely the cameo that Castiglione was fortunate enough to become possessed of ten years later His knowledge of Greek iconography cannot, however, have been very deep or he would have represented Plato with curly hair and Aristotle without a beard. But historical precision was hardly wanted here. The two chiefs of Athenian philosophy are whatever we like to picture them, after havino- read their works. Who does not prefer the noble conceptions of Raphael to any merely archaeological accuracy ? His imitation of ancient models, chosen solely for their intrinsic beauty are much more numerous than has been hitherto believed. In the Dispute of the Sacrament, the throne on which Saint Gregory is seated is an exact reproduction of one of those marble armchairs of which there are so many splendjd specimens in Rome. The head of the Homer in the Parnassus recalls (as M. Gruyer has already observed) that of the Laocoon. Calliope, in the same fresco, is imitated from the Cleopatra (now called Ariadne), then in the Belvedere. Raphael's borrowing is still more evident in the drawing preserved at the Albertina of Vienna; in the lower portion of the two figures', the arrangement of drapery is identical. (See page 272.) The Apollo of the School of Athens was certainly inspired by the celebrated intaglio of Lorenzo il Magnifico, Apollo and Marsyas ; perhaps Raphael saw the original, which seems to have remained in the possession of Piero de' Medici (it is now in the Museum at Naples), and was probably included in the sixty-eight cameos pawned in 1496 with Agostino Chigi. In any case he knew the famous composition through the numerous reproductions that were to be found all over Italy at the latter part of the fifteenth century.1 He later reproduces it bodily in the stucco decorations of the Loggia, and in the frescoes of the roof copies abound. The throne of Philosophy is supported, as we know, by two figures of the Ephesian Diana, statues of whom began to be very common in all the Roman collections. The executioners in the Judgment of Solomon and in the Spasimo recall the Fighting Gladiator in the Museum of Naples (formerly in the Farnese collection) and one of the horse-tamers of the Quirinal. And, last of all, in the Apollo and Marsyas the figure of the victim is copied from a marble of which many examples exist, while the standing shepherd is to be traced both in one of the Venetian drawings and in a statue of Apollo again used by Raphael in the Marriage of Psyche. As we have already stated (chapter xiv.) the Stanza d'Eliodoro, although 1 Another engraved stone from the collection of Lorenzo de' Medici, belonging to the British Museum, also shows us Apollo, standing in an attitude little differing from that which Raphael has given him in the School of Athens. H H 466 Raphael. posterior to the Camera della Segnatura, shows fewer references to the antique. In the Stanza dell Incendio these reminiscences again become stronger. We may mention among others, in the fresco which has given its name to the room, the classic amphora, which one of the women is carrying on her head, and the stately Corinthian and Ionic columns of the buildings attacked by the flames. The same tendency is seen, with still greater force, in the fourth and last Stanza, that of the Battle of Constantine, only completed, as we have seen, after the death of Raphael. In this room, so numerous are the borrowed ideas that they almost destroy the sincerity of the composition. But the fact is that, as a general rule, the amount of plagiarism is in inverse ratio to the share taken by Raphael in the execution. Desiring above all things to finish these compositions quickly, his pupils, Giulio Romano, Gian-Francesco Penni, and Perino del Vaga, looked upon ancient art as a store-house from whence they could take what they liked, and save themselves the trouble of exercising their own imaginations. Most likely it is to this tendency of his comparatively ignorant scholars that we must ascribe the appearance, in the Cartoons, of certain symbols very much in vogue in classical times, but absolutely at variance with modern ideas. We have seen with what care, in the Camera della Segnatura and in the Stanza d'Eliodoro, Raphael avoided introducing allegory into historical compositions. But in the St. Paul in Prison we suddenly came upon an earthquake, represented by a giant raising a mountain, whilst in the borders of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, of the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, of the Healing of the Lame Man, of the Death of Ananias} we come across naiads, and river gods, cities represented by female heads surrounded by mural crowns, &c, &c. These remnants of antique polytheism shock and astonish us in the midst of our exclusive preoccupation with the Expulsion of the Medici, or with the Battle of Ravenna. And we ask the meaning of these rivers reclining on urns, or holding horns of plenty, in the middle of the artist's representation of contemporaneous events. They only diminish the interest and paralyse the action of his works. By the side of these indirect borrowings, there are in the Cartoons numerous imitations of well-known originals. In the Sacrifice at Lystra the priest who raises his axe, and the victim itself, have both been copied from an antique bas-relief, which is now to be seen in the Uffizi. The Loggia and the Farnesina, are the two works of Raphael in which this looking back at the antique is most conspicuous. The discovery of the paintings in the Baths of Titus placed within the reach of himself and of 1 See above, chap. xvi. Raphael and the Antique. 467 his pupils an inexhaustible mine of pictorial motives. We have seen how thoroughly those mines were explored. Free borrowing also took place from the Roman collections of statues and bas-reliefs, from the Ephcsian Diana, the Sacrifice of a Bull, the Apollo and Marsyas; and many other works bear unanswerable testimony to the fact. Scores of these imitations are to be found even in the illustrations to the Bible. In the Deluge, the man who hangs on by the neck of his horse is copied from a relief on the column of Antoninus.1 In other pictures, such as the Passage of the Jordan and the Anointing of Solomon, we see the Jordan represented in the form of an old man with a beard. We have no intention to pass in review all Raphael's plagiarisms from antique art, whether they occur in the bathroom of Bibbiena, in the Villa of Chigi, in the Planets of Santa Maria del Popolo, or even in the compositions which have been preserved to us by the burin of Marc-Antonio. Such an inquiry would far overpass the limits of this work.2 By force of study, Raphael familiarised himself not only with the styles and technical methods of his Greek and Roman predecessors, but also with their beliefs and fundamental ideas. The ingenious fictions of their mytho logy, the heroes immortalised by their great poets, Homer and Virgil, became indued with a new life in his eyes. Before his arrival in Rome, Raphael had hardly enjoyed a glimpse of a world so rich in poetic thoughts. The Three Graces and the Apollo and Marsyas had been the only pagan subjects to attract his pencil. After 1508, on the other hand, Olympus became a formid able rival in his mind to Christianity, and antiquity furnished the subjects of his most brilliant compositions : for instance, the School of Athens, the Parnassus, Apollo and Marsyas, Alexander depositing the Works of Homer in the Tomb of Achilles, Augustus Saving the JZneidfrom the Flames, the Triumph of Galatea, the Planets, the Sibyls, the History of Psyche, the History of Venus and Cupid in Bibbiena's bathroom, the Fates, the Seasons, the Hours, woven in the borders of the tapestries. Raphael returned to this same motive in a design engraved by the Master of the Die (Passavant, vol ii., 581), and the Hours, which were painted after his sketches on the ceiling of the Stanza del' Incendio, repeated almost exactly the motives of frescoes found at Herculaneum (Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Raphael, vol. ii. pp. 42, 43, 548, 1 Bellori e Bartoli, Columna cochlis M. Aurelio Antonino Augusto dicata. Rome, 1704, plate xiii.,- xvi. 2 I may refer the reader to the Raphael et Vantiquite of M. Gruyer ; to the Beitrage zu Raphael' s Studium der Antihe of Herr von Pulszky ; and to the Die Antiken in den Stichen Marc' anton's, Agostino Veneciano's, und Marco Dente's, of Herr Thode. H H 2 468 Raphael. 550). The Signs of the Zodiac engraved by Marc-Antonio, may also be named.1 Many of these subjects, no doubt, were imposed upon the painter by his patrons, but, on the other hand, there are very many which he chose of his own free will. Among the latter must be included the numerous compositions interpreted by the burin of Marc- Antonio Raimondi. We have already had occasion to mention the superb engraving of Lucretia. It was followed by the Judgment of Paris,2 the Quos Ego, the Pestilence, the Venus at the Bath, &c. We may add to the list the beautiful drawing in the Louvre of the Calumny of Apelles, and the fine Rape of Helen in the Oxford University Collection,3 the Marriage of Alexander and Roxan-x, and Children playing with Apples, in the Louvre. The poet to whom Raphael loved most to turn for inspiration was Virgil. Besides the episode of the flight of iEneas from Troy, which he introduced into the Incendio del Borgo, he borrowed from the Latin poet the idea of the Quos Ego (Neptune calming the tempest, and other scenes from the iEneid) and that of the Pestilence or Morbetto, also from the iEneid (book iii.). In the Parnassus, and in Augustus Saving the JEneid from the Flames, the greatest Roman painter had by anticipation paid a tribute of gratitude to the greatest Roman poet. We have endeavoured to place before our readers the artist drawing in ¦ spiration from those models which he looked upon as the most perfect ; it is now time to make them acquainted with the archaeologist who was a diligent searcher for the remains of antique art, who discussed them and spent much of his time in making his contemporaries acquainted with their magnificent inheritance of stupendous and beautiful monuments, some worn by time, others mutilated by the sacrilegious hand of man. In this double aspect Raphael presents himself to us ; but whereas in his youth the artist predomin ated over the archaeologist, towards the close of his short life the latter was in the ascendant. Some critics have been tempted to look upon the change as a proof of exhaustion ; as his inspiration wore itself out he became, they say, more prone to turn to science for help. A man is born a poet ; he makes himself a scholar. We ourselves are content to admire the singular good fortune of the great master, who, in so short a career, was able to embrace so 1 The Hercules (Robinson, No. 149) at Oxford is not by Raphael, but most likely by II Fattore. 2 Herr Springer has conclusively shown this composition is based upon a bas-relief pre served at the Villa Medici (Raffael und Michel Angelo, p. 311). 3 Braun. No. 265. THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS. (Facsimile of an Engraving by Mare-Antonio.) Raphael as Archaeologist. 469 many forms of discipline, to give to his life so multiplex an interest to taste in turn all the intellectual delights of the great epoch in which he lived. VENUS AT THE BATH. (Facsimile of an Engraving by Marc-Antonio.) Shortly after his arrival in Rome, Raphael had occasion to bear witness to his love for all that belonged to the past, whether that past called itself 470 Raphael. antiquity or the middle ages, and to show that he had in him the stuff to make a first-rate antiquary. Julius II., in his ardour to fill the Vatican with new works, ordered his favourite painter to destroy the frescoes of his pre decessors. Raphael was compelled to obey, but, being determined that all trace of such interesting compositions should not be lost to posterity, he caused some of the frescoes at least of Piero della Francesca to be copied by his pupils.1 It was a good example, thrown away upon the band of mad destroyers who were then laying their hands upon the most venerable monu ments of pagan and Christian Rome. If this action of the painter had found imitators, we should at least have possessed some faint image of many great works which have been lost beyond recovery. In 1515, however, Raphael was enabled to intervene for the preservation of some historic monuments in a more efficacious manner. A papal brief, bearing date 27th August, 1515, gave him power, doubtless at his own request, to forbid the destruction of any ancient marbles bearing inscriptions. " Con sidering," writes the pope to him, " that the stonecutters destroy for building purposes many inscribed antique stones and marbles which it is important to preserve as aids to the development of letters, and to the preservation in its full elegance of the Latin tongue, we forbid all marblecutters in Rome, to cut or chisel without express permission any stone whatever bearing an in scription, under pain of fines for those who disobey our orders." The first part of the same brief authorises Raphael to requisition all the materials obtained by excavation in Rome and its neighbourhood, for the building of St. Peter's, to which he had been appointed architect-in-chief but a year before. The painter, however, soon became alive to the danger that might result from encouraging these excavations too freely. We shall see that the Popes have been reproached with being the cause of the ruin of many interesting monuments by permitting the pozzolana to be obtained from their foundations. So far as inscriptions were concerned, Raphael's efforts were soon crowned with success. As early as the 30th November, 1517, one of the chief publishers of Rome, Giacomo Mazzochi, obtained from Leo X. the exclusive right for seven years of publishing collections of ancient inscriptions under the name of Epigrammata antiques Urbis. His work, a superb folio of four hundred pages, was issued to the public in April, 1521.2 This volume, the 1 See above, p. 243. 2 Mazzochi calls particular attention to an inscription cut upon a block of travertine which had been destined for use at St. Peter's, but was doubtless res-.ued by Raphael : In saxo oblongo tiburtino adducto adfabricam Sancti Petri qui demum fissus est in duas partes per lapicidas. Fol. clxv. Raphael as Archaeologist. 47 1 oldest printed collection of inscriptions extant, in preserving from oblivion those epigraphs which were then being found daily in Rome, aimed at the same end as Raphael ; it also contained fairly good woodcuts of many of the most remarkable monuments in the ' city— the gate of San Lorenzo, that of Santa Maria, the arch of Constantine (without the sculptures), the arch of Septimius Severus, the Pantheon, the column of Trajan, the pyramid of Cestius, the obelisk of the Vatican, &c, &c. Some writers have gone so, far as to call Raphael the director of the Roman museums. That, perhaps, is an exaggeration. It was not till long after his time that a special officer for such a purpose was appointed; and, indeed, the post, when first created, was modest enough. Francesco de' Botti, who was, in 1540-, " politer et scopator statuarum et figurarum palatii Capitolii," that is to say, curator of the statues in the Capitol and the Vatican, received no more than two ducats per mensem} The curator of the Trajan Column (called by the papal, secretary Coluna trojana) was better paid, although his duties required no special abilities. Donatello and his pupil Bertoldo were real directors of museums, in the modern sense of the word. The trust confided to, Raphael brought him into frequent conflict with the municipal authorities of the city, who were at that time all eagerness for the development of their own museum in the Capitol. When, on the loth July, 1518, the painter-arch seologist claimed — -doubtless on behalf of the Pope- — a statue left by Gabriele de Rossi, the municipality asserted their right, under the will of its deceased owner, to- place it in the collection at the Capitol.2 On the other hand, Raphael profited by the facilities which all this afforded him to procure antiques for his friends and acquaintances. A letter from the Ferrarese charge d" affaires, published3 by the Marquis Campori (30th March, 1517), shows the artist occupied in trying to satisfy the caprices of the Duke Alphonso d'Este. " As for the medals, heads, and figures," writes the minister, " Raphael tells me that he is attending to the instructions of your Excellency. He has begged me to leave it all to him, assuring me that he has the most trustworthy agents. He also gives me to understand that your Excellency has lately manifested a desire to become the owner of the bed of Polycrates (Polycletus ?)._ There is one at Florence, indeed, but it is not for sale. Raphael says that there is one here which is still finer, although it is not the bed of Polycrates," &c, &c. Who knows but Raphael made collections on his own account also ? One of his heirs, Giulio Romano, possessed some marbles which may very well 1 State Archives, Rome. 2 Passavant, Raphael, t. i. p. 204. 3 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1863, t. i. p. 351. 472 Raphael. have formed part of his inheritance from the painter. Castiglione promised him a good sale for them at Mantua.1 We find also that among the objects left by Giulio at Rome under his brother's care, in 1524, there were examples of thirty different medals, twelve leaden medals with various figures upon them, a small figure in rock crystal (una intagliatura), a cup of white marble, an antique terracotta vase (una tazzetta di terracotta antica), an antique wooden vase (una tazzetta antica in Jegno), and also (how one's curiosity is fired by the simple words !) a box full of drawings, cartoons, books, and manuscripts — in all probability the literary and artistic heritage of Raphael.2 The painter-archaeologist organised a veritable institute for antiquarian correspondence. We know that he despatched draughtsmen into all parts of Italy, and even into Greece, to make records of antique monuments. An engraving of the stylobate of the Theodosian column at Constantinople bears an inscription stating that the original drawing was sent to Raffaello da Urbino.3 A careful examination of the design for the Battle of Constantine has enabled M. Reiset to discover another equally interesting fact : " Several of the horses' heads in profile, which appear on the left of the picture, are copied from the frieze of Phidias. The resemblance is so great that it cannot have been fortuitous. It does not occur anywhere else, either in the fresco itself, which was painted after Raphael's death by Giulio Romano, or in any other work with which we are acquainted, either by master or scholars." 4 In 1518 or 1519 Raphael undertook to condense the results of his studies ;n a report which he delivered to the Pope, and of which we possess two different editions, the one published in 1733 by the Volpis in their edition of Castiglione's works, the other given in Passavant's Raphael. By this we see that he proposed to collect the measurement of every existing Roman building which had come down from antiquity, and by means of these measurements to attempt an ideal reconstruction of the great capital of the Csesars. Before giving an analysis of this interesting document we must say a few words as to its history. The first allusion to this report is to be found iu the pages of A. Beffa Negrini, who attributes it to Castiglione, and declares that it figures in the list of the Count's letters.5 This attribution was accepted down to 1799, in 1 Dumesnil, Histoire des plus celebres amateurs italiens, p. 115. ° See II Saggiatore, vol. i. pp. 67, 68. Rome, 1844. 3 Passavant, Raphael, t. i. p. 274. 4 Notice des dessins, page 257. This drawing is not original. M. Reiset thinks it is a copy executed under Raphael's superintendence by Polidoro da Caravaggio. Elogi istorici d'alcuni personaggi della famiglia Castiglione. Mantua, 1606, p. 429. Report on Ancient Remains. 473 which year the Abbe Francesconi demonstrated, in a masterly dissertation upon the question, that its true author was Raphael himself.'1 The arguments brought forward by Francesconi were unanswerable, and his conclusion was universally accepted. He admitted, indeed, that Castiglione had revised and touched up the work of his friend, introducing several modifications, mostly with the object of improving its style. The discovery at Munich of another copy of the report, slightly differing in its terms, confirmed the essential points in Francesconi's contention. We may begin by saying, as thoroughly established facts which support our view, that the report in question is addressed to Leo X., that one of the two copies was found among the papers of Castiglione, and the other in company with the translation of Vitruvius which was made for Raphael by Marco Fabio da Ravenna ; finally, that every item of internal evidence which it affords supports the attribution to the painter. We know that Raphael busied himself greatly toward the end of his life in measuring and, on paper, restoring the ancient buildings of Rome ; we know it by the testimony of his contemporaries, and by that of the writer, whoever he may have been, of the document which we are discussiug ; like the last-named individual he made use of the mariner's compass in his explorations and plans ; like him too, he received his directions and authority from the Pope himself. These facts seem to us to speak very strongly in favour of Raphael's authorship. The convincing unanimity of all- these facts was not, however, sufficient to convince the well-known German savant, Herman Grimm. In his work entitled De incerti auctoris litteris quce Raphaelis Urbinatis ad Leonem decimum feruntur,2 Herr Grimm has undertaken to prove that Raphael could not have been the author of the report. In the first edition of the report we find these expressions : " It is with the greatest sadness that I reflect that, during the eleven years which I have spent in Rome, sojnany beautiful things, such as the pyramid which formerly stood in- the Via Alessandrina, the unfortunate arch, and so many columns and temples have been ruined, mostly by Messire Bartolommeo della Rovere." The second edition is more explicit, and aggra vates the suspicions of Herr Grimm : " It is with the greatest sadness that I reflect that since I came to Rome — and it is but twelve years ago— some beautiful things have been ruined, such as the pyramid which stood in the Via Alessandrina, the arch at the entry of the baths of Diocletian, the temple 1 Congettura che una lettera creduta di Baldassar Castiglione sia di Raffaelo d' Urbino. Florence, 1799, in 8vo. The arguments adduced against this proposition by F. Gasparoni (I'Architetto girovago, t. i. Roma, 1841, p. 23 et seq.) lose all their force as soon as it is admitted that Castiglione has modified the terms of his friend's letter. 2 Jahrbucher fur Kunsiwissenschaft, of A. de Zahn, 1871, p. 67 et seq. 474 Raphael. of Ceres on the Via Sacra, part of the Forum Transitorium, which has been pulled down but a few days ago and the marbles burnt to make lime." Now Raphael did not arrive in Rome until 1508 ; but the destruction of the pyramid above-mentioned took place in 1499, and that of the arch (which Herr Grimm has identified with that of Gordian) considerably earlier, perhaps as far back even as the time of Sixtus IV. Consequently, Raphael could not have been present at those acts of vandalism, neither could he have been the author of the report. Herr Grimm believes that the said document must have been compiled in the early years of Julius II.'s pontificate, and that it must have been the work of the antiquary, Andrea Fulvio, whom we know to have been intimately acquainted with the painter. The contention of Herr Grimm is plausible enough, and it is not sur prising that even sagacious writers, such as Herr Springer, should have been at least partly convinced by his arguments. We believe, however, that a careful examination of the whole case leads irresistibly to a different conclusion. Let us consider, in the first instance, the case of the pyramid. It is certain that the demolition of that monument commonly called the " Meta Romuli " or " Sepulchrum Scipionum " was ordered by Alexander VI., and we know that the works were commenced in December, 1499. But it is equally certain that considerable remains of the "Meta" existed as late as the time of Raphael. Francesco Albertini tells us so in as many words in his work published in 1510: " Metha .... vestigia cujus adhuc extant apud ecclesiam S. Marias Transpontinse." x These remains must have disappeared very soon after that date, as an unpublished brief of Julius II. tells us that several persons were, in 1512, disputing the possession of the site upon which the pyramid had stood, a site which had only been required in part for the new street made under Alexander VI. Speaking generally, it was unusual in those times to entirely destroy an edifice of that kind (the " Meta " especially had received many mutilations before the days of Borgia), and Raphael may very well have remembered and mentioned the demolition of a monument of which the ruins had only disappeared about 1510. As he had been present at the last act, he may fairly have considered himself one of the spectators of the tragedy. Other people besides himself remembered the pyramid with regret. In 1515, at the entry of Leo X. into Florence, Giuliano del Tasso constructed on the piazza of the Mercato Nuovo a column like that of Trajan, and on the Piazza della Trinitk an imitation of the " Meta Romuli." 2 As for the arch at the baths of Diocletian, it is by no means certain that 1 Opvsculum,-p. 68. 2 Vasari, t. viii. p. 267. Report on Ancient Remains. 475 the author of the report was speaking of the arch of Gordian at all. Many such monuments were destroyed at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, as we know from Albertini. Fulvio himself, whose work appeared fifteen years later than that of Albertini, was forced to acknowledge, as late as 1527, several of these sacrilegious demolitions. But supposing that we admit, for the sake of argument, that Herr Grimm is so far right, and that the arch mentioned in the report is the arch of Gordian. Even then we shall find the words of Albertini supporting our contention : " Arcus marmoreus Gordiani .... vestigia cujus dispoliata visuntur." This monument, then, had not entirely disappeared even as late as 1509 or even 1510, and Raphael would therefore have been perfectly justified in counting himself among the witnesses of its destruction. We are without any certain information as to the date when the Temple of Ceres, near the Circus Maximus, and the Forum Transitorium, or Forum of Nerva, were destroyed ; so that those two edifices do not help the argument either one way or the other. But the mention of Bartolommeo della Rovere proves that the report was not intended for the predecessor of Leo X., even had it not been inscribed with the words A Papa Leone X. Bartolommeo is not mentioned in the vast genealogical compilation of Pompeo Litta ; but he was the cousin of Julius II. As the Rovere family were in disgrace throughout the reign of Alexander VI., it is pretty certain that the exploits of Messire Bartolommeo must have taken place while his uncle filled the Papal throne ; that is, later than 1503. But how are we to believe that in a report addressed to the Pope by an artist attached to his own household, one of that Pope's near relations, a cousin, was attacked openly and with no particular necessity ? This consideration again compels us to the conclusion that it was destined for the eye of Leo X., and not for that of his predecessor ; again, it is improbable that the following words were addressed to the stern and warlike Julius : — " Spargendo el santissimo seme della pace tra li principi christian i." To complete our refutation of Herr Grimm's theory we must show that the report could not have been the work of Andrea Fulvio. Fulvio was born in the environs of Rome, at Palestrina, and went at a very early age to the Eternal City, where he published his Ars Metrica1 in 1487. So that even if we suppose him to have addressed the report to Julius II. in the year of that Pope's accession, namely, in 1503, he would yet have been sixteen years, and not twelve, in the Papal capital. Besides, Fulvio was an antiquary, and not an artist, and would assuredly have written such a 1 See Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura italiana, t. vii. pp. 1246, 1252 ; and Gregorovius, Storia della citta di Roma, t. viii. p. 381. 476 Raphael. document as this report in Latin, and not in Italian. Finally — and this point seems to me decisive — the authentic works of Fulvio, the Antiquaria Urbis Romce of 1513, dedicated to Leo X., and the Antiquitaies Urbis Romcv, dedicated to Clement VII.,1 contain none of the ideas upon which stress is laid in the report. The spirit which pervades these two mediocre works is essentially that of a fifteenth-century author, of one occupied with historical or biographical research, rather than with aesthetics. In his preface — in which he refers to the labours of Raphael — Fulvio declares that his purpose is to describe Rome as a historian, not as an architect, " quae non ut architectus, sed bistorico more describere curavi." These facts seem to us to be conclusive against his claim to be the author of the report. Similar reasons might be adduced against Herr Springer's hypothesis in favour of Fra Giocondo. He also would surely have written in Latin ; he also would have allowed some of the ideas which we find in the report to crop up in his preface to the edition of Vitruvius, which he dedicated to Julius II. in 1511. We have, again, much difficulty in reconciling all that we know of his wandering life with the statement in the report that its author had lived in Rome for twelve years. For myself, I think that the name of Giuliano da San-Gallo — were the evidence in favour of Raphael but a little less strong — should have won far more suffrages than that of the aged monk of Verona, whose life was divided between Rome, Venice, France, and many other places. But here, again, we come upon a stubborn fact, which renders such an hypothesis untenable — Giuliano was in Rome as early as 1465. The report commences with an enthusiastic panegyric upon the antique. Raphael speaks in bitterly indignant terms of the ravages committed by the Goths, the Vandals, and the other enemies of the Latin race. But he does not place all the blame upon them. With an admirable courage he reminds the Pope of the excesses committed by his own predecessors. "The very men," he writes, " who should have been the special defenders of the sad remains of ancient Rome, had been the most urgent in robbing and destroying her. How many pontiffs, oh Holy Father, endowed with the same dignity as yourself, but possessing neither your knowledge, your merit, nor your largeness of heart, have permitted the destruction of ancient temples, of statues, of triumphal arches, and other glorious monuments of the founders of our country 1 How many among thero have allowed the foundations of antique buildings to be 1 See Tiraboschi, Storia della letter atur a italiana, t. vii. pp. 1246, 1259 ; and Gregorovius, Storia della citta di Roma, t. viii. p. 381. Report on Ancient Remains. 477 laid bare for the sake of the pozzolana, and have thus brought destruction upon them ! How many antique figures and other carvings have been turned into lime ! I am but saying what is true, when I declare that this modern Rome, with all its grandeur and beauty, with its churches, palaces, and other monuments, is built with the lime made from our antique marbles ! " Among all the artists and connoisseurs who busied themselves with the antiquities of Rome, Raphael was the first to attempt any careful discrimination between the different styles, to mark the development of ideas, to compile, in a word, a history of art. We seek in vain among the works of bis predecessors for views upon the progress of architecture, or on its characteristics at the different periods of Roman civilisation ; they lose themselves in details, or if they do generalise at all, it-is merely to repeat the assertions of Pliny. Now and then, we come across an enlightened idea in the pages of his great precursor, Poggio Bracciolini; but there is no attempt at argument. The opinions of Flavio Biondo are very vague ; those of Bernardo Ruccellai never pass strictly topographical or archseological bounds. We may say the same of L. B. Alberti. When he quits the domain of theory or of practical methods, to tell us of the origin and vicissitudes of architecture, his terms become so abstract that history is in no way benefited ; he tells us, for example, that architecture had its birth in Asia, that it flourished in Greece, but reached its highest perfection in Italy.1 The one writer who endeavoured to trace different styles as they succeeded one another was Ghiberti, but he only treated of painting. His commentaries are full of valuable notes on the works and manners of the thirteenth-century artists. Vasari, when he took up, in the spirit of the Renaissance, the tradition inaugurated by Ghiberti, did not forget to introduce the illustrious Florentine as well as the founder of the Roman school. " In this work," he says, writing of his immortal collection of biographies, " I have largely borrowed from the writings of Lorenzo Ghiberti, Domenico Ghirlandajo, and Raphael d'Urbino." Raphael begins by dividing the remains of Roman architecture info three periods : those ancient monuments which extend from the time of the empire to the invasion of the Goths and other barbarians; those of the Gothic supremacy and a century beyond ; and those which were erected between that epoch and the sixteenth century. No praise is too great for the author to bestow upon the first period. He insists also on the fact that architecture kept up to its high level from the beginning to the end of the empire, while 1 De Architectura, lib. vi. cap. iii. 478 Raphael. sculpture and paiuting rapidly declined. The demonstration of this curious fact is too interesting for us to pass it over without giving the very words he makes use of. " We must not think," he says, " that among ancient edifices, the most recent are those which are least wanting in merit, or even that they are coarser in style. All had much the same qualities, and although the ancients themselves restored a great number of buildings (as, for instance, the Baths of Titus and the amphitheatre on the right of the Golden Palace of Nero), still these edifices were of the same style and character as the monuments before Nero's time or contemporary with him ; and although literature, sculpture, painting, and almost all the other arts had long been declining, and had been continually falling lower down to the time of the last emperors, architecture persevered in its good principles and preserved its fine qualities, and construction underwent comparatively little change. Of all the arts this was the last to perish. This fact is borne witness to by many monumental edifices, especially by the arch of Constantine. Its arrangement is good, and its architectural details are worthy of praise for their per fection ; but the sculptures with which it is adorned are extremely coarse in conception and execution ; are, indeed, without either art or taste. They are very different from those upon the arches of Trajan and Antoninus Pius, which are excellently done and irreproachable in style. The same phenomena may be observed in the Baths of Diocletian ; the sculptures done in the reign of that emperor are as bad as possible both in style and in execution ; neither do the paintings bear any comparison to those of the time of Trajan or Titus. And yet the architecture is noble and well imagined." How many authors before Raphael had written about the arch of Constan tine 1 Poggio, Flavio Biondo, the anonymous author of the Antiquarie prospettiche romane, Raphael Maffei da Volterra, Bernardo Ruccellai, Albertini, Fulvio, and many others. The history of the arch had been told ; its beauty had been praised, in terms vague enough, it is true ; the famous inscription had been discussed, which said that, in his contest with Maxentius, Constantine had been aided by the God of the Christians, "Quod instinctu Divini- tatis ..." But none of them had given much attention to the bas-reliefs upon it, or had attempted to assign a date to them. They saw no difference between the statues of barbarian prisoners, the superb battle and hunting scenes, the exploits of one of the greatest among the Roman emperors, on the one side, and the formless sculptures of the sur-base. The inscriptions, their only guide, said nothing of these differences. And yet there was, between the battles of Trajan and the victories carved by the helpless sculptors of Constantine, all the difference which separates art at its apogee from the productions of its complete decadence. To see this, however, demanded some Report on Ancient Remains. 479 effort, and a more independent power of thought than those learned antiquaries had to give. Many centuries had to pass before the thousands of visitors who each year went to Rome had succeeded in classifying the monuments they admired or had discovered, which were constructed of brick, which of travertine, and which of marble, that some were vaulted, others supported on columns ! He who found out that the columns of Trajan and of Antoninus were ornamented with bas-reliefs was a genius. A long interval passed before a second genius guessed that these bas-reliefs represented the exploits of Trajan and of Marcus Aurelius. The analysis of the separate reliefs marks a third step in this laborious advance of archaeology. The report proves Raphael to have been an originator who distanced not only those who had preceded him, but those also who came after him. If Fulvius had seen it, he would have been able to make known in his Anti- quitates urbis, published in 1527, long after Raphael's death, this discovery relative to the arch of Constantine, but he says not a word as to the difference in style between the bas-reliefs of the time of Trajan and those of Constan tine ; he even seems to be unaware that these bas-reliefs date from several different periods. We must have recourse to the Urbis Romce Topographia of Marliano, the first edition of which appeared in 1534, to find this fact plainly stated. " The arch of Constantine," says this author, " bears some wonderfully fine sculptures, and others which are less good ; many learned men, indeed, believe that the best have been taken off the arch of Trajan, and that the others were added afterwards." Raphael's definition of the architecture of the middle ages shows that he was not well versed in general history. This style, according to him, began under Gothic rule, and survived it for a century. Now, inasmuch as the empire founded by Theodoric fell to pieces in the sixth century, we are asked to believe that the style inaugurated by him only lasted two hundred years altogether. But this obviously was not the artist's meaning. He evidently intended by his Gothic period to designate the time comprised between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance of Art. His later observations on German (tedesca) and Byzantine architecture tend to confirm this opinion. Rarely has the destruction wrought by invasion been deplored in more eloquent terms than in this report. "After Rome had been ruined, burnt, and destroyed by the barbarians, the very power of rebuilding it seems to have disappeared; the calamities and miseries of servitude succeeded to victory and triumph, and at the same time, as if men reduced to slavery were unfitted to inhabit the magnificent dwelling-places in which they resided when masters of the world, they suddenly changed their mode of building for 480 Raphael. the worse. The contrast was as great as that existing between liberty and, slavery. Architecture became as debased as manners ; proportion, grace, and art, all disappeared together. All power to create beautiful things seems to have vanished with empire. The ignorance of the people became such that they could no longer make either bricks or ornaments ; they demolished old walls to get the cement ; they broke the marble into fragments and used it for building, as we may still see in the tower called ' delle Militie.' " After this preamble, we must not be astonished to find Raphael declaiming against Gothic art. An intense hatred of the style was common to most of the Italian architects of the Renaissance. Filarete, in his treatise upon architecture, written about the year 1460, raised his voice energetically against it. " Cursed be he who invented it,'' he says ; " none but barbarians could have introduced it into Italy." But Raphael was the first to condemn, according to the rules of art, all those methods of construction included- by the Italians under the general term " architettura tedesca." His examinatiou merits reproduction, it marks an epoch in the history of the Renaissance. Never has any writer summed up more completely the faults of a style which, as an illustrious Frenchman has said, " realises the singular idea of a building supported by its scaffoldings, or of an animal with his skeleton outside him." J But let us listen to Raphael. " This German style of architecture then became general; an architecture opposed in every way, as we can now see, to the beautiful style of the Romans and ancients. The latter, putting out of the question the main lines of their edifices, executed cornices, friezes, architraves, columns, capitals, bases, of the greatest beauty; all the decoration was as good as possible. The German on the contrary, whose manner is still in favour with many, often used, for ornaments or supports, stunted and badly executed figures, strange animals, or figures and foliage treated without any taste whatever ; nothing could be more opposed to good sense. Still this architecture has a meaning ; it is an imitation of uncut trees, of which the branches make, when bent and tied down, sharp pointed two-centred arches. Although this meaning may not be completely condemned, it lays itself open to adverse criticism. Indeed the huts described by Vitruvius, in his dissertation on the origin of the Doric style, with their beams joined together, their posts for columns, their pediments and roofs. are much stronger than pointed arches, which have two centres. Do not mathematicians teach us that a half circle, every point of which thrusts towards a common centre, can support a much greater weight? Besides 1 Renan, Discours sur Vitat des Beaux-Arts (dtsxisV Histoire litteraire dela France au quatorzieme siecle, 2nd edition, t. ii. p. 230). Report on Ancient Remains. . 481 its weakness, the 'pointed arch has none of the grace of the perfect circle ; nature herself uses no other form than the latter." Raphael speaks of the architecture of his time with respect, but with no exaggerated enthusiasm. What feeling, indeed, could the finest works of the Renaissance excite in a mind already imbued with classic art ? " Modern buildings are easily recognised, firstly, because they are new, and, secondly, bacause they have never attained to the perfection and beauty of those built by the ancients. And yet architecture in our day has made great progress, and now singularly resembles the antique, as we may see in the numerous works of Bramante. But the decorations are now carried out in less costly materials. The ancients realised their projects, once formed, at the cost of enormous sacrifices. It seemed as if they were determined to conquer all obstacles." Here we can see, as in all the writings of the time, that the great ambition of Renaissance artists was to equal the achievements of the ancients. Raphael did not take up his proj ect for the restoration of ancient Rome single-handed. We have already spoken of Andrea Fulvio. Besides him there was the aged Fabio Calvo of Ravenna, he who translated Vitruvius for the painter. Calvo was certainly associated with Raphael in his researches into the topography of ancient Rome. Some years after the death of the painter, namely, in 1532, Calvo published a kind of map of the regiones of Rome. In discovering, in the Library of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the first edition of that work,1 an edition unknown to Passavant, and to other biographers of Raphael, we had at first hoped to find engravings of some, at least, of the drawings made by direction of the master; but our hopes were soon destroyed. The plates in this Simulachrum, which may probably have been published after the death of Calvo, are barbarous in the extreme, and could not have been founded upon the drawings of an artist who knew anything of architecture. The brevity of the text corresponds with the insufficiency of the illustrations. In spite of all this, however, the work is, without doubt, an offshoot from the project of Raphael, and therefore requires a few words of explanation. The first plates represent the different aspects of Rome under Romulus, Servius Tullius, Augustus, &c. &c. Then come maps (if we can dignify with such a name these really childish drawings), of each of the fourteen districts, with an indication of their principal buildings. (Raphael also took this division of Rome as the basis of his work.) Views of an ancient bath and of a circus complete the volume. 1 Antiques Urbis Roma: cum regionibus Simulachrum. Rome, 1532, oblong folio. T I 482 Raphael. The letter of M. A. Michiel (11th April, 1520) already quoted, contains some details of great interest on the subject, of Raphael's project : " Raphael's death has caused universal sorrow, especially among scientific men, for whom be was especially preparing a book. As Ptolemy made a map of the world, so has Raphael drawn the ancient edifices of Rome, with their shape, proportion and ornamentations, all represented with such clearness, that we can fancy that we see it as it was. He had already done the first region before his death. His aim was not only to give the plans of the buildings and to fix their former situations — he had personally and with extraordinary labour gathered the information which enabled him to do this — but also to restore, on paper, their facades and ornamentation, and with the help of Vitruvius to formulate the rules which had governed their erection, and generally to give descriptions as minute as ancient records and existing remains would allow." The project of Raphael excited a lively interest throughout all Europe. Poetry and prose were alike called in to celebrate it, and painting for a time gave place to archaeology ; and so the catastrophe which put an end to the most liberal of the archaeological undertakings of the Renaissance was received with universal sorrow and dismay. Many men since Raphael have dreamt of the restoration of ancient Rome — a long list might be made of architects and archaeologists who in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries gave to the public more or less successful attempts to restore the chief edifices of the Eternal City. But the glorious enterprise was not for them. Their work, as a rule, went no further than the restoration of some isolated building. On those occasions when attempts were made to recall the ancient city as a whole, the details were so inexact and the restoration so arbitrary, that they could never have been of any practical use. It was reserved for our old Academy of Architecture to take up, of its own motion, the project where Raphael had left it. In charging the members of the French Academy in Rome to measure and restore the principal monuments of Latin antiquity, it endowed France with a property which has now become invaluable. The Ecole des Beaux- Arts now possesses plans, sections, and elevations (the three forms of reproduction used by Raphael) of about seventy Greek or Roman buildings, accurately compiled by our most able architects, from Percier down to Gamier. The reader will aoree with us when we say that to connect the name of Raphael with this gigantic enterprise — the results of which are now being given to the public by the French Government— is simply to give his due to the great Italian painter and archaeologist. CHAPTER XXI. Raphael's last years.— His pupils.— The Fomarina. —His palace and home life.— His will and death. — Conclusion. Raphael's last years, though fertile in artistic production, were destitute of striking events or important changes. In 1515 he made a journey to Florence, where he assisted at the fetes on the entrance of Leo X., and took part in the . competition for the building of the facade of San Lorenzo. He then returned to Rome, which he was destined never again to leave. The situation that he occupied at the pontifical court, and the favour of the Pope, were both likely to keep him in the Eternal City. We may say, indeed, that during the reign of Leo X. bis life was an uninterrupted series of triumphs. The outcries of his enemies were drowned in the universal applause, and only served to enhance the greatness of his fame. The artist soon became a "grand seigneur," and added the title of papal chamberlain to his other honours. Unhappily for him, but happily for us, the requirements of the Pope and his companions, to say nothing of the demands of all civilised Europe, left him no leisure to enjoy his honours in peace. From the beginning of 1515 the artist was little less than besieged. He was obliged to make cartoons for frescoes, tapestries, mosaics, and scenes for theatres, and to paint easel pictures and altar pieces ; to direct the works of St. Peter's, of the Loggie, and of several private palaces ; to guard the antiquities of Rome, and to supply designs to silversmiths, sculptors, and engravers, without at the same time - neglecting his duties as a man of the world and a courtier. Most men would have succumbed under such a burden. For several years the young artist was able to do his duty, and to fulfil all commissions; then he suddenly broke down in the zenith of his productive power. After the accession of Leo X. Raphael's reputation increased so fast that princes contended for the slightest sketch from his pencil. Leo X. set the example of loading the painter with too much work. Raphael was obliged to satisfy all bis caprices, even to the point of painting life-size the elephant sent I I 2 484 Eaphael. to him by the King of Portugal. He even had to prostitute his brush to political intrigue, now representing Francis I. under the guise of Charlemagne, and again painting the St. Michael and the Holy Family which Lorenzo de' Medici gave in 1518 to the French monarch. Bibbiena, also, had his portrait painted twice by his young friend, commissioned him to decorate his bathroom, and ordered a picture, the likeness of Joanna of Aragon, intended to gratify two of the French king's passions at once, his love for art and for beautiful women. It is probable that Francis I., delighted with these two masterpieces, commissioned the painter to do the St. Margaret, which is now in the Salon carre of the Louvre ; this is, however, no more than a surmise. The Italian sovereigns were equally solicitous in their desire to possess works from his hand. Among those who were most pressing was Alphonso d'Este, husband of Lucrezia Borgia. We read in the correspondence published by the Marchese Campori, an account of entreaties which at last degenerated into persecution.1 Raphael seems to have been presented to the Duke in 1513, by their mutual friend, Ariosto, but it is only after 1517 that we have certain proof of his relations with the sovereign of Ferrara. In that year the painter was buying antiques for him, while simultaneously preparing for bis acceptance a picture representing the triumph of Bacchus in India. He had already sent him a sketch of the composition when he learned that an artist of the Duke's court, Pelligrino da Udine, was treating the same subject. He proposed another, for which he received fifty ducats on account. The same year he presented the Duke with the cartoon of the History of Leo III. From the beginning of 1518 Alphonso begins to press the artist, who on the other hand tries to gain time. " Raffaello da Urbino," writes the Ferrarese envoy (1st March, 1518) "still seeks excuses. He will not have finished your Excellency's picture until Easter. He cannot keep at it owing, to the portraits and designs which the Pope and his Highness the Duke (Lorenzo de' Medici) give him to do. A Saint Michael, life-size, has been ordered by his Holiness, as a present to his Most Christian Majesty, and that picture absorbs nearly all his attention. It must be finished as soon as possible. But still I am most pressing in my entreaties to him." Raphael presents him with the cartoon of his Saint Michael as a sop to his impatience, and on this occasion he gives proof of the delicacy and generosity of his character. Let us read the envoy's letter (written on 20th November, 1518): "I thanked him for his cartoon and assured him that your Excellency had been delighted to receive it. I then offered him the twenty-five crowns that your Excellency charged me to o-ive 1 Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1863, t. i. Raphael Overworked, 485 him. With great delicacy he objected to take them, declaring that he had sent the cartoon out of devotion and respect for your person. He is full of courtesy, and assured me several times that he was more disposed to satisfy your Excellency than to please the whole court here. He took the money at last, with many thanks to your Excellency." The Duke, encouraged by these gifts, demanded and obtained the cartoon for Joanna of Aragon as well. But in spite of all this he did not forget his picture, and continued to torment the artist, who appeased him for a time with excuses and promises. For three years he was successfully put off, but at last his patience gave way. " Go to Raphael," he writes to his ambassador on the 10th of September, 1519, " and tell him that three years have passed since he gave his promise, and that this is not the way in which those of my rank should be treated. If be does not carry out his engagement, we will teach him that it is not advisable to deceive us. You can add, as coming from yourself, that it would be well not to change the affection we bear him into ill-will. If he keeps his promise he can count on us ; if not he may be sure that one day- he will regret his failure." We must go back to the quarrel between Julius II. and Michael Angelo to find a sovereign prince thus honouring an artist by losing his temper with him. Raphael succeeded, however, in appeasing the Duke's choler ; and the latter made a fine use of the claim his long wait had given him. On the 20th of March, 1520, his envoy tells him that he has had a long discussion with Raphael as to how his Highness's chimneys are to be prevented from smoking ! and that he will send him plans for necessary alterations immediately ! Sixteen days later the painter was dead. The sequel to the story of the Duke's relations with Raphael does not redound much to the honour of Alphonso d'Este. Not having received the picture he had commissioned, he demanded the fifty crowns back that he had paid on account, and would not desist until he had obtained them from the artist's heirs, who did not spare him the expression of their contempt for conduct so unworthy. The Marchioness Isabella of Mantua was more courteous than her brother Alphonso, but she was no less persistent. A correspondence discovered by the Marquis Campori, furnishes us with the most curious details of the relations of this princess with the artist. In a letter addressed to the Marchioness in the month of June, 1515, Agostino da Gonzaga writes to her from Rome that he had spoken to Raphael, who had promised to paint a little picture. A second letter sent from Urbino on the 8th November, 1515, gives us some further information which it is important 486 Raphael. to remember. "When I left Mantua," the Marchioness's correspondent writes, "your Excellency commanded me to arrange that Raphael should paint a picture for you. Hardly had I arrived at Urbino before I wrote to him to that effect, and he answered that he would do so. Later, having occasion to go to Rome, I became so persistent with him that he promised to leave all the other works he had begun to satisfy your most illustrious Excellency. Full of his intention he now writes to me to ask how large the picture must be and what light it will hang in,1 for he intends to begin it at once. If therefore your Excellency will let me know these things I will see to the rest. If I find any other opportunity of serving you I will not await your orders to do so." In spite of these promises the picture was still unfinished in 1519. This we know from a letter addressed to the Duke of Ferrara by his agent Paolucci, who says that Baldassare Castiglione, to whom he had spoken about Raphael, had told him that the artist had certainly been at work for a long time on a picture for the Marchioness, but that he had only painted at it when he. the envoy, was there, so numerous were his occupations. Castiglione added that lie was certain, if he went away Raphael would not work at it at all. This picture, which M. Campori identifies with the small Madonna mentioned in ancient documents as hanging in the gallery of the Dukes of Mantua, is now lost. Raphael executed another work for Isabella Gonzaga, of which we hear in a letter written by Castiglione to bis patroness on the 3rd June, 1519 : " Regarding what your Excellency writes me on the subject of the designs for the tomb I think you ought to be satisfied with what Raphael has done. Monsignore Tricarico 2 has undertaken to bring them to you. These designs seem to me suitable in every way. Michael Angelo is not in Rome, and I do not know whom to go to except Raphael ; I am certain his proposal will be received with favour by you." M. Campori, to whom we owe our knowledge of this correspondence, is disposed to think that these allusions are to a tomb for Isabella's husband, who had died a few months before. Various events combined to prevent the execution of the monument. If Raphael was unable to satisfy the desires of powerful rulers, how could mere prelates expect him to listen to them ? He told the Cardinal Gregorio Cortese, who asked him to paint one of the walls of the refrectory of San Polidoro, at Modena, that it was impossible for him to leave Rome without very exceptional payment. The cardinal found that the undertaking would 1 " La misura del quadro et il lume." 2 Lodovico da Canossa. Raphael Overworked. 4S7 cost him at least a thousand ducats. He therefore had recourse to another artist, who was content with 300. "If I cannot get Apelles," he said to console himself, " I shall be content with Parrhasius." The nuns of Monteluce, for whom Raphael had begun a Coronation of the Virgin in 1505, returned also to the charge about this time. They flattered themselves for a moment that they were at last about to receive the work for which they had waited so long and so eagerly. By a contract, dated the 21st June, 1516, of which the original is exhibited among the MSS. in the Louvre, Raphael agrees to let them have the picture in a year. He was to receive 120 ducats for the picture itself, exclusive of the predella, frame, &c, which were entrusted to the painter Berto di Giovanni, of Perugia. The nuns proposed to pay him a part of the money as soon as the work should be commenced, a further sum when it should be half finished, and the remainder on its delivery to them. But Raphael replied that he had determined to take no more payments on account, and that, with the exception of twenty ducats which he had received as retainer, he would look for his payment only when the work should be finished.1 All these promises were doubtless sincere at the time they were made. But enterprises more urgent claimed his attention, and the Coronation of the Virgin remained unfinished until 1525, when it was completed from his designs by Giulio Romano and II Fattore. Both this Coronation and that of 1503 are now in the Gallery of the Vatican. Raphael was of course grateful for the marks of admiration showered upon him by the most powerful sovereigns and the most illustrious lovers of art. A more touching indication of his power of awakening sympathy was given, however, by the crowds of pupils who flocked to his studio from all parts of Italy, and even from foreign lands. Never since the time of Squarcione— who was called the father of painters because he formed no less than a hundred and thirty-seven scholars — had any master founded a larger or more brilliant school. When the painter walked in the streets of Rome he was surrounded by an escort of fifty young men.2 Vasari's story to this effect is corroborated by Lomazzo, who has handed down to us Michael Angelo's famous "You go about surrounded like a general." Official documents also 1 This is the true interpretation of a sentence which Passavant (t. i. p. 291) seems to have failed to understand. 2 The studio was organised on such a large scale, that when Eaphael was in want of more colours he sent a pupil to Venice expressly to buy them. (Document published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1863, t. i. p. 356.) Other pupils were commissioned to make drawings of antique monuments in central and southern Italy, and even in Greece. Others, notably Vincidore, accompanied the Cartoons to Brussels and superintended the weaving of them. 488 Raphael. confirm the story. We had some trouble to discover the names of more than eight or ten painters in all Rome upon Raphael's first arrival in that city. In 1535, fifteen years after the death of Raphael, the corporation of St. Luke consisted of no fewer than a hundred and eighty.1 To whose influence was this splendid increase due, if not to that of Raphael ? History has handed down to us the names of a considerable number of his pupils, but it would be impossible to make a complete list. Only one was a Roman, the passionate and violent Giulio Pippi, called Romano : he became the favourite disciple of Raphael, helped him to complete his oil-pictures as well as his frescoes, and sometimes imitated the hand of his master to such perfection that it is impossible to distinguish the one from the other. Next to Giulio Romano came two Florentines, Giovanni Francesco Penni, nicknamed " II Fattore," and Perina del Vaga. The former was content to lose his individuality in that of his master ; but the second, at least after the death of Raphael, stamped his own personality on such works as the frescoes in the Palazzo Doria at Genoa. Vincenzo Tamagni di San-Gemignano seems to have quitted Sodoma's studio at Siena for that of Raphael.2 The neighbourhood of Bologna also furnished a respectable contingent. Besides the engraver Marc- Antonio Raimondi, there were Bartolommeo Ramenghi di Bagnacavallo, a pupil of Francia, and Tommaso Vincidore, who, as we have seen, was sent to Flanders in 1520 to superintend the weaving of the tapestries from the Cartoons. Modena was represented by Carlo Pellegrini Munari ; Ferrara by Battista Dossi, to whom Crowe and Cavalcaselle ascribe the landscape background of the Madonna del Foligno ; Carpi by the engraver Ugo, Parma by Baviera ; Urbino by Girolamo Genga : Northern Italy by Cesare da Sesto 3 and Giovanni da Udine, a brilliant pupil of Giorgione, as well as by the engraver Agostino Veneziano, and by Polidoro Caravaggio. The Fleming Bernard van Orley must also be included among the pupils of Raphael. He made good use, on his return to his own country, of the knowledge which he had gathered in the studio of the Roman master. On the other hand, we must erase from the list another famous Fleming, Michael Coxie, whose first visit to Rome did not take place till 1531. So great was the adaptability of Raphael's genius that its influence was felt far outside the comparatively narrow realms of painting. He gathered around him the most skilful engravers then in Italy, and succeeded in 1 See Missirini, Memorie per sereir alia storia della romana Accademia di San-Luca. Rome, 1823, pp. 14-16. 2 See Milanesi, Sulla storia dell' arte toscana, p. 193. 3 Frizzoni, Napoli uei sui Rapporti coll' Arte del Itenascimento, pp. 36-37. Raphael's Engravers. 489 impressing upon their works an elevation of feeling which they would never otherwise have attained. Marc-Antonio Raimondi especially owed him much. When he came to Rome (1510) his artistic properties were confined to a few nielli, executed in the studio of Francia, some facsimiles of Diirer's engravings and of the Pisa cartoon of Michael Angelo. We have already remarked upon the leap upwards taken by his talent in the Lucretia and the Massacre of the Innocents. From that moment his burin rapidly gained the power and purity which finally made him the first engraver of the Renaissance. But his technique ever required the influence of Raphael to direct and inspire its aim. We may here quote the judicious observations of M. Duplessis : " Marc- Antonio worked after the drawings of Raphael alone ; he never copied one of his pictures. This fact should never be forgotten, because otherwise we might unfairly blame the Bolognese artist for what would seem his undoubted failure to recall the colour harmonies of the master whom he was interpreting." 2 Towards 1515 Agostino Veneziano joined Marc-Antonio in Rome. He also soon changed his manner, and his best works date from the years which he passed in the society of Raphael. Another famous engraver, Ugo da Carpi (died in 1523), also worked under the protection and after the models of Sanzio. In 1518 he published in Rome his famous Death of Ananias (Bartsch, No. 27) and the plate representing JEneas and Anchises, with the inscription : " Raphael Urbinas . . . Romas, apud Ugium de Carpis impressum, mdxviii." 2 A Florentine sculptor, Lorenzetto, also worked under the direction of Raphael, who confided to him the execution of his Jonas for the Chigi chapel. Aristotele da San-Gallo was indebted to Raphael for valuable advice in architecture so was his relation, Gian-Francesco da San-Gallo, who con structed the Pandolfini palace at Florence, after the designs of the Roman master. The artists whom we have enumerated were formed under the immediate influence of the master, and may be called his scholars, in the strictest acceptation of the word. As to those of his contemporaries who were affected by his genius and imitated his manner, their name is legion. To notice them all would be to write the history of Italian art in the seventeenth century. We have said enough to show how difficult it is to distinguish in the case of Sanzio where the rdlc of master begins, and that of friend leaves off. The school of Raphael constituted his family. It shared his affections and his i Histoire de la gravure. Paris, 1880, p. 101. 3 Passavant, Le Peintrc-gnweur, t. vi. p. 210. 490 Raphael. secrets, and knew when to shut its eyes to his weaknesses. This last remark brings us to a delicate subject, which we have hitherto avoided, but which cannot be passed over in absolute silence by an impartial historian. We allude to his relations with the Fornarina. Nearly all that we know about this mistress of Raphael is contained in a few lines of Vasari.1 '' Marc-Antonio executed a certain number of engravings for Raphael, which he handed over to Baviera, one of the master's scholars. This man had charge of a woman whom Raphael loved to death, of whom the master painted a very beautiful portrait, which appeared no less than alive ; this portrait is now in Florence, in the possession of Matteo Botti." Again : " Raphael painted the portrait of Beatrix d'Este, and of other women, among them his own mistress." " Raphael, like a good Christian, sent away his mistress before making his will, but gave her enough to keep her in comfort." Finally, Vasari tells us that Chigi besought the painter's mistress to install herself in his villa, that her presence might induce Raphael to push on to completion the pictures upon which he was engaged in that famous building. In the second half of the sixteenth century the possessor of a copy of Vasari wrote upon the margin of one of the pages in which the " mistress " of Raphael is mentioned, that her name was Margarita. As for the name Fornarina (bakeress), it was never heard of till the eighteenth century, and has no serious foundation. We have already had occasion to notice the portrait of the so-called Fornarina at the Palazzo Barberini, also the copy executed in fresco by Giulio Romano upon one of the ceilings of the Villa Lante. We have also seen that the portrait known as the Donna Velata is now considered by good judges to be a Bolognese work, executed after a lost original by Raphael. Finally, we may repeat that the female portrait in the Tribune of the Uffizi is not by Raphael, but by Sebastiano del Piombo, and has nothing in common with the Fornarina. Although the amours of Raphael are thus obscure, on the other hand recent discoveries have thrown light upon his choice of a confidential agent. In the passage above quoted Vasari tells us that Raphael gave' the engravings of Marc-Antonio, that is the coppers, to Baviera, who had charge of his mistress. Elsewhere he again mentions that person, and tells us that he engaged Rosso to engrave his compositions.2 Finally, he recounts how Baviera, having suffered little from the siege of Rome himself, came to the help of his friend, Perino, and commissioned him to make some drawings, which he proposed to have engraved by Caraglio.3 We know then that Raphael's confidential agent was an artist. In a 1 T. viii. pp. 35, 44, 45, 58. * T. ix. pp. 283, 284. s T. x. p. 65. The Fornarina. 491 contract executed in November, 1515, in the name of his master, " Baveri us Charocii de Parma," qualifies himself as " Pictor." * Baviera makes use of the same title at the foot of a letter dated 27th April, 1518.2 (Towards the end of the reign of Leo X., one " Baviera, Pinton da Bologna," lived in the Campo Marzo, in the parish of St. Trifonio.) We may add that no picture has as yet come to light by this modest and complaisant artist. Our study of Raphael's home-life would not be complete did we fail to cast a glance upon the dwelling which sheltered him for so many fruitful years. upon that palazzo, in the Borgo Nuovo, in which he died, and with which his name and that of Bramante, are for ever associated. Vasari gives us some rather contradictory information with regard to the house, or rather palace, which Bramante constructed in the Borgo for his young compatriot and protege. "Bramante says he built in the Borgo the palace which belongs to Raphael of Urbino. This edifice was of brick and moulded cement, the columns and cornices were Doric and rusticated. This new method of employing cement attracted attention." Elsewhere the biographer expresses himself as follows on the same subject : " To perpetuate his memory Raphael caused a palace to be built in the Borgo Nuovo, and Bramante decorated it with moulded cement (or concrete)." An engraving published by Lafreri, in 1549, confirms the description of Vasari. The legend upon it removes all doubt ; Raph. Urbinat. ex lapide coctili Romce extrnctum? Marc- Antonio Michiel di ser Vettor gives us a slightly different account. In the valuable letter published by Morelli, he says that Raphael bought the palazzo from Bramante, paying for it the sum of 3,000 golden ducats. Michiel adds that the painter left it at his death to Cardinal Bibbiena.4 The former of these assertions has been confirmed by the researches of M. de Geymiiller. We now know for certain that the palazzo was not the, work of Raphael, as Passavant 5 believed, but of Bramante. It would indeed have been strange had the illustrious architect been so complaisant to his young friend as to consent to fill the unambitious post of his clerk of the works.6 1 II Buonarroti, 2nd series, t. i. p. 58. 2 Milanesi e Pini, La Scrittura di artisti ilaliani, No. 127. a Our facsimile of this most raTe engraving has been executed after a proof belonging to M. de GeymuUer. 4 "La casa, che gia fu de Bramante, che egli compro per ducati 3000, ha lassata a cardinal de Santa Maria in Portico.'' (Notizia d'opere di disegno, p. 211.) In the seven teenth century Alexander VII. acquired Raphael's house from the Grand Prior of Malta. He paid 7163.34 scudi for it, and pulled it down in order to enlarge the Piazza of St. Peter's. 6 Raphael, t. i. pp. 175, 283 ; t. ii. p. 390. 6 Les Projets primitifs pour la basilique de Saint Pierre de Rome, p. 89. 492 Raphael. The words ex lapide coetili} used by Lafreri, show that the structure was a sufficiently modest one. Raphael would certainly have preferred travertine, that wonderful material which Bramante had used with such brilliant success in the Chancellery and other buildings; but prudence restrained his desire. In contemplating the engraving of Lafreri, the only souvenir which the vandals of the seventeenth century have left to us, an eager curiosity is excited in us to know how Raphael decorated the house in which he passed the most fertile years of his life. Overwhelmed as he was with commissions from the time of the accession of Leo X., could he ever have found leisure for the creation of an interior worthy of himself? I should be disposed to think that the furniture and works of art collected by the painter found places for themselves in his palace without much order or arrangement. The magician who had turned the dwellings of lesser men into so many enchanted palaces, could find no time to do as much for his own. The whole dwelling must have been stamped with the marks of haste and never-ending bustle. He may have found time to hang up the portrait given to him by Francia, and that sent to him by Diirer. In one corner lay superb tapestries not yet unrolled. Anterooms and corridors filled with antiques, some still in the casings in which' they had arrived. Then came the easels of his pupils, and mountains of sketches and cartoons.2 Nothing could be more picturesque than such a spectacle, although it had nothing to do with artistic intention. It was easy enough to obtain admittance to the house, but difficult to penetrate to the presence of the master himself. The Ferrarese charge d'affaires tells us in one of bis letters (12th September, 1510), that "passing before Raphael's house and seeing the door standing open, I entered and inquired for him. The servant told me that he could not be asked to come down to me, so I dismounted from my horse and prepared to ascend to him, when a second domestic told me that his master was in his own room paintin" the portrait of Baldassare Castiglione. I pretended to believe these excuses, and went away saying that I would return some other time.''3 If the statements contained in a letter addressed to Major Kuhlen, in Rome, by the well-known individual who signs himself Momo* deserve to be 1 In brick.— Vasari uses, as we have seen, the word matloni, which has the same meaning 2 The Ferrarese charge d'affaires, in his letter of September 3rd, 1519, tells his master that the picture begun by Raphael remained in his studio under a number of other works, " (La tavoia di Vostra Signoria) e revoltata al muro con molte altre tavole sopre." (Campori. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1863, t. i. p. 450.) 3 G. Campori, Gazette des Beau.c-Arts, 1863, t. xiv. p. 451. 4 II Buonarroti, 1866, p. 57. THE PALACE OF RAPHAEL ANO DRAMAK1T. (Facsimile of an old Engraving. ) 494 Raphael. believed, Raphael soon began to find himself straitened for means in his new residence. Both his position at the papal court and the interests of his art imposed upon him very heavy expenses. As soon as he had acquired the position in question he became surrounded by numerous assistants and pupils, for all of whom, according to the custom of that age, he was obliged to find board, if not lodging also. Vasari1 tells us that Giulio Romano and Penni lived in the master's house, as also did Fabio Calvo of Ravenna.2 It is therefore in no way improbable that the joint author of II Buonarroti is right when lie tells us that as early as 1515 Raphael found himself obliged to buy, for 200 golden ducats, a bouse in the Via Sistina, Borgo, belonging to the architect Perino de' Gennari da Caravaggio. A little later the painter was again obliged to extend his accommodation, and he then hired in the Via Alessandrina. leading from the bridge of St. Angelo to the piazza of St. Peter's, several houses belonging to the brothers Porcari. Raphael had it in contemplation, a short time before his death, to build for himself a real palace. He ha.d fixed upon a site which belonged to the chapter of St. Peter's, but had been let to a friend of his own, Leonardo Bartolini ; it was in the Via Giulia, near the church of San Giovanni Fiorentino, and consequently not far from the Vatican, although on the opposite bank of the Tiber. We may here give the words of the notary who drew up the agreement : " March 24th, 1520. The canons of St. Peter's confirm the assignment to Raphael of Urbino, painter, of the rights granted to Leonardo Bartolini, over a plot of ground belonging to the said chapter. This plot is situated near the church of St. Blasius ' della Pagnotta,' in the district of the Bridge.3 It is bounded by streets on all sides (juxta ab omnibus lateribus vias publicas), and measures 217| canne, Roman measure. This assignment is one of a perpetual lease, on the sole condition that the said Raphael there build himself a house for his own in-dwelling (dictus dominus Raphael .... promisit .... in dicto terreno domos habitabiles ipsius domini Raphaelis suorumque heredum et successorum prcqiriis sumptibus et expensis construere et fabricare, ac construi et fabricari facere). In case the building was not erected within five years, the whole site was to revert to the chapter (in eventum in quern dictus dominus Raphael suique heredes et successores in domibus dicto terreno fiendis per quinquennium negligentes fuerint et illas facere cessaverint). 1 T. viii. p. 241. 2 gee abov6) p 331 3 In 1516 both Antonio da San-Gallo and the goldsmith Caradosso bought sites adjoining the, church of St. Blasius. The splendid palace built by San-Gallo still exists ; it belongs to the Marquis Sacchetti. The facade bears the following inscription : " domvs antonii SAKGALLI ARCUITECTI. MDXLI1I." Raphael's Home. 495 The annual rent is fixed at eighty ducats, ten carlini, payable on tho fiesta oi SS. Peter and Paul." We may guess from the amount of this rent that the project in question was of considerable importance, since the ground-rent alone was eighty ducats, representing at twenty years' purchase some 1,600 ducats. It is true that at ¦ the period in question the Via Giulia was considered the best quarter in Rome. This street, which still presents an elegant and even noble aspect, was commenced by Julius II., and was bordered by many buildings erected from the designs of Bramante. It was the favourite district of great patricians, prelates, and rich painters. The date of this agreement deserves to be noticed. It is the 24th March, 1520 ; on the 6th of the following month the great painter expired. We may thus see how far any thoughts of death were from his mind until the very eve of his dissolution. The future loomed before him in the gayest and most smiling colours. He who had embellished the worldly dwellings of so many great personages, at last hoped to do the same for himself. Rich, and at the summit of his renown, he hoped, I will not say for repose — he was too young to call idleness pleasure — but for that relaxation of his continual effort which the multitudinous requirements of Leo X. ,had not permitted him to enjoy for many a long year. He little guessed how near was his eternal rest. But M. Paliard has pointed out another element of interest in this date ; it proves to us that Raphael's illness was a very short one indeed. On the 24th March he was full of health and assisted to settle the terms of the agreement ; thirteen days later he was dead. The story of Raphael's last moments and death is still very obscure. The account given by Vasari — friend of the friends and pupils of the master as he was, and warm, sympathetic, and eloquent as is his history of Raphael's life — is now universally discredited. It is certain that if his death was hastened by excess, it was by excess of work. The most vigorous organisation could hardly fail to succumb under his prodigious efforts — efforts, too, which were renewed day after day. In the portrait by Marc-Antonio, we see Raphael enveloped in his mantle and shivering with cold, his pallette and paint-cups beside him ; perhaps he was then feeling the first approach of the illness which was to prove so rapidly fatal. That illness was short indeed. On the 20th of March he promised the envoy of the Duke of Ferrara the drawings for his smoky chimneys ; on the 6th of April he was dead, and the envoy wrote to his master: "Raphael da Urbino, e morto di una febre continua et acuta, che gia octo giorni i'assalto." From the very beginning of the attack anxiety was great at the papal 496 Raphael. court. The Pope, as Marc-Antonio tells us, sent more than six times to ask how he fared and to convey consolations. Rapid though the course of his illness was, Raphael found strength to put his affairs in order. His will furnishes us with additional evidence of the delicacy which governed all his sentiments, and of the spirit of justice and benevolence which guided his slightest acts. None of his friends were forgotten, and to each he left that which would be most in accordance with his individual preference or necessities. His fortune, which amounted to 16,000 ducats, or about £32,000 at the present value of money, was thus divided : his sketches, pictures, all that constituted his artistic property, became the heritage of his two favourite pupils, Giulio Romano and Gian-Francesco Penni, burdened only with the injunction that they should complete his unfinished works. Each of his servants received 300 golden ducats. The land purchased but a few days before was divided between his cousin Antonio Battiferro of Urbino, who received 100 canne, and his friend the goldsmith, Antonio da San-Marino, who received 117* canne} According to an authority which is not always to be relied upon, the latter built two houses upon his share of the ground. A sum of 1,000 crowns was devoted to the purchase of a house, with which the Pantheon chapel founded by the painter was endowed. Raphael forgot neither his own family nor the young girl he had so passionately loved. As we have already seen, he assured the future of his Margarita by a suitable gift, and left the residue of his fortune to his relations at Urbino. On the 19th December, 1520, those connections of the painter who belonged to the Ciarla family compounded any claim they had upon Raphael's estate for a sum of 1,000 ducats, paid down. Finally, he chose for his executors his friends Baldassare Turini and Giovan-Battista dell' Aquila. If we may believe Michiel, Raphael left his palazzo to Cardinal Bibbiena. But this assertion should be received with caution. Michiel only spoke from hearsay, at a moment when the testamentary dispositions of the deceased artist were but imperfectly known, and may easily have given credence to a rumour which required confirmation. We are inclined to doubt this assertion, made to his friends five days after the death of Raphael, partly through what we gather from Paris di Grassis. Noticing under date 9th November, 1520, the death of Bibbiena, he records that as the defunct had no house of his own they were obliged to borrow a house in the Borgo, belonging to the Cardinal of the Ara-Cceli, for the purpose of the lying-in-state.2 This 1 See II Buonarroti, 2nd series, t. i. pp. 100, 101. " Hie cum in palatio papse mortuus sit, nee habeat propriam domum, ad quam posset detern, mendicavimus domum in Burgo vcteri Sixtino, ubi olini cardinalis de Ara- Raphael's Will. 497 evidence of itself is enough to refute the assertion of Michiel, but we have still better behind. On the 7th of July, 1 520, four months before the death of Bibbiena, the sale of Raphael's dwelling was under discussion, and, on the 26th of October, Leo X. signified his approval of the cession to Cardinal Pietro Accolti of Raphael's house in the Borgo. His brief mentions Turini and- dell' Aquila as well as the heirs and legatees, but says not a word of Bibbiena.1 It is true that in the following century Fioravante Martinelli tells us of a palace in the Borgo which had formerly been called the Palazzo Bibbiena; he adds that in this palace, which in his time belonged to the Spinola family of Genoa, died in the reign of Sixtus IV. the queen Carlotta of Cyprus, and under Leo X. Raphael of Urbino.2 But then there are at least two impossi bilities in these two lines. The Queen of Cyprus could not have died in the reign of Sixtus IV. and in the house inhabited by Raphael, since that house was not built until the reign of Julius II. at the very earliest, and the Spinola family could not have been its owners in the seventeenth century, as it then belonged, as we know, to the priory of Malta. We may therefore affirm either that Raphael never bequeathed his palazzo to his friend Bibbiena, or, if he did, that the legacy was annulled. Raphael died on Good Friday, on the anniversary of his birth, between nine and ten in the evening. He was but thirty-seven years of age. The grief of Rome, and of all Italy, was great. Leo. X., according to Vasari, wept bitter tears. The men of those superstitious days, struck by the coincidence of his sudden death with the appearance of ominous cracks in the Loggie, thought the latter a portent from heaven : " For the last few days," writes Michiel, " the papal palace has threatened to fall, and His Holiness has been driven to instal himself in Cardinal Cibo's apartments. Men say that the accident is not caused by the weight of the galleries, but that it is a celestial presage of the death of him who painted their decorations." The same notion reappears in a letter from the Mantuan Minister, in the sonnet of Coelis habitavit, et ihi, melius quam potuimus, fecimus paratnm pompa? et vigiliarum." (See Visconti, in Istoria del ritrovamento delle spoglie mortali di Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, published by Prince P. Odescalchi. Rome, 1836, pp. 105, 106.) Bibbiena's nephew, Antonio, the father of Raphael's fiancee, possessed in Rome— No. 11, Vicolo de' Leutari, district of Parione— a house which still exists. (See II Buonarroti, 1st series, 1863, p. 20.) 1 This precious document, which had long remained unnoticed, was published by C. Milanesi in the Giornale storico degli archivi toscani, t. iv. p. 248 et seq. (See also Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1863, t. i. p. 455.) 2 Roma ricercata net suo sito et nella scuola di tutti gli antiquarii, Rome, 1658, in-18, p. 1-7. K K 498 Raphael. Tebaldeo, and in some verses composed by Pietro Valeriano upon the death of Bibbiena.1 The letter of the Mantuan envoy to Isabella Gonzaga gives us touching evidence of the regrets excited by Raphael's untimely death : " To the most Illustrious and Excellent Lady, the Duchess of Mantua, etc., etc. " Although in these holy days one thinks of nothing but confession and the other exercises of piety, I cannot refrain from presenting my respects to your Excellency. I have, however, no news to give you but that of the death of Raphael of Urbino, who ceased to live last night, that is, the night of Good Friday, leaving behind the immense and unanimous regret of the whole court caused by the ruin of all the hopes founded upon him ; which, had they been realised, would have been the glory of our century. Every one says that the greatest things might have been hoped from him, judging both from the works which he had already finished, and from the still greater enterprises which he had commenced. The heavens themselves announced his death by one of the signs which attended the death of Christ, when the rocks opened, Lapides scissi sunt.2 The Pope's palace is so cracked that it threatens to fall. His Holiness, frightened at this, has deserted his own apartments and betaken himself to the palace constructed by Innocent VIII. Here they talk of nothing except the death of this good man, whieh has terminated, at the end of his thirty-third year, bis first existence. His second life — his fame — will be subject neither to time nor death ; it will endure for ever, thanks to his own works and to the pens of the learned men who will write his praises. There will be no lack of materials. . . . The said Raphael was honourably buried in the Rotunda, where a monument is to be raised to him, at a cost of a thousand ducats. He left a sum for the endowment of the chapel in which his tomb is placed ; besides which he has given three hundred ducats to each of his servants. We heard yesterday from Florence that Michael Angelo is ill. " Rome, 7th April, 1520. " From the ever faithful Servant of your most illustrious and most excellent Ladyship, "Pandolfo de' Pici de la Mirandola."3 1 See upon this latter piece, Roscoe's Life and Pontificate of Leo X., vol. iv. p. 483. The author, playing upon the double meaning of the word porticus, expresses his fear : " ne Raphaelitis inaniter Pictura vanescat " 5 Gospel of St. Matthew. 3 Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1872, t. i. p. 364. Death and Burial. 499 The body of the painter was exposed to the public in his studio, by the side of his unfinished Transfiguration. The contrast between the stiffness of the corpse and the work full of life drew sobs from all present : " La quale opera, nel vedere il corpo morto et quella viva, faceva scoppiare l'anima di dolore a ognuno che quivi guardava." All the artists of Rome made it a point of honour to follow to the grave him who, when alive, had seemed to be the genius of painting itself. The greatest poets of Italy hastened to interpret the public grief. Bembo, Ariosto, Tebaldeo, and Castiglione, all sang of the lost artist, archaeologist, and friend. Castiglione especially showed himself faithful to the dead painter.1 Raphael wished to be buried in that Pantheon which he had so greatly admired. No better choice could have been made, by an artist whose whole life was marked by tolerance and conciliation, than this temple of all the gods, consecrated to Christianity by Gregory the Great. But yet his choice was not dictated by piety alone. A drawing, discovered by M. de Geymiiller, and published in his Projets primitifs pour St. Pierre de Rome, shows us that he had thoroughly comprehended, and could skilfully render, the noble and simple , forms, the grand and harmonious lines, of the most august of the Roman monuments.2 A simple slab of marble,3 let into the wall, marks the place where the greatest of painters was buried. The eloquent and famous epitaph by Bembo runs as follows : D . 0 . M . KAPHA ELI . SANCTIO . 10 ANN . F . VEBINATI PICTORI . EMINENTISS . VETERVMQ . ,EMVLO CVIVS . SPIRANTES . PROPE . IMAGINES . SI CONTEMPLERE . NATVR.E . ATQVE . ARTIS . FCEDVS FACILE . INSPEXERIS IVLII II . ET LEONIS X . PONT . MAXX . PICTVR.E ET . ARCHITECT . OPERIBVS . GLORIAM . AVXIT VIX . ANNOS . XXXVII . INTEGER . INTEGROS QVO . DIE . NATVS . EST . EO . ESSE . DES1IT VIII . ID . APRILIS . MDXX . ILLE HIC EST RAPHAEL TIMVIT QVO SOSPITE VINCI RERVM MAGNA PARENS ET MORIENTE MORI . 1 See above p 223. A letter addressed by Castiglione to his mother on the 20th July, 1520, shows us how great was the grief he felt : "I am in good health," he writes "but I can hardly believe that I am in Rome now that my poor Raphael (il mio poveretto Rafaello) is gone. May God receive his blessed soul!" (Lettere, ed. Serassi, 1. 1. p. 74.) ^Troisdessvns ^architecture ineditsde Raphael. Paris, 1870, p. 6. (From the Gazette des Beaux- Arts}) _ _ , , . „„_, . „, •, , 3 The marble bust placed by Maratti on the tomb of Raphael m 1674 was transported to the Museum of the Capitol in 1820. It is the work of Paolo Naldmi. 500 Raphael. The heirs of Raphael obeyed his instructions, and, thanks to their care, the altar of the Pantheon was adorned with the richest marbles ; besides which they commissioned one of the favourite disciples of the master, the sculptor Lorenzetto, to make a statue of the Virgin, which still exists, and, under the name of the Madonna del Sasso, is believed to be a worker of miracles. Piety has found expression on the altar of the Pantheon, but genius is still without a worthy monument. Italy has raised splendid memorials to Michael Angelo, to Titian, to Canova, but nothing as yet distinguishes the tomb of Raphael from those of the unknown dead who lie about him, and the visitor has some difficulty in discovering the spot which holds the founder of the Roman school. Urbino has already celebrated the four hundredth anni versary of the birth of her greatest son, and will Rome, who owes to him so many of her artistic wonders, be behindhand in honouring his memory ? But what after all does it matter ? The better part of Raphael does not lie under the vaults of the Pantheon ; we need not seek the living among the dead ; let us rather repeat with Vasari : " Ob happy, thrice happy soul, whom all men love to talk of, to praise in all thy works, to wonder at and admire ! Painting, too, might Well have died when fell this nqble worker, for when his eyes closed for ever she too lost her sight. It has now become the duty of us who remain behind to follow his bright example ; it is our duty, both from gratitude and from admiration of his merit, to preserve his amiable memory in our souls, to speak of him always with the honour which he deserves. For in his works we see science, colour, and invention, pushed to a fertile per fection which no man could hope to rival. As to surpassing him, let genius despair of doing so ! " But the old biographer does not say, as we must do before closing this volume, that, in Raphael's works, the highest moral qualities are united with. the most consummate technical execution. There is in them more than those contours which have been called divine, more than the magic of colour : they breathe an exquisite good will, a serene and profound faith in humanity, a love for all that is pure, and great, and noble. The years which extend from the invasion of Charles VIII. in 1494 to the death of Leo X. in 1521 are those which witnessed all the great achievements of Raphael, and they are perhaps the most troubled and sombre years in the whole history of Italy. They were filled with follies, treasons, murders, crimes1 of every sort. Now we are horrified by the excesses of some pitiless con queror, and again by the hideous machinations of cruel and cold-blooded di plomacy. The public conscience was blotted out ; all notion of right disappeared. The virtuous Savonarola died at the stake, while a French king, Louis XII., ' Conclusion. 501 sorgia. the Father of his People, heaped honours upon the infamous C him out of sympathy with his kind. His Last Judgment forms the highest expression of a marvellous life's work in which all sentiments are to be found , but love of grace, serenity, and hope. Before Michael Angelo, another Florentine, the greatest poet of Italy and of the Middle Ages, had represented with searching energy the tortures of the wicked, the endless terrors of the damned. But Dante opposed to his Inferno the bright regions of eternal felicity, and thus showed us that although the mission of the artist and the poet may be to lash the sinners of the world, still more is it to console, to strengthen and to ennoble mankind. Blessed are those who, like Raphael, have entered the Paradise of the Florentine poet without having traversed his Hell. THE END. Richakd Ciay and Sons, london and bungay. , : :-¦¦