Ml 



RAPHAEL .SANT1 



at the Vatican, and the collections of the 

 cardinals Kovere and Miiliri. On the walls <>f the 

 camera Raphael begun the Disputa, in which he 

 represented tin- Ku-rnal, Christ, Mary, ami the 

 apostle* and angels presiding in heaven over the 

 Mgesof tin- Trinitarian controversy. Here Kaphael 

 practically entered on a method of painting with 

 which he nail not heen very familiar; hut he gained 

 coiiiidenrc ax he proceeded, and, gradually descend- 

 in.' ii. MII the higher part* to the lower, he equally 

 applied the model* and precepts of Leonardo and 

 Fra Bartolommeo, became boMM and mre ener- 

 getic in tin- conception and rendering of form, ami 

 nearly succeeded in equalling the power of Michael- 

 angefo himself. It wait a happy time during which 

 the youthful ni!i-tT lalmureil at this composition, 

 the time \\li.-n In- lunged to add to the art which 

 he knew so well that of poetry, in whicli Michcl- 

 angelo excelled. Mi- sketches tor the Disputa 

 are filled with -nai. in of Minuets, which, as he 

 soon saw, were entirely beneath the mark. But 

 if his friends should reject his verses, they could 

 praise his picture, which is indeed the noblest 

 work that hud then been completed at Koine. The 

 School of AtheiiH immediately followed the Dis- 

 pnta. taking Kaphael into the pre-Christian period 

 of Plain ami Aristotle. The picture embodied old 

 philn.iiphy am! sciences. It was laid out in a 

 temple planned for Kaphael by Bramante, in which 

 the philosophers met. appropriately dad in the 

 dress of the ancient (ireeks, surrounded by statues 

 and bas-reliefs, which all gave occasion to the 

 painter to transport his spectators into an almost 

 mgottao realm. The manner in which he repro- 

 duced antique character and costume, in action, 

 movement, and expression, is acknowledged to 

 have been worthy of the man who succeeded in 

 displaying with a single etlort the progress made 

 liv Italian painters from the days of (iiotto to those 

 of liirlaiidajo. The Parnassus which came after 

 tin- School 1. 1 Athens takes us back to the age of 

 Greek verse, -Imwing us Apollo and the Muses 

 attended by the poets from Homer to Ovid, and 

 escorted by Dante. Kaphael' admirably trans 

 formed the antique into something living and 



prevent to the moderns, infusing into groups and 

 figure* the life of a scenic actuality. The allegory 

 of Prudence, which cjime next, is less natural than 



the Parnassus, but rescued from arfectedness by 

 grace of lines and skill in pictorial treatment. The 

 'subordinate pictures of the Pope accent ing the 

 Decretals, Justinian reeciiing tlie Pandects, and 

 Augustus saving the manu-ciipts of Virgil are 

 worthy adjuncts to the principal themes, .luliiis 

 II asked Kaphael to introduce his portrait into 

 the Decretals, and the likeness of the pnntitr with 

 a heard enables us to fix the date of thecomiilc 

 lion of the Chamber of the Signature in the middle 

 of August l.ll I. On the same day that Julius 

 II. wits privileged to witness the completion of 

 Raphael's first cycle of wall paintings lie olliriaied 

 at mass in the Sixtine ('Impel, where the first half 

 oi Michelangelo's ceiling was uncovered. 



During the progress of the works in which 

 he employed and formed the talents of his 

 dis.-iples, OioVMlri da I'dine, Penni, and Cinlin 

 Komano, Raphael divided his time between the 

 labours of the Vatican and easej-pictures. The 

 |Mtrtraits of Jnliux II. and the Virgin of the Popolo, 

 of which copies have come down to us, were exe- 

 cuted ; drawing)! were furnished to the copper- 

 plate-engraver Marcantonio for the Massacre of 

 the Innocents; HM ,| Madonnas and Holy Families 

 were composed, of whicli it is only possible here to 

 give the names Madonnas of Allwi at St Peters 

 burg, of Carvagh at the National Gallery, of Mr 

 Rogers, of the Diadem nt the I.onvre. "Nothing 

 could exceed the impatience of Julius to get the 



chambers of the Vatican properly decorated. He 



urged Raphael not ill vain to liegm the chamber of 

 HeliiMloiiiH, and ill a comparatively short time the 

 master p induced, with clever help from his dig- 

 eiples, i lie ceiling, in which the Eternal apjiears to 

 Noah. Alualiam's Sacrifice, Jacob's Dream, and 

 the limning Hush. In all these compositions 

 Kaphael s ma-stery is great, and his figures of the 

 Eternal are majestic. The Expulsion <>f llelindorua 

 and the Mass of Bolseua are planned so that by 

 a pictorial license the pontiff is piescnt as the 

 scenes are enacted. The death of Julius early in 

 1513 but slightly interrupted the labours of the 

 painter, who gave a noble rendering of Leo X. 

 and his suite in the picture of the Defeat of Attila. 

 The Deliverance of Peter, which closed the decora- 

 tions, was an effective piece of composition, in 

 which Kaphael for once indulged in contrasts of 

 torch and moonlight and glare balanced by power- 

 ful gloom. The constant employment of disciples 

 enabled Kaphael, in the three years which elapsed 

 lietween the completion of the two chambers i.e. 

 between 1511 and 1514 to finish the Madonna di 

 Foligno at Koine, the Isaiah of St Agoslino at 

 Rome, the Galatea of the Farnesina, and the Sibyls 

 of the Pace, not to speak of the mosaics of the 

 Popolo ordered by Agostino Chigi. In many of 

 these works Raphael's style is equal to that of 

 .Michelangelo at the Sixtine, with the additional 

 charm of a grace which was his own. He also laid 

 the antique under contribution with great skill 

 and sin vi --, and his art was that of a master who 

 works without hesitation because ready for every 

 form of effort that can be required of him. In a 

 graver mood he also painted at this time the severe 

 Madonna of the Fish at Madrid, in a playfully 

 sweet mood the Madonna del la Sedia at Florence ; 

 whilst in portraits such as Altoviti at Munich, and 

 Inghirami at Florence, he rises to the perfect 

 rendering of features and expression which linds 

 its greatest triumph in the Leo X. of Florence. 



Raphael, who hod been greatly favoured by J nlius, 

 became a personal favourite of Leo, who selected 

 him to succeed llraniante as architect of St Peter's 

 in 1514, and afterwards mode him inspector of 

 Roman ruins. But he was as impatient as his pre- 

 decessor to get the Vatican chambers finished, and 

 he successfully obtained from the masters the 

 frescoes of the Camera dell' Incendio, which all illus- 

 trate scenes from the lives of Leonine popes : the 

 Fire of Borgo, in which all the remnants of Roman 

 buildings known to Kaphael nre introduced, the 

 Kittle of Out in against the Saracens, the Corona- 

 tion of Charlemagne, and the Oath of Leo 111. 

 But Kaphael was now too busy to attend per. 

 Honallv to wall painting, and much of his attention 

 was taken up with the composition of the cartoons 

 which he executed, with help from assistants, for 

 the tapestries of the Sixtine Chapel. It would be 

 impossible to describe these masterpieces or the 

 tapestries made from them in the space here at 

 our command. The cartoons may lie seen at the 

 Kensington Museum, the tapestries at the Vatican. 

 They a rr mastei pieces worthy of a pilgrimage ; the 

 fin- 1 completed in Deccmlier l.llli, the second 

 woven at Brussels in 1519. At this period of his 

 career Raphael was a welcome guest in the. l>est 

 circles of Rome, painted the likenesses of the 

 pope's relatives, Giuliaiio and Lorenzo de' Medici, 

 and was asked in vain for pictures by the Duke of 

 Ferrara. His portraits of the Duke of I'lliino, 

 ; dioiio, llcmlio, N'avagero, and his decoration 

 of Cardinal Itibicna's rooms at the Vatican tell of 

 the company which he frequented. When Leo X. 

 siiccumlieil to Francis I. after Marignano Raphael 

 followed the pontiff to Florence and Bologna, ami 

 found there the new patrons for whom he executed 

 tin' Sixtine Madonna, the St Cecilia of Bologna, 



