814 



RAPHAEL. 



works partake somewhat of the style of his master, 

 ami do not exhibit the grandeur, dignity, and power 

 of his Inter performances, but are distinguished tor 

 llu- sensibility mid feeling belonging to the earlier 

 M-hool. His desire for further improvement drew 

 hiiu a second time to Florence, where he zealously 

 pursued his study of the old masters above men- 

 tioned, and where his acquaintance with Fra Bar- 

 tolonifo gave him ;i more correct knowledge of 

 o.louring'. He seems to have spent the whole 

 time of his residence in that city in his studies ; at 

 least it is known that he executed there nothing but 

 a few portraits and the cartoon for his Entombing 

 of Christ. This picture itself he painted in Peru- 

 gia, whence it was afterwards transferred to the 

 Borghese palace at Rome. It is a miracle of com- 

 position, design and expression, and was surpassed, 

 in these respects, by few of his subsequent per- 

 formances. After finishing it, Raphael returned, 

 for the third time, to Florence, where his studies 

 became again his chief employment; at least we 

 are able to point out, with certainty, as having been 

 executed at this time, only the excellent Madonna, 

 called La Bella Giardiniera (now in Paris), and 

 another Madonna, with the Fathers of the Church 

 (now in Brussels), neither of which was entirely 

 finished by Raphael. His .repeated residence in 

 Florence had the greatest influence, not only on 

 himself, but on the whole of the modern school of 

 art. He found that Cimabue, Giotto, Fiesole, and 

 the Florentine artists of the time, could not only 

 compete with his teacher, Perugino, in all the 

 departments uf art, but that some of them Masac- 

 cio, Fra Filippo Lippi, Mariotto Albertinelli, Ghir- 

 Jandaio and Fra Bartolomeo surpassed him in 

 excellence of composition, correctness of design, 

 and liveliness of colouring. In the works of Ghir- 

 landaio, and above all of Masaccio, he found, what 

 he most desired, a grander style in forms, drapery, 

 and outline. As Raphael had already acquired the 

 excellences of the greatest masters of his time in 

 Romagna, he now possessed himself of those of the 

 Florentine school, for which he ever entertained a 

 great esteem. A striking proof of this was his 

 copying, in his loggie, without the least alteration, 

 two figures by Musaccio, which may still be seen 

 in the Carmelite monastery at Florence, namely, 

 Adam and Eve driven from Paradise by the Angel. 

 Pope Julius II. had employed Bramante in rebuild- 

 ing St Peter's, and in the embellishment of the 

 Vatican. At Bramante's suggestion, Raphael was, in 

 1508, invited to Rome. The pope received him with 

 distinguished favour, and the artists of Rome with 

 the greatest respect. Here he executed the Dis- 

 puta, or Dispute of the Fathers of the Church, on 

 the wall of the second chamber, called the stanza 

 delta Segnatura, next to the great hall of Constan- 

 tine. Between this painting and his Entombing of 

 Christ there is a similarity, which is not the case 

 with his later performances. In the grouping, also, 

 he has adhered to the style of his earlier predeces- 

 sors ; but the Disputa is by far the more perfect of 

 the two. All is life, motion, action : the variety of 

 the characters is admirable ; every stroke is full of 

 meaning. If we divide Raphael's works into sev- 

 eral periods, the first comprising his earlier per- 

 formances, executed in the manner of Perugino, the 

 second comprising those which he executed in 

 Urbino, Florence, &c., we recognise in the Disputa 

 the transition to the third manner, which is still 

 more clearly manifested in the School of Athens, 

 the second grand painting in this chamber. This 

 painting (which was probably preceded by the Par- 

 nassus, the third great painting of the room) dis- 

 plays far more freedom of handling, and more man- 



liness and energy. By il Raphael gained so com- 

 pletely the favour of the pope, that he caused 

 almost all the frescoes of other artists in the Van- 

 can to be effaced, that the rooms might be adorned 

 by him. Raphael painted in their stead, in the ubov < - 

 mentioned *fartza,theallegoricaltiguresof Theology, 

 Philosophy, Justice, and Poetry, in the corners of 

 the ceiling ; the Fall of Adam, Astronomy, Apollo 

 und .Marsyas, and Solomon's Judgment, all having 

 reference to the tour principal figures of the apart- 

 ment ; and, lastly, on the fourth wall, over the 

 windows, Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude ; 

 below them, the emperor Justinian, delivering the 

 Roman law to Tribonian, and Gregory X. giving 

 the Decretals to an Advocate, and, under them, 

 Moses and an armed allegorical figure. In 1511, 

 all the pieces of the first stanza or hall were tin - 

 ished. According to Vasari's account, he now 

 executed several less important but excellent fres- 

 coes (Isaiah in St Augustine's, the Prophets and 

 Sibyls in Sta-Maria della Pace, and the celebrated 

 Madonna di Foligno in the Vatican). The pro- 

 gress which Raphael made, in his peculiar style, is 

 shown by his next painting in the stanza, the Ex- 

 pulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple. Here the 

 style is far more earnest, grand, bold, and energetic, 

 the execution far more spirited and masterly. This 

 was followed, in 1514, after the accession of the 

 new pope, Leo X., by his Leo the Great stopping 

 the Progress of Attila, the Deliverance of Peter 

 from Prison, and, on the ceiling of this stanza, 

 Moses viewing the burning Bush, the Building of 

 the Ark, the Sacrifice of Isaac, and Jacob's Dream. 

 Nearly contemporary with them are the following 

 easel-pieces : the famous Madonna del Pesce (in the 

 Escurial), which was transferred, in Paris, from 

 wood to canvass; his equally beautiful Cecilia, 

 which is said to have been finished by Giulio Ro- 

 mano; a Holy Family, called La Perla (in the 

 Escurial); Ezekiel's Dream; among several Ma- 

 donnas, that called Dell' Impannato; Christ bear- 

 ing the Cross, known by the name of Lo Spasimo 

 di Sicilia (now in Madrid); Christ in Glory, sur- 

 rounded by saints ; / cinque Santi; his own por- 

 trait (now in Munich); the portrait of Leo X. (now 

 in Paris), &c. Albert Durer, induced by Raphael's 

 reputation, is said to have made him an offer of his 

 friendship, and to have sent him several of his own 

 etchings, with his portrait, and to have received, 

 in return, a number of drawings by Raphael's hand. 

 With the Conflagration of the Borgo (Incendio del 

 Borgo}, extinguished by the Prayers of Leo, Ra- 

 phael began the third stanza of the Vatican. This 

 work is a master-piece for strength and truth of 

 expression, beauty of forms, excellence of grouping 

 and variety. It was followed by the Coronation of 

 Charlemagne, Leo III.'s Vindication of Himself 

 before Charlemagne, and the Victory of Leo IV. 

 over the Saracens at Ostia (on which, however, 

 Raphael's scholars were employed in working from 

 his designs). He next completed the galleries 

 (loggie) of the Vatican palace, by which the rooms 

 communicate, and which had been left unfinished 

 by Bramante, and furnished designs for the paint- 

 ings and stucco-work with which they were to be 

 adorned. The execution of the paintings (except- 

 ing four done by himself) Raphael intrusted to 

 Giulio Romano and some of his other pupils, and 

 the stucco-work to John of ildiue. In this way 

 was formed a complete series oT works of art, which 

 have exalted the palace of the^Vatican into a tem- 

 ple of the arts. The pope, charmed with the ex- 

 cellence of these performances, committed to Ra- 

 phael the decoration of another stanza of the Vatican 

 with images of the saints and apostles, appointed 



