RAPHAEL. 



reprefented the Almigiily Fatiier ; and nt the foot of it, in 

 three compartments, ueie tlje fceiics of our Lord's fuffer- 

 ings, "via. his agony in the garden, carrying his crofs, and 

 dead upon the lap of the Virgin. It is not known what is 

 become of ttie centre pitlure, or the uppermoll compart- 

 ment ; the lower ones formed a part of the Orleans collec- 

 tion. The execution of thcfe works was performed in a 

 ftyle much improved upon that of Perngino ; with more 

 breadth, more foftncfs, and more freedom and variety of 

 nftion ; proving that he had not ill fpent the time he had 

 devoted at Florence to the ihidy of the works of other 

 painters. Hence we may date the commencement of what 

 is termed his fccond manner, from his fu-lt vifit to that 

 city. 



Soon after he had produced thefe works at Perugia, that 

 zeal tor cultivation, which always accompanies true genius, 

 led him to determine upon again vifiting Florence, at that 

 time the emporium of fcience and of art. Though the na- 

 tive ftrength and purity of his mind were fuch as to conduft 

 him, under favourable circumttances, to his future prominent 

 ftation ; yet he does not appear to have been fo extraordinary 

 and original an inventor in the art itfelf as M. Angelo, or his 

 great predeceffor and rival, Lionardo da Vmci. He knew 

 how to take a hint of what was offered to his view, and to 

 cultivate and improve it to his purpofe ; but it yet remains 

 a problem, whether Raphael, alone, and without the lead- 

 ing aid of thofe great and original artills, would have ever 

 feen the fublimc of pamting. His power may rather be 

 faid to have confilted in ability to employ the materials fur- 

 niflied by'their invention, viz. tjic llyle of Michael Angelo, 

 in form ; and of Lionardo da Vinci, in chiaro-fcuro and 

 colour ; in beautiful conceptions, illullrative of the charac- 

 ter and pallions of man ; and in an admirable feleCtion of 

 fubjeft, and mode of conveying it. 



He himfelf appears to have been confcious of this ; for 

 we find him in the midll of honourable employment, leaving 

 the profecution of it, to (Uidy and improve himfelf by a con- 

 itant obfervation of the works of other renowned artills, 

 and again repairing to Florence, where alone he could lind 

 the true fource of found cultivation, and in which he made 

 fo good ufe of his time, as to lit him in great meafure for 

 the glorious field of exertion which awaited him. 



On his return to the renowned abode of thefe great artilts, 

 from whofe works he fought improvement, he had a letter 

 of recommendation and introduftion from the duchefs of 

 Urbino to Pietro Soderini Gonfaloniere of the city ; and 

 was thus introduced to the beft circle of improvement and 

 information. 



It would have been highly gratifying to have been enabled 

 to trace the fleps of a man fo diftinguifhcd in the art, from 

 the earlielt commencement of his Ihidies ; but the negleft 

 of dates, by his hillorians, counteracts every with to follow 

 them more clofely ; and the record of fafts leaves us only 

 the means of conjecture. That he began to paint original 

 piiftures very foon after he was placed with Perugino is evi- 

 dent, and he mufi then have been very young, for it is on 

 record, that the piftures by Pinturiccio, for which he made 

 the cartoons at Sienna, were completed in 1503, at which 

 time he was 20. If we allow, as we realonably may, two 

 years for their execution, it will place his firfl vifit to Flo- 

 rence in 1 50 1, at the age of 18 ; and it certainly cannot 

 have been far from that period. In every part of his life, 

 ciodefty, ingenuity, and the ardour of a mind entirely de- 

 voted to his art, charafterized his conduii;t. His induftry 

 and ingenuity feem to have kept equal pace ; and the ra- 

 pidity and certainty with which lit mult have painted, to 



produce fo many pittures in fo ihort a fpacc of time a« he 

 lived, are not the leall extraordiinry part of hia hillory. 



On this, his lecond abode at Florence, he Itudied deeply 

 the works of Mafaccio, and the cartoons of Angelo and 

 Da Vinci J and attached himlelf in friendfhip to Baccio della 

 Porta, better known by the name oi Fra. Bartolomto ; 

 than whom no one was better qualified to direct him rightly 

 in whatever was grand and dignified, and from whole ju- 

 dicious information in the art of calling draperies and of 

 colouring, Raphael evidently improved exceedingly ; while 

 he had the pleafure, in return, of communicating to his friend 

 the principles of pcrfpeftive. Yet notwithftanding thefe 

 helps, he did not entirely free himfelf from the formal and 

 dry inanner of his mailer, though he painted afiiduoufly 

 both in portrait and hillory. In the former he produced the 

 portraits of Angelo Doiii and his lady Maddalena Strozzi ; 

 and in the latter he painted for Dominico Caneggiani, a 

 Madonna, w ith the Infant playing with St. John brought ' 

 by E,li/.abeth, who regards St. Jofeph as he (lands near, 

 leaning both his hands upon a Hick, and inclining his head 

 towards lier. This pifture appears to have been re-touched, 

 or poiiibly completed only in 1516, as the name of Raphael, 

 with that date, in letters of gold, is written upon the dra- 

 pery of the Virgin. He alio made a cartoon during his 

 refidence in Florence for a pidture which he had previoufly 

 engaged to paint for the Uaglioni family at Perugia, and 

 left the city to go and paint it in the church of St. Francefco 

 in that place. Tiie iubjedl of it was our Saviour carried to 

 the fepulchre, accompanied by the Virgin, St. John, &c. ; 

 and it was exceedingly admired for the beauty and cxprelfion 

 of the figures, and the lie ill and pcrfeftion of the draperies. 

 This picture was removed from Perugia by pope Paul V., 

 and a copy, by Cefare d' Arpino, placed in its llead : it after- 

 wards found a llation in the Borghefe palace at Rome. 



When Rapiiael had completed this work, he returned to 

 renew his lludies at Florence, and was employed by the 

 family of Dei, to paint a picture for their altar in Santo Spi- 

 rito, which he began, and condudled tlirough the preparatory 

 parts ; and in the mean time painted another for the city of 

 Sienna, of the Madonna in an open country, with the Child 

 Handing by her, and St. John kneeling before him, but 

 was interrupted, in its execution, by a fummons from pope 

 Julius II. to Rome, and left it in the hands of his friend 

 Ghirlandaio, to nnifh a piece of blue drapery which it 

 wanted. This pifture was afterwards fold to Francis, king 

 of France, and is at prefeiit in the French collection, known 

 by the name of the Belle Jardiniere. The unfinilbed iketch 

 of the pifture begun for the Dei fanfily, was bought, after 

 the death of Raphael, from his heirs, by Baldalfare Turini, 

 and placed by him, in its original ftate, at the altar of his 

 country church ; it afterwards came into poflenion of the 

 houfe of Buonvicini di Pefcia, and was fold, by that family, 

 to the grand duke Ferdinand, who, on removing it, placed 

 a copy by Carlo Sacconi in its llead. This was done at 

 night, and with the utmoft fecrecy, tor fear of a difturbance 

 among the populace, by whom it was highly prized. 



Raphael was indebted for the high patronage of the pope, 

 which placed him in the proper fphere for the exercife of ta- 

 lents fuch as he pofleffed, to the friendlhip of lii3 relation Bra- 

 mante d' Urbino the architect ; and never was recommendation 

 better fupported by ability. Upon his arnval in Rome, m 

 1508, he was received with great courtefy by Julius, and the 

 Camera della Segnatura, in the Vatican, afiigned to him. He 

 immediately began the preparation for his firil picture, which 

 was the Scliool of Theology, better known by the name of 

 the Dilpute of the Sacrament, and in obfcrving which, it is 



worthy 



