[4]Dell'errore, che persiste, &c. see the second index. It was opposed by Crespi, in hisDissertazione Anticritica, referred to in the same index. It was also opposed by P. dell'Aquila, in theDizionario portatile della Bibbia, tradotto dal francese, in a note of some length, on the article S. Luca.
[5]See theOpuscoli Calogeriani, tom. xliii. where a learned dissertation is inserted, which shews that this custom was introduced about the middle of the fifth century, on occasion of the Council of Ephesus.
[6]Engraved by command of the learned Cardinal Borgia. The artists began about the middle of the fifth century, to represent her with the Infant in her arms. SeeOpuscoli Calogeriani, as above.
[7]"The painter was a man of holy life, and a Florentine, whose name was Luca, and who was honoured by the common people with the title of saint." Lami, Deliciæ Eruditorum, tom. xv.
[8]So says Vasari, who writes his life, but Padre della Valle thinks it highly probable that he was the scholar of Cosimati, and not of Giotto; as Cavallini was contemporary with Giotto. I agree that he was only a very few years younger, and might have received some instructions in the school of Cosimati: but who, except Giotto himself, could have taught him that Giottesque and improved style scarcely inferior to Gaddi?
[9]In the archives of the Collegiate Church of S. Niccolo, in Fabriano, is preserved a catalogue of the pictures of the city, which has been communicated to me by Sig. Can. Claudio Serafini. This picture, which is divided into five compartments, is there mentioned; and it is added, that "many celebrated painters visited the place to view this excellent work, and in particular, the illustrious Raffaello."
[10]In the archives before alluded to, are also mentioned two ancient pictures of a Giuliano da Fabriano, the one in the church of the Domenicans, the other in the Church of the Capuchins.
[11]Tom. xxiii. page 83, &c. By the first, is the ancient picture of S. Maria della Consolazione in that church, erected in 1442. By the second, are the pictures in the church of S. Rocco, painted about the year 1463. The third artist painted a picture in the church of S. Liberato, in 1494.
[12]Galeazzo Sanzio and his sons will be noticed in the second epoch.
[13]See Vasari, Bologna edition, p. 260.
[14]The commentators of Vasari remark, that when he uses this phrase, he refers to the year of the death of the artist, or to the period when he relinquished his art. Pietro must therefore have become blind about the year 1458, in the sixtieth year of his age, and must have died about 1484, aged eighty-six. This painter was intimately connected with the family of Vasari. Lazaro the great-grandfather of Vasari, who died in 1452, was the friend and imitator of Pietro, and some time before his death assigned him his nephew Signorelli as a scholar. We must, therefore, give credit to Vasari's account of Borghese; for if we discredit him on this occasion, as some have done, when are we to believe him? It is true, indeed, that he is guilty of a strange anachronism in mentioning Guidubaldo, the old Duke of Urbino, as his first patron; but this kind of error is frequent in him, and not to be regarded.
[15]"Fu eccellentissimo prospettivo, e il maggior geometra de' suoi tempi." Romano Alberti, Trattato della nobiltà della pittura, p. 32. See also Pascoli, Vite, tom. i. p. 90.
[16]It appears that in this art he was preceded by Van Eych of Flanders. See tom. i. p. 81, &c.; and also the eulogium on him by Bartolommeo Facio, p. 46, where he praises his skill in geometry, and refers to several of his pictures, which prove him to have been highly accomplished, and almost unrivalled in perspective.
[17]If there be any truth in Pietro having been blind for twenty-four years, I do not know how he could have painted Sixtus IV. On the other hand this tradition of his blindness comes from Vasari, whose family was so intimately connected with that of Pietro della Francesca, that there was less room for error in the life of that artist than in any other. This excellent picture, of which I have seen a beautiful copy in the possession of the Duke di Ceri, I should myself rather attribute to Melozzo.
[18]He is favorably mentioned by Crispolti, in thePerugia Augusta; by Ciatti, in theIstorie di Perugia; Alessi, in theElogi de' Perugini illustri; and by Pascoli, in theVite de' Pittori Sc. Arch. Perugini; with whom I can in no manner concur in opinion, that "Benedetto was equal to the best artists of his time, and probably the first among the early masters who contributed to the introduction of an improved style," (p. 21). An assertion singularly unjust to Masaccio.
[19]He subscribed himselfde Castro Plebis, nowCittà della Pieve. There, according to Pascoli, the father was born, who afterwards removed to Perugia, where Pietro was born; but the greater probability is, that Pietro also was born in Città della Pieve.Mariotti.
[20]This resemblance might have arisen from his imitation of the works of Borghese, (Pietro della Francesca) which he saw in Perugia, as it most assuredly cannot be proved that Perugino was ever in his school. P. Valle and others express great doubts of it, and when I reflect that Vannucci was only twelve years old when Borghese lost his sight, I regard it as an absurd tradition.
[21]Vasari, at the close of his Life observes, "none of his scholars ever equalled Pietro in application or in amenity of colour." Padre della Valle asserts on the contrary, "that he was indebted for a great portion of his celebrity to the talents displayed by his scholars;" and says that he detected the touch of Raffaello in his picture in the Grand Duke's collection; but we must have a stronger testimony before we submit ourselves to this decision.
[22]Descrizione del Palazzo Vaticano, p. 36.
[23]Consisting of three subjects from the Life of Christ, in the Chapel of the Holy Sacraments. The Annunciation, the Birth of Christ, and the Dispute with the Doctors, the best of the three. In one of these he introduced his own portrait. Vasari does not mention this fine production.
[24]He probably came to Venice from Rimino, or resided there for some time. We find other early painters assigned first to one country and then to another, as Jacopo Davanzo, Pietro Vannucci, Lorenzo Lotto, &c.
[25]It is said that Mengs, who was desirous of being considered a philosophical painter, coincided with Vitruvius in opinion. But this opinion should be restricted to some indifferent specimens; for when he afterwards saw them painted in the true style of the ancients, he regarded them with extraordinary pleasure; as in Genoa, which possesses some beautiful arabesques by Vaga. So the defender of Ratti assures us.
Raffaello and his School.
We are now arrived at the most brilliant period, not only of the Roman School, but of modern painting itself. We have seen the art carried to a high degree of perfection by Da Vinci and Bonarruoti, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and it is a remarkable fact that the same period embraces not only Raphael, but also Coreggio, Giorgione, and Titian, and the most celebrated Venetian painters: so that a man enjoying the common term of life might have seen the works of all these illustrious masters. The art in but a few years thus reached a height to which it had never before attained, and which has never been rivalled, except in the attempt to imitate these early masters, or to unite in one style their varied and divided excellences. It seems indeed an ordinary law of providence, that individuals of consummate genius should be born and flourish at the same period, or at least at short intervals from each other, a circumstance of which Velleius Paterculus, after a diligent investigation, protested he could never discover the real cause. I observe, he says, menof the same commanding genius making their appearance together, in the smallest possible space of time; as it happens in the case of animals of different kinds, which, confined in a close place, nevertheless each selects its own class, and those of a kindred race separate themselves from the rest, and unite in the closest manner. A single age was sufficient to illustrate Tragedy, in the persons of Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides: ancient comedy under Cratinus, Aristophanes, and Eumolpides; and in like manner the new comedy under Menander, Diphilus, and Philemon. There appeared few philosophers of note after the days of Plato and Aristotle, and whoever has made himself acquainted with Isocrates and his school, is acquainted with the summit of Grecian eloquence. The same remark applies also to other countries. The great Roman writers are included under the single age of Octavius: Leo X. was the Augustus of modern Italy; the reign of Louis XIV. was the brilliant era of French letters, that of Charles II. of the English.
This rule applies equally to the fine arts.Hoc idem, proceeds Velleius,evenisse plastis, pictoribus, sculptoribus, quisquis temporum institerit notis reperiet, et eminentiam cujusque operis arctissimis temporum claustris circumdatam.[26]Of this union of men of genius in the same age,Causas, he says,quum semper requiro, numquam invenio quas verasconfidam. It seems to him probable that when a man finds the first station in art occupied by another, he considers it as a post that has been rightfully seized on, and no longer aspires to the possession of it, but is humiliated, and contented to follow at a distance. But this solution I confess does not satisfy my mind. It may indeed account to us why no other Michelangiolo, or Raffaello, has ever appeared; but it does not satisfy me why these two, and the others before mentioned, should all have appeared together in the same age. For myself, I am of opinion that the age is always influenced by certain principles, universally adopted both by professors of the art, and by amateurs: which principles happening at a particular period to be the most just and accurate of their kind, produce in that age some supereminent professors, and a number of good ones. These principles change through the instability of all human affairs, and the age partakes in the change. I may add, nevertheless, that these happy periods never occur without the circumstance of a number of princes and influential individuals rivalling each other in the encouragement of works of taste; and amidst these there always arise some persons of commanding genius, who give a bias and tone to art. The history of sculpture in Athens, a city where munificence and taste went hand in hand, favours my opinion, and it is further confirmed by this golden period of Italian art. Nevertheless I do not pretend to give a verdict on this importantquestion, but leave the decision of it to a more competent tribunal.
But although it be a matter of difficulty to account for this developement and union of rare talent at one particular period, we may however hope to trace the steps of a single individual to excellence; and I would wish to do so of Raffaello. Nature and fortune seemed to unite in lavishing their favours on this artist; the first in investing him with the rarest gifts of genius, the other in adding to these a singular combination of propitious circumstances. In order to illustrate our inquiry it will be necessary to observe him from his earliest years,[27]and to note the progress of his mind. He was born in Urbino in 1483; and if climate, as seems not improbable, have any influence on the genius of an artist, I know not a happier spot that could have been chosen for his birth, than that part of Italy which gave to architecture a Bramante, supplied the art of painting with a successor to Raffaello in Baroccio, and bestowed on sculpture the plastic hand of a Brandani, without referring to many less celebrated, but still deserving artists, who are the boast of Urbino and her state. The father of this illustrious artistwas Giovanni di Santi,[28]or as he has been commonly called Giovanni Sanzio, an artist of moderatetalents, and who could contribute but little to the instruction of his son; although it was no small advantage to have been initiated in a simple style, divested of mannerism. He made some further progress from studying the works of F. Carnevale, an artist of great merit, for the times in which he flourished; and being placed at Perugia, under Pietro, he soon became master of his style, as Vasari observes, and had then probably already formed the design of excelling him. I was informed in Città di Castello, that at the age of seventeen he painted the picture of S. Nicholas of Tolentino in the church of the Eremitani. The style was that of Perugino, but the composition differed from that of the age, being the throne of our Saviour surrounded by saints. The Beato (beatified saint) is there represented, while the Virgin and St. Augustine, concealed in part by a cloud, bind his temples with a crown; there are two angels at the right hand, and two at the left, graceful, and in different attitudes; with inscriptions variously folded, on which are inscribed some words in praise of S. Eremitano. Above is the Eternal Father surrounded by a majestic choir of angels. The actorsof the scene appear to be in a temple, the pillars of which are ornamented in the minute and laboured style of Mantegna, and the ancient manner is still perceptible in the folds of the drapery, though there is an evident improvement in the design, as in the figure of Satan, who lies under the feet of the saint. This figure is free from the singular deformity with which the ancient painters represented him; and has the genuine features of an Ethiopian. To this picture another of this period may be added in the church of S. Domenico; a Crucifixion, with two attendant angels; the one receives in a cup the sacred blood which flows from the right hand, the other, in two cups, collects that of the left hand and the side; the weeping mother and disciples contribute their aid, while the Magdalen and an aged saint kneeling in silence contemplate the solemn mystery; above is the Deity. These figures might all pass for those of Pietro, except the Virgin, the beauty of which he never equalled, unless perhaps in the latter part of his life. Another specimen of this period is noticed by the Abate Morcelli, (de Stylo Inscript. Latin, p. 476). He states, that in the possession of Sig. Annibale Maggiori, a nobleman of Fermo, he saw the picture of a Madonna, raising with both hands a veil of delicate texture from the holy Infant, as he lies in a cradle asleep. Nigh at hand is S. Joseph, whose eyes rest in contemplation on the happy scene, and on his staff the same writer detected an inscription in extremely minute characters,r. s. v. a. a. xvii. p.Raphael Sanctius Urbinas an. ætatis 17 pinxit. This must have been the first attempt of the design which he perfected at a more mature age, and which is in the Treasury of Loreto, where the holy Infant is represented, not in the act of sleeping, but gracefully stretching out his hand to the Virgin: of the same epoch I judge thetondinito be, which I shall describe in the course of a few pages, when I refer to the Madonna della Seggiola.
Vasari informs us, that before executing these two pictures, he had already painted in Perugia an Assumption in the church of the Conventuals, with three subjects from the life of Christ in the grado; which may however be doubted, as it is a more perfect work. This picture possesses all the best parts of the style of Vannucci; but the varied expressions which the apostles discover on finding the sepulchre void, are beyond the reach of that artist's powers. Raffaello still further excelled his master, as Vasari observes, in the third picture painted for Città di Castello. This is the marriage of the Virgin, in the church of S. Francesco. The composition very much resembles that which he adopted in a picture of the same subject in Perugia; but there is sufficient of modern art in it to indicate the commencement of a new style. The two espoused have a degree of beauty which Raffaello scarcely surpassed in his mature age, in any other countenances. The Virgin particularly is a model of celestial beauty. A youthful band festivelyadorned accompany her to her espousals; splendour vies with elegance; the attitudes are engaging, the veils variously arranged, and there is a mixture of ancient and modern drapery, which at so early a period cannot be considered as a fault. In the midst of these accompaniments the principal figure triumphantly appears, not ornamented by the hand of art, but distinguished by her native nobility, beauty, modesty, and grace. The first sight of this performance strikes us with astonishment, and we involuntarily exclaim, how divine and noble the spirit that animates her heavenly form! The group of the men of the party of S. Joseph are equally well conceived. In these figures we see nothing of the stiffness of the drapery, the dryness of execution, and the peculiar style of Pietro, which sometimes approaches to harshness: all is action, and an animating spirit breathes in every gesture and in every countenance. The landscapes are not represented with sterile and impoverished trees, as in the backgrounds of Pietro; but are drawn from nature, and finished with care. The round temple in the summit is ornamented with columns, and executed, Vasari observes, with such admirable art, that it is wonderful to observe the difficulties he has willingly incurred. In the distance are beautiful groups, and there is a figure of a poor man imploring charity depicted to the life, and, more near, a youth, a figure which proves the artist to have been master of the then novel art of foreshortening. I have purposely describedthese specimens of the early years of Raphael, more particularly than any other writer, in order to acquaint the reader with the rise of his divine talents. In the labours of his more mature years, the various masters whose works he studied may each claim his own; but in his first flight he was exclusively supported by the vigour of his own talents. The bent of his genius, which was not less voluptuous and graceful than it was noble and elevated, led him to that ideal beauty, grace, and expression, which is the most refined and difficult province of painting. To insure success in this department neither study nor art is sufficient. A natural taste for the beautiful, an intellectual faculty of combining the several excellences of many individuals in one perfect whole, a vivid apprehension, and a sort of fervour in seizing the sudden and momentary expressions of passion, a facility of touch, obedient to the conceptions of the imagination; these were the means which nature alone could furnish, and these, as we have seen, he possessed from his earliest years. Whoever ascribes the success of Raffaello to the effects of study, and not to the felicity of his genius, does not justly appreciate the gifts which were lavished on him by nature.[29]
He now became the admiration of his master and his fellow scholars; and about the same time Pinturicchio, after having painted with so much applause at Rome before Raffaello was born, aspired to become, as it were, his scholar in the great work at Siena. He did not himself possess a genius sufficiently elevated for the sublime composition which the place required; nor had Pietro himself sufficient fertility, or a conception of mind equal to so novel an undertaking. It was intended to represent the life and actions of Æneas Silvius Piccolomini, afterwards Pope Pius II.; the embassies entrusted to him by the council of Constance to various princes; and by Felix, the antipope, to Frederick III., who conferred on him the laurel crown; and also the various embassies which he undertook for Frederick himself to Eugenius IV., and afterwards to Callistus IV., who created him a Cardinal. His subsequent exaltation to the Papacy, and the most remarkable events of his reign, were also to be represented; the canonization of S. Catherine; his attendance on the Council of Mantua, where he was received in a princely manner by the Duke; and finally his death, and the removal of his body from Ancona to Rome. Never perhaps was an undertaking of such magnitude entrusted to a single master. The art itself had not as yet attempted any great flight. The principal figures in composition generally stood isolated, as Pietro exhibited them in Perugia, without aiming at composition. In consequenceof this the proportions were seldom true, nor did the artists depart much from sacred subjects, the frequent repetition of which had already opened the way to plagiarism. Historical subjects of this nature were new to Raffaello, and to him, unaccustomed to reside in a metropolis, it must have been most difficult, in painting so many as eleven pictures, to imitate the splendour of different courts, and as we may say, the manners of all Europe, varying the composition agreeably to the occasion. Nevertheless, being conducted by his friend to Siena, he made the sketches and cartoons ofallthese subjects, says Vasari in his life of Pinturicchio, and that he made the sketches of the whole is the common report at Siena. In the life of Raffaello he states that he madesome of the designs and cartoons for this work, and that the reason of his not continuing them, was his haste to proceed to Florence, to see the cartoons of Da Vinci and Bonarruoti. But I am more inclined to the first statement of Vasari, than the subsequent one. In April, 1503, Raffaello was employed in the Library, as is proved by the will of Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini.[30]While the Library was yet unfinished, Piccolomini was elected Pope on the twenty-first day of September; and his coronation following on the eighth of October, Pinturicchio commemorated the event on the outside of the Library,in the part opposite to the duomo. Bottari remarks, that in this façade we may detect not only the design, but in many of the heads the colouring also of Raffaello. It appears probable therefore that he remained to complete the work, the last subject of which might perhaps be finished in the following year, 1504, in which he departed to Florence. We may here observe, that this work, which has maintained its colours so well that it almost appears of recent execution, confers great honour on a young artist of twenty years of age; as we do not find a composition of such magnitude, in the passage from ancient to modern art, conceived by any single painter. So that if Raffaello stood not entirely alone in this work, the best part of it must still be assigned to him, since Pinturicchio himself was improving at this time, and the works which he afterwards executed at Spello and Siena itself, incline more to the modern than any he had before done. This will justify us in concluding that Raffaello had already, at that early age, far outstripped his master; his contour being more full, his composition more rich and free, accompanied by an ornamental and grander style, and an ability unlimited, and capable of embracing every subject that was presented to him.
The works which he saw in Florence did not lead him out of his own path, as, to mention one instance, afterwards happened to Franco, who, coming from Venice, applied himself to a style of design and a career entirely new. Raffaello had formedhis own system, and only sought examples, to enlarge his ideas and facilitate his execution. He therefore studied the works of Masaccio, an elegant and expressive painter, whose Adam and Eve he afterwards adopted in the Vatican. He also became acquainted with Fra Bartolommeo, who, about this time, had returned to the exercise of his profession. To this artist he taught the principles of perspective, and acquired from him, in return, a better style of colouring. We have not any record to prove that he made himself known to Da Vinci; and the portrait of Raffaello, in the ducal gallery in Florence, which is said to be by Lionardo, is an unknown head. I would willingly, however, flatter myself, that a congeniality of mind and an affinity of genius, emulous in the pursuit of perfection, must have produced a knowledge of each other, if it did not conciliate a mutual attachment. No one certainly was more capable than Da Vinci, of communicating to Raffaello a degree of refinement and knowledge, which he could not have received from Pietro; and to introduce him into the more subtle views of art. As to Michelangiolo, his pictures were rare, and less analogous to the genius of Raffaello. His celebrated Cartoon was not yet finished, in 1504, and that great master was jealous of its being seen, before its entire completion. He finished it some few years afterwards, when he returned to Florence on his flight from Rome, occasioned by the anger of Julius II. Raffaello therefore could not have had the opportunity of studyingit at that time, nor did he then long remain in Florence, for, as Vasari states, he was soon obliged to return to his native place, in consequence of the death of his parents.[31]In 1505 we find him in Perugia: and to this year belongs the chapel of S. Severo, and the Crucifixion, which was severed from the wall, and preserved by the Padri Camaldolensi. From these works, which are all in fresco, we may ascertain the style which he acquired in Florence; and I think we may assert, that it was not anatomical, no traces of it being visible in the body of the Redeemer, which was an opportunity well adapted for the exhibition of it. Nor was it the study of the beautiful, of which he had previously exhibited such delightful specimens; nor that of expression, as there were not to be found in Florence, heads more expressive and lovely than those he had painted. But after his visit to Florence, we find his colouring more delicate, and his grouping and the foreshortening of his figures improved; whether or not he owed it to the exampleof Da Vinci or Bonarruoti, or both together, or to some of the older masters. He afterwards repaired to Florence, but soon quitted it again, in order to paint in the church of S. Francis, in Perugia, a dead Christ entombed, the cartoon of which he had designed at Florence; and which picture was first placed in the church of S. Francis, was afterwards, in the pontificate of Paul V., transferred to Rome, and is now in the Borghese palace. After this he returned again to Florence, and remained there until his departure for Rome, at the end of the year 1508. In this interval, more particularly, he executed the works which are said to be in his second style, though it is a very delicate matter to attempt to point them out. Vasari assigns to this period the Holy Family in the Rinuccini gallery, and yet it bears the date of 1506. Of this second style is undoubtedly the picture of the Madonna and the infant Christ and S. John, in a beautiful landscape, with ruins in the distance, which is in the gallery of the Grand Duke, and others, some of which are to be found in foreign countries. His pictures of this period are composed in the more usual style of a Madonna, accompanied by saints, like the picture of the Pitti palace, formerly at Pescia, and that of S. Fiorenzo in Perugia, which passed into England. The attitudes, however, the air of the heads, and smaller features of composition, are beyond a common style. The dead Christ above mentioned, is in a more novel and superior style. Vasari calls it a most divine picture; the figuresare not numerous; but each fulfils perfectly the part assigned to it; the subject is most affecting; the heads are remarkably beautiful, and the earliest of the kind in the restoration of art, while the expression of profound sorrow and extreme anguish does not divest them of their beauty. After finishing this work, Raphael was ambitious of painting an apartment in Florence, one, I believe, of the Palazzo Pubblico. There remains a letter of his, in which he requests the Duke of Urbino to write to the Gonfaloniere Soderini, in April, 1508.[32]But his relative, Bramante, procured him a nobler employ in Rome, recommending him to Julius II. to ornament the Vatican. He removed thither, and was already established there in the September of the same year.[33]
We at length, then, behold him fixed in Rome, and placed in the Vatican at a period, and under circumstances calculated to render him the first painter in the world. His biographers do not mention his literary attainments; and, if we were to judge from his letter just cited, and now in theMuseo Borgia, we might consider him grossly illiterate. But he was then writing to his uncle; and therefore made use of his native dialect, as is still done even in the public acts in Venice; though he might be master of, and might use on proper occasions, a more correct language. Raffaello, too, was of a family fully competent to afford him the necessary instructions in his early years. Other letters of his are found in theLettere Pittoriche, in a very different style; and of his knowledge in matters of importance, it is sufficient to refer to what Celio Calcagnini, an eminent literary character of the age of Leo, states of him to Giacomo Zieglero: "I need not," he says, "mention Vitruvius, whose precepts he not only explains, but defends or impugns with evident justice, and with so much temper, that in his objections there does not appear the slightest asperity. He has excited the admiration of the Pontiff Leo, and of all the Romans, in such a way, that they regard him as a man sent down from heaven purposely to restore the eternal city to its ancient splendour."[34]This acknowledged skill in architecture must suppose an adequate acquaintance with the Latin language and geometry; and we know from other quarters, that he assiduously cultivated anatomy, history, and poetry.[35]But his principal pursuit in Rome was the study of the remains ofGrecian genius, and by which he perfected his knowledge of art. He studied, too, the ancient buildings, and was instructed in the principles of architecture for six years by Bramante, in order that on his death he might succeed him in the management of the building of S. Peter.[36]He lived among the ancient sculptors, and derived from them not only their contours and drapery, and attitudes, but the spirit and principles of the art itself. Nor yet content with what he saw in Rome, he employed artists to copy the remains of antiquity at Pozzuolo and throughout all Italy, and even in Greece. Nor did he derive less assistance from living artists whom he consulted on his compositions. "The universal esteem which he enjoyed,"[37]and his attractive person and engagingmanners, which all accounts unite in describing as incomparable, conciliated him the favour of the most eminent men of letters of his age; and Bembo, Castiglione, Giovio, Navagero, Ariosto, Aretino, Fulvio, and Calcagnini, set a high value on his friendship, and supplied him, we may be allowed to suppose, with hints and ideas for his works.
His rival Michelangiolo, too, and his party, contributed not a little to the success of Raffaello. As the contest between Zeuxis and Parrhasius was beneficial to them both, so the rivalship of Bonarruoti and Sanzio aided the fame of Michelangiolo, and produced the paintings of the Sistine chapel; and at the same time contributed to the celebrity of Raffaello, by producing the pictures of the Vatican, and not a few others. Michelangiolo disdaining any secondary honours, came to the combat, as it were, attended by his shield bearer; for he made drawings in his grand style, and then gave them to F. Sebastiano, the scholar of Giorgione, to execute; and by these means he hoped that Raffaello would never be able to rival his productions either in design or colour. Raffaello stood alone; but aimed at producing works with a degree of perfection beyond the united efforts of Michelangiolo and Sebastian del Piombo, combining in himself a fertile invention, ideal beauty founded on a correct imitation of the Greek style, grace, ease, amenity, and an universality of genius in every department of the art. The nobledetermination of triumphing in such a powerful contest animated him night and day, and did not allow him any respite. It also excited him to surpass both his rivals and himself in every new work which he produced. The subjects, too, chosen for these chambers, aided him, as they were in a great measure new, or required to be treated in a novel manner. They did not profess to represent bacchanalian or vulgar scenes, but the exalted symbols of science; the sacred functions of religion; military actions, which contributed to establish the peace of the world; important events of former days, under which were typified the reigns of the Pontiffs Julius and Leo X.: the latter the most powerful protector, and one of the most accomplished judges of art. More favourable circumstances could not have conspired to stimulate a noble mind. The eulogizing of Augustus was a theme for the poets of his age, which produced the richest fruits of genius. Propertius, accustomed to sing only of the charms or the disdain of his Cinthia, felt himself another poet when called on to celebrate the triumphs of Augustus; and with newborn fervour invoked Jove himself to suspend the functions of his divinity whilst he sang the praises of the emperor.[38]It is certain that such elevated subjects, in minds richly stored, must excite corresponding ideas, and thus both in poets and painters, give birth to the sublime.
Raffaello, on his arrival in Rome, says Vasari, was commissioned to paint a chamber, which was at that time called La Segnatura, and which, from the subject of the pictures, was also called the chamber of the Sciences. On the ceiling are represented Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Jurisprudence. Each of them has on the neighbouring façade a grand historical piece illustrative of the subject. On the basement are also historical pieces which belong to the same sciences; and these smaller performances, and the caryatides and telamoni distributed around, are monocromati or chiaroscuri, an idea entirely of Raffaello, and afterwards, it is said, continued by Polidoro da Caravaggio. Raffaello commenced with Theology, and imitated Petrarch, who in one of his visions has assembled together men of the same condition, though living in different ages. He there placed the evangelists, whose volumes are the foundation of theology; the sacred writers, who have preserved its traditions; the theologists, S. Thomas, S. Bonaventura, Scotus, and the rest who have illustrated it by their arguments; above all, the Trinity in the midst of the beatified, and beneath on an altar the eucharist, as if to express the mystery of that doctrine. There are traces of the ancient style in this piece. Gold is made use of in the glories of the saints, and in other ornamental parts; the upper glory is formed on the plan of that of S. Severo, which I have already noticed: the composition is more symmetrical and less freethan in other pieces; and the whole, compared with the other compositions, seems too minute. Nevertheless, whosoever regards each part in itself, will find it of such careful and admirable execution, that he will be disposed to prefer it to all other works. It has been observed, that Raffaello began this piece at the right side, and that by the time he had arrived at the left side portion, he had made rapid strides in the art. This work must have been finished about the year 1508: and such was the surprise and admiration of the Pope, that he ordered all the works of Bramantino, Pier della Francesca, Signorelli, l'Abate di Arezzo, and Sodoma (though some of the ornamental parts by this last are preserved) to be effaced, in order that the whole chamber might be decorated by Raffaello.
In the subsequent works of Raffaello, and after the year 1509, we do not find any traces of his first style. He had adopted a nobler manner, and henceforth applied all his powers to the perfecting of it. He had now to represent, on the opposite side, Philosophy. In this he designed a gymnasium in the form of a temple, and placed the learned ancients, some in the precincts of the building, some on the ascent of the steps, and others in the plain below. In this, more than on any other occasion, he was aided by his favourite Petrarch in the third capitolo of his Fame. Plato, "che in quella schiera andò più presso al segno," is there represented with Aristotle, "più d'ingegno," inthe act of disputation; and they possess also in the composition, the highest place of honour; Socrates is represented instructing Alcibiades; Pythagoras is seen, and before him a youth holds a tablet with the harmonious concords; and Zoroaster, King of Bactriana, appears with an elementary globe in his hand. Diogenes is stretched near on the ground, with his wooden bowl in his hand, "assai più che non vuol vergogna aperto:" Archimedes is seen "star col capo basso," and turning the compasses on the table, instructs the youth in geometry; and others are represented meditating, or in disputation, whose names and characters it would be possible, with careful observation, to distinguish more truly than Vasari has done. This picture is commonly called the School of Athens, which in my judgment is just as appropriate, as the name of the Sacrament bestowed on the first subject. The third picture, representing Jurisprudence, is divided into two parts. On the left side of the window stands Justinian, with the book of the Civil Law; Trebonian receives it from his hand with an expression of submission and acquiescence, which no other pencil can ever hope to equal. On the right side is seen Gregory IX. who delivers the book of the Decretals to an advocate of the Consistory, and bears the features of Julius II., who is thus honoured in the character of his predecessor. In the concluding picture, which is a personification of Poetry, is seen Mount Parnassus, where, in company of Apollo and the muses, the Greek,Roman, and Tuscan poets are represented in their own portraitures, as far as records will allow. Homer, seated between Virgil and Dante, is, perhaps, the most striking figure; he is evidently gifted with a divine spirit, and unites in his person the characters of the prophet and the poet. The historical pieces in chiaroscuro contribute, by their ornaments, to charm the sight, and preserve the unity of design. Beneath the Theology, for instance, is represented S. Augustine on the borders of the sea, instructed by the angels not to explore the mystery of the Trinity, incomprehensible to the human mind. Under the Philosophy, Archimedes is seen surprised and slain by a soldier, whilst immersed in his studies. This first chamber was finished in 1511, as that year appears inscribed near the Parnassus.
Vasari, until the finishing of the first chamber, does not speak of the improvement of his manner; on the contrary, in his life of Raffaello, he says, "although he had seen so many monuments of antiquity in that city, and studied so unremittingly, still his figures, up to this period, did not possess that breadth and majesty which they afterwards exhibited. For it happened, that the breach between Michelangiolo and the Pope, which we have before mentioned in his life, occurred about this time, and compelled Bonarruoti to flee to Florence; from which circumstance, Bramante obtaining possession of the keys of the chapel, exhibited it to his friend Raffaello, in order that he might makehimself acquainted with the style of Michelangiolo;" and he then proceeds to mention the Isaiah of S. Agostino, and the Sibyls della Pace, painted after this period, and the Heliodorus. In the life of Michelangiolo, he again informs us of the quarrel which obliged him to depart from Rome, and proceeds to say, that when, on his return, he had finished one half of the work, the Pope suddenly commanded it to be exposed; "whereupon Raffaello d'Urbino, who possessed great facility of imitation, immediately changed his style, and at one effort designed the Prophets and Sibyls della Pace." This brings us to a dispute prosecuted with the greatest warmth both in Italy and other countries. Bellori attacked Vasari in a violent manner, in a work entitled: "Se Raffaello ingrandì e migliorò la maniera per aver vedute le opere di Michelangiolo," (Whether Raffaello enlarged and improved his style on seeing the works of Michelangiolo). Crespi replied to him in three letters, inserted in the Lettere Pittoriche,[39]and many other disputants have arisen and stated fresh arguments.
It is not, however, our province to engage the reader in these disputations. It was greatly to the advantage of Michelangiolo's fame to have had two scholars, who, while he was yet living, and after the death of Raffaello, employed themselves in writing his life; and a great misfortune to Raffaello not to have been commemorated in the samemanner. If he had survived to the time when Vasari and Condivi wrote, he would not have passed over their charges in silence. Raffaello would then have easily proved, that when Bonarruoti fled to Florence, in 1506, he himself was not in Rome, nor was called thither until two years afterwards; and that he could not, therefore, have obtained a furtive glance of the Sistine chapel. It would have been proved too, that from the year 1508, when Michelangiolo had, perhaps, not commenced his work, until 1511, in which year he exhibited the first half of it,[40]Raffaello had been endeavouring to enlarge his style; and as Michelangiolo had before studied the Torso of the Belvidere, so Raffaello also formed himself on this and other marbles,[41]a circumstance easily discoverable in his style. He might too have asked Vasari, in what he considered grandeur and majesty of style to consist; and from the example of the Greeks, and from reason herself, he might have informed him, that the grand does not consist in the enlargement of the muscles, or in an extravagance of attitude, but in adopting, as Mengs has observed, the noblest, and neglectingthe inferior and meaner parts;[42]and exercising the higher powers of invention. Hence he would have proceeded to point out the grandeur of style in the School of Athens, in the majestic edifice, in the contour of the figures, in the folds of the drapery, in the expression of the countenances, and in the attitudes; and he would have easily traced the source of that sublimity in the relics of antiquity. And if he appeared still greater in his Isaiah, he might have refuted Vasari from his own account, who assigns this work to a period anterior to 1511, and therefore contemporary as it were with the School of Athens: adding, that he elevated his style by propriety of character, and by the study of Grecian art. The Greeks observed an essential difference between common men and heroes, and again between their heroes and their gods; and Raffaello, after having represented philosophers immersed in human doubts, might well elevate his style when he came to figure a prophet meditating the revelations of God.[43]All this might have been advanced by Raffaello, in order torelieve Bramante and himself from so ill supported an imputation. As to the rest, I believe he never would have denied, that the works of Michelangiolo had inspired him with a more daring spirit of design, and that in the exhibition of strong character, he had sometimes even imitated him. But how imitated him? In rendering, as Crespi himself observes, that very style more beautiful and more majestic, (p. 344). It is indeed a great triumph to the admirers of Raffaello to be able to say, whoever wishes to see what is wanting in the Sibyls of Michelangiolo, let him inspect those of Raffaello; and let him view the Isaiah of Raffaello, who would know what is wanting in the prophets of Michelangiolo.
After public curiosity was gratified, and Raffaello had obtained a glimpse of this new style, Bonarruoti closed the doors, and hastened to finish the other half of his work, which was completed at the close of 1512, so that the Pope, on the solemnization of the Feast of Christmas, was enabled to perform mass in the Sistine chapel. In the course of this year, Raffaello was employed in the second chamber on the subject of Heliodorus driven from the Temple by the prayers of Onias the high priest, one of the most celebrated pictures of the place. In this painting, the armed vision that appears to Heliodorus, scatters lightnings from his hand, while the neighing of the steed is heard amidst the attendant thunder. In the numerous bands, some of which are plundering the riches of the Temple, and others are ignorant of the cause ofthe surprise and terror exhibited in Heliodorus, consternation, amazement, joy, and abasement, and a host of passions, are expressed. In this work, and in others of these chambers, Raffaello, says Mengs, gave to painting all the augmentation it could receive after Michelangiolo. In this picture he introduced the portrait of Julius II., whose zeal and authority is represented in Onias. He appears in a litter borne by his grooms, in the manner in which he was accustomed to repair to the Vatican, to view this work. The Miracle of Bolsena was also painted in the lifetime of Julius.
The remaining decorations of these chambers were all illustrative of the history of Leo X., whose imprisonment in Ravenna, and subsequent liberation, is typified by St. Peter released from prison by the angel. It was in this piece that the painter exhibited an astonishing proof of his knowledge of light. The figures of the soldiers, who stand without the prison, are illuminated by the beams of the moon: there is a torch which produces a second light; and from the angel emanates a celestial splendour, that rivals the beams of the sun. He has here, too, afforded another proof how art may convert the impediments thrown in her way to her own advantage; for the place where he was painting being broken by a window, he has imagined on each side of it a staircase, which affords an ascent to the prison, and on the steps he has placed the guards overpowered with sleep; so that the painter does not seem to have accommodated himselfto the place, but the place to have become subservient to the painter. The composition of S. Leo the Great, who checks Attila at the head of his army, and that of the other chamber, the battle with the Saracens in the port of Ostium, and the victory obtained by S. Leo IV., justify Raffaello's claim to the epic crown: so powerfully has he depicted the military array of men and horse, the arms peculiar to each nation, the fury of the combat, and the despair and humiliation of the prisoners. Near this performance, too, is the wonderful piece of the Incendio di Borgo (a city enveloped in fire), which is miraculously extinguished by the same S. Leo. This wonderful piece alternately chills the heart with terror, or warms it with compassion. The calamity of fire is carried to its extreme point, as it is the hour of midnight, and the fire, which already occupies a considerable space, is increased by a violent wind, which agitates the flames that leap with rapidity from house to house. The affright and misery of the inhabitants is also carried to the utmost extremity. Some rush forward with water, but are driven back by the scorching flames; others seek safety in flight, with naked feet, robeless, and with dishevelled hair; women are seen turning an imploring look to the Pontiff; mothers, whose own terrors are absorbed in fear for their offspring; and here a youth, who bearing on his shoulders his aged and infirm sire, and sinking beneath the weight, collects his almost exhausted strength to place him out of danger. Theconcluding subjects refer to Leo III.; the Coronation of Charlemagne, by the hand of that Pontiff, and the Oath taken by the Pope on the Holy Evangelists, to exculpate himself from the calumnies laid to his charge. In Leo, is meant to be represented Leo X., who is thus honoured in the persons of his predecessors; and in Charlemagne is represented Francis I., King of France. Many persons of the age are also figured in the surrounding group, so that there is not an historical subject in these chambers that does not contain the most accurate likenesses. In this latter department of art, also, Raffaello may be said to have been transcendant. His portraits have deceived even persons the most intimately acquainted with the subjects of them. He painted a remarkable picture of Leo X., and on one occasion the Cardinal Datary of that time, found himself approaching it with a bull, and pen and ink, for the Pope's signature.[44]
The six subjects which relate to Leo, elected in 1513, were finished in 1517. In the nine years which Raphael employed on these three chambers, and also in the three following years, he made additional decorations to the Pontifical Palace; he observed the style of ornament suitable to each part of it, and thus made the Pope's residence a model of magnificence and taste for all Europe. Few have adverted to this instance of his merit. He superintended the new gallery of the palace,availing himself in part of the design of Bramante, and in part improving on him. "He then made designs for the stuccos, and the various subjects there painted, and also for the divisions, and he then appointed Giovanni da Udine to finish the stuccos and arabesques, and Giulio Romano the figures." The exposure of this gallery to the inclemencies of the air, has left little remaining besides the squalid grotesques; but those who saw it at an early period, when the unsullied splendor of the gold, the pure white of the stuccos, the brilliancy of the colours, and the newness of the marble, rendered every part of it beautiful and resplendent, must have thought it a vision of paradise. Vasari, in eulogizing it, says, "It is impossible to execute, or to conceive, a more exquisite work." The best which now remain are the thirteen ceilings, in each of which are distributed four subjects from holy writ, the first of which, the Creation of the World, Raffaello executed with his own hand as a model for the others, which were painted by his scholars, and afterwards retouched and rendered uniform by himself, as was his custom. I have seen copies of these in Rome, executed at great cost, and with great fidelity, for Catherine, Empress of Russia, under the direction of Mr. Hunterberger, and from the effect which was produced by the freshness of the colours, I could easily conceive how highly enchanting the originals must have been. But their great value consisted in Raffaello having enriched them by his invention,expression, and design, and every one is agreed that each subject is a school in itself. It appears certain too, that he was desirous of competing with Michelangiolo, who had treated the same subject in the Sistine chapel; and of appealing to the public to judge whether or not he had equalled him. To describe in a suitable manner the other pictures in chiaroscuro, and the numerous landscapes and architectural subjects, the trophies, imitations of cameos, masks, and other things which this divine artist either designed himself or formed into new combinations from the antique, is a task, says Taja, far above the reach of human powers. Taja has however himself given us a delightful description of these works.[45]It confers the highest honour on Raffaello, to whom we owe the fifty-two subjects, and all the ornamental parts.
Nor were the pavements, or the doors, or other interior works in the palace of the Vatican, completed without his superintendence. He directed the pavements to be formed ofterra invetriata, an ancient invention of Luca della Robbia, which having continued for many generations as a family secret, was then in the hands of another Luca. Raffaello invited him to Florence to execute this vast work, employed him in the gallery, and in many of the chambers, which he adorned with the arms of the Pope. For the couches and other ornaments of the Camera di Segnatura he brought to Rome F. Giovanni da Verona, who formed themof mosaic with the most beautiful views. For the entablatures of the chambers, and for several of the windows and doors, he engaged Giovanni Barile, a celebrated Florentine engraver of gems. This work was executed in so masterly a manner, that Louis XIII., wishing to ornament the palace of the Louvre, had all these intaglios separately copied. The drawings of them were made by Poussin, and Mariette boasted of having them in his collection. Nor was there any other work either of stone or marble for which a design was required, which did not come under the inspection of Raffaello, and on which he did not impress his taste, which was consummate also in the sister art of sculpture. A proof of this is to be seen in the Jonah, in the church of the Madonna del Popolo, in the Chigi chapel, which was executed by Lorenzetto under his direction, and which, Bottari says, may assume its place by the side of the Greek statues. Among his most remarkable works may be mentioned his designs for the tapestry in the papal chapel, the subjects of which were from the lives of the Evangelists, and the Acts of the Apostles. The cartoons for them were both designed and coloured by Raffaello; and after the tapestries were finished in the Low Countries, the cartoons passed into England, where they still remain. In these tapestries the art attained its highest pitch, nor has the world since beheld anything to equal them in beauty. They are exposed annually in the great portico of S. Peter, in the procession of theCorpus Domini,and it is wonderful to behold the crowds that flock to see them, and who ever regard them with fresh avidity and delight. But all these works of Raffaello would not have contributed to the extension of art at that period, beyond the meridian of Rome, if he had not succeeded in extending the fruits of his genius, by the means of prints. We have already noticed M. A. Raimondi, in the first book, and we have shewn that this great engraver was courteously received, and was afterwards assisted by Sanzio, whence an abundance of copies of the designs and the works of this master have been given to the world. A fine taste was thus rapidly propagated throughout Europe, and the beautiful style of Raffaello began to be justly appreciated. In a short time it became the prevailing taste, and if his maxims had remained unaltered, Italian painting would probably have flourished for as long a period as Greek sculpture.
In the midst of such a variety of occupations, Raffaello did not fail to gratify the wishes of many private individuals, who were desirous of having his designs for buildings, in which branch of art he was highly celebrated, and also of possessing his pictures. I need only to refer to the gallery of Agostini Chigi, which he ornamented with his own hand, with the well known fable of Galatea. He afterwards, with the assistance of his pupils, painted the Marriage of Psyche, at the banquet of which he assembled all the heathen deities, with such propriety of form, with their attendant symbolsand genii, that in these fabulous subjects he almost rivalled the Greeks. These pictures, and those also of the chambers of the Vatican, were retouched by Maratta, with incredible care; and the method he adopted, as described by Bellori, may serve as a guide in similar cases. Raffaello also painted many altarpieces, with saints generally introduced; as that Delle Contesse at Foligno, where he introduced the Chamberlain of the Pope, alive, rather than drawn from the life: that for S. Giovanni in Monte, at Bologna, of S. Cecilia, who, charmed to rapture by a celestial melody, forgets her musical instrument, which falls neglected from her hands; that for Palermo, of Christ ascending Mount Calvary, calleddelloSpasimo, which, however much disparaged by Cumberland, for having been retouched, is a noble ornament of the royal collection at Madrid; and the others at Naples and at Piacenza, which are mentioned by his biographers. He also painted S. Michael for the King of France, and many other holy families[46]and devotional subjects, which neither Vasari nor his other biographers have fully enumerated.
But although the creation of these wonderful works was become a habit in this great artist, still every part of his productions cannot be considered as equally successful. It is known, that in the frescos of the palace, and in the Chigi gallery, he was censured in some naked figures for errors committed, as Vasari says, by some of his school. Mengs, who varied his opinions at different periods of his life, insinuates, that Raffaello for some time seemed to slumber, and did not make those rapid strides in the art, which might have been expected from his genius. This was, probably, when Michelangiolo was for some years absent from Rome. But when he returned, and heard it reported that many persons considered the paintings of Raffaello superior to his in colour, of more beauty and grace in composition, and of a correspondent excellence in design, whilst his works were said to possess none of these qualities except the last; he was stimulated to avail himself of the pencil of Fra Sebastiano, and at the same time supplied him with his own designs. The most celebrated work which they produced in conjunction, was a Transfiguration, in fresco, with a Flagellation, and other figures, in a chapel of S. Peter in Montorio. Raffaello being subsequently employed to paint a picture for the Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, afterwards Clement VII., Sebastiano, in a sort of competition, painted another picture of the same size. In the latter was represented the raising of Lazarus; in the former, with the master'saccustomed spirit of emulation, the Transfiguration. "This is a picture which combines," says Mengs, "more excellences than any of the previous works of Raffaello. The expression in it is more exalted and more refined, the chiaroscuro more correct, the perspective better understood, the penciling finer, and there is a greater variety in the drapery, more grace in the heads, and more grandeur in the style."[47]It represents the mystery of the Transfiguration of Christ on the summit of Mount Tabor. On the side of the hill he has placed a band of his disciples, and with the happiest invention has engaged them in an action conformable to their powers, and has thus formed an episode not beyond the bounds of probability. A youth possessed is presented to them, that they may expel the evil spirit that torments him; and in the possessed, struggling with the presence of the demon, the confiding faith of the father, the affliction of a beautiful and interesting female, and the compassion visible in the countenances of the surrounding apostles, we are presented with perhaps the most pathetic incident ever conceived. Yet this part of the composition does not fix our regard so much as the principal subject on the summit of the mountain. There the two prophets, and the three disciples, are most admirably delineated, and the Saviour appears enveloped in a glory emanating from the fountain of eternal light, and surrounded by that chaste and celestial radiance,that is reserved exclusively for the eyes of the elect. The countenance of Christ, in which he has developed all his combined ideas of majesty and beauty, may be considered the masterpiece of Raffaello, and seems to us the most sublime height to which the genius of the artist, or even the art itself, was capable of aspiring. After this effort he never resumed his pencil, as he was soon afterwards suddenly seized with a mortal distemper, of which he died, in the bosom of the church, on Good Friday, (also the anniversary of his birthday,) 1520, aged thirty-seven years. His body reposed for some days in the chamber where he was accustomed to paint, and over it was placed this noble picture of the Transfiguration, previous to his mortal remains being transferred to the church of the Rotonda for interment. There was not an artist that was not moved to tears at this affecting sight. Raffaello had always possessed the power of engaging the affections of all with whom he was acquainted. Respectful to his master, he obtained from the Pope an assurance that his works, in one of the ceilings of the Vatican, should remain unmolested; just towards his rivals, he expressed his gratitude to God that he had been born in the days of Bonarruoti; gracious towards his pupils, he loved them, and intrusted them as his own sons; courteous even to strangers, he cheerfully lent his aid to all who asked his advice; and in order to make designs for others, or to direct them in their studies, he sometimes even neglectedhis own work, being alike incapable of refusing or delaying his inestimable aid. All these reflections forced themselves on the minds of the spectators, whose eyes were at one moment directed to the view of his youthful remains, and of those divine hands that had, in the imitation of her works, almost excelled nature herself; and at another moment, to the contemplation of this his latest production, which appeared to exhibit the dawn of a new and wonderful style; and the painful reflection presented itself, that, with the life of Raffaello, the brightest prospects of art were thus suddenly obscured. The Pope himself was deeply affected at his death, and requested Bembo to compose the epitaph which is now read on his tomb; and his loss was considered as a national calamity throughout all Italy. True indeed it is, that soon after his decease, Rome herself, and her territory, experienced such unheard of calamities, that many had just cause to envy him, not only the celebrity of his life, but the opportune period of his death. He was not doomed to see the illustrious Leo X., at a time when he extended the most exalted patronage to the arts, poisoned by a sacrilegious hand; nor Clement VII., pressed by an enraged enemy, seeking shelter in the Castle of S. Angelo, afterwards compelled to fly for his life, and obliged to purchase, at enormous sums, the liberty of his servants. Nor did he witness the horrors attending the sacking of Rome, the nobility robbed and plundered in their own palaces,the violation of hapless females in the convents; prelates unrelentingly dragged to the scaffold, and priests torn from the altars, and from the images of their saints, to whom they looked in vain for refuge, slaughtered by the sword, and their bodies thrown out of the churches a prey to the dogs. Nor did he survive to see that city, which he had so illustrated by his genius, and where he had for so many years shared the public admiration and esteem, wasted with fire and sword. But of this we shall speak in another place, and shall here adduce some observations on his style, selected from various authors, and more particularly from Mengs, who has ably criticised it in his works already enumerated by me, as well as in some others.
Raffaello is by common consent placed at the head of his art; not because he excelled all others in every department of painting, but because no other artist has ever possessed the various parts of the art united in so high a degree. Lazzarini even asserts, that he was guilty of errors, and that he is only the first, because he did not commit so many as others. He ought, however, to have allowed, that his defects would be excellences in any other artist, being nothing more in him than the neglect of that higher degree of perfection to which he was capable of attaining. The art, indeed, comprehends so many and such difficult parts, that no individual artist has been alike distinguished in all; even Apelles was said to yield to Amphion in disposition and harmony, to Asclepiadorusin proportion, and to Protogenes in application.
The style of design of Raffaello, as seen in those drawings, divested of colours, which now form the chief ornaments of cabinets, presents us, if we may use the term, with the pure transcript of his imagination, and we stand in amaze at the contours, grace, precision, diligence, and genius, which they exhibit. One of the most admired of his drawings I once saw in the gallery of the Duke of Modena, a most finished and superior specimen, uniting in style all the invention of the best painters of Greece, and the execution of the first artists of Italy. It has been made a question whether Raffaello did not yield to Michelangiolo in drawing; and Mengs himself confesses, that he did, as far as regards the anatomy of the muscles, and in strong expression, in which he considers Raffaello to have imitated Michelangiolo. But we need not say with Vasari, that in order to prove that he understood the naked figure as well as Michelangiolo, he appropriated to himself the designs of that great master. On the contrary, in the figures of the two youths in the Incendio di Borgo, criticised by Vasari, one of whom is in the act of leaping from a wall to escape the flames, and the other is fleeing with his father on his shoulders, he not only proved that he had a perfect knowledge of the action of the muscles and the anatomy requisite for a painter, but prescribed the occasion when this style might be used without impropriety, as infigures of a robust form engaged in violent action. He moreover commonly marked the principal parts in the naked figure, and indicated the others after the example of the better ancient masters, and where he wrought from his own ideas, his execution was most correct. On this subject Bellori may be consulted at page 223 of the work already quoted, and the annotations to vol. ii. of Mengs, (page 197,) made by the Cavaliere d'Azzara, minister of the king of Spain at Rome, an individual, who, in conferring honour on the artist, has by his own writing conferred honour on art itself.
In chasteness of design, Raffaello was by some placed on a level with the Greeks, though this praise we must consider as extravagant. Agostino Caracci commends him as a model of symmetry; and in that respect, more than in any other, he approached the ancients; except, observes Mengs, in the hands, which being rarely found perfect in the ancient statues, he had not an equal opportunity of studying, and did not therefore design them so elegantly as the other parts. He selected the beautiful from nature, and as Mariette observes, whose collection was rich in his designs, he copied it with all its imperfections, which he afterwards gradually corrected, as he proceeded with his work. Above all things, he aimed at perfecting the heads, and from a letter addressed to Castiglione on the Galatea of the Palazzo Chigi, or of the Farnesina, he discovers how intent he was to select the best models of nature,and to perfect them in his own mind.[48]His own Fornarina assisted him in this object. Her portrait, by Raffaello's own hand, was formerly in the Barberini palace, and it is repeated in many of his Madonnas, in the picture of S. Cecilia, in Bologna, and in many female heads. Critics have often expressed a wish that these heads had possessed a more dignified character, and in this respect he was, perhaps, excelled by Guido Reni, and however engaging his children may be, those of Titian are still more beautiful. His true empire was in the heads of his men, which are portraits selected with judgment, and depicted with a dignity proportioned to his subject. Vasari calls the air of these heads superhuman, and calls on us to admire the expression of age in the patriarchs, simplicity of life in the apostles, and constancy of faith in the martyrs; and in Christ in the Transfiguration, he says, there is a portion of the divine essence itself transferred to his countenance, and made visible to mortal eyes.