RaphaelPainter and Architect of the High Renaissance

Contents

1 Raphael 11.1 Urbino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.2 Early life and work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.3 Inuence of Florence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.4 Roman period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.4.1 The Vatican Stanze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.4.2 Other projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.5 Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.5.1 Portraits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.6 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.7 Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.8 Printmaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.9 Private life and death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.10 Critical reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.11 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101.12 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101.13 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121.14 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121.15 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2 The School of Athens 142.1 Program, subject, gure identications and interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.1.1 Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152.1.2 Central gures (14 and 15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152.1.3 Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2.2 Drawings and cartoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162.3 Copies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162.4 Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162.5 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.7 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3 Ansidei Madonna 19

i

ii CONTENTS

3.1 The Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193.1.1 Excellence through serenity and divinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193.1.2 The young master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193.1.3 Isolated characters of the Umbrian school . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3.2 Commission and Provenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203.3 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4 Madonna del Prato (Raphael) 22

5 The Deposition (Raphael) 235.1 The Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235.2 Preparatory studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235.3 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245.4 The Altarpiece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245.5 Paintings inuenced by Raphaels deposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255.6 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255.8 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

6 The Parnassus 266.1 Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266.2 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266.3 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

7 Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga 277.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277.2 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277.4 Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

8 Portrait of Pope Julius II (Raphael) 288.1 Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288.2 Provenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

8.2.1 Santa Maria del Popolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298.2.2 Cardinal Sfondrati . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298.2.3 Borghese collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

8.3 Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308.4 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308.5 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

9 Portrait of Bindo Altoviti (Raphael) 329.1 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

10 Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione 33

CONTENTS iii

10.1 Prominent works inuenced by Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3410.2 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3410.3 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3410.4 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3410.5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

10.5.1 Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3510.5.2 Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3610.5.3 Content license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Chapter 1

Raphael

For other uses, see Raphael (disambiguation).

Raaello Sanzio da Urbino[2] (April 6 or March 28,1483 April 6, 1520),[3] known as Raphael, was an Ital-ian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. Hiswork is admired for its clarity of form, ease of compo-sition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic idealof human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo andLeonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity ofgreat masters of that period.[4]

Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusu-ally large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leavinga large body of work. Many of his works are found in theVatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms werethe central, and the largest, work of his career. The bestknown work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanzadella Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much ofhis work was executed by his workshop from his draw-ings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremelyinuential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his workwas mostly known from his collaborative printmaking.After his death, the inuence of his great rival Michelan-gelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th cen-turies, when Raphaels more serene and harmonious qual-ities were again regarded as the highest models. His ca-reer falls naturally into three phases and three styles, rstdescribed by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria,then a period of about four years (15041508) absorb-ing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his lasthectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working fortwo Popes and their close associates.[5]

1.1 Urbino

Raphael was born in the small but artistically signicantCentral Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region,[6]where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter tothe Duke. The reputation of the court had been estab-lished by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly success-ful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino bythe PopeUrbino formed part of the Papal Statesandwho died the year before Raphael was born. The em-

Giovanni Santi, Raphaels father; Christ supported by two an-gels, c.1490

phasis of Federicos court was rather more literary thanartistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well asa painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the lifeof Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced thedecor for masque-like court entertainments. His poemto Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of themost advanced North Italian painters, and Early Nether-landish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbinohe was probably more integrated into the central circle ofthe ruling family than most court painters.[7]

Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Mon-tefeltro, whomarried Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of theruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italiancourts for both music and the visual arts. Under them,the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Grow-ing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael theexcellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari.[8]Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to be-come set as the model of the virtues of the Italian hu-

1

2 CHAPTER 1. RAPHAEL

manist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depictionof it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, pub-lished in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504,when Raphael was no longer based there but frequentlyvisited, and they became good friends. He became closeto other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena andPietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becom-ing well known as writers, and would be in Rome dur-ing Raphaels period there. Raphael mixed easily in thehighest circles throughout his life, one of the factors thattended to give a misleading impression of eortlessnessto his career. He did not receive a full humanistic educa-tion however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin.[9]

1.2 Early life and workHis mother Mgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight,followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had al-ready remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven;his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bar-tolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litiga-tion with his stepmother. He probably continued to livewith his stepmother when not staying as an apprenticewith a master. He had already shown talent, accordingto Vasari, who says that Raphael had been a great helpto his father.[10] A brilliant self-portrait drawing fromhis teenage years shows his precocious talent.[11] His fa-thers workshop continued and, probably together withhis stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in man-aging it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came intocontact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously thecourt painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until1498 was based in nearby Citt di Castello.[12]

According to Vasari, his father placed him in the work-shop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an ap-prentice despite the tears of his mother. The evidenceof an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and anothersource,[13] and has been disputed eight was very earlyfor an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theoryis that he received at least some training from TimoteoViti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.[14]But most modern historians agree that Raphael at leastworked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500;the inuence of Perugino on Raphaels early work is veryclear: probably no other pupil of genius has ever ab-sorbed so much of his masters teaching as Raphael did,according to Wlin.[15] Vasari wrote that it was im-possible to distinguish between their hands at this pe-riod, but many modern art historians claim to do bet-ter and detect his hand in specic areas of works byPerugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic close-ness, their techniques are very similar as well, for ex-ample having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnishmedium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinlyon esh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish oftencauses cracking of areas of paint in the works of both

masters.[16] The Perugino workshop was active in bothPerugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two perma-nent branches.[17] Raphael is described as a master, thatis to say fully trained, in 1501.His rst documented work was the Baronci altarpiecefor the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Citt diCastello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino.Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for hisfather, was also named in the commission. It was com-missioned in 1500 and nished in 1501; now only somecut sections and a preparatory drawing remain.[18] In thefollowing years he painted works for other churches there,including the "Mond Crucixion" (about 1503) and theBreraWedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, suchas the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visitedFlorence in this period. These are large works, somein fresco, where Raphael condently marshals his com-positions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. Healso painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintingsin these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs inthe Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael,and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits.[19] In 1502he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil ofPerugino, Pinturicchio, being a friend of Raphael andknowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest qualityto help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, fora fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathe-dral.[20] He was evidently already much in demand evenat this early stage in his career.

The Mond Crucixion, 1502-3, very much in thestyle of Perugino

The Coronation of the Virgin 1502-3 The Wedding of the Virgin, Raphaels most sophis-ticated altarpiece of this period.

Saint George and the Dragon, a small work (29 x 21cm) for the court of Urbino.

1.3 Inuence of FlorenceRaphael led a nomadic life, working in various cen-tres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time inFlorence, perhaps from about 1504. However, althoughthere is traditional reference to a Florentine period ofabout 1504-8, he was possibly never a continuous residentthere.[21] He may have needed to visit the city to securematerials in any case. There is a letter of recommenda-tion of Raphael, dated October 1504, from the motherof the next Duke of Urbino to the Gonfaloniere of Flo-rence: The bearer of this will be found to be Raphael,painter of Urbino, who, being greatly gifted in his pro-fession has determined to spend some time in Florenceto study. And because his father was most worthy and Iwas very attached to him, and the son is a sensible and

1.4. ROMAN PERIOD 3

The Madonna of the Pinks, c. 15067, National Gallery, Lon-don

well-mannered young man, on both accounts, I bear himgreat love....[22]

As earlier with Perugino and others, Raphael was ableto assimilate the inuence of Florentine art, whilst keep-ing his own developing style. Frescos in Perugia ofabout 1505 show a new monumental quality in the gureswhich may represent the inuence of Fra Bartolomeo,who Vasari says was a friend of Raphael. But the moststriking inuence in the work of these years is Leonardoda Vinci, who returned to the city from 1500 to 1506.Raphaels gures begin to take more dynamic and com-plex positions, and though as yet his painted subjects arestill mostly tranquil, he made drawn studies of ghtingnude men, one of the obsessions of the period in Flo-rence. Another drawing is a portrait of a young womanthat uses the three-quarter length pyramidal compositionof the just-completed "Mona Lisa", but still looks com-pletely Raphaelesque. Another of Leonardos compo-sitional inventions, the pyramidal Holy Family, was re-peated in a series of works that remain among his mostfamous easel paintings. There is a drawing by Raphaelin the Royal Collection of Leonardos lost Leda and theSwan, from which he adapted the contrapposto pose ofhis own Saint Catherine of Alexandria.[23] He also per-fects his own version of Leonardos sfumato modelling,to give subtlety to his painting of esh, and develops theinterplay of glances between his groups, which are muchless enigmatic than those of Leonardo. But he keeps thesoft clear light of Perugino in his paintings.[24]

Leonardo was more than thirty years older than Raphael,but Michelangelo, who was in Rome for this period, was

just eight years his senior. Michelangelo already dislikedLeonardo, and in Rome came to dislike Raphael evenmore, attributing conspiracies against him to the youngerman.[25] Raphael would have been aware of his works inFlorence, but in his most original work of these years,he strikes out in a dierent direction. His Deposition ofChrist draws on classical sarcophagi to spread the guresacross the front of the picture space in a complex and notwholly successful arrangement. Wllin detects the in-uence of the Madonna in Michelangelos Doni Tondoin the kneeling gure on the right, but the rest of thecomposition is far removed from his style, or that ofLeonardo. Though highly regarded at the time, and muchlater forcibly removed from Perugia by the Borghese, itstands rather alone in Raphaels work. His classicismwould later take a less literal direction.[26]

The Ansidei Madonna, c. 1505, beginning to moveon from Perugino

The Madonna of the Meadow, c. 1506, usingLeonardos pyramidal composition for subjects ofthe Holy Family.[1]

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, 1507, borrows fromthe pose of Leonardos Leda[2]

Deposition of Christ, 1507, drawing from Romansarcophagi.

1. ^ Image. szepmuveszeti.hu.2. ^ The Royal Collection. Gold ring with an onyx

cameo of Ariadne. royalcollection.org.uk. Re-trieved 26 August 2010.

1.4 Roman period

1.4.1 The Vatican StanzeBy the end of 1508, he had moved to Rome, wherehe lived for the rest of his life. He was invited by thenew Pope Julius II, perhaps at the suggestion of his ar-chitect Donato Bramante, then engaged on St. Peters,who came from just outside Urbino and was distantly re-lated to Raphael.[27] Unlike Michelangelo, who had beenkept hanging around in Rome for several months afterhis rst summons,[28] Raphael was immediately commis-sioned by Julius to fresco what was intended to becomethe Popes private library at the Vatican Palace.[29] Thiswas a much larger and more important commission thanany he had received before; he had only painted one al-tarpiece in Florence itself. Several other artists and theirteams of assistants were already at work on dierentrooms, many painting over recently completed paintingscommissioned by Juliuss loathed predecessor, AlexanderVI, whose contributions, and arms, Julius was determinedto eace from the palace.[30] Michelangelo, meanwhile,

4 CHAPTER 1. RAPHAEL

had been commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel ceil-ing.

The Parnassus, 1511, Stanza della Segnatura

This rst of the famous Stanze or "Raphael Rooms" tobe painted, now always known as the Stanza della Seg-natura after its use in Vasaris time, was to make a stun-ning impact on Roman art, and remains generally re-garded as his greatest masterpiece, containing The Schoolof Athens, The Parnassus and the Disputa. Raphael wasthen given further rooms to paint, displacing other artistsincluding Perugino and Signorelli. He completed a se-quence of three rooms, each with paintings on each walland often the ceilings too, increasingly leaving the workof painting from his detailed drawings to the large andskilled workshop team he had acquired, who added afourth room, probably only including some elements de-signed by Raphael, after his early death in 1520. Thedeath of Julius in 1513 did not interrupt the work at all,as he was succeeded by Raphaels last Pope, the MediciPope Leo X, with whom Raphael formed an even closerrelationship, and who continued to commission him.[31]Raphaels friend Cardinal Bibbiena was also one of Leosold tutors, and a close friend and advisor.Raphael was clearly inuenced by Michelangelos SistineChapel ceiling in the course of painting the room. Vasarisaid Bramante let him in secretly, and the scaoldingwas taken down in 1511 from the rst completed sec-tion. The reaction of other artists to the daunting force ofMichelangelo was the dominating question in Italian artfor the following few decades, and Raphael, who had al-ready shown his gift for absorbing inuences into his ownpersonal style, rose to the challenge perhaps better thanany other artist. One of the rst and clearest instanceswas the portrait in The School of Athens of Michelan-gelo himself, as Heraclitus, which seems to draw clearlyfrom the Sybils and ignudi of the Sistine ceiling. Othergures in that and later paintings in the room show thesame inuences, but as still cohesive with a develop-ment of Raphaels own style.[32] Michelangelo accusedRaphael of plagiarism and years after Raphaels death,complained in a letter that everything he knew about arthe got from me, although other quotations show moregenerous reactions.[33]

These very large and complex compositions have beenregarded ever since as among the supreme works of thegrand manner of the High Renaissance, and the classicart of the post-antiqueWest. They give a highly idealiseddepiction of the forms represented, and the compositions,though very carefully conceived in drawings, achievesprezzatura, a term invented by his friend Castiglione,who dened it as a certain nonchalance which concealsall artistry and makes whatever one says or does seemuncontrived and eortless ....[34] According to MichaelLevey, Raphael gives his [gures] a superhuman clar-ity and grace in a universe of Euclidian certainties.[35]The painting is nearly all of the highest quality in the rsttwo rooms, but the later compositions in the Stanze, espe-cially those involving dramatic action, are not entirely assuccessful either in conception or their execution by theworkshop.

Stanza della Segnatura The Mass at Bolsena, 1514, Stanza di Eliodoro Deliverance of Saint Peter, 1514, Stanza di Eliodoro The Fire in the Borgo, 1514, Stanza dell'incendio delBorgo, painted by the workshop to Raphaels design.

1.4.2 Other projectsThe Vatican projects took most of his time, although hepainted several portraits, including those of his two mainpatrons, the popes Julius II and his successor Leo X, theformer considered one of his nest. Other portraits wereof his own friends, like Castiglione, or the immediatePapal circle. Other rulers pressed for work, and KingFrancis I of France was sent two paintings as diplomaticgifts from the Pope.[36] For Agostino Chigi, the hugelyrich banker and Papal Treasurer, he painted the Galateaand designed further decorative frescoes for his Villa Far-nesina, and painted two chapels in the churches of SantaMaria della Pace and Santa Maria del Popolo. He alsodesigned some of the decoration for the Villa Madama,the work in both villas being executed by his workshop.One of his most important papal commissions was theRaphael Cartoons (now in the Victoria and Albert Mu-seum), a series of 10 cartoons, of which seven survive,for tapestries with scenes of the lives of Saint Paul andSaint Peter, for the Sistine Chapel. The cartoons weresent to Brussels to be woven in the workshop of Pier vanAelst. It is possible that Raphael saw the nished se-ries before his deaththey were probably completed in1520.[37] He also designed and painted the Loggia at theVatican, a long thin gallery then open to a courtyard onone side, decorated with Roman-style grottesche.[38] Heproduced a number of signicant altarpieces, includingThe Ecstasy of St. Cecilia and the Sistine Madonna. Hislast work, on which he was working up to his death, wasa large Transguration, which together with Il Spasimo

1.6. ARCHITECTURE 5

shows the direction his art was taking in his nal yearsmore proto-Baroque than Mannerist.[39]

Galatea, 1512, his onlymajor mythology, for Chigisvilla.

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, 1515, one of theseven remaining Raphael Cartoons for tapestries.

Il Spasimo 1517, brings a new degree of expressive-ness to his art.

Transguration, 1520, unnished at his death.

1.5 Workshop

Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino from 1482-1508,c.1507

Vasari says that Raphael eventually had a workshop offty pupils and assistants, many of whom later becamesignicant artists in their own right. This was arguablythe largest workshop team assembled under any single oldmaster painter, and much higher than the norm. They in-cluded establishedmasters from other parts of Italy, prob-ably working with their own teams as sub-contractors, aswell as pupils and journeymen. We have very little evi-dence of the internal working arrangements of the work-shop, apart from the works of art themselves, often verydicult to assign to a particular hand.[40]

Themost important gures were Giulio Romano, a youngpupil from Rome (only about twenty-one at Raphaels

death), and Gianfrancesco Penni, already a Florentinemaster. They were left many of Raphaels drawingsand other possessions, and to some extent continued theworkshop after Raphaels death. Penni did not achieve apersonal reputation equal to Giulios, as after Raphaelsdeath he became Giulios less-than-equal collaborator inturn for much of his subsequent career. Perino del Vaga,already a master, and Polidoro da Caravaggio, who wassupposedly promoted from a labourer carrying buildingmaterials on the site, also became notable painters in theirown right. Polidoros partner, Maturino da Firenze, has,like Penni, been overshadowed in subsequent reputationby his partner. Giovanni da Udine had a more indepen-dent status, and was responsible for the decorative stuccowork and grotesques surrounding the main frescoes.[41]Most of the artists were later scattered, and some killed,by the violent Sack of Rome in 1527.[42] This did how-ever contribute to the diusion of versions of Raphaelsstyle around Italy and beyond.Vasari emphasises that Raphael ran a very harmoniousand ecient workshop, and had extraordinary skill insmoothing over troubles and arguments with both pa-trons and his assistantsa contrast with the stormy pat-tern of Michelangelos relationships with both.[43] How-ever though both Penni and Giulio were sucientlyskilled that distinguishing between their hands and thatof Raphael himself is still sometimes dicult,[44] there isno doubt that many of Raphaels later wall-paintings, andprobably some of his easel paintings, are more notable fortheir design than their execution. Many of his portraits,if in good condition, show his brilliance in the detailedhandling of paint right up to the end of his life.[45]

Other pupils or assistants include Raaellino del Colle,Andrea Sabbatini, Bartolommeo Ramenghi, PellegrinoAretusi, Vincenzo Tamagni, Battista Dossi, TommasoVincidor, Timoteo Viti (the Urbino painter), and thesculptor and architect Lorenzetto (Giulios brother-in-law).[46] The printmakers and architects in Raphaels cir-cle are discussed below. It has been claimed the FlemishBernard van Orley worked for Raphael for a time, andLuca Penni, brother of Gianfrancesco, may have been amember of the team.[47]

1.5.1 Portraits Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga, c. 1504 Portrait of Pope Julius II, c. 1512 Portrait of Bindo Altoviti, c. 1514 Portrait of Balthasar Castiglione, c. 1515.

1.6 ArchitectureAfter Bramantes death in 1514, Raphael was named ar-chitect of the new St Peters. Most of his work there was

6 CHAPTER 1. RAPHAEL

Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila, now destroyed

altered or demolished after his death and the acceptanceof Michelangelos design, but a few drawings have sur-vived. It appears his designs would have made the churcha good deal gloomier than the nal design, with massivepiers all the way down the nave, like an alley accordingto a critical posthumous analysis by Antonio da Sangallothe Younger. It would perhaps have resembled the templein the background of The Expulsion of Heliodorus fromthe Temple.[48]

He designed several other buildings, and for a short timewas the most important architect in Rome, working for asmall circle around the Papacy. Julius had made changesto the street plan of Rome, creating several new thorough-fares, and he wanted them lled with splendid palaces.[49]

An important building, the Palazzo Aquila for Leos Pa-pal Chamberlain Giovanni Battista Branconio, was com-pletely destroyed to make way for Bernini's piazza for St.Peters, but drawings of the faade and courtyard remain.The faade was an unusually richly decorated one for theperiod, including both painted panels on the top story (ofthree), and much sculpture on the middle one.[50]

The main designs for the Villa Farnesina were not byRaphael, but he did design, and paint, the Chigi Chapelfor the same patron, Agostino Chigi, the Papal Treasurer.Another building, for Pope Leos doctor, the Palazzo diJacobo da Brescia, was moved in the 1930s but survives;this was designed to complement a palace on the samestreet by Bramante, where Raphael himself lived for atime.[51]

The Villa Madama, a lavish hillside retreat for CardinalGiulio de' Medici, later Pope Clement VII, was never n-ished, and his full plans have to be reconstructed specu-latively. He produced a design from which the nal con-struction plans were completed by Antonio da Sangallothe Younger. Even incomplete, it was the most sophisti-cated villa design yet seen in Italy, and greatly inuencedthe later development of the genre; it appears to be theonly modern building in Rome of which Palladio made ameasured drawing.[52]

Only some oor-plans remain for a large palace plannedfor himself on the new via Giulia in the rione of Regola,

View of the Chigi Chapel

for which he was accumulating the land in his last years.It was on an irregular island block near the river Tiber. Itseems all faades were to have a giant order of pilastersrising at least two storeys to the full height of the pianonobile, a gandiloquent feature unprecedented in privatepalace design.[53]

In 1515 he was given powers as Prefect over all antiq-uities unearthed entrusted within the city, or a mile out-side. Raphael wrote a letter to Pope Leo suggesting waysof halting the destruction of ancient monuments, and pro-posed a visual survey of the city to record all antiquities inan organised fashion. The Popes concerns were not ex-actly the same; he intended to continue to re-use ancientmasonry in the building of St Peters, but wanted to ensurethat all ancient inscriptions were recorded, and sculpturepreserved, before allowing the stones to be reused.[54]

1.7 DrawingsRaphael was one of the nest draftsmen in the historyof Western art, and used drawings extensively to plan hiscompositions. According to a near-contemporary, whenbeginning to plan a composition, he would lay out a largenumber of stock drawings of his on the oor, and begin todraw rapidly, borrowing gures from here and there.[56]Over forty sketches survive for the Disputa in the Stanze,and there may well have been many more originally; overfour hundred sheets survive altogether.[57] He used dif-ferent drawings to rene his poses and compositions, ap-parently to a greater extent than most other painters, tojudge by the number of variants that survive: "... This ishow Raphael himself, who was so rich in inventiveness,used to work, always coming up with four or six ways toshow a narrative, each one dierent from the rest, andall of them full of grace and well done. wrote anotherwriter after his death.[58] For John Shearman, Raphaelsart marks a shift of resources away from production toresearch and development.[59]

When a nal composition was achieved, scaled-up full-size cartoons were often made, which were then prickedwith a pin and pounced with a bag of soot to leave dot-

1.8. PRINTMAKING 7

Lucretia, engraved by Raimondi after a drawing by Raphael.[55]

ted lines on the surface as a guide. He also made un-usually extensive use, on both paper and plaster, of ablind stylus, scratching lines which leave only an in-dentation, but no mark. These can be seen on the wallin The School of Athens, and in the originals of manydrawings.[60] The Raphael Cartoons, as tapestry de-signs, were fully coloured in a glue distemper medium, asthey were sent to Brussels to be followed by the weavers.In later works painted by the workshop, the drawingsare often painfully more attractive than the paintings.[61]Most Raphael drawings are rather preciseeven initialsketches with naked outline gures are carefully drawn,and later working drawings often have a high degree ofnish, with shading and sometimes highlights in white.They lack the freedom and energy of some of Leonardosand Michelangelos sketches, but are nearly always aes-thetically very satisfying. He was one of the last artists touse metalpoint (literally a sharp pointed piece of silver oranother metal) extensively, although he also made superbuse of the freer medium of red or black chalk.[62] In his -nal years he was one of the rst artists to use female mod-els for preparatory drawingsmale pupils (garzoni)were normally used for studies of both sexes.[63]

Study for soldiers in this Resurrection of Christ, ca1500.

Red chalk study for the Villa FarnesinaThree Graces Sheet with study for the Alba Madonna and othersketches

Developing the composition for a Madonna andChild

1.8 PrintmakingRaphael made no prints himself, but entered into acollaboration with Marcantonio Raimondi to produceengravings to Raphaels designs, which created many ofthe most famous Italian prints of the century, and wasimportant in the rise of the reproductive print. His in-terest was unusual in such a major artist; from his con-temporaries it was only shared by Titian, who had workedmuch less successfully with Raimondi.[64] A total of aboutfty prints were made; some were copies of Raphaelspaintings, but other designs were apparently created byRaphael purely to be turned into prints. Raphael madepreparatory drawings, many of which survive, for Rai-mondi to translate into engraving.[65]

The most famous original prints to result from the col-laboration were Lucretia, the Judgement of Paris and TheMassacre of the Innocents (of which two virtually identi-cal versions were engraved). Among prints of the paint-ings The Parnassus (with considerable dierences)[66]and Galatea were also especially well-known. OutsideItaly, reproductive prints by Raimondi and others werethe main way that Raphaels art was experienced until thetwentieth century. Baviero Carocci, called Il Bavieraby Vasari, an assistant who Raphael evidently trusted withhis money,[67] ended up in control of most of the copperplates after Raphaels death, and had a successful careerin the new occupation of a publisher of prints.[68]

Drawing for a Sibyl in the Chigi Chapel. TheMassacre of the Innocents, engraving by (?) Rai-mondi from a design by Raphael. The version with-out r tree.

Judgement of Paris, still inuencing Manet, whoused the seated group in his most famous work.

Galatea, engraving after the fresco in the Villa Far-nesina

1.9 Private life and deathRaphael lived in the Palazzo Caprini in the Borgo, inrather grand style in a palace designed by Bramante. Henever married, but in 1514 became engaged to MariaBibbiena, Cardinal Medici Bibbienas niece; he seems tohave been talked into this by his friend the Cardinal, and

8 CHAPTER 1. RAPHAEL

La Fornarina, Raphaels mistress

his lack of enthusiasm seems to be shown by the marriagenot taking place before she died in 1520.[69] He is said tohave had many aairs, but a permanent xture in his lifein Rome was La Fornarina, Margherita Luti, the daugh-ter of a baker (fornaro) named Francesco Luti from Sienawho lived at Via del Governo Vecchio.[70] He was madea "Groom of the Chamber" of the Pope, which gave himstatus at court and an additional income, and also a knightof the Papal Order of the Golden Spur. Vasari claimshe had toyed with the ambition of becoming a Cardinal,perhaps after some encouragement from Leo, which alsomay account for his delaying his marriage.[69]

According to Vasari, Raphaels premature death on GoodFriday (April 6, 1520), which was possibly his 37th birth-day, was caused by a night of excessive sex with Luti,after which he fell into a fever and, not telling his doc-tors that this was its cause, was given the wrong cure,which killed him.[71] Vasari also says that Raphael hadalso been born on a Good Friday, which in 1483 fell onMarch 28.[72]

Whatever the cause, in his acute illness, which lasted f-teen days, Raphael was composed enough to receive thelast rites, and to put his aairs in order. He dictated hiswill, in which he left sucient funds for his mistressscare, entrusted to his loyal servant Baviera, and left mostof his studio contents to Giulio Romano and Penni. Athis request, Raphael was buried in the Pantheon.[73]

His funeral was extremely grand, attended by largecrowds. The inscription in his marble sarcophagus, an

elegiac distich written by Pietro Bembo, reads: Illehic est Raael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magnaparens et moriente mori, meaning: Here lies that fa-mous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conqueredwhile he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself todie.

Self-portraits

Probable self-portrait drawing by Raphael in histeens

Self-portrait, Raphael in the background, from TheSchool of Athens

Portrait of a Young Man, 1514, Lost during SecondWorld War. Possible self-portrait by Raphael

1.10 Critical reception

Sistine Madonna 1512

Raphael was highly admired by his contemporaries, al-though his inuence on artistic style in his own centurywas less than that of Michelangelo. Mannerism, begin-ning at the time of his death, and later the Baroque,took art in a direction totally opposed to Raphaelsqualities;[74] with Raphaels death, classic art the HighRenaissance subsided, as Walter Friedlnder put it.[75]He was soon seen as the ideal model by those dislikingthe excesses of Mannerism:

1.10. CRITICAL RECEPTION 9

the opinion ...was generally held in themid-dle of the sixteenth century that Raphael wasthe ideal balanced painter, universal in his tal-ent, satisfying all the absolute standards, andobeying all the rules which were supposed togovern the arts, whereas Michelangelo was theeccentric genius, more brilliant than any otherartists in his particular eld, the drawing of themale nude, but unbalanced and lacking in cer-tain qualities, such as grace and restraint, es-sential to the great artist. Those, like Dolceand Aretino, who held this view were usuallythe survivors of Renaissance Humanism, un-able to follow Michelangelo as he moved oninto Mannerism.[76]

Vasari himself, despite his hero remaining Michelangelo,came to see his inuence as harmful in some ways, andadded passages to the second edition of the Lives express-ing similar views.[77]

Raphael and Maria Bibbienas tomb in the Pantheon. TheMadonna is by Lorenzetto.

Raphaels compositions were always admired and stud-ied, and became the cornerstone of the training of theAcademies of art. His period of greatest inuence wasfrom the late 17th to late 19th centuries, when his perfectdecorum and balance were greatly admired. He was seenas the best model for the history painting, regarded as thehighest in the hierarchy of genres. Sir Joshua Reynoldsin his Discourses praised his simple, grave, and majestic

Raphaels sarcophagus

dignity and said he stands in general foremost of the rst[ie best] painters, especially for his frescoes (in whichhe included the Raphael Cartoons), whereas MichaelAngelo claims the next attention. He did not possess somany excellences as Raaelle, but those he had were ofthe highest kind... Echoing the sixteenth-century viewsabove, Reynolds goes on to say of Raphael:

The excellency of this extraordinary manlay in the propriety, beauty, and majesty ofhis characters, his judicious contrivance of hiscomposition, correctness of drawing, purity oftaste, and the skilful accommodation of othermens conceptions to his own purpose. Nobodyexcelled him in that judgment, with which heunited to his own observations on nature theenergy of Michael Angelo, and the beauty andsimplicity of the antique. To the question,therefore, which ought to hold the rst rank,Raaelle or Michael Angelo, it must be an-swered, that if it is to be given to him whopossessed a greater combination of the higherqualities of the art than any other man, thereis no doubt but Raaelle is the rst. But if,according to Longinus, the sublime, being thehighest excellence that human composition canattain to, abundantly compensates the absenceof every other beauty, and atones for all otherdeciencies, thenMichael Angelo demands thepreference.[78]

Reynolds was less enthusiastic about Raphaels panelpaintings, but the slight sentimentality of these madethem enormously popular in the 19th century:"Wehave been familiar with them from childhood onwards,through a far greater mass of reproductions than any otherartist in theworld has ever had... wroteWlin, whowasborn in 1862, of Raphaels Madonnas.[79]

In Germany Raphael had an immense inuence on re-ligious art of the Nazarene movement and Dsseldorfschool of painting in the 19th century. In contrast in Eng-land the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood explicitly reacted

10 CHAPTER 1. RAPHAEL

against his inuence (and that of his admirers such as SirSploshua), seeking to return to styles before what theysaw as his baneful inuence. According to a critic whoseideas greatly inuenced them, John Ruskin:

The doom of the arts of Europe wentforth from that chamber [the Stanza della Seg-natura], and it was brought about in great partby the very excellencies of the man who hadthus marked the commencement of decline.The perfection of execution and the beauty offeature which were attained in his works, andin those of his great contemporaries, renderednish of execution and beauty of form the chiefobjects of all artists; and thenceforward exe-cution was looked for rather than thought, andbeauty rather than veracity.

And as I told you, these are the two sec-ondary causes of the decline of art; the rstbeing the loss of moral purpose. Pray notethem clearly. In medieval art, thought is therst thing, execution the second; in modern artexecution is the rst thing, and thought the sec-ond. And again, in medieval art, truth is rst,beauty second; in modern art, beauty is rst,truth second. The medieval principles led up toRaphael, and the modern principles lead downfrom him.[80]

He was still seen by 20th century critics like BernardBerenson as the most famous and most loved masterof the High Renaissance,[81] but it would seem he hassince been overtaken by Michelangelo and Leonardo inthis respect.[82]

1.11 See also List of works by Raphael List of paintings by Raphael Italian Renaissance Renaissance painting

1.12 Notes[1] Jones and Penny, p. 171. The portrait of Raphael is prob-

ably a later adaptation of the one likeness which all agreeon": that in The School of Athens, vouched for by Vasari.

[2] Variants include Raaello Santi, Raaello da Urbinoor Rafael Sanzio da Urbino. The surname Sanzio de-rives from the latinization of the Italian Santi into Santius.He normally signed documents as Raphael Urbinasalatinized form. Gould:207

[3] Jones and Penny, p. 1 and 246. He died on his 37th birth-day; according to dierent sources, his birth and deathboth occurred on Good Friday. Thematter has beenmuchdiscussed, as both cannot be true.

[4] See, for example Honour, Hugh; Fleming, John (1982).A World History of Art. London: Macmillan ReferenceBooks. p. 357. ISBN 9780333235836. OCLC 8828368.

[5] Vasari, pp. 208, 230 and passim.

[6] Urbino: The Story of a Renaissance City By June Osborne,p.39 on the population, as a few thousand at most; eventoday it is only 15,000 without the students of the Univer-sity

[7] Jones and Penny, pp. 1-2

[8] Vasari:207 & passim

[9] Jones & Penny:204

[10] Vasari, at the start of the Life. Jones & Penny:5

[11] Ashmolean Museum Image. z.about.com.

[12] Jones and Penny: 4-5, 8 and 20

[13] Simone Fornari in 1549-50, see Gould:207

[14] Jones & Penny:8

[15] contrasting him with Leonardo and Michelangelo in thisrespect. Wlin:73

[16] Jones and Penny:17

[17] Jones & Penny:2-5

[18] It was later seriously damaged during an earthquake in1789.

[19] Jones and Penny:5-8

[20] One surviving preparatory drawing appears to be mostlyby Raphael; quotation from Vasari by - Jones andPenny:20

[21] Gould:207-8

[22] Jones and Penny:5

[23] National Gallery, London Jones & Penny:44

[24] Jones & Penny:21-45

[25] Vasari, Michelangelo:251

[26] Jones & Penny:44-47, and Wllflin:79-82

[27] Jones & Penny:49, diering somewhat from Gould:208on the timing of his arrival

[28] Vasari:247

[29] although Julius was no great readeran inventory com-piled after his death has a total of 220 books, large for thetime, but hardly requiring such a receptacle. There wasno room for bookcases on the walls, which were in casesin the middle of the oor, destroyed in the 1527 Sack ofRome. Jones & Penny:4952

1.12. NOTES 11

[30] Jones & Penny:49

[31] Jones & Penny:49-128

[32] Jones & Penny:101-105

[33] Blunt:76, Jones & Penny:103-5

[34] Book of the Courtier 1:26 The whole passage

[35] Levey, Michael; Early Renaissance, p.197 ,1967, Penguin

[36] One a portrait of Joanna of Aragon, Queen consort ofNaples, for which Raphael sent an assistant to Naples tomake a drawing, and probably left most of the painting tothe workshop. Jones & Penny:163

[37] Jones & Penny:133-147

[38] Jones & Penny:192-197

[39] Jones & Penny:235-246, though the relationship ofRaphael to Mannerism, like the denition of Mannerismitself, is much debated. See Craig Hugh Smyth, Manner-ism &Maniera, 1992, IRSA Vienna, ISBN 3-900731-33-0

[40] Jones and Penny:146-147, 196-197, and Pon:82-85

[41] Jones and Penny:147, 196

[42] Vasari, Life of Polidoro online in English Maturino forone is never heard of again

[43] Vasari:207 & 231

[44] See for example, the Raphael Cartoons

[45] Jones & Penny:163-167 and passim

[46] The direct transmission of training can be traced to somesurprising gures, including Brian Eno, Tom Phillips andFrank Auerbach

[47] Vasari (full text in Italian) pp197-8 & passim; see alsoGetty Union Artist Name List entries

[48] Jones & Penny:215-218

[49] Jones & Penny:210-211

[50] Jones & Penny:221-222

[51] Jones & Penny:219-220

[52] Jones and Penny:226-234; Raphael left a long letter de-scribing his intentions to the Cardinal, reprinted in full onpp.247-8

[53] Jones & Penny:224(quotation)$-$226

[54] Jones & Penny:205 The letter may date from 1519, orbefore his appointment

[55] Lucretia. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 26August 2010.

[56] Giovanni Battista Armenini (1533-1609) De vera precettidella pittura(1587), quoted Pon:115

[57] Jones & Penny:58 & ; 400 from Pon:114

[58] Ludovico Dolce (1508-68), from his L'Aretino of 1557,quoted Pon:114

[59] quoted Pon:114, from lecture on The Organization ofRaphaels Workshop, pub. Chicago, 1983

[60] Not surprisingly, photographs do not show these well, if atall. Leonardo sometimes used a blind stylus to outline hisnal choice from a tangle of dierent outlines in the samedrawing. Pon:106-110.

[61] Lucy Whitaker, Martin Clayton, The Art of Italy in theRoyal Collection; Renaissance and Baroque, p.84, RoyalCollection Publications, 2007, ISBN 978-1-902163-29-1

[62] Pon:104

[63] National Galleries of Scotland

[64] Pon:102. See also a lengthy analysis in: Landau:118

[65] The enigmatic relationship is discussed at length by bothLandau and Pon in her Chapters 3 and 4.

[66] Pon:86-87 lists them

[67] Il Baviera may mean the Bavarian"; if he was German,asmany artists in Romewere, this would have been helpfulduring the 1527 Sack; Marcantonio had many printing-plates looted from him. Jones and Penny:82, see alsoVasari

[68] Pon:95-136 & passim; Landau:118-160, and passim

[69] Vasari:230-231

[70] Art historians and doctors debate whether the right handon the left breast in La Fornarina reveal a cancerousbreast tumour detailed and disguised in a classic poseof love."The Portrait of Breast Cancer and Raphaels LaFornarina, The Lancet, December 21, 2002/December28, 2002.

[71] Various other historians provide dierent theories:Bernardino Ramazzini (1700), in his De morbis articum,noted that painters at the time generally led sedentarylives and melancholic disposition and often worked withmercury- and lead-based materials. Bufarale (1915) di-agnosed pneumonia or a military fever while Portigliottisuggested pulmonary disease. Joannides has stated thatRaphael died of over-work. Note also that Raphaels ageat death is also debated by some, with Michiel assertingthat Raphael died at thirty-four, while Pandolfo Pico andGirolamo Lippomano arguing that Raphael died at thirty-three. For all see: Shearman:573.

[72] Whereas Michiel said he died on his birthday. Art histo-rian John Shearman addressed this apparent discrepancy:The time of death can be calculated from the conven-tion of counting from sundown, which Michaelis puts at6.36 on Friday 6 April, plus half-an-hour to Ave Maria,plus three hours, that is, soon after 10.00 pm. The coinci-dence noted between the birth-date and death-date is usu-ally thought in this case (since it refers to the Friday andSaturday in Holy Week, the movable feast rather than theday of themonth) to fortify the argument that Raphael wasalso born on Good Friday, i.e., 28 March 1483. But thereis a notable ambiguity in Michiels note, not often noticed:

12 CHAPTER 1. RAPHAEL

MorseVenerdi Santo venendo il Sabato, giorno della suaNativita, may also be taken to mean that his birthday wason Saturday, and in that case the awareness could as wellbe the date, thus producing a birth-date of 7 April 1483.Shearman:573.

[73] Vasari:231[74] Chastel Andr, Italian Art,p. 230, 1963, Faber[75] Walter Friedlnder, Mannerism and Anti-Mannerism in

Italian Painting, p.42 (Schocken 1970 edn.), 1957,Columbia UP

[76] Blunt:76[77] See Jones & Penny:102-4[78] The 1772 Discourse Online text of Reynolds Discourses

The whole passage is worth reading.[79] Wlin:82,[80] John Ruskin (1853), Pre-Raphaelitism, p. 127 online at

Project Gutenburg[81] Berenson, Bernard, Italian Painters of the renaissance, Vol

2 Florentine and Central Italian Schools, Phaidon 1952(refs to 1968 edn), p.94

[82] For what it is worth, Amazon UKs Renaissance top25 bestsellers list included ve books with Leonardo inthe title, three with Michelangelo, and one with Raphael.Bestsellers in Renaissance. Amazon.com. Retrieved 26August 2010. Their US site does not run a comparablelist.

1.13 References Blunt, Anthony, Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450-1660,1940 (refs to 1985 edn), OUP, ISBN 0-19-881050-4

Gould, Cecil, The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools,National Gallery Catalogues, London 1975, ISBN0-947645-22-5

Roger Jones and Nicholas Penny, Raphael, Yale,1983, ISBN 0-300-03061-4

Landau, David in:David Landau & Peter Parshall,The Renaissance Print, Yale, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06883-2

Pon, Lisa, Raphael, Drer, and Marcantonio Rai-mondi, Copying and the Italian Renaissance Print,2004, Yale UP, ISBN 978-0-300-09680-4

Shearman, John; Raphael in Early Modern Sources1483-1602, 2003, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-09918-5

Vasari, Life of Raphael from the Lives of the Artists,edition used: Artists of the Renaissance selected &ed Malcolm Bull, Penguin 1965 (page nos fromBCA edn, 1979)

Wlin, Heinrich; Classic Art; An Introduction tothe Renaissance, 1952 in English (1968 edition),Phaidon, New York.

1.14 Further reading The standard source of biographical information isnow: V. Golzio, Raaello nei documenti nelle tes-timonianze dei contemporanei e nella letturatura delsuo secolo, Vatican City and Westmead, 1971

The Cambridge Companion to Raphael, Marcia B.Hall, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-80809-X,

New catalogue raisonn in several volumes, still be-ing published, Jrg Meyer zur Capellen, Stefan B.Polter, Arcos, 2001-2008

Raphael. James H. Beck, Harry N. Abrams, 1976,LCCN 73-12198, ISBN 0-8109-0432-2

Raphael, Pier Luigi De Vecchi, Abbeville Press,2003. ISBN 0789207702

Raphael, Bette Talvacchia, Phaidon Press, 2007.ISBN 9780714847863

Raphael, John Pope-Hennessy, New York Univer-sity Press, 1970, ISBN 0-8147-0476-X

Raphael: From Urbino to Rome; Hugo Chapman,Tom Henry, Carol Plazzotta, Arnold Nesselrath,Nicholas Penny, National Gallery Publications Lim-ited, 2004, ISBN 1-85709-999-0 (exhibition cata-logue)

The Raphael Trail: The Secret History of One of theWorlds Most Precious Works of Art; Joanna Pitman,2006. ISBN 0091901715

Raphael - A Critical Catalogue of his Pictures, Wall-Paintings and Tapestries, catalogue raisonn by Luit-pold Dussler published in the United States byPhaidon Publishers, Inc., 1971, ISBN 0-7148-1469-5 (out of print, but there is an online version here )

Wolk-Simon, Linda. (2006). Raphael at theMetropolitan: The Colonna Altarpiece. NewYork: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN9781588391889.

1.15 External links Raphael Research Resource from the NationalGallery, London

V&A London online feature on the Raphael Car-toons

1.15. EXTERNAL LINKS 13

Ten drawings and three paintings from the RoyalCollection

Web Gallery of Art Most of the Raphael/Raimondi prints from the SanFrancisco Museums

Raphael Project/Raael Projekt Website of Teylers Museum on the provenance ofthe Raphael drawings in the museums collection.

Chapter 2

The School of Athens

The School of Athens, or Scuola di Atene in Italian, isone of the most famous frescoes by the Italian Renais-sance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and1511 as a part of Raphaels commission to decorate withfrescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raaello,in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The Stanza del-la Segnatura was the rst of the rooms to be decorated,and The School of Athens, representing Philosophy, wasprobably the second painting to be nished there,[1] af-ter La Disputa (Theology) on the opposite wall, and theParnassus (Literature). The picture has long been seenas Raphaels masterpiece and the perfect embodimentof the classical spirit of the High Renaissance.[2]

2.1 Program, subject, gure iden-tications and interpretations

The School of Athens is one of a group of four mainfrescoes on the walls of the Stanza (those on either sidecentrally interrupted by windows) that depict distinctbranches of knowledge. Each theme is identied aboveby a separate tondo containing a majestic female gureseated in the clouds, with putti bearing the phrases: SeekKnowledge of Causes, Divine Inspiration, Knowl-edge of Things Divine (Disputa), To Each What IsDue. Accordingly, the gures on the walls below ex-emplify Philosophy, Poetry (including Music), Theology,and Law.[3] The traditional title is not Raphaels. Thesubject of the School is actually Philosophy, or atleast ancient Greek philosophy, and its overhead tondo-label, Causarum Cognitio, tells us what kind, as it ap-pears to echo Aristotles emphasis on wisdom as know-ing why, hence knowing the causes, inMetaphysics BookI and Physics Book II. Indeed, Plato and Aristotle appearto be the central gures in the scene. However, all thephilosophers depicted sought knowledge of rst causes.Many lived before Plato and Aristotle, and hardly a thirdwere Athenians. The architecture contains Roman ele-ments, but the general semi-circular setting having PlatoandAristotle at its centre might be alluding to Pythagorascircumpunct.Commentators have suggested that nearly every greatGreek philosopher can be found in the painting, but de-

termining which are depicted is dicult, since Raphaelmade no designations outside possible likenesses, and nocontemporary documents explain the painting. Com-pounding the problem, Raphael had to invent a system oficonography to allude to various gures for whom therewere no traditional visual types. For example, while theSocrates gure is immediately recognizable from Clas-sical busts, the alleged Epicurus is far removed fromhis standard type. Aside from the identities of the g-ures depicted, many aspects of the fresco have been var-iously interpreted, but few such interpretations are unan-imously accepted among scholars. The popular idea thatthe rhetorical gestures of Plato and Aristotle are kinds ofpointing (to the heavens, and down to earth) is very likely.But Platos Timaeus which is the book Raphael placesin his hand was a sophisticated treatment of space, time,and change, including the Earth, which guidedmathemat-ical sciences for over a millennium. Aristotle, with hisfour-elements theory, held that all change on Earth wasowing to motions of the heavens. In the painting Aristo-tle carries his Ethics, which he denied could be reducedto a mathematical science. It is not certain how much theyoung Raphael knew of ancient philosophy, what guid-ance he might have had from people such as Bramante,or whether a detailed program was dictated by his spon-sor, Pope Julius II. Nevertheless, the fresco has even re-cently been interpreted as an exhortation to philosophyand, in a deeper way, as a visual representation of therole of Love in elevating people toward upper knowl-edge, largely in consonance with contemporary theoriesof Marsilio Ficino and other neo-Platonic thinkers linkedto Raphael.[4] Finally, according to Vasari, the scene in-cludes Raphael himself, the Duke of Mantua, Zoroasterand some Evangelists.[5]

However, as Heinrich Wlin observed, it is quitewrong to attempt interpretations of the School of Athensas an esoteric treatise ... The all-important thing wasthe artistic motive which expressed a physical or spir-itual state, and the name of the person was a matterof indierence in Raphaels time.[6] What is evident isRaphaels artistry in orchestrating a beautiful space, con-tinuous with that of viewers in the Stanza, in which agreat variety of human gures, each one expressing men-tal states by physical actions, interact, in a polyphonyunlike anything in earlier art, in the ongoing dialogue of

14

2.1. PROGRAM, SUBJECT, FIGURE IDENTIFICATIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS 15

Philosophy.[7]

An interpretation of the fresco relating to hidden symme-tries of the gures and the star constructed by Bramantewas given by Guerino Mazzola and collaborators.[8]

2.1.1 FiguresThe identities of some of the philosophers in the picture,such as Plato or Aristotle, are certain. Beyond that, iden-tications of Raphaels gures have always been hypo-thetical. To complicate matters, beginning from Vasariseorts, some have received multiple identications, notonly as ancients but also as gures contemporary withRaphael. [9]

Luitpold Dussler counts among those who can be iden-tied with some certainty: Plato, Aristotle, Socrates,Pythagoras,[10] Euclid,[11] Ptolemy, Zoroaster, Raphael,Sodoma and Diogenes. Other identications he holds tobe more or less speculative.[12]

A more comprehensive list of proposed identications isgiven below:[13]

1234 65

78

9 11

1012

13

1415

16

17

18

192021R

The parenthetical names are the contemporary characters fromwhom Raphael is thought to have drawn his likenesses.

1: Zeno of Citium 2: Epicurus Possibly, the image of twophilosophers, who were typically shown in pairs duringthe Renaissance: Heraclitus, the weeping philosopher,and Democritus, the laughing philosopher. 3: unknown(believed to be Raphael)[14] 4: Boethius or Anaximanderor Empedocles? 5: Averroes 6: Pythagoras 7: Alcibiadesor Alexander the Great? 8: Antisthenes or Xenophon orTimon? 9: Raphael,[14][15][16] Fornarina as a personi-cation of Love[17] or Francesco Maria della Rovere? 10:Aeschines or Xenophon? 11: Parmenides? (Leonardoda Vinci) 12: Socrates 13: Heraclitus (Michelangelo) 14:Plato (Leonardo daVinci) 15: Aristotle (Giuliano da San-gallo) 16: Diogenes of Sinope 17: Plotinus (Donatello?)18: Euclid or Archimedes with students (Bramante?)19: Strabo or Zoroaster? (Baldassare Castiglione) 20:Ptolemy? R: Apelles (Raphael) 21: Protogenes (IlSodoma, Perugino, or Timoteo Viti)[18]

2.1.2 Central gures (14 and 15)In the center of the fresco, at its architectures centralvanishing point, are the two undisputed main subjects:Plato on the left and Aristotle, his student, on the right.Both gures hold modern (of the time), bound copies of

An elder Plato walks alongside Aristotle.

their books in their left hands, while gesturing with theirright. Plato holds Timaeus, Aristotle his NicomacheanEthics. Plato is depicted as old, grey, wise-looking, andbare-foot. By contrast Aristotle, slightly ahead of him,is in mature manhood, handsome, well-shod and dressedwith gold, and the youth about them seem to look hisway. In addition, these two central gures gesture alongdierent dimensions: Plato vertically, upward along thepicture-plane, into the beautiful vault above; Aristotle onthe horizontal plane at right-angles to the picture-plane(hence in strong foreshortening), initiating a powerfulow of space toward viewers. It is popularly thought thattheir gestures indicate central aspects of their philoso-phies, for Plato, his Theory of Forms, and for Aristo-tle, his empiricist views, with an emphasis on concreteparticulars. However, Platos Timaeus was, even in theRenaissance, a very inuential treatise on the cosmos,whereas Aristotle insisted that the purpose of ethics ispractical rather than theoretical or speculative": notknowledge for its own sake, as he considered cosmologyto be.

2.1.3 Setting

The building is in the shape of a Greek cross, whichsome have suggested was intended to show a harmonybetween pagan philosophy and Christian theology[2] (seeChristianity and Paganism and Christian philosophy).The architecture of the building was inspired by the workof Bramante, who, according to Vasari, helped Raphaelwith the architecture in the picture.[2] Some have sug-

16 CHAPTER 2. THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS

gested that the building itself was intended to be an ad-vance view of St. Peters Basilica.[2]

There are two sculptures in the background. The one onthe left is the god Apollo, god of light, archery and music,holding a lyre.[2] The sculpture on the right is Athena,goddess of wisdom, in her Roman guise as Minerva.[2]

The main arch, above the characters, shows a meander(also known as a Greek fret or Greek key design), a de-sign using continuous lines that repeat in a series of rect-angular bends which originated on pottery of the GreekGeometric period and then become widely used in an-cient Greek architectural friezes.[19]

2.2 Drawings and cartoonA number of drawings made by Raphael as studies forthe School of Athens are extant.[20] A study for the Dio-genes is in the Stdel in Frankfurt[21] while a study for thegroup around Pythagoras, in the lower left of the painting,is preserved in the Albertina Museum in Vienna.[22] Sev-eral drawings, showing the two men talking while walk-ing up the steps on the right and the Medusa on Athenasshield,[23] the statue of Athena (Minerva) and three otherstatues,[24] a study for the combat-scene in the relief be-low Apollo[25] and Euclid teaching his pupils[26] arein the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology atOxford University.The cartoon for the painting is in the Pinacoteca Am-brosiana in Milan. School of Athens Cartoon

2.3 CopiesThe Victoria and Albert Museum has a rectangular ver-sion over 4 metres by 8 metres in size, painted on canvas,dated 1755 by Anton Raphael Mengs on display in theeastern Cast Court.[27]

Modern reproductions of the fresco abound. For exam-ple, a full-size one can be seen in the auditorium of OldCabell Hall at the University of Virginia. Produced in1900 by George W. Breck to replace an older reproduc-tion that was destroyed in a re in 1895, it is four incheso scale from the original, because the Vatican would notallow identical reproductions of its art works.[28]

Other reproductions include: by Neide, in KnigsbergCathedral, Kaliningrad,[29] in the University of NorthCarolina at Asheville's Highsmith University StudentUnion, and a recent one in the seminar room at BaylorUniversity's Brooks College. A copy of Raphaels Schoolof Athens was painted on the wall of the ceremonial stair-well that leads to the famous, main-oor reading room ofthe Bibliothque Sainte-Genevive in Paris.The two gures at the left of Plotinus were used as partof the cover art of both Use Your Illusion I and II albums

of Guns N' Roses.

2.4 Gallery Architecture Zeno of Citium Epicurus Averroes and Pythagoras Pythagoras Alcibiades or Alexander the Great and Antisthenesor Xenophon

Parmenides Aeschines and Socrates Michelangelo as Heraclitus Leonardo da Vinci as Plato Aristotle Diogenes Bramante as Euclid or Archimedes Zoroaster, Ptolemy, Raphael as Apelles andPerugino or Timoteo Viti as Protogenes

2.5 Notes[1] Jones and Penny, 74

[2] History of Art: TheWestern TraditionByHorstWoldemarJanson, Anthony F. Janson

[3] See Giorgio Vasari, Raphael of Urbino, in Lives of theArtists, vol. I: In each of the four circles he made anallegorical gure to point the signicance of the scenebeneath, towards which it turns. For the rst, where hehad painted Philosophy, Astrology, Geometry and Poetryagreeing with Theology, is a woman representing Knowl-edge, seated in a chair supported on either side by a god-dess Cybele, with the numerous breasts ascribed by theancients to Diana Polymastes. Her garment is of fourcolours, representing the four elements, her head beingthe colour of re, her bust that of air, her thighs that ofearth, and her legs that of water. For further clarication,and introduction to more subtle interpretations, see E. H.Gombrich, Raphaels Stanza della Segnatura and the Na-ture of Its Symbolism, in Symbolic Images: Studies in theArt of the Renaissance (London: Phaidon, 1975).

[4] M. Smolizza, Rafael y el Amor. La Escuela de Atenascomo protrptico a la losoa, in Idea y Sentimiento.Itinerarios por el dibujo de Rafael a Czanne, Barcelona,2007, pp. 2977. [A review of the main interpretationsproposed in the last two centuries.]

2.6. REFERENCES 17

[5] According to Vasari, Raphael received a hearty welcomefrom Pope Julius, and in the chamber of the Segnatura hepainted the theologians reconciling Philosophy and As-trology with Theology, including portraits of all the wisemen of the world in dispute.

[6] Wlin, p. 88.

[7] Wlin, pp. 94f.

[8] Guerino Mazzola et al.: Rasterbild - Bildraster. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, et al. 1986, ISBN 3-540-17267-X.

[9] Vasari mentions portraits of Federico II of Mantua, Bra-mante, and Raphael himself: Giorgio Vasari, Lives of theArtists, v. I, sel. & transl. by George Bull (London: Pen-guin, 1965), p. 292.

[10] Jrg Meyer zur Capellen, however, qualies the certaintyof this identication writing eine Gruppe von Lesendenund Disputierenden, die um eine Sitzgur, vielleichtPythagoras, angeordnet ist. (a group of people readingand debating, arranged around a seated gure, perhapsPythagoras.) Jrg Meyer zur Capellen: Raael (Munich:Beck 2010), p.49

[11] Again, Meyer zur Capellen is more cautious: EineGruppe von Schlern umgibt einen Lehrer (Archimedesoder Euklid?), der auf einer Tafel ein geometrischesPrinzip erlutert Jrg Meyer zur Capellen: Raael (Mu-nich: Beck 2010), p.50

[12] Luitpold Dussler: Raphael. A Critical Catalogue (Londonand New York: Phaidon 1971), p.73

[13] [Following The School of Athens, Who is Who?" byMichael Lahanas

[14] Raphael has reused the motif of two women from his ear-lier work the Vision of a Knight. Raphal, page 215, Edi-tion 31; Edition 42 of Chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art: Grandspeintres, Taylor & Francis, 1966. or (Federico II of Man-tua?)

[15] Understanding art concise history page 118

[16] The interpretation of this gure as Hypatia seems to haveoriginated from the Internet. Serious sources don't men-tion it at all. H. J. Mozans (=John Augustine Zahm)specically regrets that Hypatia doesn't appear in thepainting in his bookWomen in Science p.141

[17] Raphaels lover Fornarina is portrayed in a famous paint-ing in the National Gallery of Ancient Art in Rome.This identication has been introduced on 2002 by Mat-teo Smolizza during his cooperation with Lorenza MochiOnori, former Director of the Museum, in the occasion ofthe Exhibit La Fornarina di Raaello, Milan, FondazioneArte e Civilt, March 14 - June 2, 2002. It was later inves-tigated on the basis of 1) position of the portrait (specularto Raphaels one) ; 2) appearance compared with contem-porary Raphaels drawings; 3) strictly contemporary textsby Raphael to the woman; 4) frescos general meaning.Cfr. Smolizza, pp. 68-74

[18] The interpretation of this gure as Sodoma may be inerror, as Sodoma was 33 at the time of painting, whileRaphaels teacher, Perugino, was a renowned painter andaged about 60 at the time of this painting, consistent withthe image. Timoteo Viti is another plausible candidate.

[19] Lyttleton, Margaret. Meander. Grove Art Online. Ox-ford University Press, 2012. Accessed 5 Aug 2012.

[20] Luitpold Dussler: Raphael. A Critical Catalogue (Londonand New York: Phaidon 1971), p.74

[21] Zeichnungen 16. Jahrhundert Graphische Samm-lung Sammlung Stdel Museum. Staedelmuseum.de(2010-11-18). Retrieved on 2011-06-13.

[22] Raaello Santi. mit seinen Schlern (Studie fr dieSchule von Athen, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatikan)(trans.: Pythagoras and his students (Study for the 'Schoolof Athens, Stanza della Signatura, the Vatican) (inven-tory number 4883)). Albertina Museum. Vienna, Aus-tria, 2008. Retrieved on 2011-06-13.

[23] Raphael (1482 - 1520).TwoMen conversing on a Flight ofSteps, and a Head shouting. Ashmolean Museum of Artand Archaeology, University of Oxford, 2011. Retrievedon 2011-06-13.

[24] Raphael (1482 - 1520).Studies for a Figure of Minervaand Other Statues. Ashmolean Museum of Art and Ar-chaeology, University of Oxford, 2011. Retrieved on2011-06-13.

[25] Raphael (1482 - 1520). Recto: Combat of nude men.Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Universityof Oxford, 2011. Retrieved on 2011-06-13.

[26] Raphael (1482-1520).Euclid instructing his Pupils. Ash-molean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University ofOxford, 2011. Retrieved on 2011-06-13.

[27] V&A Museum: Copy of Raphaels School of Athens inthe Vatican. Images.vam.ac.uk (2009-08-25). Retrievedon 2011-06-13.

[28] Information on Old Cabell Hall from University of Vir-ginia

[29] Northern Germany: As Far as the Bavarian and AustrianFrontiers, Baedeker, 1890, p. 247.

2.6 References Roger Jones and Nicholas Penny, Raphael, Yale,1983, ISBN 0300030614

Heinrich Wlin, Classic Art: An Introduction tothe Italian Renaissance (London: Phaidon, 2d edn.1953)

Inspired Guns n' Roses Use Your Illusion albumscover

18 CHAPTER 2. THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS

In the music video for the song Tessellate by thebritish band Alt-J the director Ben Newbury showsan artistic reworking of the painting, using 21st cen-tury characters of lower socio-economic status in aroom similar to the paintings background.

2.7 External links The School of Athens on In Our Time at the BBC.(listen now)

The School of Athens at theWeb Gallery of Art The School of Athens (interactive map) Cartoon of The School of Athens The School of Athens reproduction at UNCAsheville

BBC Radio 4 discussion about the signicance ofthis picture in the programme In Our Time withMelvyn Bragg.

Chapter 3

Ansidei Madonna

The Ansidei Madonna (Italian: Pala Ansidei) is a 1505-1507 painting by the Italian High Renaissance artistRaphael, painted during his Florentine period. It showsthe Blessed Virgin Mary sitting on a wooden throne, withthe child Christ on her lap. On her right John the Baptiststands, on her left Saint Nicholas is reading.At the time the painting was commissioned, there wereother paintings that made up the grouping for the altar-piece. Of the predellas, the only that remains is SaintJohn the Baptist Preaching, the others are inexplicablylost.Both the main painting, Ansidei Madonna, and the pre-della Saint John the Baptist Preaching, are located at theNational Gallery in London.

3.1 The PaintingThe Virgin sits formally on a high throne, with an adultSaint John the Baptist on the left, and Saint Nicholas ofBari to the right. Painted for eect rather than realism,the throne has no arms and the steps are very steep, butbeautifully set o the arches above and the approach tothe throne.[1]

3.1.1 Excellence through serenity and di-vinity

The Ansidei Madonna was greatly inuenced by the strictexpression of divinity of the Umbrian School within hisFlorentine Period. Above the Madonnas throne is in-scribed Hail, Mother of Christ. This compares to themore natural poses and interaction found inMadonna, theChrist Child and infant John the Baptist in paintings of hisRoman period.[2]

Per Ruskin of the National Gallery, the painting is consid-ered one of the greatest paintings in history, and as suchan embodiment of the best of Christianity, for severalreasons. First, the execution was near perfect and well-weathered the test of centuries of time. The gold withinthe painting looks real, but was totally painted by aect.Secondly, another test of a great painting, the characterslook serene. Third, the painting attracts attention to the

spirit or soul of a character, rather than their appearance.And, last, you see joy, contentment or beauty in the faceof the subject, not negative connotations, such as pain orvileness.[3]

Each subject and the landscape of Ansidei Madonnaevokes serenity and divinity:

Madonna, by her complete devotion to her child, Christ child through his secure faith in his mother, St. John through his contemplative expression of hisspiritual journey,

Bishop Nicholas of Bari through spiritual knowl-edge, and

the soothing landscape and the open, innite sky,closest to God.[3]

The three balls at Bishop Nicholas feet may symbolizethe holy trinity, or the three bags of gold he is said tohave thrown into the window of a poor mans home forhis daughters welfare.[3]

3.1.2 The young masterRaphaels years in Florence exposed him to a plethora ofartistic inuences, rst his teacher Perugino and then oth-ers, such as Donatello's sculptured marble, Masaccio'sfrescoes, Michelangelo's David, Leonardo da Vinci'spaintings, and so much more which Raphael used to de-veloped his ne-tuned sense of style, composition and ex-ecution as seen in the Ansidei Madonna.[1][4]

Raphael achieved excellence inAnsidei Madonna throughexecution of every minute detail. A master at the youngage of twenty-three, Raphael brought new life to well-represented subjects, through careful, methodic perfor-mance. Care is represented by what one does - and whatone does not do, or more clearly: There is a saying that atrue artist is known best by what he omits. Consider thelandscape behind our subjects, it is clean and serene, notoverdone with unnecessary detail. When color is used, itsused decidedly and for eect, such as the jeweled robe,the chaplet of red coral.[5]

19

20 CHAPTER 3. ANSIDEI MADONNA

In 1508 Raphael arrived in Rome at the age of twenty-ve and already a great reputation as a master of thearts, known for such works as "Madonna of the GrandDuke", "Madonna of the Goldnch", Ansidei Madonnaand more.[4]

3.1.3 Isolated characters of the Umbrianschool

TheVirginMary, Saint John and BishopNicholas are iso-lated from one another, without interchange, a style com-mon in the Umbrian school, and particularly Perugino.[6]

3.2 Commission and Provenance

Saint John the Baptist preaching, one of the paintings on the pre-della for Ansidei Madonna. National Gallery, London

Niccol Ansidei commissioned Raphael to paint an altar-piece of a group of paintings titled The Madonna andChild with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Nicholas ofBari (The AnsideiMadonna)" [7] for his family chapel ded-icated to Saint Nicholas in the church of San Fiorenzo,Perugia.[8]

Two paintings formed the predella for Raphaels altar-piece the Ansidei Madonna. The rst, Saint John theBaptist Preaching, was placed beneath the image of SaintJohn in the main altarpiece, and is now owned by the Na-tional Gallery. The panels that depicted her betrothal,positioned below the Virgin and Child and another belowSaint Nicholas of one of his miracles have not survived.[8]

There is some question about the date, or dates, of thepainting. Original understanding was that the paintingwas begun in 1505, tting with Raphaels style at thattime, strongly inuenced by Perugino. Careful obser-vation revealed that the painting was dated 1507. Onecan fairly reasonably assume, though, based upon theRaphaels style, that the work began in 1505 and was n-ished in 1507.[9]

The chapel that held Ansidei Madonna was disman-tled in 1763 when the church of San Fiorenzo was re-modeled. The chapel was reassembled and now containsa 19th-century copy of its original altarpiece, the An-sidei Madonna, by Raphael.[10] The work was bought by

young Lord Robert Spenser in 1764, for an undisclosed,but apparently large sum of money as a gift to his brother,the 4th Duke of Marlborough.[4][11] Placed in BlenheimPalace, one of the most magnicent buildings in Europeand home of the Duke of Marlborough, the work wassometimes known as the Blenheim Madonna. [6][12]

Ansidei Madonna, considered one of the most per-fect pictures of the world,[3] of the Blenheim Collec-tion was sold by George Spencer-Churchill, 8th Duke ofMarlborough, under the Lord Cairns Act for 75,000[13]or nearly unanimously cited at 70,000,[3][4] which wasabout $350,000,[14] to the London National Gallery in1885.[7][14] At the time, this was three times the highestamount paid for a painting, likely in large part becausethere were few Raphael paintings placed in foreign gal-leries at that time.[3]

3.3 References[1] The Ansidei Madonna. London: National Gallery. Re-

trieved 2011-03-11.

[2] Ruskin, J (1888). A Popular Handbook to the NationalGallery 1. London: MacMillan & Company. p. 113.

[3] Ruskin, J (1888). A Popular Handbook to the NationalGallery 1. London: MacMillan & Company. pp. 111112.

[4] Macfall, H. A History Of Painting: The Renaissance InCentral Italy Part I. pp. 188189.

[5] Pater, W (2007) [1895]. Miscellaneous Studies: A Seriesof Essays. pp. 5961.

[6] Grant, A (SeptemberDecember 1895). Evolution inEarly Italian Art - The Madonna and the Saints. The PallMall magazine (London: Hazell, Watson & Viney) 7: 65.

[7] The Ansidei Madonna, Key Facts. London: NationalGallery. Retrieved 2011-03-11.

[8] The Ansidei Madonna, Saint John. London: NationalGallery. Retrieved 2011-03-11.

[9] Mntz, E (1888). Armstrong, W, ed. Raphael; His Life,Works and Times. London: Chapman and Hall. p. 170.

[10] San Fiorenzo (rebuilt in 1471-1519, remodeled in 1763-70)". Key to Umbria: City Walks.

[11] Hogg, J; Marryat, F (1885). London Society 48. London:Kelly & Company. p. 49.

[12] Killikelly, S (1886). Curious Questions in History, Litera-ture, Art, and Social Life 1. Philadelphia: David McKay.p. 74.

[13] Boase, F (1897). Modern English Biography: Contain-ing Many Thousand Concise Memoirs Who Have DiedSince the Year 1850 2. Truro: Netherton & Worth (self-published). p. 1646.

3.3. REFERENCES 21

[14] Editorial Sta, Mentor Association, ed. (1916).Raphael, The Florentine Period. The Mentor-WorldTraveler. serial 114 (New York: Mentor Association) 4(4): 57. Retrieved 2011-03-11.

Chapter 4

Madonna del Prato (Raphael)

Not to be confused with the Madonna del Prato (Bellini).

TheMadonna with the Christ Child and Saint John theBaptist is a 1506 painting by Raphael, now held in theKunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is also knownas Madonna del prato (Madonna of the Meadow) orMadonna del Belvedere (after its long residence in theimperial collection in the Vienna Belvedere).The three gures in a calm green meadow are linked bylooks and touching hands. The Virgin Mary is shown in acontrapposto pose, wearing a gold-bordered blue mantleset against a red dress and with her right leg lying alonga diagonal. The blue symbolizes the church and the redChrists death, with the Madonna the uniting of MotherChurch with Christs sacrice. With her eyes xed onChrist, her head is turned to the left and slightly inclined,and in her hands she holds up Christ, as he leans forwardunsteadily to touch the miniature cross held by John. Thepoppy refers to Christs passion, death and resurrection.

22

Chapter 5

The Deposition (Raphael)

The Deposition, also known as the Pala Baglione,Borghese Deposition or The Entombment, is an oil paint-ing by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael.Signed and dated Raphael Urbinas MDVII (1507)", thepainting is in the Galleria Borghese in Rome.[1] It is thecentral panel of a larger altarpiece commissioned by Ata-lanta Baglioni of Perugia in honor of her slain son, Gri-fonetto Baglioni.[2] Like many works, it shares elementsof the common subjects of the Deposition of Christ, theLamentation of Christ, and the Entombment of Christ.The painting is on wood panel and measures 184 x 176cm.

5.1 The Commission

In the early part of the 16th Century, violence amongfactions, mostly in the form of hand-to-hand combat,was relatively common in Perugia and other parts ofItaly, such as Florence.[3] The Baglioni family were thelords of Perugria and surrounding areas, and also lead-ing condottiere or leaders of mercenary troops. Therewas an especially bloody episode in Perugia on the nightof July 3, 1500, when Grifonetto Baglioni and some an-gry members of the family conspired to murder much ofthe rest of the Baglioni family as they slept.[4] Accordingto Matarazzo, the chronicler of the family, following thebloodshed, Grifonettos mother Atalanta Baglioni refusedto give her son refuge in her home and when he returnedto the city he was confronted by Gian Paolo Baglioni, thehead of the family who had survived the night by escap-ing over the roof tops. Atalanta changed her mind andrushed after her son, but arrived only in time to see herson being killed byGian Paolo and hismen.[5] A few yearslater, Atalanta commissioned the young Raphael to paintan altarpiece to commemorate Grifonetto in the familychapel in San Francesco al Prato. Raphael took the com-mission very seriously, over the course of two years work-ing on and developing his design through two phases andnumerous preparatory drawings.[6] This was the last ofseveral major commissions by the young Raphael for Pe-rugia, the home city of his master Perugino. He had al-ready painted for the same church the Oddi Altarpiece(now in the Vatican) for the Baglionis great rival fam-

ily (with whom they were also intermarried), and otherlarge works. The new commission marked an importantstage in his development as an artist, and the formation ofhis mature style.[7] The painting remained in its locationuntil in 1608, it was forcibly removed by a gang work-ing for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope PaulV. In order to pacify the city of Perugia, the Pope com-missioned two copies of the painting from Giovanni Lan-franco and the Cavaliere dArpino,[1] and that by Arpinois still in Perugia. Though conscated by the French in1797 and exhibited in Paris in the Louvre, then renamedthe Napoleon Museum, it was returned to the GalleriaBorghese in 1815, except for the predella which was takento the Vatican Museums.[8]

5.2 Preparatory studies

Study in the Louvre

Raphael made numerous preparatory sketches or draftsas his idea for the composition evolved (several are onWikimedia Commons - see link below). He started withthe subject of a Lamentation over the dead Christ,[9] sim-ilar to the famous painting of the same name by histeacher Pietro Perugino. He moved from that idea toan Entombment of Christ,[10] perhaps inspired by an an-cient Roman sarcophagus relief of Meleager from Greekmythology, Michelangelos Entombment or the print of

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24 CHAPTER 5. THE DEPOSITION (RAPHAEL)

Another study, Uzi

the Entombment by Mantegna.[11] Looking through hisstudies, we can see that this long period of evolution gaveRaphael the opportunity to put into practice much of thenew style and techniques he had been developing from hisstudies of Renaissance masters Leonardo da Vinci andMichelangelo as well as others artists of the period. Thetwo design phases may broadly be labeled Perugian andFlorentine.[6] The signicant change of subject from aLamentation to an Entombment aected the character ofthe painting on the whole because it changed from a moreiconic Piet to a subject with more narrative interest.[12]

5.3 AnalysisGiorgio Vasari, the famous biographer of Italian artists,also understood Raphaels piece as a narrative painting.Having seen the altarpiece in its original setting, Vasarigives a detailed description:

In this most divine picture there is a DeadChrist being borne to the Sepulcher, executedwith such freshness and such loving care, thatit seems to the eye to have been only justpainted. In the composition of this work, Raf-faello imagined to himself the sorrow that thenearest and most aectionate relatives of thedead one feel in laying to rest the body of himwho has been their best beloved, and on whom,in truth, the happiness, honor, and welfare of awhole family have depended. Our Lady is seenin a swoon; and the heads of all the gures arevery gracious in their weeping, particularly thatof St. John, who, with his hands clasped, bowshis head in such a manner as to move the hard-est heart in pity. And in truth, whoever consid-ers the diligence, love, art and grace shown by

this picture, has great reason to marvel, for itamazes all who behold it, what with the air ofthe gures, the beauty of the draperies, and inshort, the supreme excellence that it reveals inevery part.[13]

Vasari takes a reverential tone in describing The Entomb-ment, taking great care to discuss not only the impor-tant gures in the painting, but also their eect on theviewer. Looking at it formally, the scene depicted is ac-tually neither the Deposition nor the Entombment, butlocated somewhere in-between. We can determine thisthrough the background: on the right is Mount Calvary,the location of the Crucixion and Deposition, and on the