RAPHAEL
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RAPHAEL
Palace). Morelli (Lermolieff) thinks he recognizes in
these drawings the hand of Pintoricchio, but the old
opinion has prevailed over his eriticism. These are
rather the first studies and attempts of Raphael be-
tween his twelfth and fifteenth years. Though child-
ish, they already reveal the masterly genius of the
artist, his singular, di\'ine sentiment of beauty. In
Timoteo's studio and under his influence were painted
the earliest pictures of his illustrious pupil which have
reached us, four small exquisite pictures, of the shape
and value of miniatures, the "Dream of the Knight"
(National Gallen,-), "St. George and St. Michael"
(Louvre), and the most charming of the four, the
"Three Graces" of the Tribime of Chantilly.
In June, 1499, Raphael had not yet left Urbino. In May, 1500, he must have been at Perugia, but could not have entered Perugino's studio prior to that date, for the latter, who had been away for twelve years, returned then to paint the Cambio frescoes. Therefore, Vasari's story of Raphael's education by Perugino is not to be beUeved, being pure fable. Perugino's influence was important to a young man of eighteen, and, in fact, with his wonderful faculty of assimilation, Raphael had soon succeeded in mastering the suggestions and methods of the older painter, his poetic sense of light and space, his harmoniously sym- metrical system of composition. He shortly became a sort of foreman, or head of the studio, supervising the making of those countless Madonnas for which Perugino's "workshop" was the best patronized in Italy. This period of somewhat commercial produc- tion is the least interesting of Raphael's life. The "Virgin of the Book" at the Hermitage and the "Virgin between St. Jerome and St. Francis" (Berlin) are among his most insignificant works. The "Cru- cifixion" of 1502 (National Gallerj') shows an archaic and "primitive" dryness. But his genius soon threw off its half slumber. The "Coronation of the Virgin", painted in 1503 for the Franciscans of Perugia (Pina^ coteca of the Vatican), shows qualities apparently borrowed from Perugino, but vivified by new imagi- nation and youth, the three panels of the predella especially displaying great progress. A very important work, unfortunately lost since the Revolution, seems to have been the "Triumph of St. Nicholas of Tolen- tino". But the pearl of tliis period is the "Espousal of the Virgin", preserved at Milan (1504). A similar picture in the Museum of Caen is not the model wrongly ascribed to Perugino, but a copy of Raphaels picture, the work of the mediocre Spagna. This masterpiece worthily ends the period of Raphael's youth. The final word of Umbrian art of the fifteenth century was spoken in this page of youth and divine modesty.
Florentine Period (1504-08). — After a short visit in the summer at Urbino, Raphael went to live at Florence towards the end of 1504. The four years he spent there were a new and decisive stage in his career. At that date Florence was the mo.st intense and active centre of the Renaissance (and the period was pregnant with artistic development). Leonardo da Vinci and the young Michelangelo, the two leaders of the movement, revealed (1506) in their rival "cartoons" (now lost) of the Signory perfect models of historical composition. In the stimulating atmos- phere of a perpetual contest dominated by an im- passioned love of beauty and fame Raphael found fresh incentive. The knowledge and skill of the least of the Florentine painters were calculated to amaze the young provincial and sharpen his ideas, which proved most profitable to his talent. At Florence he began his education over again; he resumed his stud- ies and in a few years learned more about form than he had acquired from Timoteo and Perugino. His earnings were still modest. During his stay in Flor- ence Raphael was a young, unknown artist with a good future. He had few acquaintances and not many XII.— 41
commissions. He was only given small pictures to
liaint, portraits of middle-class people, such as Angelo
and Maddalena Doni (Uffizi, 1506) and the "Donna
Gravida" (pregnant woman) of the Pitti Palace, and
an especially large number of Madonnas which he
executed for private oratories. But nothing could
show more advantageously the progress he had made
since his Umbrian period. He had found a model of
a more regular tj-pe, a fuller oval and a richer form
than was Perugino's usual model. His sense of life
Ijecame more natural without losing any of its poetry.
Raphael's Madonnas are all his own; they have not
the melancholy affectation of those of BotticelU, nor
the mysterious smile of those of Leonardo. They are
all near to us, material and human. Their famiharity,
of a thoroughly Franciscan grace, is expressed with
the greatest tact. They retain the easy good-humour,
sometimes excessive, indulged in by the painters of
the North. They are not intended to be "edifying",
properly speaking, but in these matters degree is a
matter of taste. As Burckhardt has said, for the first
time since Phidias, art reached those heights where
human beauty by its nobility and perfection of form
undertakes to call forth the divine.
The Madonnas of the Florentine period may be divided into three groups according to the nature of the tnotif and the composition. The oldest and most simple are those which represent the Madonna with the features of a young ItaUan woman, standing and at half length, holding the Christ Child in her arms. The masterpiece of this class is the "Madonna of the Grand Duke" (Florence, Pitti Palace, 1505). Despite a trace of timidity in the arrangement the Virgin is so charming that one cannot prefer even the more per- fect Madonnas of the next period. This simple com- position has given rise to many variations, such as the Uttle "Cowper Madonna" (Panshanger), so ten- derly pensive, and the charmingly spirited, sweet, and impassioned "Madonna Casa Tempi" (Munich). The second group does little more than modify the first by the introduction of new elements, such as interior decoration or landscape, for example the "Virgin of Orleans" (Chantilly), the "Bridgewater Madonna", the "Colonna Madonna" (Berhn), and the great
