RAPHAEL
643
RAPHAEL
pope dismissed all the others and unhesitatingly
confided to the youngest and the latest comer (1509)
the vast task of decorating the Chambers. The
first of these was called the Slama della Segnatura,
it being that of a tribunal of the Roman Curia. It
is a somewhat irregularly vaulted hall with two
windows on each side which are not on the same axis.
These unfavourable conditions (which were repeated
in the other chambers) the young artist turned to
his advantage. This hall contains a plenitude of
art and an intellectual harmony which will never be
surpassed. On the four triangles of the ceiling he
painted four large circular medallions representing,
in the guise of young women crowned and surrounded
by genii, Theology, Law, Science, and Poetry. In
the spaces between these foui' circles he painted as
many bas-reliefs representing
a scene or "story" typical of
the four disciplines: Original
Sin (Theology), The Judg-
ment of Solomon (Law), Apollo
and Marsyas (Poetry). L^nable
to find a similar subject for
Science, he gracefully depicted
Astronomy in the form of a
beautiful young woman lean-
ing over the celestial sphcrr
and by a gesture signifying tin
discovery of the stars. Thc.-r
figures on the ceiling sound
the keynote of the painting-
on the walls, which have al-
ways been regarded as the most
perfect expression of the genius
of the Renaissance, the har-
monious agreement of all the
human faculties, reason, and
faith, justice and poetry, the
balancing of all the forces and
needs of our nature, and the
joy resulting from the peaceful
and hajjpy exercise of all our
activities. It is difficult to be-
lieve that Raphael himself con-
ceived so extensive and compli-
cated a design. The theme was
certainly set by a cleric, a Hu-
manist , or man of letters, such as
Phajdrus Inghiranior Sigismondo de' Conti (for whom Raphael painted the "Fohgno Madonna" as a thank- offering). Furthermore, the ideas which he had to represent were not new in art. To go back no further than thefourteenth century painting had been endeav- ouring to express ideas. The frescoes at the Spanish Chapel of Andrew of Florence (c. 1.355), that of Giusto at Padua, Traini's picture at St. Catherine's of Pisa, or the fresco of Filippino Lippi at the Minerva rep- resenting the "Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas" are well-known examples of what may be called phi- losophic painting. Raphael was largely inspired by these models. His work, novel in the style and spirit of its forms, merely takes up again on a larger scale, and with consummate art brings to jierfection ideas which had been a national tradition in Italy since the Middle Ages.
Lack of space forbids a detailed description of these celebrated frescoes, permitting only a general outline of the principal ones. One of their most remarkable characteristics is the incomparable clearness of the composition, the faculty of adapting it to one order of ideas and so placing the spectator, previous to any analysis on his part, in a mood appropriate to each scene represented. That is, a spectator standing be- fore the "Disputa"or the "School of Athens", even though he did not know the names of the persons and the meaning of the subject, would nevertheless im
the general arrangement, an informing impression of
the things represented. With its two and even three
planes, its hierarchical aspect, its regular movement
descending from the Father to the Holy Ghost, from
the Son to the Host placed vertically below Him,
to rebound in concentric waves through the two par-
allel hemicycles of the celestial and the terrestrial
Church, the "Disputa" is stamped with theological
majesty. In contrast to this presentment of august
solemnity, in which everj'thing follows an emphatic-
ally Scholastic method — the deduction from principles
of a rigorous chain of reasoning like that of ontology —
the "School of Athens" displays the most varied
action, effervescence, scattered groups, and the agita-
tion of a scientific congress. Ideas, methods, every-
thing is changed; we pass from one world to another.
No other painter could sen-
sibly ex-press the most deli-
cate nuances by the pure lan-
guage of forms. On the other
hand, in such subjects it was
allowable for the artist to make
abundant use of allegory.
There existed for the personi-
fication of abstract ideas a
whole body of figures often
characterized by complicated
attributes; often long inscrip-
tions, streamers, phylacteries,
conii)Ieted the explanation.
Pintiuicchio proceeded in this
manner in the Borgia apart-
ments, as did also the author
of the magnificent tapestries
of Madrid. With better taste
Raphael forbore this confusion
of kinds, the mingling of fiction
with reality, of personifications
with persons. For the repre-
sentation of ideas he made use
only of real and historical per-
sons, philosophy being repre-
sented by Socrates, Plato, Aris-
totle, and Democritus.
Thus this chamber of the Vatican became a sort of mir- ror of the tendencies of the human mind, a summary of all its ideal history, a sort of pantheon of spiritual grandeurs. Thereby the representation of ideas ac- quired a dramatic value, being no longer, as in the Middle Ages, the immovable exposition of an un- changeable truth, but the impassioned search for knowledge in all its branches, the moral life of human- ity. Finally these historic figures conceived of as portraits for which the artist made use of all the docu- ments possessed by the iconography of his time, blended in heroic familiarity with contemporary per- sons, the very circle of Julius II and Raphael. There are found Bramante, the Duke of Urbino, Raphael, Sodoma, and twenty others named by Vasari. Thus abstract ideas became animated, and we are afforded the magnificent spectacle of the world of the spirit, the society formed of the harmonious concert of the high- est intelligences. Nevertheless these frescoes, which are so full of life, are perhaps the most highly deco- rative ever imagined. It is wonderful to see how the artist's thought adapts itself to the law of architecture, readily inventing simple and mcinumcntal iinilifs which endow his ideas with imperishable grandeur. Berenson is perhaps mistaken in reducing Raphael's genius to the incomparable mastery of the language of extent which he calls "composition in space". This is to cheapen his unique and enchanting qualities as designer and painter, plastic gifts which no other mortal ever possessed in the same degree. It is none
mediately receive from the combination of forms and the less true that the ease with which Raphael moves
