RAPHAEL
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RAPHAEL
about in space, the aerial, spacious qualities which
characterize his frescoes, is one of the essential parts
of his particular magic. He is the greatest decorator
who ever lived.
[It is worthy of note that the titles of these two famous frescoes are a later and incorrect invention of the eighteenth-centurj- engravers. The "Disputa' ' is really a picture of the life of the Church and an affir- matioa of the dogma of the Real Presence. The title of the "School of Athens" is due to mistaking the figures of Aristotle and Plato, although they are designated, by the titles of their writings, for those of St. Paul and Dionysius the Areopagite. Moreover, the whole of this second scene is but a new illustration of the traditional theme of the seven liberal arts or the seven disciplines of the trivium and quadrivium].
Julius II
Detail from "The Expulsion of Heliodorus", Raphael, Vatican
The paintings on the other two walls were, as has been said, obstructed by a window. Raphael easily found a most ingenious solution of the difficulty. The painting of "Law" was divided into three parts: on the lintel he painted the three theological virtues (they are among his most exquisite creations), to left and right of the window he depicted in two symmetrical scenes "Civil Law" (Justinian bestowing the Pan- dects; this scene is imitated in Mellozo's fresco in the Vatican Librarj') and "Canon Law" (Gregory IX, with the features of Julius II, publishing the Decre- tals). These two frescoes are unfortunately much damaged. On the opposite wall Raphael painted Parnassus. This shows a mountain-top crowned with laurel where Apollo, surrounded by the Muses, his divine daughters, plays on the lyre; Homer sings, and about the inspired blind man is gathered his ideal family: ^'i^gil leading Dante, Petrarch conversing below with Anacreon, Alcceus, and the wonderful Sappho. Thus on the poetic mount beside the source of Helicon the dream of Humanism is fulfilled in the joy of living and intellectual jileasures. The whole code of classic art is formulated in these unrivalled pictures. In them beauty, nobility of posture, purity and grace of form, the sense of rhythm and life — all combine to form one joyous whole. The serenity of Greek art is recovered without effort, and the noblest harmony is the result. It is the most complete ex-
pression of the magnificent ideal which for a time was
belie\-ed realizable in the Church and which was called
Humanism.
The decoration of the second Chamber or Stanza of Hehodorus is quite different. The pope was not one to be satisfied for long with impersonal allegories. He was eager for glorj- and greatness and his own apo- theosis or rather the papacy personified by Julius II, forms the subject of the new chamber. His portrait was to appear on all sides, and in fact it is found in two out of ever)' four of these frescoes. They were begun in 1511 and completed in 151-1 under Leo X, whose countenance appears in the last fresco, "St. Leo halting Attila". This picture, which was done by pupils, shows, despite the beauty of tlie picturesque idea, inferior execution. The "Dehverance of St. Peter", with its night effects, its various lights (the moon, torches, and the nimbus or radiance of the angel) is one of the most famous but not the most beautiful or purest of the artist's works. But the frescoes of the other two walls, "The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple" and the "Mass of Bolsena" are among his finest creations. The "Helio- dorus" (an obvious allusion to the despoilers of the Papal States and the war-cn,- of JuUus II, "Fiiori i barbarH") is a splendid work of dramatic art wherein everj'thing is simultaneously composed and expressed ^•ith starthng clearness and energj'. The "Mass of Bolsena" is perhaps still more beautiful. Raphael never produced a richer or more profound composi- tion; never was he more picturesque and noble, more dramatic and strong. Furthermore, as regards colour- ing, it is impossible to imagine anything more beau- tiful than the portrait of the pope or the Sisiss Guard grouped kneeling at his feet. In this instance the always-impressionable artist was influenced by the ^■enetian, Sebastiano del Piombo. With his usual genius and rapidity of assimilation he added the Venetian palette to his art.
JuhusIIdiedon21 Feb., 151.3. His successor, Leo X, lost no time in restoring or assuring to Raphael all his commissions and duties. But the work in the Chambers was almost neglected. In the third in point of time Raphael painted only one fresco, the "In- cendio del Borgo" (1514). The other three are all b^- his pupils and are very poor. The "Incendio" itself is one of his least happy and personal works. Michel- angelo had just uncovered the ceiling of the Sixtine Chapel, and this masterpiece was obvioush' in Ra- phael's thoughts. He sought only to assemble nude bodies in sculptural attitudes. Though it displayed more skill and beauty in detail, it repeated the mistake made six years previous in the "Entombment". The entire fourth Chamber, that of Constimtine, was painted after the death of Raphael, under the direc- tion of Giulio Romano, and it is very difficult to state precisely what remains of the spirit and original ideas of Raphael.
The frescoes of the Hall of Const ant ine were painted to convey the impression of immense tapes- tries. Tapestries were the fashion, after Raphael, by command of Leo X, had painted the cartoons for the "Acts of the Apostles" which were to be copied in the studio of Pieter van Aelst at Brussels. Ordered in 1514, the hanging, composed of ten pieces, was suspended on the walls of the Vatican in 1519. Stolen in 1527 during the sack of Rome, these tapes- tries were not restored to the Vatican till ISOS, and then in a ruined condition. Seven of the original cartoons, discovered b\- Rubens at Brussels in 1630, are now preserved at the South Kensington Museum in London. This work de luxe, woven of threads of silk and gold, is the most robust and easily intelligible of all Raphael's productions. In it is found after an interval of a century the epic inspiration of Masac- cio. Many of the details are textual reminiscences of the frescoes of the Carmine. At the same time
