206 RAPHAEL ing the ceilings and walls of three chambers or camere and a large saloon, known collectively as the " Stanze of Raphael," were intended to glorify the power of the church, and to repre- sent Rome as the centre of spiritual culture. The first saloon, called the camera della segna- tura, he dedicated to representations of the- ology, poetry, philosophy, and jurisprudence, each of which is personified by an allegorical figure on the ceiling, while beneath, on the four sides of the apartment, are painted the princi- pal subjects. "Theology," sometimes called the "Dispute of the Sacrament," consists of an assemblage of doctors and dignitaries of the church seated in council, above whom is represented, in the symmetrical and conven- tional manner of the early painters, a heavenly glory, with Christ throned on clouds and pre- siding over a host of patriarchs, saints, and angels. This, the first work executed by Ra- phael in Rome, is also the last of his large com- positions which contains traces of his early religious, Peruginesque manner. The influence of the antique, which he here first felt in its fulness, the proximity of Michel Angelo, who was then painting his sublime frescoes in the Sistine chapel, and the importance and gran- deurof the subjects upon which he was engaged, gave a new impulse to his genius, and he reach- ed almost at a single step the limit of his stylo. His next work in point of date, u Poetry " or " Parnassus," representing an assembly of Greek, Roman, and Italian poets on Mount Parnassus, with Apollo and the Muses in the centre, marks perhaps the transition period ; but in " Philosophy" or the " School of Athens," which followed, the Roman style is matured. The composition represents a grand hall or portico, in which are characteristically grouped the great philosophers and sages of antiquity. The remaining fresco in this ttanza, "Juris- prudence," owing to the peculiar construc- tion of the wall, is divided into three composi- tions, Gregory delivering the ecclesiastical law, and Justinian promulgating his code of civil law, above which are female personifications of prudence, fortitude, and temperance. These frescoes were finished in 1511, and appear to have been immediately succeeded by those in the stama of Heliodorus, so called from the story of the expulsion- of Heliodorus from the temple, as related in the second book of Mac- cabees, which is painted on one of its walls. In this composition the group of Heliodorus and the pursuing angels is especially noticeable for its supernatural power. The "Mass at Bol- sena," " Attila terrified by a Celestial Vision," and " St. Peter delivered from Prison " occupy the remaining walls of this stama ; and on the ceiling are representations of the promises of God to the four patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. Julius II. died during the progress of the work, but his successor, Leo X., directed its completion, as also that of the other works in the Vatican on which Raphael was engaged, besides intrusting him with new ones. Before this time, however, commissions multi- plied so greatly upon the painter's hands, that he was obliged to commit to the best of the numerous scholars who now resorted to him from all parts of Italy the execution of portions of the frescoes in the remaining stame from his cartoons and designs. In this manner was painted the stama deW incendio, which takes its name from the principal subject illustrated, the " Fire in the Borgo," and in which are rep- resented the prominent events in the lives of Popes Leo III. and IV. The frescoes in the sala di Constantino, the last of the series, were ex- ecuted after his death under the direction of Giulio Romano, his most eminent pupil. They all suffered from neglect after the removal of the popes to the Quirinal palace, and were cleaned and in some instances restored by Carlo Maratti in the 18th century. While en- gaged on these works Raphael executed in fresco for Agostino Chigi, a banker of Rome, the four grand figures of the Sibyls in the Chigi chapel of Santa Maria della Pace, and the well known " Triumph of Galatea," be- sides many Madonnas and other easel pictures. His fortune kept pace with his celebrity, and he lived in princely magnificence, admired and beloved by all contemporary artists, excepting Michel Angelo, who ill endured the fame of his young rival. During the progress of the later works in the stame Leo X. employed Ra- phael on the decoration of the loggie, or open galleries round three sides of the court of St. Damasus (the older portion of the Vatican), and the designs for the tapestries of the Sis- tine chapel. For the loggie he furnished a series of designs from the Old Testament, known as " Raphael's Bible," which were exe- cuted in 13 small cupolas on the gallery on the second story by Giulio Romano, Francesco Penni, Pellegrino da Modena, Perino del Vaga, and others of his pupils. A variety of beau- tiful arabesque ornaments and stuccoes in the same gallery were executed from his designs by Giovanni da Udine. The cartoons for tap- estries, prepared probably between 1518 and 1516, represent the highest efforts of Raphael's genius in historical composition. They are from 14 to 18 ft. long by 12 high, and are colored in distemper. The subjects are " The Death of Ananias," "Elymas the Sorcerer struck with Blindness," " The Healing of the Lame Man at the Beautiful Gate of the Tem- ple," "The Miraculous Draught of Fishes," "Paul and Barnabas at Lystra," " Paul preach- ing at Athens," and "The Charge to Peter." These cartoons, at the suggestion of Rubens, were purchased by Charles I. of England, and are now deposited in the South Kensington museum. The remaining cartoons of the se- ries, representing " The Stoning of Stephen," " The Conversion of St. Paul," and " Paul in the Prison of Philippi," are lost. The original tapestries, for which the pope paid the manu- facturers in Arras 50,000 gold ducats, after various mutations of fortune, are now in the
