“Raphael of Urbino – an example of the prodigal gifts
of Nature, fair in body, fairer in mind, charming in manner, admirable in art,
unwearied in labor, eternal in glory.”
Joachim Sandrart.
IV
Raphael in Florence
– The Early Madonnas
1504 - 1506
…In June 1504,
Guidobaldo received the insignia of the Garter from King Henri VII., and wore the
blue mantle and riband of the Order on the following St George’s Feast at Urbino. The Garter
figures repeatedly among the devices carved on the friezes of the ducal place,
and Giovanni Santi translated its famous motto into quaint Italian verse, so it
was not to be wondered that his son was desired to paint a picture of the
patron Saint of England.
The first version of the subject is the little St George in Louvre, which must originally have been intended as a
companion to the St Michael painted
by Raphael in his boyhood in Urbino. A pen-and-ink drawing of this picture, in
the painter’s Peruginesque style, is now in the Uffizi, and from the likeness
of the rearing horse to one of Pollaiuolo’s work, is ascribed by Dr Gronau to
Raphael’s first year in Florence.
But whether this first St George belongs to the year 1505 or to
an earlier date, the second picture is clearly connected with the mission sent
to England
by the Duke on this occasion. Castiglione was selected to for his embassy, and
set out in September 1596, taking with him many costly gifts, among which were
three horses of the quiet Mantuan breed and a picture of St George by Raphael. After the sale of the Whitehall
pictures by the Parliament, after King Charles I.’s execution, this picture
returned to Italy,
and was eventually bought by the Empress Catherine II. of Russia. The fine drawing of this St George in the Uffizi shows a marked
advance on the former version, and is evident replica of Donatello’s bas-relief
at Or San Michele.
The position of
the horse and rider is reversed, ant the impetuous action of the warrior
charging full tilt and the dragon under his feet is full of fire and animation.
The warrior Saint wears the Garter with the word Honi on his knee, ant the name “Raphello U.”
is written on the blue and gold trappings of his charger.
The portraits of
the Duke and Duchess of Castiglione which Raphael painted, and the chalk drawing
of Bembo which Micheli in the Cardinal’s house at Padua, have all vanished, and
the only portraits of this period which are still in existence are one of
Raphael himself in the Uffizi and another of an unknown youth in the gallery of
Buda-Pest. The last has been entirely repainted, but is evidently by the
master’s hand, and probably represents one of his fellow-students at Urbino or Perugia, perhaps his
beloved Menico or the goldsmith Cesarino di Rosetti. The portrait of Raphael
himself came to Rome
from Urbino in 1588, and is too well known to need description. This beautiful
and refined face with large brown eyes and wistful expression all agree with
contemporary descriptions of the wonderful youth who was la gentilezza stessa, the best painter in the land, as everyone in
Umbria knows, and yet in Duchess Giovanna’s words, always modest and charming,
jealous at none, kindly and gracious to all, eve ready to leave his own work to
help another, lending his cartoons freely to less gifted comrades, and encouraging
young artist with his praise, a favorite alike with the brilliant courtiers and
ladies at Urbino, and with the many students who met in Baccio d’Agnolo’s shop
in Florence.
V
Raphael in Florence
– The Madonnas and Entombment
1506 – 1508
If Raphael was
still at Urbino in September 1506, he must have seen Pope Julius II. When he
visited the ducal court on his way to the conquest of Bologna, and witnessed the festivities in
honor of this warlike Pontiff. But before long he was back in Florence, where, in Vasari’s words, “he once
more devoted himself with incredible ardor to the study of art”. Much had
happened during his absence, and he
found many changes in artistic circles. Michelangelo had been summoned to Rome, to execute a sumptuous monument for Pope Julius II.;
and Leonardo had given up his work in disgust, after painting one group of his
great design in color on the palace wall, and had gone to serve the French King
in Milan. The
absence of these two masters probably had the effect of leading Raphael to rely
more on the help and example of his friend Fra Bartolomeo, who, now
Michelangelo and Leonardo were gone, was the foremost artists in Florence. The influence
of the Dominican painter is certainly strongly marked in the group of Madonnas
which he executed that autumn. Chief among the friends whom he had made in Florence was the
cultivated merchant Taddeo Taddei, who lived in a house of the Via de Ginori,
built by Baccio d’Agnolo, and gave Michelangelo one of his commissions for a
carved bas-relief.
Whether he heard
of Raphael from his friend Pietro Bembo, or met him first in Baccio d’Agnolo’s
house, Taddeo soon became deeply attached to the young painter of Urbino, who
was a constant guest in his house and at his table, and who wrote home to his uncle
Simone, that he owed more to this Florentine citizen than to any other man
living. “And in order not to be outdone in courtesy”, writes Vasari, “Raphael,
who was most charming of men, painted two pictures for him, which are still to
be seen in the house of the said Taddeo’s heirs”. One of these, Madonna del Prato, was sold by Taddeo’s
descendants to the art-loving Archduke Ferdinand of Austria,
after whose death, it passed into the collection of the Imperial House at Vienna. The same group of
these three figures, the Virgin with the Child Christ and Saint John, is repeated in a different form
in the Madonna del Cardellino. Which
Raphael painted before the end of 1506, as a wedding present for another of his
Florentine’s friends, Lorenzo Nasi, who afterwards hel the office of Prior.
Here the Virgin holds an open book in her hand, and the Baptist, instead of
offering Christ a cross of reeds, places a goldfinch in his hand. This picture,
which the owner held in the “greatest veneration”, Vasari writes, “both on
account of its rare excellence and for the sake of Raphael, whom he counted as
his dearest friend”, was shattered to pieces by an earthquake in 1548. But
Lorenzo’s son Battista succeeded in having the precious panel repaired, and his
picture is still one of the chief ornaments of The Uffizi. The third Madonna in
which this favorite group is seen, La
Belle Jardiniere of the Louvre, was painted in the early 1507, for a
Sienese gentleman, Filippo Sergardi, who sold it to King Francis I. In this
picture, St John holding the cross in his hand, kneels reverently at the feet
of the Child, whose face is turned in earnest questioning to his Mother, one of
the fairest and gentlest of all Raphael’s Virgins.
The triangular
scheme of these three paintings was probably suggested by Leonardo’s cartoons
for the Virgin of the Rocks and St Anne, an idea which was still furtner
developed by Fra Bartolommeo, in more than one subject. Raphael here adapts the
design with admirable felicity to this composition, and rings the changes on
the theme with his usual skill and wealth of fancy. The innocent charm of the
children, their free and natural movement, show the perfection which he had
acquired by long and careful study; and the flowers and grasses of the
foreground are painted with loving truth and observation. The landscape is
singularly rich and varied, and in the Madonna
del Cardellino we have a picturesque view of Val d’Arno, an arched bridge
spanning a mountain torrent on the one side, and on the other a distant
prospect of the Duomo and Campanile in Florence.
A drawing for this Madonna may be seen in Oxford,
and countless covered with sketches of mothers and children in every attitude
are preserved in tha Albertina and the Louvre. The Uffizi contains another
lovely cartoon of a youthful with the Child and St John, which forms the subject of a little
painting in the Esterhazy Gallery, at Buda-Pest, that was left unfinished by
Raphael and completed by inferior hands.
The little Madonna dell’Angello at Madrid, bearing the date
1507, as another picture of singular charm. The motive of a Child ridding on
the back of the lamb is directly derived from the cartoon executed by Leonardo
for the Servi, but instead St Anne, a venerable figure of St Joseph is introduced, resting on his stick
and looking down at the infant Christ. This figure connects Prado picture with the larger Holy Family at Munich, originally executed for the family of
Lorenzo Nasi’s bride, Sandra Canigiani. Here not only St
Joseph, but St Elisabeth and St
John are introduced, and the painter has once more
adopted Fra Bartolommeo’s favorite pyramidal scheme. Unfortunately the picture
has suffered so much from injudicious restoration that little beyond the design
is left of Raphael’s work, although, as in the Madrid’s Virgin, the words “Raphael Urbinas”
are inscribed on the hem of the Virgin’s bodice.
…
(RAPHAEL
by Julia Cartwright; London: DUCKWORTH & co.
/ New York: E. P. DUTTON & co. – The
Library Brigham Young University-Provo, UTAH)
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