Page:Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, 1887, vol 4.djvu/35

 RAPHAEL 1500, and apprenticed him to Perugino, by whom he was employed with other assist ants in painting the frescos of the Sala del Cambio, then in prog- ress. The master re- turned to Florence (1502), and Raphael followed him two years later, after having painted a Crucifixion (1500), Earl Dudley, London ; a Coronation of the Virgin (1503), Vatican Gallery, Rome ; and assisted Pinturicchio at Siena in deco- rating the so-called Library of the Cathedral with frescos. After remaining at Florence for perhaps a year, during which he painted the Marriage of the Virgin, Brera, Milan, for S. Francesco, Citta di Castello, Raphael returned to Perugia (1505) to commence a fresco of the Trinity, at S. Severo, which was finished by Perugino (1521). In 1505 he was commissioned to paint a Coronation of the Virgin, for the Convent of Monteluce, at Perugia. He commenced it many years later at Rome, and it was finished five years after his death, by Giulio Romano and II Fattore. Returning to Florence in 150G, at the time when Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were engaged upon their cel- ebrated cartoons for the great Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, Raphael studied both, but especially those of Leonardo, who, together with Fra Bartolommeo, exercised great in- fluence over him during his two years' resi- dence in that city, which, with the exception of a short visit to Urbino and Bologna, lasted until the summer of 1508. In the pictures painted by Raphael at Florence, a growing individuality is distinctly visible. Umbrian in spirit, they show a tenderness of feeling, an element of ideality, a love of nature, unknown to the art of Perugino. Called to Rome in 1508 by Pope Julius H., whose favour he secured through the good offices of his compatriot and relative, the architect Bramante, Raphael began his great series of frescos in the Stonze of the Vatican by painting the Dixjmte of the Sacrament (1508-11), the last work in his second or Florentine style. He hail, however, already given token, in the Entombment (1507), Borghese Gallery, Rome, of the dramatic and constructive elements of his genius, which were to find opportunity for a full display in those master works of his third or Roman manner, the IMiodorua (1512) and the School of Athens (1511). During the twelve years of his life at Rome, in the service of Julius H and Leo X., Raphael ac- complished a prodigious amount of work as painter, architect, sculptor, and archajologist His wonderful genius, his personal charm, his engaging manner, and his obliging dis- position, won him troops of admirers, friends, and scholars, whose flattering praises served but to stimulate him to renewed effort Eager only to perfect his work, and inca- pable of jealousy, ho studied the grandiose style of Michelangelo and the rich colour of Sebastiano del Piombo that he might im- ' prove his own style and colour, and to the 1 day of his death achieved ever-increasing excellence. Leo X. made him inspector of all marbles dug up at Rome, commissioned him to make plans and elevations of her ancient edifices, and on the 1st of August, 1514, appointed him to succeed Bramanto I as head architect at St. Peter'a Some idea ! of his work under both Popes can be formed j from the following general sketch : Between j his arrival in Rome in 1508 and the deatli of Julius H. in 1513, he painted in the Vat- ican the frescos of the Camera della Se- gnatura, the Heliodorus, and a part of the Miracle of Bolsena in the Stanza d'Eliodoro, ' the Isaiah (1512), S. Agostino, the Madonna di Foligno (1511), with other pictures and portraits, such as those of Julius H., Palazzo Pitti, the Fornarina (1509), Palazzo Barbe- rini, etc. Under Leo X. Raphael painted in the Vatican the Altila, the Liberation of St Peter, with the ceiling decorations in the same chamber ; and among easel pictures pro- duced the Madonna del Pesce (15H), Madrid