Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/299

Rh RAPHAEL 281 collections. A great part of the lower group was un- finished at the time of the painter's sudden death in 1520, and a good deal of the heavy colouring of Giulio Romano is visible in it. On the death of Raphael the picture be- came too precious to send out of Rome, and Cardinal de' Medici contented himself with sending the Resurrection of Lazarus to Narbonne. The Transfiguration was bequeathed by him to the monks of S. Pietro in Montorio, in whose church it remained till it was stolen by Napoleon I. It now hangs in the Vatican Gallery. Architectural Work. 1 Though he designed but few buildings, Raphael's great repute even in this branch of art is shown by the fact that Bramante, before his death in March 1514, specially- requested that Raphael should be made his successor as chief archi- tect of St Peter's. To this most important post he was appointed by a brief of Leo X., dated 1st August 1514. The progress of St Peter's was, however, too slow for him to leave much mark on its design. Another work of Bramante's, completed by Raphael, was the graceful Cortile di S. Damaso in the Vatican, including the loggie, which were decorated with stucco-reliefs and paintings of sacred subjects by his pupils under his own supervision, but only very partially from, his designs. 2 The Palazzo dell' Aquila, built for Giovanni Battista Branconio, and destroyed in the 17th century during the extension of St Peter's, was one of Raphael's chief works as an architect. He also designed the little cross church, domed at the intersection like a miniature St Peter's, called S. Eligio degli Orefici, which still exists near the Tiber, almost opposite the Farnesina gardens, a work of but little merit. According to M. Geymiiller, whose valuable work, Ea/aello come Architetto, Milan, 1883, has done so much to increase our knowledge of this subject, the Villa Farnesina of Agostino Chigi, usually attributed to Peruzzi, was, as well as its palace-like stables, designed by Raphael ; but internal evidence makes this very difficult to believe. It has too much of the delicate and refined character of the 15th century for Raphael, whose taste seems to have been strongly inclined to the more developed classic style, of which Palladio afterwards became the chief exponent. The Palazzo Vidoni, near S. Andrea della Valle, also in Rome, is usually attributed to Raphael, but an original sketch for this in Peruzzi's own hand has recently been identified among the collection of drawings at Siena ; this, how- ever, is not a certain proof that the design was not Raphael's. M. Geymiiller has, however, shown that the Villa Madama, on the slopes of Monte Mario above Rome, was really designed by him, though its actual carrying out, and the unrivalled stucco-reliefs which make its interior one of the most magnificent palaces in the world, are due to Giulio Romano and Giovanni da Ucline, as men- tioned in Vasari's life of the latter. 3 The original design for this villa made by Raphael himself has been discovered by M. Gey- miiller. Another architectural work was the little Chigi chapel in S. Maria del Popolo, built in 1516, for the dome of which the above-mentioned mosaics were designed (see fig. 6). At the time of his death he was preparing to build himself a handsome palace near the church of S. Eligio ; the deed for the purchase of its site was signed by him only a few days before his last short illness. Though not completed till 1530, the Palazzo Pandolfini at Florence was also designed by him ; it is a dull scholastic building without any special beauty either in proportion or treatment of the mass ; it is illustrated by Montigny and Famin, Architecture Toscane, Paris, 1815, pis. 33-36. A sober criticism of Raphael's architectural works must force one to refuse him a high position in this branch of art. In the church of S. Eligio and the Chigi chapel he is merely a copyist of Bramante, and his more original works show but little power of invention or even mastery of the first principles of architectural design. His details are, however, often delicate and refined (especially in the Palazzo Pandolfiiii), and he was supremely successful in the decora- tive treatment of richly ornamented interiors when he did not, as in some of the Vatican stanze, sacrifice the room to the frescos on its walls. Sculpture. That Yasari is right in attributing to him the model for the beautiful statue of Jonah in the Chigi chapel (fig. 7) is borne witness to by two important documents, which show that his almost universal talents led him to attempt with success the J See Ojetti, Discorso su Safaello Architetto, Rome, 1883, but more especially Geymiiller's work mentioned below, and his Projets Primitifs pour la Bos. de S. Purrt, Paris, 1875-80. wile. Loqgie. del Vaticano, Rome, 1841 ; and Gruner, Fresco Decorations, London, 1864, pis. 1-5. Too great a share in the decoration of the loggie is usually given 1 Raphael ; not only the harsh colour but also the feebleness of much of the drawing shows that he can have had but little to do with it. < See Gruner, Fresco Decorations, &c., London, 1854, pis. 6-12, and Raffaelle inti, Ornati della Villa Madama, &c., Rome, 1875. Two other little known nt very beautiful architectural works, executed under Raphael's influence >y Ins pupils, are the bath-room of Cardinal Bibbiena in the Vatican and the mh-room of Clement VII. in the castle of S. Angelo, both richly decorated mh delicate stucco-reliefs and paintings, treated after a classical model. preliminary part of the sculptor's art, though there is no evidence to show that he ever worked on marble. 4 Ojie of these is a letter written to Michelangelo to warn him that Raphael had been in- vading his province as a sculptor by modelling a boy, which had been executed in marble by a pupil, and was a work of much beauty. Again, after his death his friend Baldassare Castiglione, in a letter dated 8th May 1523, asks his steward in Rome "if Giulio Romano still possesses a certain boy in marble by Raphael and what his lowest price for it would be," "s'egli [Giulio Romano] ha piu quel puttino di marmo di mano di Raffaello e per quanto si daria all' ultimo." A group in marble of a Dead Boy on his Dolphin Playfellow, now in the St Petersburg Hermitage, has been erroneously supposed to be Raphael's "put- tino," which has also been identified with a statuette of a child till recently at Flor- ence in the possession of Signer Molini. 5 The statue of Jonah was executed in marble by Loren- zetto, a Florentine sculptor ; and it re- mained in his studio for many years after Raphael's death. The South Kensington Museum possesses a small clay sketch for this beautiful group, slightly different from the marble ; it is probably the ori- ginal design by the master's own hand. The whole feeling of the group a beauti- ful youth seated on a sea - monster is purely classical, and the motive is prob-. ably taken from some antique statue FlG ' '.Statue of Jonah in the Chigi chapel, representing Arion desi g ned *>y Raphael, sculptured by Loren- or Taras on a dol- zetto ' heroic size - phin. 6 Being intended for a church it was necessary to give the figure a sacred name, and hence the very incongruous title that it received. There is no trace of Raphael's hand in the design of the other statue, an Elijah by Lorenzetto, though it also is ascribed to him by Vasari. Lesser Arts practised ~by Raphael. Like other great artists, Raphael did not disdain to practise the lesser branches of art : a design for a silver perfume-burner with female caryatids is preserved in an engraving by Marco da Ravenna ; and he also designed two handsome repousse salvers for Agostino Chigi, drawings for which are now at Dresden. In designs for tarsia -work and wood -carv- ing he was especially skilful ; witness the magnificent doors and shutters of the stanze executed by his pupil Giovanni Barile of Siena. 7 The majolica designs attributed to him were by a name- sake and relation called Raffaello di Ciarla ; 8 and, though many fine dishes and ewers of Urbino and other majolica are decorated with Raphael's designs, they are all taken from pictures or engrav- ings, not specially done by him for ceramic purposes. With the frivolity of his age Leo X. occasionally wasted Raphael's skill on unworthy objects, such as the scenery of a temporarytheatre ; and in 1516 the pope set him to paint in fresco the portrait life-size of a large elephant, the gift of the king of Portugal, after the 4 See note on p. 369, vol. iv., of Milanesi's edition of Vasari, Florence, 1879. To one branch of the sculptor's art, practised under Raphael's supervision, belong the elaborate and delicately executed stucco-reliefs of the loggie and elsewhere. Among these occur many panels with figure-subjects, large in scale and important in composition ; those executed during his lifetime are free from the too pictorial character which is an obvious fault in the very magnificent reliefs of the Villa Madama. s See Appendix, p. 406, vol. iv., of Milanesi's edition of Vasari; Rembadi, Del putto. . . di Rafaello, Florence, 1872 ; Gennarelli, Sopra uiw Scultura di Raffaello, Florence, 1873. The evidence which would attribute this piece of sculpture to Raphael is almost worthless. See on the St Petersburg group, Guedeonoff, Ueber die dem Saphael zugeschr. Marmorgruppe, St Petersburg, 1872. 6 Compare this latter subject on reverses of the beautiful didrachms of Tarentum, c. 300 B.C. 7 The very beautiful and elaborate choir-stalls of the church of S. Pietro de' Casinensi at Perugia, with panels carved in relief, executed in 1535 by Stefano da Bergamo, are mainly adapted from Raphael's designs. 8 Campori, Notizie Stor. d. Maiolica di Ferrara, 3d ed., Pesaro, 1879, pp. 132-133.
 * See Mariani, La BibHa nelle Loggie del Vatimno, Rome; Anon., Dipinti