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living authors admitted into this celestial society; but the painter, notwithstanding, still found room enough for his own likeness. The next painting represented jurisprudence. The pontiff, Gregory the Tenth, delivers his decretals to an advocate of the consistory, in whose likeness the painter has taken care to preserve the features of his patron, Julius the Third. The surrounding cardinals are made to express the countenances of those of his own times. On the left, the emperor Justinian delivers his pandects to Trebonian. All these paintings are surmounted with appropriate devices, representing the objects of each; for instance, the Trinity has the emblematic figure of theology-the gymnasium, philosophy-Parnassus, poetry—and jurisprudence, justice. These several works excited such unbounded commendation, that the pencil of Raphael was again summoned to embellish the second apartment of the Vatican. He began with the story of Heliodorus, who, designing to plunder the temple of Jerusalem of the treasures there deposited, for the relief of widows and orphans, was frightened from his purpose, by the appearance of two celestial youths, in armour. This was designed as another delicate oblation of flattery to the pride of Julius, who drove the usurpers of St. Peter's patrimony from their possessions, and united them to the church; for, by one of those violent anachronisms, in which the pencil of Raphael so frequently indulged, the holy father himself is made a spectator of the ceremony. We should conjecture, that without any violence of this kind, the flattery would have been more heightened and appropriate, had the features of Onias, at whose intercession this miracle was brought about, expressed those of the pontiff. Leo the Tenth, now succeeded to the pontifical chair, under whose auspices our indefatigable artist proceeded in the labours of the Vatican. His first effort, under the new pontificate, was the representation of Attila, king of the Huns; who, by the admonitions of Leo the Third, was driven out of Italy. Raphael, in this instance, united poetry to his pencil. Instead of representing a supplicating priest, and an armed and exasperated warrior, retiring from his pacific remonstrances, the frowning features of St. Peter and St. Paul, the protecting saints of the church are discovered, visible only to the pontiff. The specta

tors, to whom the miracle is unknown, are grouped together with faces of astonishment at the change which the eloquence of the holy father has produced. An American traveller, notwithstanding, censures the warlike habiliments of the two saints, who are armed with swords on this momentous occasion. It may be remarked, in answer, that this is not too strong, if we consider it as emblematic of the church, for which it is designed, which claims the liberty of uniting spiritual and temporal power. Milton has furnished Michel, as well as Satan, with two formidable weapons of this nature. The liberation of St. Peter from prison, furnished another subject for Raphael's powers. Here the marble steps of the prison are illuminated with the glory of the descending angel, who gently awakens the saint, and points to the door, now miraculously opened. The labours of Raphael in the Vatican, had so advanced his fame, that the productions of his pencil were now universally demanded by the powerful and the opulent. Amongst these, Augustino Chigi might almost be said to have contended with the pontiff himself. Raphael had long before executed for him, a painting in fresco, designating Galatea, drawn in her car by dolphins, escorted by tritons and sca-nymphs. The chapel, likewise, of Augustino, erected in the church of St. Maria della Pace, was ornamented with representations of the prophets and sybils, after the manner of Angelo, which some considered amongst the most exquisite productions of his pencil. A series of paintings was likewise executed, comprehending the history of Cupid and Psychetheir complaint to Jupiter, and their subsequent marriage. He furnished Augustino with a design for the chapel above mentioned, and superintended the erection of a sepulchre formed on the model of Julius the Second. Lorenzetto, the sculptor, undertook the workmanship, but the death of the artist and his friend prevented its accomplishment. Raphael was likewise eminent for portrait painting. His portrait of Leo the Tenth, has been for centuries admired, and that which was regarded as the chief ornament of the ducal gallery, at Florence, has now become the pride and boast of the Louvre. Nothing, however, induced our artist to suspend his labours in the Vatican, and a third apartment was now awaiting the decorations of his pencil. But so

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many engagements engrossed his attention, he could only furnish the designs, superintend the execution of the work, and reserve the finishing touches for his own hands. The rest was intrusted to subordinate artists. Hence arose the Roman school of design, a school distinguished for combining the boldness of the Florentine pencil with chastity of design, sobriety of. colouring, and the splendour of the Venetian tint. These paintings designate the coronation of Charlemagne, by the pontiff, Leo the Tenth, and the justification, by the pontiff, to that monarch of the charges brought against him. There were two other paintings, one of which represented the victory of Leo the Fourth, over the Saracens; aud the other, the extinction of the conflagration in the Borgo Vecchio, at Rome. The painter's pencil here kindles all the terrors which the awful spectacle of a conflagration is calculated to inspire. "It is not," says an eminent painter, "for the faint appearance of the miracle, which approaches with the pontiff, and his train in the back ground, that Raphael bespeaks our eyes. The perturbation, necessity, hope, fear, danger, the pangs and efforts of affection, grapling with the enraged elements of wind and fire, displayed on the fore ground, furnish the pathetic motives that press on our hearts. That mother, who, but half awake, or rather in waking trance, drives her children instinctively before her; that prostrate female, half covered by her streaming hair, with elevated arms, imploring heaven; that other, who, over the flaming tenement, heedless of her own danger, absorbed in maternal agony, cautiously reaches over to drop the babe into the outstretched arms of its father; that common son of nature, who, heedless of another's wo, vibrates a step from the burning wall; the vigorous youth who, followed by an aged mother, bears the palsied father on his shoulder from the rushing wreck; the nimble grace of those helpless damsels that try to administer relief; these are the real objects. of the painter's aim, and leave the pontiff and the miracle, with taper, bell, and clergy, unheeded in the distance."

It was now determined to unite by the galleries, the various parts of that immense building, the Vatican. Bramante having left this unfinished, Raphael was prevailed upon to undertake it, who introduced such improvements in the style of Bramante,

VOL. VII.

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