No one of the old Italian masters has taken such a firm hold upon the popular imagination as Raphael. Other artists wax and wane in public favor as they are praised by one generation of critics or disparaged by the next; but Raphael's name continues to stand in public estimation as that of the favorite painter in Christendom. The passing centuries do not dim his fame, though he is subjected to severe criticism; and he continues, as he began, the first love of the people.

The subjects of his pictures are nearly all of a cheerful nature. He exercised his skill for the most part on scenes which were agreeable to contemplate. Pain and ugliness were strangers to his art; he was preËminently the artist of joy. This is to be referred not only to his pleasure-loving nature, but to the great influence upon him of the rediscovery of Greek art in his day, an art which dealt distinctively with objects of delight.

Moreover Raphael is compassionate towards mind as well as heart; he requires of us neither too strenuous feeling nor too much thinking. As his subjects do not overtax the sympathies with harrowing emotions, neither does his art overtax the understanding with complicated effects. His pictures are apparently so simple that they demand no great intellectual effort and no technical education to enjoy them. He does all the work for us, and his art is too perfect to astonish. It was not his way to show what difficult things he could do, but he made it appear that great art is the easiest thing in the world. This ease was, however, the result of a splendid mastery of his art. Thus he arranges the fifty-two figures in the School of Athens, or the three figures of the Madonna of the Chair, so simply and unobtrusively that we might imagine such feats were an every-day affair. Yet in both cases he solves most difficult problems of composition with a success scarcely paralleled in the history of art.

Even the Master himself seldom achieved the same kind of success twice. His Parnassus lacks the variety of the School of Athens, though the single figures have a similar grace, and the Incendio del Borgo or Conflagration in the Borgo, with groups equal in beauty to any in the other two frescoes, has not the unity of either. Again, while the Parnassus and the Liberation of Peter show a masterly adaptation to extremely awkward spaces, the Transfiguration fails to solve a much easier problem of composition.

Preferring by an instinct such as the Greek artist possessed, the statuesque effects of repose to the portrayal of action, Raphael showed himself capable of both. The Hellenic calm of Parnassus is not more impressive than the splendid charge of the avenging spirits upon Heliodorus; the visionary idealism of the angel-led Peter is matched by the vigorous realism of Peter called from his fishing to the apostleship; the brooding quiet of maternity expressed in the Madonna of the Chair has a perfect complement in the alert activity of the swiftly moving Sistine Madonna.

Great as was Raphael's achievement in many directions, he is remembered above all else as a painter of Madonnas. Here was the subject best expressing the individuality of his genius. From the beginning to the end of his career the sweet mystery of motherhood never ceased to fascinate him. Again and again he sounded the depths of maternal experience, always making some new discovery.

The Madonna of the Chair emphasizes most prominently, perhaps, the physical instincts of maternity. "She bends over the child," says Taine, "with the beautiful action of a wild animal." Like a mother creature instinctively protecting her young, she gathers him in her capacious embrace as if to shield him from some impending danger. The Sistine Madonna, on the other hand, is the most spiritual of Raphael's creations, the perfect embodiment of ideal womanhood. The mother's love is here transfigured by the spirit of sacrifice. Forgetful of self, and obedient to the heavenly summons, she bears her son forth to the service of humanity.

Sister spirits of the Madonnas, and hardly second in delicate loveliness, are the virgin saints of Raphael; the Catherine, the Cecilia, the Magdalene, and the Barbara are abiding ideals in our dreams of fair women.

The same sweetness of nature which prompted Raphael's fondness for lovely women and happy children shows itself also in his delineation of angels. The archangel Michael, the angel visitors of Abraham, and the celestial spirits appearing to Heliodorus all follow closely upon the Madonnas in the purity and serenity of their beauty. In the same fellowship also belongs the beautiful youth in the crowd at Lystra, who is as sharply contrasted with his surroundings as if he were a denizen of another sphere. The ideal is again repeated in the St. John of the Cecilia altar-piece, whose uplifted face has a sweetness which is not so much feminine as celestial. The angel of Peter's deliverance is less successful than the artist's other angel types. The head seems too small for the splendidly vigorous body, and the face lacks somewhat of strength.

If Raphael's favorite ideals were drawn from youth and womanhood, it was not because he did not understand the purely masculine. The Æneas of the Borgo fresco, the Paul of the Cecilia altar-piece, and the Sixtus of the Sistine Madonna show, in three ages, what is best and most distinctive in ideal manhood.

Raphael's type of beauty is not such as calls forth immediate or extravagant admiration: it is satisfying rather than amazing, and its qualities dawn slowly though steadily upon the imagination. Raphael holds always to the golden mean; no exaggerated note jars upon the perfection of his harmonies. For this reason his pictures never grow tiresome. They stand the test of daily companionship and grow ever lovelier through familiarity.

Without forcing the parallel, we may say that something of the same spirit which animated the work of Raphael reappears in the familiar poetry of Longfellow. The one artist had an eye for beautiful line, the other had an ear for melodious verse, and both alike shunned whatever was inharmonious, always seeking grace and symmetry. Their subjects were, indeed, of dissimilar range. Raphael, impressed by the scholarship of his time, chose themes which were larger and more related to the experience of the world, while Longfellow was never very far removed from the golden milestone of domestic life. Yet in diverse subjects both turned instinctively to aspects of womanhood, to what was refined and gently emotional, and turned away from the violent and revolutionary.

II. ON BOOKS OF REFERENCE.

Within the last forty years the methods of criticism as applied to art have undergone so many changes that there has been a rapid succession of biographers and critics of Raphael until the student reader of to-day scarcely knows whom to believe. The time was when Vasari, in his important "Lives of the Painters," was the accepted source of information, and all current writers borrowed unquestioningly from him both facts and opinions; but the old chronicler was too often influenced by popular gossip and personal prejudice to be depended upon. Many of his stories are positively disproved by documentary evidence, and for some years he has stood in dust and disgrace on the upper shelves of the bookcase. From this exile a revised edition has recently brought him forth to fresh honors. The joint work of Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Blashfield with A. A. Hopkins has given us an annotated text which we may read with equal pleasure and profit. This is certainly the best of all reference books to put us in touch with the period in which Raphael lived.

The German work on Raphael by Passavant, once so weighty, is now useful only to those who have opportunity to compare it with other authorities. So likewise the work of Crowe and Cavalcaselle is no longer desirable as a sole authority. Even the splendid work of Eugene MÜntz (translated by Walter Armstrong), the latest and most valuable of the comprehensive books on Raphael, must be read in the light of later criticism. MÜntz's volume contains a complete list of the master's works,—frescoes, easel pictures, tapestries, drawings, and works in architecture and sculpture,—each class subdivided according to subject.

A few of the shorter biographies of Raphael have been corrected according to the conclusions of the most recent critical scholarship, as represented by Morelli. Notable among these is the life of Raphael in Kugler's "Handbook of the Italian Schools," revised by A. H. Layard, and the life of Raphael included in Mrs. Jameson's "Early Italian Painters," revised by Estelle M. Hurll.

The latest entirely new short biographies of Raphael are those (1) by Mrs. Henry Ady (Julia Cartwright), issued in two parts as monographs for "The Portfolio:" the "Early Work of Raphael" and "Raphael in Rome," and (2) by H. Knackfuss in a series of German "KÜnstler-Monographien" (also published in an English translation). Both are well illustrated and useful books.

Finally the student is referred to Bernhard Berenson's "Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance" for an exceedingly valuable estimate of Raphael's character as an artist.

Many books have been written on the separate works of Raphael,—the Vatican frescoes, the cartoons, the Madonnas, etc.,—but as most of these are in German and Italian they are not generally available. The Blashfield Vasari enumerates a long list of them in the Bibliography preceding the "Life of Raphael."

III. HISTORICAL DIRECTORY OF THE PICTURES OF THIS COLLECTION.

Portrait frontispiece. Painted on wood, 1506, as a gift from the painter to his uncle, Simone Ciarla, of Urbino. In 1588 the portrait passed from Urbino to the Academy of St. Luke, Rome. Later it was sold to Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici for the Hall of Portraits of the Old Masters in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

1. The Madonna of the Chair is a wood panel 2 ft. 4-3/4 in. diameter. It was painted between 1510-1514, and is now in the Pitti Gallery, Florence.

2. Abraham and the Three Angels is a mural painting in the fourth arcade of the Loggie, Vatican Palace, Rome. It was executed by Francesco Penni.

3, 4. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes and The Sacrifice at Lystra are cartoons in distemper colors. The execution was by Raphael's pupils in 1515-1516. They were sent to Flanders as designs for tapestries, and discovered by Rubens in a manufactory at Arras, 1630; Charles I. of England purchased them, and they are now in the South Kensington Museum, London.

5. Heliodorus driven from the Temple (detail of the larger composition known by this name) is a mural painting which gives the name to the Camera d' Eliodoro, Vatican Palace, Rome. The date of the painting is 1511-1512.

6. The Liberation of Peter is a mural painting in the Camera d' Eliodoro, Vatican Palace, Rome; the execution is by Giulio Romano, 1514.

7. The Holy Family of Francis I. is a canvas panel 8 ft. 9 in. by 5 ft. 3 in., painted for Lorenzo de' Medici, and presented by the Pope Leo X. to Francis I. of France; hence the name. It was executed by Giulio Romano in 1518, and is now in the Louvre, Paris.

8. St. Catherine of Alexandria is a wood panel 2 ft. 4 in. by I ft. 9-1/2 in., painted in 1507, and now in the National Gallery, London.

9. St. Cecilia is a panel painting which was transferred from wood to canvas. It was painted about 1516 for the Church of S. Giovanni a Monte, Bologna, and is now in the Bologna Gallery.

10. The Transfiguration, 14 ft. 9 in. by 9 ft. 1-1/2 in. Raphael painted the upper part in 1519, and the picture was finished after his death by Giulio Romano. It was ordered by the Cardinal de' Medici for the Cathedral at Narbonne (France), but was retained in Rome after the artist's death. It was taken to Paris during the French Revolution, and restored to Rome in 1815. It is now in the Vatican Gallery.

11. Parnassus is a mural painting in the Camera della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome. The date is 1509-1511.

12. Socrates and Alcibiades (detail of the School of Athens) is a mural painting in the Camera della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome. It was painted in 1509-1511.

13. The Flight of Æneas (detail of the Conflagration in the Borgo), a mural painting in the Camera dell' Incendio, Vatican Palace, Rome. It was executed by Giulio Romano about 1515.

14. St. Michael slaying the Dragon, a panel 8 ft. 9-1/2 in. by 5 ft. 3 in. It was painted on wood and transferred to canvas. It was ordered by Leo X. as a gift to Francis I., and was presented to him by Lorenzo de' Medici. The execution is by Giulio Romano, 1518. It is now in the Louvre, Paris.

15. The Sistine Madonna, a canvas panel 8 ft. 8 in. by 6 ft. 5 in., was painted about 1515 for the high altar of the Church of St. Sixtus, Piacenza, and received its name from the portrait figure of St. Sixtus which it contains; it was purchased by the Elector of Saxony in 1753-1754 for the Dresden Gallery.

IV. COLLATERAL READINGS FROM LITERATURE.

In connection with St. Catherine:—

Latin Hymn, Vox Sonora Nostri Chori, St. Catherine's Day. Translated by David Morgan.

Mrs. Jameson. Sacred and Legendary Art.

S. Baring-Gould. Lives of the Saints. Volume for November.

In connection with St. Cecilia:—

S. Baring-Gould. Lives of the Saints. Volume for November.

Mrs. Jameson. Sacred and Legendary Art.

Chaucer. Second Nonnes Tale.

Dryden. Alexander's Feast: Ode in honor of St. Cecilia's Day.

In connection with Parnassus:—

Shelley. Hymn of Apollo.

Keats. Ode to Apollo.

Bulfinch. Age of Fable.

In connection with the Flight of Æneas:—

Virgil. Æneid, Book II. Translated by C. P. Cranch.

In connection with Socrates and Alcibiades:—

FÉnelon. Lives of the Philosophers. Translated by John Cormack.

Plato. Alcibiades, The Symposium, Protagoras. Translated by Jowett.

Milton. Paradise Regained. Book IV. lines 240-285.

In connection with St. Michael and the Dragon:—

Milton. Paradise Lost. Book VI.

In connection with the Sistine Madonna:—

Mrs. Jameson. Sacred and Legendary Art (for St. Barbara).

V. OUTLINE TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN RAPHAEL'S LIFE.

1483. Raphael born at Urbino.

1499. Raphael enters Perugino's studio at Perugia.

1504. "The Marriage of the Virgin."

1504. Raphael's first visit to Florence.

1505. Raphael in Perugia:—

The Madonna of St. Anthony.

The fresco of San Severo.

1506. Visit at Urbino:—

Raphael's portrait by himself.

1504-1508. The Florentine Period:—

Granduca Madonna.

Tempi Madonna.

Madonna in the Meadow.

The Madonna del Cardellino.

The Belle Jardiniere.

The Canigiani Madonna.

1508. Raphael called to Rome by Pope Julius II.

1511. Raphael frescoes the Camera della Segnatura.

1512. Raphael begins decoration of the Camera d' Eliodoro.

1513. Raphael commissioned by Leo X. to continue work begun under Julius II.

1514. "Galatea."

1514. Raphael appointed architect of St. Peter's by Leo X.

1508-1515. Some Madonnas of the Roman Period:—

Foligno Madonna.

Garvagh Madonna.

The Madonna of Casa Alba.

The Madonna of the Chair.

The Sistine Madonna.

1515. Camera dell' Incendio completed under Raphael's direction.

1515-1516. Cartoons for tapestries executed under Raphael's direction.

1517. Farnesina frescoes painted under Raphael's direction.

1519. The Transfiguration.

1520. Raphael died in Rome.

VI. SOME FAMOUS CONTEMPORARIES OF RAPHAEL.

IN ITALY.

Rulers:—

Lorenzo de' Medici (reigned 1469-1492) and Pietro de' Medici (1492-1494), dukes of Florence.

Giovanni Galeazzo Sforza (reigned 1476-1494), Lodovico Maria Sforza (1494-1500), and Massimiliano Sforza (1512-1515), dukes of Milan.

Francesco Maria della Rovere, duke of Urbino (born 1490; died 1535).

Ferdinand I. (reigned 1458-1494), Ferdinand II. (reigned 1495-1496), and Ferdinand III., kings of Naples, the last being he who was also king of Spain as Ferdinand V.

Innocent VIII. (1484-1492), Alexander VI. (1492-1503), Pius III. (1503), Julius II. (1503-1513), and Leo X. (1513-1523), popes.

Painters:—

Older group:—

Perugino (1446-1523).

Bazzi (1477-1549).

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).

Bartolommeo (1475-1517).

Giorgione (1477-1510).

Titian (1477-1576).

Giovanni Bellini (1428-1516).

Compeers:—

Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531).

Sebastian del Piombo (1485-1547).

Assistants and Pupils:—

Giulio Romano (1492-1546).

Giovanni da Udine (1487-1564).

Francesco Penni (1488-1528).

Marc Antonio (1487-1539), engraver.

Michelangelo (1474-1564), sculptor.

Bramante (1444-1514), architect of St. Peter's.

Sanazzaro Jacopo (1458-1530 or 1532), poet (De Partu Virginia).

Ariosto (1474-1533), poet (Orlando Furioso).

Francesco Berni (1496-1536), comic poet.

Cardinal Bembi (1470-1547), celebrated scholar.

Count Baldasarre Castiglione (1478-1529), writer and patron of literature.

Christopher Columbus (1436 or 1446-1506), discoverer.

IN PORTUGAL.

Vasco da Gama (died 1525), discoverer.

IN ENGLAND.

Richard III. (1483-1485), Henry VII. (1485-1509), Henry VIII. (1509-1547), kings.

Sebastian Cabot (1477-15?), discoverer.

IN GERMANY.

Frederick III. (1440-1493), emperor of Austria, and Maximilian I. (1493-1519).

Martin Luther (1483-1546), religious reformer.

Albert DÜrer (1471-1528), painter.

Holbein (1498-1543), painter.

Copernicus (1473-1545), astronomer.

IN FRANCE.

Charles VIII. (1483-1498), king.

Rabelais (1483 or 1495-1553), satirist.

IN SPAIN.

Ferdinand (died 1516) and Isabella (died 1504), king and queen, beginning to reign in 1474.