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Page 58
"This," he resumed, "you will readily recognize, as you have so often
looked at the picture in the Pitti Gallery in Florence--the _Madonna del
Gran Duca_. This is the only Madonna that belongs to this period of
Raphael's painting, and the last important picture in the style. It was
painted during the early part of his visit to Florence."
"I never see this, uncle," said Margery, as she passed the photograph on
to the others, "without thinking how the Grand Duke carried it about in
its rich casket wherever he went, and said his prayers before it night
and morning. I am glad the people named it after him. Don't you think it
very beautiful, uncle?"
"Yes; and it is one of the purest Madonnas ever painted--so impersonal
is the face," replied Mr. Sumner.
"I wish," he continued, "I could go on like this through a list of
Raphael's works with you, but it is utterly impossible, so many are
there. When he went to Florence, where you know he spent some years, he
fell under the influence of the Florentine artists, and his work
gradually lost its resemblance to Perugino's. It gained more freedom,
action, grace, and strength of color. Some examples of this second
style of his painting are the _Madonna del Cardellino_, or Madonna of
the Goldfinch, which you will remember in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence,
and _La Belle Jardini�re_ in the Louvre, Paris. But I have brought
photographs of these pictures so that you may see the striking
difference between them and those previously painted."
Murmured exclamations attested the interest with which the comparison
was made. After all seemed satisfied, Mr. Sumner continued:--
"After Raphael came to Rome, summoned by the same Pope Julius II. who
sent for Michael Angelo, and was thus brought under the influence of
that great painter, his method again changed. It grew firmer and
stronger. Then he painted his best pictures,--and so many of them! So,
you can see, it is somewhat difficult to characterize Raphael's work as
a whole, for into it came so many influences. One thing, however, is
true. From all those whom he followed, he gathered only the best
qualities. His work deservedly holds its prominent place in the world's
estimation;--so high and sweet and pure are its _motifs_, while their
rendering is in the very best manner of the High Renaissance. No other
artist ever painted so many noble pictures in so few years of time."
"Did not his pupils assist him in many works, uncle?" asked Malcom, as
his uncle paused for a moment.
"Yes," replied Mr. Sumner, rising, "especially in the frescoes that we
shall see by and by. It would have been utterly impossible for him to
have executed all these with his own hand. Let us now go out into
this next gallery through which we entered, and look at the
_Transfiguration_."
So they went into the small room which is dedicated wholly to three
large pictures:--the _Transfiguration_ and _Madonna di Foligno_ by
Raphael, and the _Communion of St. Jerome_ by Domenichino.
"Raphael's last picture, which he left unfinished!" murmured Bettina,
and she took an almost reverential attitude before it.
"How very, very different from the _Coronation_!" exclaimed Barbara,
after some moments of earnest study. "That is so utterly simple, so
quiet! This is more than dramatic!"
"Raphael's whole lifetime of painting lies between the two," replied Mr.
Sumner, who had been intently watching her face as he stood beside her.
"Do you like this, Mr. Sumner? I do not think I do, really," said Miss
Sherman, as she dropped into a chair, her eyes denoting a veiled
displeasure, which was also apparent in the tones of her voice.
"It is a difficult picture to judge," replied Mr. Sumner, slowly. "I
wish you all could have studied many others before studying this one.
But, indeed, you are so familiar with Raphael's pictures that you need
only to recall them to mind. This was painted under peculiar
circumstances,--in competition, you remember, with Sebastian del
Piombo's _Resurrection of Lazarus_; and Sebastian was a pupil of Michael
Angelo. Some writers have affirmed that that master aided his pupil in
the drawing of the chief figures in his picture. Raphael tried harder
than he ever had done before to put some of the dramatic vigor and
action of Michael Angelo into the figures here in the lower part of the
_Transfiguration_. The result is that he overdid it. It is not
Raphaelesque; it is an unfortunate composite. The composition is fine;
the quiet glory of heaven in the upper part,--the turbulence of earth in
the lower, are well expressed; but the perfection of artistic effect is
wanting. It is full of beauties, yet it is not beautiful. It has many
defects, yet only a great master could have designed and painted it."
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