Raphael
Anne
Gardom on the precocious genius
RAPHAEL
was not one of your agonised geniuses struggling for recognition. Throughout his
tragically short working life his brilliance was acknowledged and admired. His
precocious talent was fostered and encouraged by his father, Giovanni Santi,
himself a successful painter, and by the age of seventeen Raphael had inherited
his father’s studio and was regarded as a master painter in his own right.
The
exhibition at the National Gallery is an opportunity to see paintings and
drawings, some of which have never been shown in this country before. The nine
paintings in the National Gallery are the largest collection of his early works
outside Italy, and form the basis of the exhibition. The British Museum and the
Ashmolean are also rich in Raphael’s work, and their drawings complement the
paintings. The exhibition charts Raphael’s artistic development and journey
from Urbino, where he was born, to Rome. Pope Julius II, the great patron of
artists, for whom Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were working, commissioned
important works from an artist who was still a very young man.
The
exhibition concentrates on Raphael’s early development and the influences that
affected and modified his painting. There are some paintings which relate to his
later work but the huge frescoes in the Vatican have to be seen in Rome. We do
have, however, the cartoons for tapestries made for the Vatican. These can be
seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and give some indication of the
magnificence and complexity of his later work.
The
first picture on display is a self-portrait made at about the age of fifteen. It
shows a confidence and economy of line which is breathtaking. Here also are
shown paintings by his father, his earliest teacher, and Perugino who was an
established painter, and whose warmth and delicacy and beautifully detailed
landscape backgrounds Raphael interpreted and adapted in his own paintings.
These artists were the first influences on him, and his ability to absorb new
techniques and ideas was already apparent.
His
first documented work, undertaken at the age of seventeen was a huge altarpiece,
nearly four metres high, showing the Coronation of St Nicolas of Torentino; this
was damaged in an earthquake in the 18th century and only fragments remain, one
of which, showing God the Father, is on display. But the preparatory drawings,
including a beautiful study of a man’s head, show how Raphael as a very young
man, handled a large and complex design.
At
this time he was working on a much smaller scale as well, painting exquisite
small
paintings, designed for private devotion and to appeal to the taste of the
court. Five of these are displayed together, and include two lovely paintings of
St Michael and Saint George, full of movement and minutely painted detail. There
is also the National Gallery’s own Allegory of the Vision of a Knight, a
tiny painting of a knight sleeping under a tree in an exquisite landscape,
visited by a vision of two beautiful women representing Virtue and Pleasure. The
detailed preparatory drawing hangs alongside, showing the pricked out lines used
by Raphael to transfer the drawing on to its final panel.
Here
too is a large Crucifixion (known as the Mond Crucifixion) one of his
early works, where he took Perugino’s as style and developed his own version.
The beautiful elongated figure of Christ, high above the gazing figures below,
is flanked by animated angels with swirling draperies and rhythmically twisting
ribbons.
Raphael
moved to Florence in his early twenties. To an ambitious and determined young
man, well aware of his immense talents, Florence was a magnet where the works of
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Donatello could be seen, among many others.
Raphael copied the sculptures of Donatello and studied the vigorous sculptural
and three-dimensional style of Michaelangelo. Leonardo’s famous cartoon of the
Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist is to be seen here,
as well as some of his other works, including enchanting sketches of the Virgin
and Child playing with a cat.
During
his time in Florence, Raphael painted portraits and a number of small devotional
paintings of the Virgin and Child. In these smaller paintings the interaction
between the Virgin and Child is studied and interpreted in a variety of ways,
but always
with
the emphasis on the grace and humanity of the subject. The Alba Madonna, shows
Raphael using the tondo (circular painting) with brilliant skill. The
complex composition has freedom and confidence and the interaction between the
three figures is subtle and very moving.
His
splendid altarpiece, The Entombment of Christ, is shown here in a
full-scale copy. It was commissioned for the furious people of Perugia by
Cardinal Scipione, when he stole the original from the Baglioni chapel and took
it to Rome. It is accompanied by an extensive series of preparatory drawings.
The style and painting shows the influence of Michaelangelo, but Raphael gave
the subject his own emotional charge and intensity.
In
1508 Pope Julius II, looking for artists to decorate his private apartments in
the Vatican, summoned Raphael to Rome. The first fresco he executed for the Pope
was the Disputa, depicting saints and theologians discussing the status
of the Host as the Body of Christ. Raphael had little experience in painting
frescoes: the huge arched space was a challenge he met by making many detailed
preparatory drawings, some of which are shown here. The final composition of the
Disputa (shown in reproduction) was a complex visible exposition of
theological and intellectual concepts. The Pope was so impressed that Raphael
was asked to make designs for the rest of the apartments.
One
of the most remarkable portraits is that of Pope Julius II. It shows an
autocratic, intelligent and powerful man, though the eyes and mouth betray his
age, the strong be-ringed hands shown no sign of decline. Raphael painted his
patron, towards the end of his life, as a dominating and daunting man.
In
total contrast is the portrait he painted about the same time La Donna Velata
— a beautiful young woman, dark-eyed and dark-haired, dressed in
elaborately folded gold and white silk. It is a picture clearly influenced by
Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, but imbued with Raphael’s warm response to beauty and
painted with his own freedom and energy.
It
is very easy to take Raphael's charm and grace for granted. The very
accessibility of his work can lead us to undervalue its importance. This
exhibition demonstrates how, as a brilliantly gifted young man, he responded to
the challenges posed by his contemporaries and by commissions that came his way.
It explains his remarkable rise to fame and his continuing popularity and
influence.
Exhibition
runs till 16th January at the National Gallery. £9 entry £8 concession.
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