Friday 5 November 2021

Raphael - part 5

 For centuries Raphael has been recognised as the supreme High Renaissance painter, more versatile than Michaelangelo and more prolific than their older contemporary Leonardo. Though he died at 37, Raphael's example as a paragon of classicism dominated the academic tradition of European painting until the mid-19th century.

Raphael (Raffaello Santi) was born in Urbino where his father, Giovanni Santi, was court painter. He almost certainly began his training there and must have known works by Mantegna, Uccello, and Piero della Francesca from an early age. His earliest paintings were also greatly influenced by Purgino. From 1500 - when he became an independent master - to 1508 he worked throughout central Italy, particularly Florence, where he became a noted portraitist and painter of Madonnas.

In 1508, at the age of 25, he was called to the court of Pope Julius II to help with the redecoration of the papal apartments. In Rome he evolved as a portraitist, and became one of the greatest of all history painters.

He remained in Rome for the rest of his life and in 1514, on the death of Bramante, he was appointed architect in charge of St Peter’s.

For earlier works see parts 1 - 4 also.

This is part 5 of 5 parts on the works of Raphael:

(Apologies for continued font glitches on the blogspot template)


c1513 A Marble Horse on the Quirinal Hill
red chalk and pen and brown ink, with stylus underdrawing and traces of lead-point on laid paper 21.9 x 27.4 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

c1513 Madonna of the Candelabra ( Workshop of Raphael )
65.7 x 64 cm
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

1514 Sybils receiving instruction from Angels
fresco, 615 cm across the base
Santa Maria della Pace, Rome

1514-1515 Two apostles' heads
black stone, watercolour ( for the figures ), pen and brown ink, white highlights and gouache 38.5 x 50.2 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais Domaine de Chantilly


c1514-1515 Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione

The portrait was produced as a result of Raphael's friendship with Castiglione, whose ascent in courtly circles paralleled that of the artist. They were close friends by 1504, when Castiglione made his second visit to Urbino, as Raphael was gaining recognition as an artist in the humanist circle of the city's ducal court. Raphael was commissioned by Guidobaldo da Montefeltro in 1505 to paint a picture for Henry VII; Castiglione traveled to England to present the finished painting to the king. It is possible that Castiglione later served as a "scholarly advisor" for Raphael’s The School of Athens, and that the depiction of Zoroaster in that fresco may be a portrait of the courtier.


c1514-1515 Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione ( attributed to )
oil on canvas 82 x 67 cm
Louvre, Paris

c1514-1516 Christ Carrying the Cross
oil on panel transferred to canvas 318 x 229 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

1514-1517 Man half draped, three-quarters to the right, carrying a burden
sanguine on paper 32.1 x 16.1 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais Domaine de Chantilly

c1514-1517 The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia
oil transferred from panel to canvas 220 x 136 cm
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna

c1514 Eight Apostles 
red chalk over stylus underdrawing and traces of lead-point on laid paper 8.1 x 23.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

c1514 Young man carrying an old man on his back
 red chalk
Albertina, Vienna, Austria

1515 Nude Studies
red chalk and metal-point
Albertina, Vienna

1515-1516 The Raphael Cartoons

The Raphael Cartoons are seven large cartoons for tapestries, belonging to the British Royal Collection, but since 1865 on loan to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London Designed by Raphael in 1515–16 and showing scenes from the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. They are the only surviving members of a set of ten cartoons commissioned by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel tapestries for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace, which are still (on special occasions) hung below Michaelangelo’s famous ceiling.


Christ's Charge to Peter
tempera on paper mounted on canvas 345 x 535 cm
Royal Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

St Paul Preaching in Athens
tempera on paper mounted on canvas 390 x 440 cm
Royal Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Conversion of the Proconsul
tempera on paper mounted on canvas 385 x 445 cm
Royal Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Death of Ananias
tempera on paper mounted on canvas
Royal Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Healing of the Lame Man
tempera on paper mounted on canvas 340 x 540 cm
Royal Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
tempera over charcoal on paper, mounted on canvas 360 x 400 cm
Royal Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Sacrifice at Lystra
tempera on paper mounted on canvas 350 x 540 cm
Royal Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

c1515-1516 Study for a figure of the Almighty
red chalk over blind stylus 21.4 x 20.9 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

1515-1520 The Transfiguration
tempera on wood panel 410 x 279 cm
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City


1516 Creation of the World mosaic

Creation of the World is a mosaic composition in the dome of the Chogo Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, designed by Raphael. The chapel itself was designed by Raphael for his friend and patron, banker Agostino Chigi as a private chapel and family burial place. The dome was decorated with mosaics, a somewhat unusual and old-fashioned technique in the 16th century. Raphael's cartoons were executed by a Venetian craftsman, Luigi da Pace in 1516. The original cartoons were lost but some preparatory drawings, that confirm the originality of the work, survived in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.


1516 Creation of the World
mosaic
Chigi Chapel, Rome

1516 Eight Seated Bishops
red chalk 26.1 x 31.8 cm
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Sammlung der Kunstakademie

1516 Portrait of Andrea Navagero and Agostino Beazzano
oil on canvas 76 x 107 cm
Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome

1516 The Elephant Hanno
pen and brownish black ink over traces of black chalk, with white highlights; on greyish brown paper 27.9 x 28.5 cm 
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

c1516-1518 Madonna of Divine Love
oil on wood panel 140 x 109 cm
National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy

c1516-1520 Portrait of a Young Woman
( by Raphael and Giulio Romano )
oil on poplar wood panel 60 x 44 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg

c1516 La Velata 
oil on canvas 82 x 60.5 cm 
Palantine Gallery, Pitti Palace, Florence

c1516 Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena
oil on canvas 85 x 66.3 cm
Palantine Gallery, Pitti Palace, Florence

c1517 The Visitation
oil on panel transferred to canvas 200 x 145 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

1518 St. Michael Vanquishing Satan
oil on panel transferred to canvas 268 x 160 cm
Louvre Paris

1518 The Holy Family of Francis I
oil on canvas transferred from wood 207 x 140 cm
Louvre, Paris

1518-1519 Portrait of a Young Woman ( La Fornari )
oil on wood panel 85 x 60 cm
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

1518-1519 Self-Portrait with a Friend

The identity of the man portrayed before Raphael is unknown. Traditionally he was identified as his fencing master, since he holds the hilt of a sword. Modern art historians consider him as a close friend, or possibly one of the painter's pupils, perhaps Polidoro da Caravaggio or Giulio Romano. One possibility is Giovanni Battista Branconio, for whom Raphael had designed, in the Borgo quarter of Rome, the now destroyed Palazzo Branconio. Other people associated with the character include Pietro Aretino, Balsassarre Peruzzi and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, as well as other painters such as Il Pordenone or Pontormo, but these hypotheses have been refuted by other portraits. A significant portion of the painting seems to have been executed by one of Raphael's pupils. The painting was owned by Francis I of France and, in the past, was assigned to other artists, including Sebastiano del Piombo.


1518-1519 Self-Portrait with a Friend
oil on canvas 99 x 83 cm
Louvre, Paris

c1518-1519 Small Holy Family ( Raphael and workshop )
oil on wood panel 38 x 32 cm
Louvre, Paris

1518-1520 Madonna of the Rose ( possibly assisted by Giulio Romano )
103 x 84 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

1518-1520 Upraised right hand, with palm facing outward: Study for Saint Peter
black chalk, heightened with white chalk and lead white, partially oxidised, over stylus underdrawing, on cream laid paper 28.6 x 19.7 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1518-1520c Portrait of Pope Leo X with two Cardinals 

The painting depicts Pope Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici, 1475-1521), son of Lorenzo il Magnifico, with Giulio de' Medici (1478-1534), future Pope Clement VII to the left and Luigi de Rossi (1474-1519), his cousin, to the right. The painting was sent to Florence in 1518 for the wedding of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Maddalena de la Tour d'Auvergne. It was exhibited in the tribune from 1589.


c1518-1520 Portrait of Pope Leo X with two Cardinals 
oil on wood 154 x 119 cm
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

c1518 A Kneeling nude woman with her left arm raised
red chalk, with touches of black chalk, over stylus underdrawing on off-white paper 27.9 x 18.7 cm
 National Galleries Scotland, UK

c1518 Ezekiel's Vision
oil on panel 40 x 30 cm
Palantine Gallery, Pitti Palace, Florence

c1518 Portrait of Doña Isabel de Requesens, Vice-Reine of Naples
oil on canvas ( transferred from wood ) 120 x 95 cm
Louvre, Paris

c1518 St. Margaret
oil on poplar wood panel 191.3 x 123 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
©KHM-Museumsverband

1519-1520 Head of an Apostle in the Transfiguration
black chalk over traces of a metal-stylus preliminary drawing
Albertina, Vienna, Austria

1519-1520c Head of a Young Apostle

The drawing nearly tripled its pre-sale estimate of £10-15 million ($16-24 million), as four bidders battled over the work on paper for 17 minutes. (It sold for £29.7 million). The black chalk rendering shows one of the primary figures from Raphael's "The Transfiguration," which is considered to be one of the greatest Renaissance-era paintings and now hangs in the halls of the Vatican Museum in Rome. "Head of a Young Apostle" is one of only three Raphael drawings of this significance. Over the last 50 years at auction, all three of the drawings have set records for Old Master works at sale.


c1519-1520 Head of a Young Apostle
black chalk over pounced, dotted outlines on paper 37.5 x 27.8 cm


Wednesday 3 November 2021

Raphael - part 4

 For centuries Raphael has been recognised as the supreme High Renaissance painter, more versatile than Michaelangelo and more prolific than their older contemporary Leonardo. Though he died at 37, Raphael's example as a paragon of classicism dominated the academic tradition of European painting until the mid-19th century.

Raphael (Raffaello Santi) was born in Urbino where his father, Giovanni Santi, was court painter. He almost certainly began his training there and must have known works by Mantegna, Uccello, and Piero della Francesca from an early age. His earliest paintings were also greatly influenced by Purgino. From 1500 - when he became an independent master - to 1508 he worked throughout central Italy, particularly Florence, where he became a noted portraitist and painter of Madonnas.

In 1508, at the age of 25, he was called to the court of Pope Julius II to help with the redecoration of the papal apartments. In Rome he evolved as a portraitist, and became one of the greatest of all history painters.

He remained in Rome for the rest of his life and in 1514, on the death of Bramante, he was appointed architect in charge of St Peter’s.

For earlier works see parts 1 - 3 also.

This is part 4 of 5 parts on the works of Raphael:


c1508 Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist
(The Esterházy Madonna)
oil on canvas 28.5 x 21.5 cm
Museum of Fine Arts Budapest

c1508 Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist
( study  for the above )
pen and brown ink over black chalk 28.7 x 19.2 cm
Uffizi Gallery, Florence


1509  La Madone de Lorette
oil on wood panel 120 x 90 cm
Musée Condé,  Château de Chantilly, Oise, France

1509 Reading Madonna and Child in a Landscape betweem two Cherub Heads
pen and brown ink over traces of stylus
Albertina, Venice

c1509-10 The Madonna and Child with the Infant Baptist

 Notes by The National Gallery

In this little picture Raphael depicts the moment when the Christ Child takes a carnation, traditionally symbolic of divine love and the Passion (Christ’s torture and crucifixion), from his cousin John the Baptist’s hand. The space between the children’s hands is the centre of the careful geometry of the composition, emphasising this important moment of Christ’s acceptance of his future sacrifice for humanity. The Virgin appears lost in melancholy thought. Perhaps she is thinking of the children’s destinies.

The picture is one of several small and medium-sized Madonnas that Raphael produced at the same time as he was painting a suite of rooms in the Vatican palace for the pope, the so-called stanze. It was probably made for a member of the papal court for private devotion, although we do not know who commissioned it. The painting is known as the Garvagh Madonna or Aldobrandini Madonna after its previous owner.

c1509-10 The Madonna and Child with the Infant Baptist
(The Garvagh Madonna aka The Aldobrandini Madonna)
oil on wood panel 38.9 x 32.9 cm
The National Gallery, London

c1509-11 The Madonna and Child 

Notes from The National Gallery

The infant Christ throws his arms affectionately around his mother’s neck and smiles at us. But the Virgin Mary’s eyes are downcast, as though her thoughts are already on his future sacrifice.

The painting probably dates from the early years of Raphael’s time in Rome. It is called the ‘Mackintosh Madonna’ after the person who donated it to the National Gallery. It is also known as the ‘Madonna of the Tower’ because of the building just visible in the left background.

c1509-11 The Madonna and Child
(The Mackintosh Madonna)
oil on canvas, transferred from wood (largely repainted)
78.8 x 64.2 cm
The National Gallery, London

1509-1510 Madonna de Loreto
oil on wood panel 120 x 90 cm
Musée Condé,  Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise

c1509-1510 Study for the figure of Diogenes in the "School of Athens"
silver point on paper 24.5 x 28.4 cm
Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany

1509-1511 Study for the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament
pen and brown ink 31.1 x 20.8 cm
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA

c1509-1511 Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese
oil on wood panel 139 x 91 cm
Museo de Capodimonte, Naples

c1509-1515 Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami
oil on wood panel 91 x 61 cm
Palantine Gallery, Pitti Palace, Florence

c1510-15-18 Madonna with the Blue Diadem
oil on wood panel 68 x 48 cm
Louvre, Paris

c1510-1511 Portrait of a Cardinal
oil on wood panel 79 x 61 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

c1510-1511 Study for the Figure of Melpomene
pen and brown ink over blind stylus 33 x 21.9 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

c1510-1511 The Adoration of the Shepherds
pen and brown ink on white paper 40.5 x 26.6 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

c1510-1511 The Angel appearing to Joachim
pen and brush in yellowish-brown wash over black chalk heightened with white bodycolour 31.4 x 27.6 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

c1510 Allegorical Figure of Theology
pen and brown ink 20.1 x 14.3 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

c1510 The Prophets Hosea and Jonah
pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk, heightened with white and squared for transfer 26.2 x 20 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1511 Portrait of Pope Julius II 

Notes by The National Gallery

This portrait of the careworn Pope Julius II (1443–1513) is usually dated to the one-and-a-half-year period during which he wore a beard. He grew it in 1510 as a token of mortification while recovering from a serious illness brought on by the loss of Bologna to the French, and vowed not to shave it off until French troops had been expelled from Italy, which happened in 1512. Julius was a great patron of the arts, commissioning Raphael to decorate the papal apartments in the Vatican and ordering the rebuilding of St Peter’s in Rome.

The two golden acorns on the Pope’s chair allude to his family name, della Rovere (rovere is Italian for oak). The portrait was displayed on 12 December 1513, after Julius’s death, in the Roman church of Santa Maria del Popolo. It was enormously influential and became the model for ecclesiastical portraiture over the following 200 years.

1511 Portrait of Pope Julius II
oil on poplar panel 108.7 x 81 cm
The National Gallery, London

c1511-1512 Madonna of Foligno
oil on wood transferred to canvas 320 x 194 cm
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City

c1511 Alba Madonna
oil on wood transferred to canvas 94.5 cm diameter
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

c1511 Alba Madonna preparatory sketch
pen and ink 42.2 x 27.2 cm
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Belgium

c1511 Madonna of Loreto
oil on panel 120 x 90 cm
Musée Condé, Chantilly

1512-1513 The Sistine Madonna
269.5 x 201 cm
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

c1512-1513 The Massacre of the Innocents
engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi (engraver) / Rafael
28.1 x 43 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

c1512-1515 Portrait of Bindo Altoviti
oil on wood panel 60 x 44 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

c1512 A Mother embracing a Child
metal-point with white heightening on grey prepared paper 16.1 x 12.8
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

c1512 The Coronation of the Virgin
pen and brown ink over blind stylus 35.3 x 28.9 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

c1512 Triumph of Galatea

Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, tells the story of the mortal peasant shepherd, Acis, who falls in love with Galatea, a Nereid or water nymph, whose Greek name translates as ‘she who is milk white’. The jealous Cyclops, Polyphemus, bludgeoned Acis with a boulder and, in response, a distraught Galatea transformed him into the Sicilian river that bears his name. Raphael’s Triumph of Galatea, a fresco created around 1512 for the Villa Farnesina in Rome, depicts a scene later in the Nereid’s life, when Galatea stands triumphant in a shell chariot pulled along by dolphins. To the left, a Triton, half-man and half-fish, abducts a sea nymph, while another sounds a shell trumpet.


1512c Triumph of Galatea
fresco  
Villa Farnesina, Rome

1513-1514 Studies of the Christ Child
red chalk 22 x 14.7 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

c1513-1514 Holy Family with the boys of St. John
Raphael and workshop
oil on poplar wood 154.5 x 114 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna ©KHM-Museumsverband

c1513-1514 Madonna dell'Impannata
Raphael and workshop
 oil on wood panel 158 x 125 cm
Palazzo Pitti, Florence

c1513-1514 Madonna della Tenda
oil on wood panel 65.8 x 51.2 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

c1513-1514 The Sistine Madonna
oil on canvas 265 x 196 cm
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany

c1513-1514 Madonna with the Fish
oil  on panel transferred to canvas 215 x 158 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

1513-1614 Madonna della seggiola
oil on wood panel 71 cm diameter
Palantine Gallery, Pitti Palace, Florence