Muntz Eugene - Raphael. Volume 2

There was something very exclusive and absorbing about Umbrian art, for excursions into the secular world and above all into the ancient classics, were forbidden ground for its adepts not more through religious scruples than through want of knowledge. In Perugia he received his first lessons and became familiar with the methods of the Umbrian School. However, Perugia was not the only town in Umbria which assisted at the dbut of Raphael, for he received very cordial hospitality from Citt di Castello.

Umbria had become a second country for Raphael, the first being his native Urbino. While he underwent the influence due to the beauty of its sites and the mystic tendencies of its inhabitants, the Umbrians themselves became much attached to him, and it was owing to their spirit of generous piety that he was able to execute some of his most admired pictures. These encouragements were necessary to preserve him from the sufferings which, after the departure of his master, Perugino, he would have undergone, and Raphael showed his gratitude by remaining amid the Umbrian mountains until he went to reside at Rome in 1508.

If he still adhered to the types peculiar to the Umbrian school, especially in the Madonnas, it was because Umbria itself supplied him with a number of these soft and pensive countenances in which the depth of religious contentment stood instead of beauty. For a spiritualist like him, the painting of the soul was a nobler task than the painting of the body. There is already a good deal of landscape in these pictures, and in the background of the Conestabile Madonna (vol. 1, p. 35), the chain of mountains was painted from nature in the neighbourhood of Perugia. Raphael had, perhaps, been to visit Lake Trasimene, for in the perspective may be seen a broad expanse of water upon which fishermen are rowing a boat. In his first landscape efforts, Raphael, like Perugino, endeavours to substitute simplicity of outline and breadth of design for the minuteness and the aridity of the Umbrian painters.

Trinity Banner: The Holy Trinity with St Sebastian and St Roch, c. 1499. Oil on canvas, 166 x 94 cm. Pinacoteca Comunale, Citt di Castello

This banner is still in existence, but in a state of ruin. It has been removed from the Church of the Trinity, for which it was painted, to the town gallery of Citta di Castello. Raphael did not deem it beneath his dignity to accept this order, knowing that the most illustrious painters were glad to paint those banners which held the place of honour in the processions, and which were generally as well-paid as oil paintings. The Umbrian school had, so to speak, the monopoly of them, and Perugino had set his pupil the example by painting fourteen small standards for the Panicale Church, in which they were used for the Corpus Domini procession.

On one side of the banner Raphael has represented God the Father seated on a cloud of glory and holding a crucifix in both hands, while above Him hovers the Holy Ghost. At the bottom are to be seen St Sebastian to the left and St Roch to the right, both on their knees, and with their eyes lifted towards God. Upon the reverse side God is depicted advancing towards Adam, who is asleep, while above are the figures of two angels. Passavant, from whom these details are taken, adds that the paintings are on slightly prepared canvas, and that they have a blue border ornamented with gilt tracery and palms; the letter R traced upon the hem of the garment worn by God stands for the signature, and the whole work, though conceived in the style of Perugino, has more breadth and grace, especially in regard to the landscape.

Bust of an Angel, detail from the Coronation of St Nicholas of Tolentino (from the Baronci Altarpiece), 1500-1501. Oil on wood, 31 x 27 cm. Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia

The Coronation of St Nicholas of Tolentino, executed for the church of Sant'Agostino, remained at Citt di Castello until 1789, when it was sold for the sum of 200 to Pope Pius VI. The picture was on panel, and difficult to move on account of its size; as it was only injured in the upper part, the Pope had it sawn in two, so as to make a complete picture of the lower part, while the figures in the higher part formed distinct pictures. These fragments were to be seen in the Vatican until after the entry of the French army into Rome in 1798, when they were undoubtedly sold by auction together with Raphaels tapestries and many other objects which have since disappeared.

Thanks to the descriptions of Lanzi and Pungileoni, and thanks also to two drawings preserved respectively at Oxford and Lille, it is possible to furnish a tolerably clear description of the picture. According to Lanzi, Raphael represented St Nicholas as being crowned by the Virgin and St Augustine, who are half-hidden in a cloud. Beneath St Augustines feet is the prostrate figure of the demon, and to the right and left are two angels holding inscriptions in honour of the saint. In the upper division is the majestic figure of the Almighty surrounded by a glory of angels. A sort of temple with pilasters charged with ornaments after the manner of Mantegna, forms a framework for the composition, and the draperies are of the period. It will be remarked in this drawing that Raphael, instead of representing the devil in his conventional hideousness, has given him the appearance of a dark figure.