Identifier: raphael00kono (find matches)
Title: Raphael
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Konody, Paul G. (Paul George), 1872-1933
Subjects: Raphael, 1483-1520
Publisher: London : T.C. & E.C. Jack New York : F.A. Stokes Co.
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image:
and those of
Pietro be discerned with any certainty.
Plagiarism in those days did not trouble
the artistic conscience, and it is easy to
trace in Raphael's pictures of that period
entire groups that are borrowed from the
elder master. Thus the Crucifixion, painted
about 1501 for a church in Città di Castello,
and now in the collection of Dr. Ludwig
Mond, is obviously based on Perugino's
version of the same subject at St. Augus-
tines, Siena, whilst the whole upper part
of the Vatican Coronation of the Virgin

PLATE IV.—THE DONNA VELATA

Whilst Sebastiano del Piombo's portrait of a Courtesan at the
Uffizi in Florence passed under the name of La Bella Fornarina
by Raphael, the identity of the beautiful veiled lady at the Pitti
Palace was shrouded in mystery. But now it is a matter of
common knowledge that this picture sets before our eyes the living
features of the lovely miller's daughter, Raphael's inamorata and
his model for the great Madonna di San Sisto and many others of
his world-famed masterpieces.

C
Text Appearing After Image:

RAPHAEL 35

is "lifted" from an "Assumption" by Pietro.
But this almost literal imitation was only
a passing phase, whilst the great lesson
of space-composition and the typically
Umbrian gift of almost religious fervour in
stating the peaceful glory of the Umbrian
hill-land, which had been imparted to
Raphael at Perugia, remained permanent
acquisitions to his art.

In 1502 Perugino went back to Florence,
and Raphael probably joined Pinturicchio's
staff of assistants, though Vasari's statement
that he furnished the designs for the latter
master's frescoes in the Piccolomini Library
at Siena may be dismissed as a fable.
During this time Raphael painted his first
Madonna pictures, notably the "Conestabile
Madonna" (now at St. Petersburg), which is
based entirely on Perugino's " Virgin with the
Pomegranate," and two panels at the Berlin
Museum. The Milan " Sposalizio," in which
the young masters personality already

36 RAPHAEL

asserts itself through the very marked
Ferrarese and Peruginesque influences, was
painted in 1504 for the church of St. Fran-
cesco at Cittå di Castello. His early mastery
in portraiture is illustrated by his portrait of
Perugino at the Borghese Gallery, which is
so firm in character and perfect in execution
that it could pass for many years as the
handiwork of Holbein.

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