DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63509#0058
RAFFAELLO SANZIO DA URBINO.
Raphael surpassed all modern painters, because he possessed more of the
excellent parts of painting than any other, and he is believed to have equalled
the ancients. He designed the naked, not indeed with so much learning as
Michael Angelo, but with a purer and better taste. His manner of painting
was not so good, so full, and so graceful as that of Corregio, nor has he the
contrasted lights and shades, or the strong and free colouring of Titian; but
his pieces have a better disposition, beyond comparison, than those of Titian,
Corregio, Michael Angelo, or any of the succeeding painters. His choice of
attitudes, of heads, of ornaments, the propriety of his drapery, his manner of
design, his varieties, his contrasts, his expression, were beautifully in perfec-
tion; but above all, in the graces he is wholly unequalled.
The Popes Julius II. and Leo. X., and King Francis I. of France, with many
other illustrious personages, honoured him with their patronage, and he en-
joyed the friendship of the great literary characters of his age. He died on the
day he completed his thirty-seventh year, having' then lately finished his glo-
rious work of the Transfiguration, the chef d’oeuvre of the art, (of which
a good copy, by Giulio Romano, embellishes the chapel of Dulwich College.)
His body was laid out in his painting-room; this grand picture stood by it!
No funeral oration could have expressed so forcibly, as this simple arrange-
ment, the unlimited powers of the human soul, or the frail tenure of earthly
greatness.
Raphael surpassed all modern painters, because he possessed more of the
excellent parts of painting than any other, and he is believed to have equalled
the ancients. He designed the naked, not indeed with so much learning as
Michael Angelo, but with a purer and better taste. His manner of painting
was not so good, so full, and so graceful as that of Corregio, nor has he the
contrasted lights and shades, or the strong and free colouring of Titian; but
his pieces have a better disposition, beyond comparison, than those of Titian,
Corregio, Michael Angelo, or any of the succeeding painters. His choice of
attitudes, of heads, of ornaments, the propriety of his drapery, his manner of
design, his varieties, his contrasts, his expression, were beautifully in perfec-
tion; but above all, in the graces he is wholly unequalled.
The Popes Julius II. and Leo. X., and King Francis I. of France, with many
other illustrious personages, honoured him with their patronage, and he en-
joyed the friendship of the great literary characters of his age. He died on the
day he completed his thirty-seventh year, having' then lately finished his glo-
rious work of the Transfiguration, the chef d’oeuvre of the art, (of which
a good copy, by Giulio Romano, embellishes the chapel of Dulwich College.)
His body was laid out in his painting-room; this grand picture stood by it!
No funeral oration could have expressed so forcibly, as this simple arrange-
ment, the unlimited powers of the human soul, or the frail tenure of earthly
greatness.