DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0033
RAPHAEL’S MASTERS
in an altered form but none the less great on account of its medium, at Urbino,
in the creations of Justus van Gent. It resounded precisely at the psychological
moment. When the youthful Raphael passed from the sphere of his home to
that of Perugia, he there met with the same style, but with a different religious
tone; he heard the same melody in an Umbrian mode.
Pietro della Pieve became PERUGINO only in the second half of his life.
His contribution prior to that, in Florence and Rome, to the common achieve-
ment of Central Italy was important enough to raise him above the others.
Giovanni Santi was only expressing the general view when he extolled him as
“equal in age and endeavour” with Leonardo. In the Sistine Chapel Perugino
assumes the leading position, and not merely in the contracts, in spite of the
fact that Botticelli and Signorelli are of the company. The most important
theme of the Vatican, that of the Delivery of the Keys, was entrusted to him,
and he understood how to conceive it with dogmatic inevitability. His is the
only picture among all the others capable of clear narration; his groups alone,
in their stately and restrained movements, are permeated by the solemnity of
the spiritual; even Botticelli side by side with this work seems garrulous and
trite. The mission of the Umbrian himself was also that of bearing the keys.
Wherever he appeared with his well-balanced compositions, their swaying
rhythms and the quiet dignity and devout ardour of his exquisite figures, forced
upon his contemporaries in the midst of their distractedness an awareness of a
higher existence.
Throughout Perugino’s lifetime a mental picture seems to have remained with
him, from his home at Citta della Pieve, of the lines of those heights dying away
on both sides in a continuous and gentle sweep into the Tiber valley. It is
almost tempting to trace to this source the principle of his creative activity;
it is the epitome and image of a simple soul directed only towards an aim that
was ever the same.
Amongst the provinces of the peninsula the title of honour, “the Heart of
Italy”, is borne by Umbria, that mountainous inland region, contiguous at no
point with the sea that links nation with nation, and traversed by few rivers of
any size; the title has a subtle twofold meaning. All the movements that stirred
the busy world outside penetrated, it may be, the quiet Umbrian valleys and
the mild air of those heights, but always, adapted to the spirit of the place.
From the days of old, life goes on in these uplands of devoutness, undisturbed
by the storms that rage in neighbouring tracts; and what was to surpass the
enthusiasm that spread hence throughout the world, from the places around
Assisi! From how many heights the influence of a shrine went forth with one
of the countless relics which seem to have found a resting-place here in order
to arouse and keep awake that devoutness in this tranquil land, until the rest
of the world should find its way back from the confused dreams of reality to the
truth!
15
in an altered form but none the less great on account of its medium, at Urbino,
in the creations of Justus van Gent. It resounded precisely at the psychological
moment. When the youthful Raphael passed from the sphere of his home to
that of Perugia, he there met with the same style, but with a different religious
tone; he heard the same melody in an Umbrian mode.
Pietro della Pieve became PERUGINO only in the second half of his life.
His contribution prior to that, in Florence and Rome, to the common achieve-
ment of Central Italy was important enough to raise him above the others.
Giovanni Santi was only expressing the general view when he extolled him as
“equal in age and endeavour” with Leonardo. In the Sistine Chapel Perugino
assumes the leading position, and not merely in the contracts, in spite of the
fact that Botticelli and Signorelli are of the company. The most important
theme of the Vatican, that of the Delivery of the Keys, was entrusted to him,
and he understood how to conceive it with dogmatic inevitability. His is the
only picture among all the others capable of clear narration; his groups alone,
in their stately and restrained movements, are permeated by the solemnity of
the spiritual; even Botticelli side by side with this work seems garrulous and
trite. The mission of the Umbrian himself was also that of bearing the keys.
Wherever he appeared with his well-balanced compositions, their swaying
rhythms and the quiet dignity and devout ardour of his exquisite figures, forced
upon his contemporaries in the midst of their distractedness an awareness of a
higher existence.
Throughout Perugino’s lifetime a mental picture seems to have remained with
him, from his home at Citta della Pieve, of the lines of those heights dying away
on both sides in a continuous and gentle sweep into the Tiber valley. It is
almost tempting to trace to this source the principle of his creative activity;
it is the epitome and image of a simple soul directed only towards an aim that
was ever the same.
Amongst the provinces of the peninsula the title of honour, “the Heart of
Italy”, is borne by Umbria, that mountainous inland region, contiguous at no
point with the sea that links nation with nation, and traversed by few rivers of
any size; the title has a subtle twofold meaning. All the movements that stirred
the busy world outside penetrated, it may be, the quiet Umbrian valleys and
the mild air of those heights, but always, adapted to the spirit of the place.
From the days of old, life goes on in these uplands of devoutness, undisturbed
by the storms that rage in neighbouring tracts; and what was to surpass the
enthusiasm that spread hence throughout the world, from the places around
Assisi! From how many heights the influence of a shrine went forth with one
of the countless relics which seem to have found a resting-place here in order
to arouse and keep awake that devoutness in this tranquil land, until the rest
of the world should find its way back from the confused dreams of reality to the
truth!
15