DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0034
RAPHAEL
Here only, all influences from without were traceable in uninterrupted enthus-
iasm; the soul kept itself in mystic readiness to receive and proclaim abroad the
highest.
This is why it was possible for a beginning to be made in this region with
the reconquest of the soul of Italy, as the “serafino in carne” hence began his
flight. The effect in art of the figure, the teaching and the example of St Francis
survived long after in Italy and in the world, and was to find realisation with
renewed impetus even in the time of Perugino.
§ The new Umbrian Style
Out of its sufferings and its devotion during the Great Plague, this region
created for itself endless votive frescoes, altarpieces and banners. In the paintings
of the Umbrians the sacred figures continued, longer than elsewhere, to stand
out in expressive outline alone against a gold ground. In neighbouring Tuscany,
for generations, the saints had been shown standing in front of a marble frame-
work with inlaid panelling of deceptively plastic effect, whereas the Umbrian
seekers after God still are not allowed to come together in space, separated as
they are from one another, as if in a monastic cell, in divided frames like the
mullions of a window. What need had they for finite precincts made by human
hands, when in the picture, as in life, their dealings were to be with the infinite?
Such self-circumscribed isolation of the figure results in the development of a
very telling outline; in its rhythm, not obliterated by the colour, not enveloped,
but brought out more distinctly by the lighting, the figure expresses its other-
worldly character. Even when in Umbria an earthly setting became customary
for saints as for other figures, and the eternal gold ground had to make way for
landscape, the principle of the strong line was maintained. Atmosphere, effects
of light, distance, architecture, that in Tuscany became an end in themselves,
were here admitted only as subservient to what was essential, the saintliness of
the figures. They became an accompaniment to the leading voice, and against
this foil the figure stood out with even greater strength, purity and refinement
of expression. Thus arose a silhouette of wide effectiveness, full of life, stressed
by a harmony, strong yet of the simplest, of colours acting and reacting upon
one another. A cult of line began, and a new expressiveness of colour, as if
Gothic wished to bring to remembrance its great, forgotten achievements.
Perugino was to be the creative leader along this path; the significant figure of
the Perugian master seemed chosen to make profession of this reformation
before the world, and to live through the joy of creation, the sternness of artistic
renunciation, the tragedy of the pioneer. In this life nothing seems to be chance,
all seems to be a calling to a special mission.
The Umbrian had to learn from the creations of Piero della Francesca the
enhancement given to saintly figures by light-filled space, and its power of
adding to their essential convincingness, where the accents of architecture and
16
Here only, all influences from without were traceable in uninterrupted enthus-
iasm; the soul kept itself in mystic readiness to receive and proclaim abroad the
highest.
This is why it was possible for a beginning to be made in this region with
the reconquest of the soul of Italy, as the “serafino in carne” hence began his
flight. The effect in art of the figure, the teaching and the example of St Francis
survived long after in Italy and in the world, and was to find realisation with
renewed impetus even in the time of Perugino.
§ The new Umbrian Style
Out of its sufferings and its devotion during the Great Plague, this region
created for itself endless votive frescoes, altarpieces and banners. In the paintings
of the Umbrians the sacred figures continued, longer than elsewhere, to stand
out in expressive outline alone against a gold ground. In neighbouring Tuscany,
for generations, the saints had been shown standing in front of a marble frame-
work with inlaid panelling of deceptively plastic effect, whereas the Umbrian
seekers after God still are not allowed to come together in space, separated as
they are from one another, as if in a monastic cell, in divided frames like the
mullions of a window. What need had they for finite precincts made by human
hands, when in the picture, as in life, their dealings were to be with the infinite?
Such self-circumscribed isolation of the figure results in the development of a
very telling outline; in its rhythm, not obliterated by the colour, not enveloped,
but brought out more distinctly by the lighting, the figure expresses its other-
worldly character. Even when in Umbria an earthly setting became customary
for saints as for other figures, and the eternal gold ground had to make way for
landscape, the principle of the strong line was maintained. Atmosphere, effects
of light, distance, architecture, that in Tuscany became an end in themselves,
were here admitted only as subservient to what was essential, the saintliness of
the figures. They became an accompaniment to the leading voice, and against
this foil the figure stood out with even greater strength, purity and refinement
of expression. Thus arose a silhouette of wide effectiveness, full of life, stressed
by a harmony, strong yet of the simplest, of colours acting and reacting upon
one another. A cult of line began, and a new expressiveness of colour, as if
Gothic wished to bring to remembrance its great, forgotten achievements.
Perugino was to be the creative leader along this path; the significant figure of
the Perugian master seemed chosen to make profession of this reformation
before the world, and to live through the joy of creation, the sternness of artistic
renunciation, the tragedy of the pioneer. In this life nothing seems to be chance,
all seems to be a calling to a special mission.
The Umbrian had to learn from the creations of Piero della Francesca the
enhancement given to saintly figures by light-filled space, and its power of
adding to their essential convincingness, where the accents of architecture and
16