DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0035
RAPHAEL’S MASTERS
landscape accord with the rhythm of the groups. Already at Perugia he had
forced his school companions to fall into line with this principle, when they
painted in concert the Legends of San Bernardino; how much he grew in signi-
ficance when he dared to display this knowledge before all the world at the
very See of the Pope, in the Sistine Chapel and in the choir of old St Peter’s!
In Florence, ever the city of quest, the unmistakableness of his aim must
have given him a peculiar authority. San Giusto, the monastery of the Gesuati,
outside the Porta Pinti, was the place in which his transformations were effected,
always with the same high poetic aim—sunny frescoes in the style of the San
Bernardino pictures, with a crowd of figures, but raised to a higher order by
means of dignified architecture, no longer the petty display of the timber
stage-structures of Gozzoli, or distracting peeps into recognisable views, as
in Ghirlandajo. The architecture in the picture served as a foil and frame-
work to the figures, and forms as it were a free tracery; looking through the
arcades of the cloister, the eye fell every time on a unified picture; from the
arch of the vaulting to the foot of the wall the solemn harmony of the figures
with architecture and landscape filled the surface—no more painting of “ground
above sky”, as in the old fresco cycles with their disposition in layers. In this
manner the wall-painting gained an essential part of its effect. It occupied the
surface from one architectural limit to the other, and in this framework the
composition, to have decorative force, had of necessity to be carried out on
broad lines. The colour must comply with this simplification, if it was to
combine with it in effectiveness at a distance. And here we have the prelimin-
aries of a most remarkable transformation which to-day we must needs regard
as something more than accidental: the Gesuati had in their monastery a work-
shop for glass-paintings with which they supplied the whole of Italy, and
Perugino raised the level of their productions by providing them for decades
with the cartoons for them.
It is a curious contrast! The early Quattrocento had delighted in creating light,
clear spaces, as had the late Gothic at the same period in the North; but hardly a
generation later men liked to gather together for devotions, in brotherhoods.
They sang the old laudi, and just as escape from reality was found on the wings
of the solemn mediaeval melodies, so, in the desire not to be reminded within
the walls of the church of the world outside, the light of day was forbidden to
enter by deep-coloured glass, and the eye glancing upon the window was
turned back forcibly, compellingly, to its duty by the tranquil bearing of saintly
figures.
The power that gathered the Florentines together before the pulpit of
SAVONAROLA and constrained them to follow the prophet, was the same
that filled them with a desire for worship amid the strains of ancient hymns
in the coloured twilight of chapels and oratories adorned with stained-glass
windows. The Umbrian brought with him from his home all the needful
17
landscape accord with the rhythm of the groups. Already at Perugia he had
forced his school companions to fall into line with this principle, when they
painted in concert the Legends of San Bernardino; how much he grew in signi-
ficance when he dared to display this knowledge before all the world at the
very See of the Pope, in the Sistine Chapel and in the choir of old St Peter’s!
In Florence, ever the city of quest, the unmistakableness of his aim must
have given him a peculiar authority. San Giusto, the monastery of the Gesuati,
outside the Porta Pinti, was the place in which his transformations were effected,
always with the same high poetic aim—sunny frescoes in the style of the San
Bernardino pictures, with a crowd of figures, but raised to a higher order by
means of dignified architecture, no longer the petty display of the timber
stage-structures of Gozzoli, or distracting peeps into recognisable views, as
in Ghirlandajo. The architecture in the picture served as a foil and frame-
work to the figures, and forms as it were a free tracery; looking through the
arcades of the cloister, the eye fell every time on a unified picture; from the
arch of the vaulting to the foot of the wall the solemn harmony of the figures
with architecture and landscape filled the surface—no more painting of “ground
above sky”, as in the old fresco cycles with their disposition in layers. In this
manner the wall-painting gained an essential part of its effect. It occupied the
surface from one architectural limit to the other, and in this framework the
composition, to have decorative force, had of necessity to be carried out on
broad lines. The colour must comply with this simplification, if it was to
combine with it in effectiveness at a distance. And here we have the prelimin-
aries of a most remarkable transformation which to-day we must needs regard
as something more than accidental: the Gesuati had in their monastery a work-
shop for glass-paintings with which they supplied the whole of Italy, and
Perugino raised the level of their productions by providing them for decades
with the cartoons for them.
It is a curious contrast! The early Quattrocento had delighted in creating light,
clear spaces, as had the late Gothic at the same period in the North; but hardly a
generation later men liked to gather together for devotions, in brotherhoods.
They sang the old laudi, and just as escape from reality was found on the wings
of the solemn mediaeval melodies, so, in the desire not to be reminded within
the walls of the church of the world outside, the light of day was forbidden to
enter by deep-coloured glass, and the eye glancing upon the window was
turned back forcibly, compellingly, to its duty by the tranquil bearing of saintly
figures.
The power that gathered the Florentines together before the pulpit of
SAVONAROLA and constrained them to follow the prophet, was the same
that filled them with a desire for worship amid the strains of ancient hymns
in the coloured twilight of chapels and oratories adorned with stained-glass
windows. The Umbrian brought with him from his home all the needful
17