DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0042
IV
APPRENTICESHIP
A PART from the lively narrative of Vasari we are completely in the
Z-A dark as to Raphael’s apprenticeship, the period between the twelfth
-X Jk and the seventeenth year which particularly in those days was decisive
for a young artist. Then there emerges suddenly no longer the pupil, but the
skilled, fully-trained assistant of Perugino. About 1500 he is painting important
parts in the works of the master and in the productions of the workshops, and
himself takes on orders for altarpieces; it speaks for the early spread of his fame
that major works were entrusted to the seventeen-year-old artist.
§ Perugino about 1500
At this time Perugino does not belong to Umbria alone; he is closely bound
up with the life of Florence and had indeed civic rights and a workshop in the
Borgo San Sepolcro. His studio is known to have been busily occupied, and in
the years when Raphael was working with him, the master with his staff of
assistants must be supposed to have enjoyed considerable liberty of movement
in order to be active at one time in Perugia, at another on the Arno or at Siena,
and to send round again and again—a habit in which he was becoming ever
more confirmed—old cartoons that were kept in readiness, for execution in
which he often had little share. In view of the useful aptitudes that Raphael
already possessed in his master’s eyes about 1500, there is no reason to doubt
that he had taken part some years earlier in these journeys for professional
purposes of Perugino and his people.1 So he may well have seen Florence
already, whilst still dependent and a learner; but this contact with the art of
the Tuscan capital only becomes interesting when he was himself experienced
enough to seek the fulfilment of his efforts, instead of merelv observing with
reverence.
Tuscan art moreover was not ripe for such mutual relations with the future
perfecter of Central Italian painting until he began his travelling years again.
Florence had in the meantime to attract to herself again her two great sons,
Leonardo and Michael Angelo, and to set them in opposition in rivalry with
one another.
We readily enjoy the charm of watching the rise, growth and maturing of a
1 Cf. Note, “ Raphael’s Teachers”, p. 19 above.
24
APPRENTICESHIP
A PART from the lively narrative of Vasari we are completely in the
Z-A dark as to Raphael’s apprenticeship, the period between the twelfth
-X Jk and the seventeenth year which particularly in those days was decisive
for a young artist. Then there emerges suddenly no longer the pupil, but the
skilled, fully-trained assistant of Perugino. About 1500 he is painting important
parts in the works of the master and in the productions of the workshops, and
himself takes on orders for altarpieces; it speaks for the early spread of his fame
that major works were entrusted to the seventeen-year-old artist.
§ Perugino about 1500
At this time Perugino does not belong to Umbria alone; he is closely bound
up with the life of Florence and had indeed civic rights and a workshop in the
Borgo San Sepolcro. His studio is known to have been busily occupied, and in
the years when Raphael was working with him, the master with his staff of
assistants must be supposed to have enjoyed considerable liberty of movement
in order to be active at one time in Perugia, at another on the Arno or at Siena,
and to send round again and again—a habit in which he was becoming ever
more confirmed—old cartoons that were kept in readiness, for execution in
which he often had little share. In view of the useful aptitudes that Raphael
already possessed in his master’s eyes about 1500, there is no reason to doubt
that he had taken part some years earlier in these journeys for professional
purposes of Perugino and his people.1 So he may well have seen Florence
already, whilst still dependent and a learner; but this contact with the art of
the Tuscan capital only becomes interesting when he was himself experienced
enough to seek the fulfilment of his efforts, instead of merelv observing with
reverence.
Tuscan art moreover was not ripe for such mutual relations with the future
perfecter of Central Italian painting until he began his travelling years again.
Florence had in the meantime to attract to herself again her two great sons,
Leonardo and Michael Angelo, and to set them in opposition in rivalry with
one another.
We readily enjoy the charm of watching the rise, growth and maturing of a
1 Cf. Note, “ Raphael’s Teachers”, p. 19 above.
24