DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0114
RAPHAEL
with Leonardo and Michael Angelo. We have seen in the First Stanza, from
the ceiling to the walls, his capability of irradiating with action the scene within
the frame, in every frame. He understands how to introduce, even into the
great assemblies of elect spirits, an animation, in which whatever unites them
and brings them into relation with one another and with a purpose, has the
power of kindling in us, from the moment in which we set eyes on the paintings,
a sense as of something taking place by an inward necessity. The eye is com-
pelled to return again and again to this action, guided by the lighting, the
landscape or the architecture, of which the lines seem to participate in the
movement. Human figures and space, and therefore light and colour, were
also compelled by the painter to subserve in equal measure this vital purpose.
§ Assumption of the Virgin. Plan for the Resurrection
Even while at work on the First Stanza, he was occupied, beyond the original
limits of the theme, by the dramatic conception of his subject, a subject which
perhaps derived its first inspiration from himself. The commission of the nuns
of Sant’ Antonio for the Coronation of the Virgin accompanied him from
Perugia to Florence and from there to Rome. He seems to have transformed the
theme into a Glorification (Plate 94) when he conceived the Apostles as stand-
ing round the empty sarcophagus; their amazement, and the Coronation, beyond
their range of vision, would have provided two separate scenes, as in his youthful
works. Instead, when he pondered over the Theology among clouds, like the
transfigured Beatrice, in the Oxford drawing (Plate 92), he conceived the notion of
the Virgin wafted away whilst the Apostles remained behind, bound to earth be-
low. And this idea accompanied him through the heavenly region of the Disputa
and was revived, in new vigour, when he came across the Belvedere Apollo. In
the guise of the Resurrection of Christ (Plate 95) this motive of a serene mani-
festation on high, that is, in light above the confusion on earth, occupied him
when he passed on to the Second Stanza (J?.^., VIII, 381-392). We do not know
of any such commission, but to judge from the sketches and studies of detail, it
must have existed if it was worked out to such an extent. With Raphael there
were at that time certainly no uncommissioned works.1
At the head of the series, as a first tremendous project, stands the great pen-
drawing from the Lawrence Collection (Plate 97). Modern expert criticism
declined to accept it as genuine, and so the portrait-painter Leon Bonnat, as a
fine connoisseur of organic construction, was able to acquire it. In the invention
which creates for itself the “handwriting” he found the stamp of originality,
and thus he collected the precious sketches belonging to Raphael’s most fertile
period which are to-day at Bayonne.
The Risen Christ soars from the tomb with the winged step of the Apollo, and
blesses the earth while he leaves it. The brightness of his realm finishes upwards
1 Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1925, p. 191.
96
with Leonardo and Michael Angelo. We have seen in the First Stanza, from
the ceiling to the walls, his capability of irradiating with action the scene within
the frame, in every frame. He understands how to introduce, even into the
great assemblies of elect spirits, an animation, in which whatever unites them
and brings them into relation with one another and with a purpose, has the
power of kindling in us, from the moment in which we set eyes on the paintings,
a sense as of something taking place by an inward necessity. The eye is com-
pelled to return again and again to this action, guided by the lighting, the
landscape or the architecture, of which the lines seem to participate in the
movement. Human figures and space, and therefore light and colour, were
also compelled by the painter to subserve in equal measure this vital purpose.
§ Assumption of the Virgin. Plan for the Resurrection
Even while at work on the First Stanza, he was occupied, beyond the original
limits of the theme, by the dramatic conception of his subject, a subject which
perhaps derived its first inspiration from himself. The commission of the nuns
of Sant’ Antonio for the Coronation of the Virgin accompanied him from
Perugia to Florence and from there to Rome. He seems to have transformed the
theme into a Glorification (Plate 94) when he conceived the Apostles as stand-
ing round the empty sarcophagus; their amazement, and the Coronation, beyond
their range of vision, would have provided two separate scenes, as in his youthful
works. Instead, when he pondered over the Theology among clouds, like the
transfigured Beatrice, in the Oxford drawing (Plate 92), he conceived the notion of
the Virgin wafted away whilst the Apostles remained behind, bound to earth be-
low. And this idea accompanied him through the heavenly region of the Disputa
and was revived, in new vigour, when he came across the Belvedere Apollo. In
the guise of the Resurrection of Christ (Plate 95) this motive of a serene mani-
festation on high, that is, in light above the confusion on earth, occupied him
when he passed on to the Second Stanza (J?.^., VIII, 381-392). We do not know
of any such commission, but to judge from the sketches and studies of detail, it
must have existed if it was worked out to such an extent. With Raphael there
were at that time certainly no uncommissioned works.1
At the head of the series, as a first tremendous project, stands the great pen-
drawing from the Lawrence Collection (Plate 97). Modern expert criticism
declined to accept it as genuine, and so the portrait-painter Leon Bonnat, as a
fine connoisseur of organic construction, was able to acquire it. In the invention
which creates for itself the “handwriting” he found the stamp of originality,
and thus he collected the precious sketches belonging to Raphael’s most fertile
period which are to-day at Bayonne.
The Risen Christ soars from the tomb with the winged step of the Apollo, and
blesses the earth while he leaves it. The brightness of his realm finishes upwards
1 Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1925, p. 191.
96