DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0117
RAPHAEL AS DRAMATIC PAINTER
Thus the victories of Julius II are here immortalised by him as those of the
Church. The Godhead himself participates to protect those who believe. In
this the Pope combined pride and piety in his mental attitude no less than the
Ancients; this also is characteristic of the Rebirth—the Middle Ages knows
only humility, not this self-consciousness coupled with proud humility.
The Rovere Pope had driven the Venetians out of the possessions of the
Church; this recalled to him the punishment that overtook the Temple-robber
Heliodorus. Apostate priests, his own Cardinals, had dared to call together a
council, that “conciliabulo” held at Pisa, and had attempted to depose him;
the doubting priest in the Mass of Bolsena was a telling hit at them. The
Pope was rescued at Bologna from imminent danger and threatening imprison-
ment as if by a miracle; he had offered up his thanks for this to his patron saint
in his own former titular church of San Pietro in Vincoli; he saw himself again
in the miraculous deliverance of St Peter from chains and the Mamertine Prison.
The threatened incursion of the Northern sovereigns into Italy was frustrated;
in the same manner the flood of Attila’s destroying hosts was brought to a stand-
still by the Princes of the Apostles; this illustrates the papal battle-cry “fuori i
barbari”! The ceiling-paintings provide titles, as it were; all have a basic
theme in common—the intervention of the Divine power. Above the Helio-
dorus, the Almighty appears in the burning bush to Moses, Jacob’s dream of
the ladder to Heaven is above the Deliverance of St Peter, Abraham’s
offering above the Sacrifice of the Mass of Bolsena, God’s message to Noah
above the Princes of the Apostles dispelling the forces of Attila.
«
§ Ceiling-pictures as Tapestries
For these ceiling-pictures Raphael chose the form of trapeze-shaped tapes-
tries; they have the appearance of velaria stretched on the somewhat paltry
grey framework of Peruzzi which Raphael had spared from destruction. For
more than a generation no one has had anything good to say about them, and
they have been assigned to very mediocre artists. But it seems as if modern
criticism is more ready to call in pupils than the master was himself. For when
he began to paint the Second Stanza—and naturally he had to begin with the
ceiling—Raphael’s consciousness was absolutely taken up with invention and
execution. The ferment still continues to work in him, and invention takes a
hand again and again in a most amazing way—how splendidly, can be seen
in the picture in which the Almighty appears to Noah. We need only call to
mind the words in the Bible to which this vision of his relates: “Then ... be
fruitful and multiply upon earth” {Gen. VIII, 15-17). God, unapproachable,
above all that is earthly, benevolent and commanding, sweeping out of the
Infinite towards this little product of human workmanship and this group of
dwellers on earth; Noah simply carried away, in a transport, from the seam
of his robe to his finger-tips (Plate 100). The objection is obvious that little of this
99
Thus the victories of Julius II are here immortalised by him as those of the
Church. The Godhead himself participates to protect those who believe. In
this the Pope combined pride and piety in his mental attitude no less than the
Ancients; this also is characteristic of the Rebirth—the Middle Ages knows
only humility, not this self-consciousness coupled with proud humility.
The Rovere Pope had driven the Venetians out of the possessions of the
Church; this recalled to him the punishment that overtook the Temple-robber
Heliodorus. Apostate priests, his own Cardinals, had dared to call together a
council, that “conciliabulo” held at Pisa, and had attempted to depose him;
the doubting priest in the Mass of Bolsena was a telling hit at them. The
Pope was rescued at Bologna from imminent danger and threatening imprison-
ment as if by a miracle; he had offered up his thanks for this to his patron saint
in his own former titular church of San Pietro in Vincoli; he saw himself again
in the miraculous deliverance of St Peter from chains and the Mamertine Prison.
The threatened incursion of the Northern sovereigns into Italy was frustrated;
in the same manner the flood of Attila’s destroying hosts was brought to a stand-
still by the Princes of the Apostles; this illustrates the papal battle-cry “fuori i
barbari”! The ceiling-paintings provide titles, as it were; all have a basic
theme in common—the intervention of the Divine power. Above the Helio-
dorus, the Almighty appears in the burning bush to Moses, Jacob’s dream of
the ladder to Heaven is above the Deliverance of St Peter, Abraham’s
offering above the Sacrifice of the Mass of Bolsena, God’s message to Noah
above the Princes of the Apostles dispelling the forces of Attila.
«
§ Ceiling-pictures as Tapestries
For these ceiling-pictures Raphael chose the form of trapeze-shaped tapes-
tries; they have the appearance of velaria stretched on the somewhat paltry
grey framework of Peruzzi which Raphael had spared from destruction. For
more than a generation no one has had anything good to say about them, and
they have been assigned to very mediocre artists. But it seems as if modern
criticism is more ready to call in pupils than the master was himself. For when
he began to paint the Second Stanza—and naturally he had to begin with the
ceiling—Raphael’s consciousness was absolutely taken up with invention and
execution. The ferment still continues to work in him, and invention takes a
hand again and again in a most amazing way—how splendidly, can be seen
in the picture in which the Almighty appears to Noah. We need only call to
mind the words in the Bible to which this vision of his relates: “Then ... be
fruitful and multiply upon earth” {Gen. VIII, 15-17). God, unapproachable,
above all that is earthly, benevolent and commanding, sweeping out of the
Infinite towards this little product of human workmanship and this group of
dwellers on earth; Noah simply carried away, in a transport, from the seam
of his robe to his finger-tips (Plate 100). The objection is obvious that little of this
99