DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0119
RAPHAEL AS DRAMATIC PAINTER
In Jacob’s Dream there is much matt green, purple broken up with grey,
heightened to red in the angels, the Almighty in purplish grey against gold.
Everywhere there was the same soft blue ground, not obtruding itself but
rather maintaining that pleasant balance in the colouring which belongs to
outspread tapestries. To-day the figures have the effect of being cut out and
stuck on, owing to the surrounding heavy blue and the loss of vitality in the
contours—the only reason, in fact, for thinking of Peruzzi as their creator.
Raphael brings into play with absolute freedom the Grand Style of figure-
painting, pictorial composition on every scale, and the idea of a ceiling-filling
of an original kind; indeed, as the figure of the Almighty in the Burning Bush
still proves, he made experiments even with a new kind of tapestry: all the
colours from the broken grey, shot violet and matt purple, lead up to the
fiery gold and red with which he brings out the miraculous nature of the occur-
rence. Here we have at last tapestry style; we have a conception of the effect
of harmony and splendour the Vatican tapestries must once have had before
they lost the greater part of their gold high-lights. And apart from this, these
ceiling-paintings are alive with a new heroic determination. There was a
promise of it already in the Fortitudo, amongst the Judicial Virtues, and
the progressive growth of it can best be gauged by tracing its course back to the
Justitia in the ceiling-medallion of the same Stanza, or even only as far as the
figures of the Parnassus.
Those who look round for explanatory reasons instead of believing in the
growth and liberation of a daemonic talent, may turn to the studio gossip of
Vasari; according to this, Bramante is said to have used the key of the Sistine
Chapel in order to show Raphael Michael Angelo’s ceiling, which had not yet
been unveiled, and after that, his protege altered his style.
One thing is certain: Raphael had all his life long to contend with a good
memory; but if this must be mentioned, it can only be to his credit—he was
good at forgetting also. He was obliged again and again to counter extraneous
impressions with his own intrinsic creative power. To Raphael himself belongs
the credit of becoming the dramatic painter and to no one else. From his Urbino
days onward we have watched in him the steady growth of this capacity.
§ Treatment of Walls: Mural Style
The choice as a scene of action of the walls of the Stanza of Heliodorus is
proof at the outset of a new and assured mode of conception. The space is
confined between the arches and the floor-line. The pilasters on which the
enclosing arch rests, here reach only as high as the hips of the figures; in the
Disputa and the School of Athens their capitals are placed at the height of
the heads, and the action of the figures, thanks to this fact and to their greater
vigour and solidity, forces itself more upon the eye. The players dominate
the scenery, and the stage provides no more than what is essential for the
H ioi
In Jacob’s Dream there is much matt green, purple broken up with grey,
heightened to red in the angels, the Almighty in purplish grey against gold.
Everywhere there was the same soft blue ground, not obtruding itself but
rather maintaining that pleasant balance in the colouring which belongs to
outspread tapestries. To-day the figures have the effect of being cut out and
stuck on, owing to the surrounding heavy blue and the loss of vitality in the
contours—the only reason, in fact, for thinking of Peruzzi as their creator.
Raphael brings into play with absolute freedom the Grand Style of figure-
painting, pictorial composition on every scale, and the idea of a ceiling-filling
of an original kind; indeed, as the figure of the Almighty in the Burning Bush
still proves, he made experiments even with a new kind of tapestry: all the
colours from the broken grey, shot violet and matt purple, lead up to the
fiery gold and red with which he brings out the miraculous nature of the occur-
rence. Here we have at last tapestry style; we have a conception of the effect
of harmony and splendour the Vatican tapestries must once have had before
they lost the greater part of their gold high-lights. And apart from this, these
ceiling-paintings are alive with a new heroic determination. There was a
promise of it already in the Fortitudo, amongst the Judicial Virtues, and
the progressive growth of it can best be gauged by tracing its course back to the
Justitia in the ceiling-medallion of the same Stanza, or even only as far as the
figures of the Parnassus.
Those who look round for explanatory reasons instead of believing in the
growth and liberation of a daemonic talent, may turn to the studio gossip of
Vasari; according to this, Bramante is said to have used the key of the Sistine
Chapel in order to show Raphael Michael Angelo’s ceiling, which had not yet
been unveiled, and after that, his protege altered his style.
One thing is certain: Raphael had all his life long to contend with a good
memory; but if this must be mentioned, it can only be to his credit—he was
good at forgetting also. He was obliged again and again to counter extraneous
impressions with his own intrinsic creative power. To Raphael himself belongs
the credit of becoming the dramatic painter and to no one else. From his Urbino
days onward we have watched in him the steady growth of this capacity.
§ Treatment of Walls: Mural Style
The choice as a scene of action of the walls of the Stanza of Heliodorus is
proof at the outset of a new and assured mode of conception. The space is
confined between the arches and the floor-line. The pilasters on which the
enclosing arch rests, here reach only as high as the hips of the figures; in the
Disputa and the School of Athens their capitals are placed at the height of
the heads, and the action of the figures, thanks to this fact and to their greater
vigour and solidity, forces itself more upon the eye. The players dominate
the scenery, and the stage provides no more than what is essential for the
H ioi