DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0172
RAPHAEL
great narrator in pictures. However much his gift may be reflected in his as-
sistants, few or many—the glory remains his of the invention displayed in the
provision of the decorative designs, of the seriousness of the architecture and of
his application of it, of his respect for the Antique and of the deliberate humour
which caused him to intersperse its motives among those of his own devising;
to him is due the credit of employing the picture to set a key of religious
seriousness, and of providing the tenour for the heroic rendering of these bibli-
cal stories.
Some time after 1514 Raphael had brought to its termination the Loggie
range ofBramante; the whole must have been completed in 1519, in the summer
(at all events, the date MDXIII is found distinctly in the twelfth arcade, under
a seated Victory).
§ To Air and Light
Everywhere during these years we come across his most personal trait—
progression upwards and outwards into air and light.
To-day these galleries, formerly open to the breeze, are closed with glass;
once again, art historians can give themselves up to contemplation of the paint-
ings as comfortably as in a picture-gallery. Thus they have spent much time
also on the study of detail and have conducted inquiries into influences, pupil’s
work, and motives. This may certainly be necessary, but in the process one
ought not to neglect reconstructing to one’s self Raphael’s intention, in this
building of an entirely novel order. This remains more important than any-
thing else! It guides us to his imagination in its elemental creativity.
§ Architect and Decorator: The Loggie as Fagade of the Palace
Here also, we have architect and painter in one person—we see him conceiving
and arranging everything, from the main theme to detail. He built a shady and
airy promenade alongside the Papal apartments with an outlook, unique in the
world, upon a landscape of beauty and dignity. Up here once again he knew
the significance of arcades when they have to frame such lines of hills and forms
of landscape. In these stages the building formerly rose, confronting anyone
coming from the Borgo, as fagade to thewhole Vatican Palace—above Bramante’s
Doric arcades a storey with Ionic pilasters, and above that, as termination, a
lighter loggia with raftered roof casting deep shadows, in the manner of the
Florentine Palazzo Guadagni.
In the inner corridor, instead of the simple, flatfish pilasters of Bramante,
he introduced the rhythmic alternation of reinforced pilasters, that is, broad
pilasters combined as a unit with narrower set in front of them, and niches on
the wall facing the arcades; antique statues, favourites of the Pope, were to
have their place in front of them.
Such an alternation of varied shadows and lighted portions, even without paint-
154
great narrator in pictures. However much his gift may be reflected in his as-
sistants, few or many—the glory remains his of the invention displayed in the
provision of the decorative designs, of the seriousness of the architecture and of
his application of it, of his respect for the Antique and of the deliberate humour
which caused him to intersperse its motives among those of his own devising;
to him is due the credit of employing the picture to set a key of religious
seriousness, and of providing the tenour for the heroic rendering of these bibli-
cal stories.
Some time after 1514 Raphael had brought to its termination the Loggie
range ofBramante; the whole must have been completed in 1519, in the summer
(at all events, the date MDXIII is found distinctly in the twelfth arcade, under
a seated Victory).
§ To Air and Light
Everywhere during these years we come across his most personal trait—
progression upwards and outwards into air and light.
To-day these galleries, formerly open to the breeze, are closed with glass;
once again, art historians can give themselves up to contemplation of the paint-
ings as comfortably as in a picture-gallery. Thus they have spent much time
also on the study of detail and have conducted inquiries into influences, pupil’s
work, and motives. This may certainly be necessary, but in the process one
ought not to neglect reconstructing to one’s self Raphael’s intention, in this
building of an entirely novel order. This remains more important than any-
thing else! It guides us to his imagination in its elemental creativity.
§ Architect and Decorator: The Loggie as Fagade of the Palace
Here also, we have architect and painter in one person—we see him conceiving
and arranging everything, from the main theme to detail. He built a shady and
airy promenade alongside the Papal apartments with an outlook, unique in the
world, upon a landscape of beauty and dignity. Up here once again he knew
the significance of arcades when they have to frame such lines of hills and forms
of landscape. In these stages the building formerly rose, confronting anyone
coming from the Borgo, as fagade to thewhole Vatican Palace—above Bramante’s
Doric arcades a storey with Ionic pilasters, and above that, as termination, a
lighter loggia with raftered roof casting deep shadows, in the manner of the
Florentine Palazzo Guadagni.
In the inner corridor, instead of the simple, flatfish pilasters of Bramante,
he introduced the rhythmic alternation of reinforced pilasters, that is, broad
pilasters combined as a unit with narrower set in front of them, and niches on
the wall facing the arcades; antique statues, favourites of the Pope, were to
have their place in front of them.
Such an alternation of varied shadows and lighted portions, even without paint-
154