DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69463#0301
RAPHAEL.
Raphael is one of those extraordinary men who can
gain little by a repetition of praise. No other painter has
been so uniformly and so justly celebrated; the greatest
masters now derive the estimation in which they are held,
only in proportion as they approach to the perfection of
his works; those who adopt him as a model, do not pre-
sume to equal him, and none can become good painters
without a deep and acknowledged sense of the superi-
ority of this unrivalled artist. This is the opinion of
connoisseurs; but Raphael enjoys another advantage pe-
culiar to himself, and which is not attached to the repu-
tation of any other: his name is familiar even to the
lower classes of the people, who fancy that every good
picture is the production of Raphael; he is, perhaps, the
only master with whom they are acquainted; and it must
be confessed, that to those who are ambitious of any kind
of glory, the voice of the people is not so unimportant
a sanction as many affect to imagine.
The life of Raphael, unlike that of so many illustrious
men, does not present those vicissitudes of good and evil
fortune, which so much increase the interest excited by
a man of genius. He was uniformly opulent and pros-
perous, and nature had bestowed on him its choicest
gifts. He had a handsome figure, an engaging physiog-
nomy, and a soothing and persuasive eloquence that
conciliated and enforced every dictate of his mind*
He possessed all the mild and amiable virtues; his can-
dour, his modesty, and his disinterestedness, secured him
the friendship of all who approached him. To the stings
of professional jealousy he was a perfect stranger; and it
41
Raphael is one of those extraordinary men who can
gain little by a repetition of praise. No other painter has
been so uniformly and so justly celebrated; the greatest
masters now derive the estimation in which they are held,
only in proportion as they approach to the perfection of
his works; those who adopt him as a model, do not pre-
sume to equal him, and none can become good painters
without a deep and acknowledged sense of the superi-
ority of this unrivalled artist. This is the opinion of
connoisseurs; but Raphael enjoys another advantage pe-
culiar to himself, and which is not attached to the repu-
tation of any other: his name is familiar even to the
lower classes of the people, who fancy that every good
picture is the production of Raphael; he is, perhaps, the
only master with whom they are acquainted; and it must
be confessed, that to those who are ambitious of any kind
of glory, the voice of the people is not so unimportant
a sanction as many affect to imagine.
The life of Raphael, unlike that of so many illustrious
men, does not present those vicissitudes of good and evil
fortune, which so much increase the interest excited by
a man of genius. He was uniformly opulent and pros-
perous, and nature had bestowed on him its choicest
gifts. He had a handsome figure, an engaging physiog-
nomy, and a soothing and persuasive eloquence that
conciliated and enforced every dictate of his mind*
He possessed all the mild and amiable virtues; his can-
dour, his modesty, and his disinterestedness, secured him
the friendship of all who approached him. To the stings
of professional jealousy he was a perfect stranger; and it
41