DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0098
94
EAKLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
Raphael at Rome.
In his twenty-fifth year, when Fra Bartolomeo,
Lionardo da Vinci, and Michael Angelo were all
at the height of their fame, and many years older
than himself, the young Raphael had already be-
come celebrated from one end of Italy to the other.
At this time Julius II. was pope. Of his extraor-
dinary and energetic character we have already
spoken at length in the life of Michael Angelo.
At the age of seventy he was revolving plans for
the aggrandizement of his power and the embellish-
ment of the Vatican, which it would have taken a
long life to realise; conscious that the time before
him was to be measured by months rather than by
years, and ambitious to concentrate in his own per-
son all the glory that must ensue from such mag-
nificent works, he listened to no obstacles, he would
endure no delays, he spared no expense in his
undertakings. Bramante, the greatest architect,
and Michael Angelo, the greatest sculptor in Italy,
were already in his service. Lionardo da Vinci
was then employed in public works at Florence,
and could not be engaged, and he therefore sent for
Raphael to undertake the decoration of those halls
in the Vatican which Pope Nicholas V. and Sixtus
IV. had begun and left unfinished. The invitation,
or rather order, of the pope was as usual so urgent
and so peremptory, that Raphael hurried from
EAKLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
Raphael at Rome.
In his twenty-fifth year, when Fra Bartolomeo,
Lionardo da Vinci, and Michael Angelo were all
at the height of their fame, and many years older
than himself, the young Raphael had already be-
come celebrated from one end of Italy to the other.
At this time Julius II. was pope. Of his extraor-
dinary and energetic character we have already
spoken at length in the life of Michael Angelo.
At the age of seventy he was revolving plans for
the aggrandizement of his power and the embellish-
ment of the Vatican, which it would have taken a
long life to realise; conscious that the time before
him was to be measured by months rather than by
years, and ambitious to concentrate in his own per-
son all the glory that must ensue from such mag-
nificent works, he listened to no obstacles, he would
endure no delays, he spared no expense in his
undertakings. Bramante, the greatest architect,
and Michael Angelo, the greatest sculptor in Italy,
were already in his service. Lionardo da Vinci
was then employed in public works at Florence,
and could not be engaged, and he therefore sent for
Raphael to undertake the decoration of those halls
in the Vatican which Pope Nicholas V. and Sixtus
IV. had begun and left unfinished. The invitation,
or rather order, of the pope was as usual so urgent
and so peremptory, that Raphael hurried from