DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0151
RAPHAEL SANZIO d’uRBINO.
147
coming the Dragon, a compliment apparently to
the king’s favourite sister, Margaret, queen of
Navarre : this also is in the Louvre. When they
were placed before Francis I., he ordered his trea-
surer to count out twenty-four thousand livres (about
30001. according to the present value of money), and
sent it to the painter with the strongest expressions
of his approbation. At a later period he purchased
the beautiful portrait of Joanna of Arragon, vice-
queen of Naples, which is also in the Louvre.
About the same period (that is, between 1517
and 1520) Raphael painted for the convent of
St. Sixtus at Piacenza one of the grandest and
most celebrated of all his works, called, from its
original destination, the Madonna di San Sisto.
It represents the Virgin standing in a majestic
attitude ; the infant Saviour enthroned in her arms ;
and around her head a glory of innumerable cherubs
melting into light. Kneeling before her we see on
one side St. Sixtus, on the other St. Barbara, and
beneath her feet two heavenly cherubs gaze up in
adoration. In execution, as in design, this is pro-
bably the most perfect picture in the world. It is
painted throughout by Raphael’s own hand ; and
as no sketch or study of any part of it was ever
known to exist, and as the execution must have
been, from the thinness and delicacy of the colours,
wonderfully rapid, it is supposed that he painted
d at once on the canvas—a creation rather than a
147
coming the Dragon, a compliment apparently to
the king’s favourite sister, Margaret, queen of
Navarre : this also is in the Louvre. When they
were placed before Francis I., he ordered his trea-
surer to count out twenty-four thousand livres (about
30001. according to the present value of money), and
sent it to the painter with the strongest expressions
of his approbation. At a later period he purchased
the beautiful portrait of Joanna of Arragon, vice-
queen of Naples, which is also in the Louvre.
About the same period (that is, between 1517
and 1520) Raphael painted for the convent of
St. Sixtus at Piacenza one of the grandest and
most celebrated of all his works, called, from its
original destination, the Madonna di San Sisto.
It represents the Virgin standing in a majestic
attitude ; the infant Saviour enthroned in her arms ;
and around her head a glory of innumerable cherubs
melting into light. Kneeling before her we see on
one side St. Sixtus, on the other St. Barbara, and
beneath her feet two heavenly cherubs gaze up in
adoration. In execution, as in design, this is pro-
bably the most perfect picture in the world. It is
painted throughout by Raphael’s own hand ; and
as no sketch or study of any part of it was ever
known to exist, and as the execution must have
been, from the thinness and delicacy of the colours,
wonderfully rapid, it is supposed that he painted
d at once on the canvas—a creation rather than a