DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61022#0056
EARLY PICTURES
(Plate xix.). Thus, in spite of immense differences in type and
workmanship, there is inter-relation between the whole group,
and upon the strength of this, without tradition and without
documents, they are all brought into the list of Raphael’s work.
If these Madonnas are accepted as Raphael’s,—and the
* Madonna Connestabile,’ the 4 Ansidei ’ and the 4 Sant’ Antonio ’
are accredited to him on almost as good grounds as any panel
pictures,—they show, as do the subject pictures of the first group,
a combination of general Peruginesque style with distinctive
features of their own. The mood, the arrangement and the
colouring, the drawing of the Infants, the landscape, the atti-
tudes of the Madonnas and the general scheme of the pictures,
with their softness, subdued feeling, touches of ornament in the
dress, and elements of observed nature in the Infants, are all quite
sufficient to bring the pictures into the circle of Peruginesque
work. There are even the gross inequalities of execution, as
shown in the scamped work in the extremities of some of the
figures and the tender care and observation in the others, which
are characteristic of Perugino himself and of Raphael, together
with every member of the studio. If the pictures did not bear on
their own faces the association with the work of the studio, it
would be enough in order to prove the resemblance to point to
the drawings connected with them, which appear to different
critics as being by Raphael himself, Perugino or Pinturicchio.
But besides these points of similarity, there is a great divergence
in no less central a feature than the head of the Madonna. Much
as they vary among themselves, and much as they present actual
details which are identical with Perugino’s practice, these heads
show no actual approximation to any of Perugino’s forms. Nor
are they unsuccessful copies of Perugino. The head of the
Madonna in Dr. Mond’s 4 Crucifixion ’ has already been taken as
an example of Peruginesque type. It only needs to be compared
with these to show the difference between them and a good
imitation of the more commonplace of Perugino’s types. The
34
(Plate xix.). Thus, in spite of immense differences in type and
workmanship, there is inter-relation between the whole group,
and upon the strength of this, without tradition and without
documents, they are all brought into the list of Raphael’s work.
If these Madonnas are accepted as Raphael’s,—and the
* Madonna Connestabile,’ the 4 Ansidei ’ and the 4 Sant’ Antonio ’
are accredited to him on almost as good grounds as any panel
pictures,—they show, as do the subject pictures of the first group,
a combination of general Peruginesque style with distinctive
features of their own. The mood, the arrangement and the
colouring, the drawing of the Infants, the landscape, the atti-
tudes of the Madonnas and the general scheme of the pictures,
with their softness, subdued feeling, touches of ornament in the
dress, and elements of observed nature in the Infants, are all quite
sufficient to bring the pictures into the circle of Peruginesque
work. There are even the gross inequalities of execution, as
shown in the scamped work in the extremities of some of the
figures and the tender care and observation in the others, which
are characteristic of Perugino himself and of Raphael, together
with every member of the studio. If the pictures did not bear on
their own faces the association with the work of the studio, it
would be enough in order to prove the resemblance to point to
the drawings connected with them, which appear to different
critics as being by Raphael himself, Perugino or Pinturicchio.
But besides these points of similarity, there is a great divergence
in no less central a feature than the head of the Madonna. Much
as they vary among themselves, and much as they present actual
details which are identical with Perugino’s practice, these heads
show no actual approximation to any of Perugino’s forms. Nor
are they unsuccessful copies of Perugino. The head of the
Madonna in Dr. Mond’s 4 Crucifixion ’ has already been taken as
an example of Peruginesque type. It only needs to be compared
with these to show the difference between them and a good
imitation of the more commonplace of Perugino’s types. The
34