DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61022#0076
THE TRANSITION PERIOD
paint the little picture of‘ St. George and the Dragon,’ which his
friend Castiglione took in the latter year as a present from Duke
Guidubaldo to King Henry vn. of England. Vasari saw in
Urbino some pictures which Raphael had painted for the Duke.
Could they be identified they would perhaps give the date of the
visit and throw no little light upon the development of Raphael’s
art. In the year 1507, on the 11th of October, he was in that
town entering upon an agreement for the purchase of some land,1
a fact which, as far as it goes, shows that he was as ready to
settle there as elsewhere, though it cannot be concluded from
the absence of documents concerning similar transactions at
Florence or Perugia that Urbino was the only town in which he
held property. His relations with Urbino are, as were those with
Perugia, attested by a letter.2 He wrote on the 21st of April
1508, to his uncle, his mother’s brother and the letter not only
recalls the familiarity which continued to exist between Raphael
and his relations till the end of his life, but shows that even at
this date Raphael could use his influence at Urbino with a view
to obtaining favours at Florence.
ii
This is the bare outline of Raphael’s life during this period.
It is too slender a thread to support any consistent theory of his
actions, too bare of personal touches to afford a picture either of
himself or of his circle. Apart from the mere fact of his constant
travelling, the records tell us little. They show him to have been
divided between Florence, Perugia, or Urbino, ignorant in which
place his immediate fortune was to be found, and through whom
his ultimate life’s work would be occasioned. Biographers, who
know that he was eventually to reach Rome, and, after spending
a brief period there, to die without revisiting his former homes,
forget that Raphael had no such knowledge and no such plan,
1 Contract given in full by Muntz, Historiens de Raphael, App. 1.
2 Passavant, i. p. 497.
54
paint the little picture of‘ St. George and the Dragon,’ which his
friend Castiglione took in the latter year as a present from Duke
Guidubaldo to King Henry vn. of England. Vasari saw in
Urbino some pictures which Raphael had painted for the Duke.
Could they be identified they would perhaps give the date of the
visit and throw no little light upon the development of Raphael’s
art. In the year 1507, on the 11th of October, he was in that
town entering upon an agreement for the purchase of some land,1
a fact which, as far as it goes, shows that he was as ready to
settle there as elsewhere, though it cannot be concluded from
the absence of documents concerning similar transactions at
Florence or Perugia that Urbino was the only town in which he
held property. His relations with Urbino are, as were those with
Perugia, attested by a letter.2 He wrote on the 21st of April
1508, to his uncle, his mother’s brother and the letter not only
recalls the familiarity which continued to exist between Raphael
and his relations till the end of his life, but shows that even at
this date Raphael could use his influence at Urbino with a view
to obtaining favours at Florence.
ii
This is the bare outline of Raphael’s life during this period.
It is too slender a thread to support any consistent theory of his
actions, too bare of personal touches to afford a picture either of
himself or of his circle. Apart from the mere fact of his constant
travelling, the records tell us little. They show him to have been
divided between Florence, Perugia, or Urbino, ignorant in which
place his immediate fortune was to be found, and through whom
his ultimate life’s work would be occasioned. Biographers, who
know that he was eventually to reach Rome, and, after spending
a brief period there, to die without revisiting his former homes,
forget that Raphael had no such knowledge and no such plan,
1 Contract given in full by Muntz, Historiens de Raphael, App. 1.
2 Passavant, i. p. 497.
54