DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61022#0091
INTRODUCTORY
fied simplicity of line compensate partly for the want of combina-
tion in the figures, and show how whole-heartedly Raphael entered
into the spirit of his Perugian manner. A fair landscape back-
ground and a suggestion of much sky emphasise the air of super-
sensuous calm which marks all the figures. There is a greater
precision in the drawing of the extremities than is usual in
Umbrian pictures of this period, even than is customary with
Raphael himself; but the drawing is tight and hard, and while
there is a greater care in the modelling of the faces, the attempt
to give an air of keenness to the eyes by the brilliance of the
pigment and the character of the contours prove the simple
means by which at this period Raphael tried to give life to his
creations.
The 4 Madonna of Terranuova ’ in Berlin (Plate xxvi.) is, on the
other hand, a picture of Perugian origin infinitely modified by
Florentine association, and presents so many conflicting features
that the assignment of the picture to as early a date as is
generally given seems very doubtful. Two drawings,1 one perhaps
by Raphael himself, the other by an older master, exhibit the
main group in a characteristically Peruginesque setting, and
serve to connect the picture with the now largely discarded style.
In neither of the drawings does the third child occur, but, in
both, two heavy and disturbing saints, almost identical with
those in another Berlin picture (Plate xix.), flank the Madonna
and the Child. In the painting Raphael has cast them away,
converting the group from a mere hieratic congeries into a lighted
and airy scheme. He has softened the values and contours of
the Virgin’s head so that the curve becomes elastic, and while
its general form is that of the head in the ‘Madonna Ansidei,’
its structure is realised and its texture reproduced. Still more
the greater delicacy of the drawing converts the inclination of
the head from a merely conventional device into a representation
of a momentary action, suggesting life and the true grace of the
1 Berlin and Lille. Fischel, 51 and 52.
69
fied simplicity of line compensate partly for the want of combina-
tion in the figures, and show how whole-heartedly Raphael entered
into the spirit of his Perugian manner. A fair landscape back-
ground and a suggestion of much sky emphasise the air of super-
sensuous calm which marks all the figures. There is a greater
precision in the drawing of the extremities than is usual in
Umbrian pictures of this period, even than is customary with
Raphael himself; but the drawing is tight and hard, and while
there is a greater care in the modelling of the faces, the attempt
to give an air of keenness to the eyes by the brilliance of the
pigment and the character of the contours prove the simple
means by which at this period Raphael tried to give life to his
creations.
The 4 Madonna of Terranuova ’ in Berlin (Plate xxvi.) is, on the
other hand, a picture of Perugian origin infinitely modified by
Florentine association, and presents so many conflicting features
that the assignment of the picture to as early a date as is
generally given seems very doubtful. Two drawings,1 one perhaps
by Raphael himself, the other by an older master, exhibit the
main group in a characteristically Peruginesque setting, and
serve to connect the picture with the now largely discarded style.
In neither of the drawings does the third child occur, but, in
both, two heavy and disturbing saints, almost identical with
those in another Berlin picture (Plate xix.), flank the Madonna
and the Child. In the painting Raphael has cast them away,
converting the group from a mere hieratic congeries into a lighted
and airy scheme. He has softened the values and contours of
the Virgin’s head so that the curve becomes elastic, and while
its general form is that of the head in the ‘Madonna Ansidei,’
its structure is realised and its texture reproduced. Still more
the greater delicacy of the drawing converts the inclination of
the head from a merely conventional device into a representation
of a momentary action, suggesting life and the true grace of the
1 Berlin and Lille. Fischel, 51 and 52.
69