Raphael . val at the head of his usual armyof some fifty dependants on his way to thePapal court, addressed him with the wordsYou walk like the sheriff with his possecomitatus And Raphael, quick at re-partee, retorted And you, like an execu-tioner going to the scaffold. Whether theanecdote be true or not, it marks the differ-ence between the course of talent—albeitthe rarest talent—and that of genius. What are the qualities of Raphaels art PLATE H.—THE MADONNA DEL GRAN DUCA This picture, remarkable for the effective simplicity of its designand for the purity of the Virgins face, derives the na
Raphael . val at the head of his usual armyof some fifty dependants on his way to thePapal court, addressed him with the wordsYou walk like the sheriff with his possecomitatus And Raphael, quick at re-partee, retorted And you, like an execu-tioner going to the scaffold. Whether theanecdote be true or not, it marks the differ-ence between the course of talent—albeitthe rarest talent—and that of genius. What are the qualities of Raphaels art PLATE H.—THE MADONNA DEL GRAN DUCA This picture, remarkable for the effective simplicity of its designand for the purity of the Virgins face, derives the name by whichit is commonly known from the fact that it was bought in 1799 bythe Grand Duke Ferdinand IIL from a poor widow, and held byhim in such esteem that he would never part from it and alwaystook it with him on his travels. At one time it was actuallycredited with the power of working miracles. It is one of the firstworks of Raphaels Florentine period, and now hangs in the PittiPalace, RAPHAEL 15 that have carried his fame unsullied throughthe ages and made him the most popular,the most admired, of all painters? Thegreatest of the primitives, and of the latermasters Velazquez, Rembrandt, Frans Hals,Watteau, to mention only a few of thebrightest beacons in the realm of art, haveat some time or other been eclipsed andheld in slight esteem. Raphael aloneescaped the inconstancy of popular favour;he was set up as an idol before he left theworld to mourn his untimely death, and in [the course of the years the worlds idola-trous worship was extended even to thefeeble handiwork of his assistants, whichoften passed under his name. Only withinthe memory of living men did this blindand indiscriminating worship lead to a re-action as indiscriminating. But this re-action was confined to a comparativelysmall circle of aesthetically inclined artenthusiasts; and to-day, when the more i6 RAPHAEL scientific methods of criticism have suc-ceeded in sifting the wheat from the
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