The early work of Raphael . filled already with the yearning after beauty and the passionate loveof antiquity that were to attain their complete development in after in a remarkable way they foreshadow the triumphs of his futureyears. These little pictures which Raphael painted in his mountain home,under the shadow of Laurannas castle towers, represent the differentrealms of sacred story, of mystic allegory, and classical antiquity whichsupplied the inspiration for those great dramas that he was one day to setforth on the Vatican walls, in the eyes of all Christendom. THE EARLY WORK O
The early work of Raphael . filled already with the yearning after beauty and the passionate loveof antiquity that were to attain their complete development in after in a remarkable way they foreshadow the triumphs of his futureyears. These little pictures which Raphael painted in his mountain home,under the shadow of Laurannas castle towers, represent the differentrealms of sacred story, of mystic allegory, and classical antiquity whichsupplied the inspiration for those great dramas that he was one day to setforth on the Vatican walls, in the eyes of all Christendom. THE EARLY WORK OF RAPHAEL 17 There is at Oxford a drawing, in black chalks, of a boy of fifteen orsixteen, with a serious and gentle face, wearing a black cap over his longlocks. It is on the same paper and in the same style as another drawingwhich hangs close by—a head of St. Catherine bearing a palm-branch—now generally recognised to be the work of Timoteo Viti. So therecan be little doubt that this lad with the graceful air and the. St. Michael. By Raphael. In the Louvre. thoughtful eyes is the young Raphael, drawn by the hand of his firstmaster, in the days when he painted the sleeping knight and the sisterGraces. But this fair boy, whose happy nature and winning wayscharmed young and old alike, was the hardest of workers and mostunwearied of learners. He had, in fact, already formed that ceaselesshabit of acquiring ideas which lay at the root of all his future the first Raphael was never an artist of remarkable did not break new ground or discard old traditions to make room B 18 THE EARLY WORK OF RAPHAEL for types and ideas of his own invention. He was, in point of fact, lessof an innovator than Michelangelo or Lionardo, than Giorgione orMantegna. But he possessed, in a measure rarely given to any humanbeing, the power of assimilating the impressions which he received froma thousand different quarters. Every picture that he saw, each artistwhom he met, be
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookde, booksubjectraphael14831520, bookyear1895
