The early work of Raphael . obtain good pictures at the lowest possibleprice, he employed the young painter from Urbino, who was asyet little known in Florence, to paint his own portrait and thatof his wife, a lady of the Strozzi family. Both of these portraits,which hang to-day in the Pitti Gallery, are admirable examples ofRaphaels close and faithful study of life. They are painted with thesame minute attention to detail, the same anxious rendering of eachsingle hair, that we note in the Borghese portrait. The wealthy merchantin his black damask suit and red sleeves, with refined features an
The early work of Raphael . obtain good pictures at the lowest possibleprice, he employed the young painter from Urbino, who was asyet little known in Florence, to paint his own portrait and thatof his wife, a lady of the Strozzi family. Both of these portraits,which hang to-day in the Pitti Gallery, are admirable examples ofRaphaels close and faithful study of life. They are painted with thesame minute attention to detail, the same anxious rendering of eachsingle hair, that we note in the Borghese portrait. The wealthy merchantin his black damask suit and red sleeves, with refined features and keenanxious gaze, his staid, richly dressed wife in her blue brocades andjewelled necklace, well satisfied with herself and all the world, are livingtypes of their class. Yet in the form of the pictures, in the pose ofMaddalena Donis head and of her placidly folded hands, we are consciousof a new influence. If from the picture we turn to the pen-and-inksketch in the Louvre, we see at a glance that Lionardos Mona Lisa was. Maddalena Doni. By Raphael. Pitti Gallery, a photograph by Alinari, by permission. THE EARLY WORK OF RAPHAEL 49 in Raphaels mind when he painted Maddalena Donis portrait. Thecut of the dress, the ripple of the hair, the very folds of the bodiceare exactly copied from that famous picture, which Raphael must haveseen in Francesco Giocondos house at Florence. Only instead ofLionardos rock landscape, he has sketched a view of Umbrian hillsand Urbino towers, framed in between the columns of an open is, we must confess, a charm in the drawing which is lacking inthe picture. This maiden with the dreamy eyes and youthful face wasthe painters ideal; the other was the actual woman, Maddalena Doni,the rich merchants wife, a subject, it may be, not very much to histaste, but none the less to be painted with perfect accuracy and truth. But Raphaels dreams and studies were soon to bear richer earliest, and in some ways the most perfect
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookde, booksubjectraphael14831520, bookyear1895
