Raphael at the National Gallery on the 12th of April 20

 Raphael at the National Gallery on the 12^th of April 2002

 

Raphael was born in the town of Urbino, Italy in 1483.  Raphael is a mononym of Raffaello Sanzio (or Santi) de Urbino.  Urbino was a secondary yet nevertheless important centre of the Renaissance, notable for Federico de Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino who lived just before the birth of Raphael.  The poet W.B.Yeats wrote of ‘Urbino’s windy hill’ and its ‘grammar school of courtesies.’  Raphael’s career is traditionally divided into three periods, an early period spent in Umbria followed by four years studying in Florence (1504-8) and his final 12 years in Rome where he worked for two Popes.

The Procession to Calvary by Raphael

Raphael’s main subject is the Holy Family, usually consisting of Madonna and child but Jesus’s cousin John the Baptist is sometimes also included.  In The Infant and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (‘The Alba Madonna’) (1509-11) John holds the cross for Jesus to take, symbolising his acceptance of his personal destiny.  John wears the animal skins that typify his later mission.  The composition is a tondo, or round, particularly favoured in Florence.  In this symmetrical composition the Madonna sits in the centre of the painting, somewhat disingenuously since the rule of thirds states that significant figures should sit on lines of the grid not in the centre of a square.  Raphael painted many other Madonnas which all imply the sanctity and unity of the family.  Raphael’s father was court painter to the ruler of Urbino and died when he was eleven, his mother Magia died when he was just eight.  One explanation for his emphasis on the harmonious family is that it is an artistic substitute for the family he never really had.  Raphael was brought up by his uncle, a priest, and he took over his father's workshop where he began his art apprenticeship.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Raphael

Raphael’s choice of subject matter was circumscribed by the church patronage he depended on which is why a great many of his paintings repeat the same or similar image.  The church did not demand originality but rather obedience so the subject matter, even the style and form the painting might take, existed only within a very narrow set of possibilities.  Raphael accepted, or was forced to accept, these restrictions.  The alternative might be to be suspected of heresy which could mean the withdrawal of patronage and even more serious possibilities of excommunication or imprisonment.  One of Raphael’s patrons was Pope Julius II (reigned 1503-13).  Raphael’s portrait of Julius (completed in 1511) is notable for its exact depiction of Julius’s frailty and declining strength.  This frank portrayal was used as a model for centuries to come.

Pope Julius II by Raphael

Saints and martyrs were also Raphael’s subjects, for instance, his composition Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1506).  Saint Catherine is depicted in mid-rapture as she is about to be bound to the wheel.  This primitive form of torture and execution came to be known as the Catherine Wheel as today it is often seen in pyrotechnic displays.  She gazes upward as if to signify the transcendence of her religiosity overcoming suffering.

The Garvagh Madonna by Raphael

Raphael also worked on cartoons for tapestries, prints, architecture, and on Roman archaeology, for the Vatican was very interested in discovering more about Rome’s antiquities.  Eventually, after the death of Bramante in 1514, he became St Peter’s chief architect.  The exhibition offers substantial details of Raphael’s work, depicting him as the quintessential Renaissance man, perhaps even more so than Michaelangelo and Leonardo, his near contemporaries. 

The Ansidei Madonna by Raphael

He also made frescoes, a kind of painting on wet plaster.  His work The School of Athens (1509-10) was made for the Papal chambers or Stanza della Signatura.  The main subjects of this influential work are the philosophers Plato and Aristotle who are placed in the very centre of the composition.  Plato points upwards to transcendent realms indicating his preoccupation with idealist concepts while Aristotle points to the earth, indicating his contrasting interest in materialism, in biology and other more concrete, earthly matters.  The fresco summarises the development of Western philosophy in a single image.  Also represented are the mathematician Pythagoras, the geometrician Euclid, and the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus, who sits alone.  Raphael implies that philosophy is a highly collectivised activity, excepting Heraclitus whose melancholic solitariness led to him being called ‘the weeping philosopher’ or ‘the Riddler’.  Acolytes crowd around Pythagoras to glimpse his writings and present drawings and diagrams of his innovations.  Euclid is seen presenting geometrical objects and bodies replete with the tools of his trade, the set square and compass.  Raphael worked within a very rigid set of topical possibilities which included classical antiquity since the church sought to incorporate philosophy to secure a rigorous and serious image while acknowledging that classical philosophy was also pagan.  In Dante’s Inferno Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all inhabit the first circle of Hell known as Limbo and reserved for virtuous pagans.  

 

Madonna of the Pinks by Raphael

Raphael's personal profile is often submerged beneath the weighty allegorical material that he handles, although a self-portrait completed in 1506 does surface.  The artist is full of intensity and gazes directly out of the canvas at the viewer.  If there is an implication of a love interest it is the Portrait of a Woman ('La Fornarina') completed at the very end of Raphael's short life in 1519-20.  This nude portrait is undeniably personal, the sitter wears a band on her arm signed by Raphael in capital letters.  According to Raphael's chief biographer Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, Raphael died from 'a surfeit of love', a remark which could bear a number of interpretations. Another outstanding portrait is that of Bindo Altoviti, a Florentine banker, art collector, and friend of Raphael’s, completed in 1516-18.  The sitter appears to be turning towards the viewer, as if unexpectedly surprised, this being a traditional Venetian pose.  The final flamboyant portrait of real note is that of Baldassare Castiglione completed in 1519.  This is perhaps the strongest of Raphael's portraits depicting Castiglione's unpretentious warmth and humanism.  A diplomat, Castiglione penned the Book of the Courtier (1528) which is a depiction of the court of Urbino which he had happened to stay at the beginning of the sixteenth century.  Obviously Raphael and Castiglione shared a common admiration for Urbino.

The National Gallery's exhibition Raphael is an unmissable treat, providing a glimpse into a world of art and architecture that prepared us for the world of today.  It is simply the best thing to happen in London for years.

Paul Murphy, National Gallery, April 2022