"It has been asked, who are the two figures, the two saintly deacons, who stand on each side of the upper group, and what have they to do with the mystery above, or the sorrow below? Their presence shows that the whole was conceived as a vision, or a poem. The two saints are St. Laurence and St. Julian, placed there at the request of the Cardinal de' Medici, for whom the picture was painted, to be offered by him as an act of devotion as well as munificence to his new bishopric; and these two figures commemorate in a poetical way, not unusual at the time, his father, Lorenzo, and his uncle, Giuliano de' Medici. They would be better away; but Raphael, in consenting to the wish of his patron that they should be introduced, left no doubt of the significance of the whole composition, that it is placed before worshippers as a revelation of the double life of earthly suffering and spiritual faith, as an excitement to religious contemplation and religious hope.
"In the Gospel, the Transfiguration of Our Lord is first described, then the gathering of the people and the appeal of the father in behalf of his afflicted son. They appear to have been simultaneous; but painting only could have placed them before our eyes, at the same moment, in all their suggestive contrast. It will be said that in the brief record of the Evangelist, this contrast is nowhere indicated, but the painter found it there and was right to use it,—just the same as if a man should choose a text from which to preach a sermon, and, in doing so, should evolve from the inspired words many teachings, many deep reasonings, besides those most obvious and apparent.
"But, after we have prepared ourselves to understand and to take into our heads all that this wonderful picture can suggest, considered as an emanation of the mind, we find that it has other interests for us, considered merely as a work of art. It was the last picture which came from Raphael's hand; he was painting on it when he was seized with his last illness. He had completed all the upper part of the composition, all the ethereal vision, but the lower part of it was still unfinished, and in this state the picture was hung over his bier; when, after his death, he was laid out in his painting-room, and all his pupils and friends, and the people of Rome, came to look upon him for the last time; and when those who stood round raised their eyes to the Transfiguration, and then bent them on the lifeless form extended beneath it, 'every heart was like to burst with grief (faceva scoppiare l'anima di dolore a ognuno che quivi guardava), as, indeed, well it might.
"Two-thirds of the price of the picture, 655 'ducati di camera,' had already been paid by the Cardinal de' Medici, and, in the following year, that part of the picture which Raphael had left unfinished was completed by his pupil Giulio Romano, a powerful and gifted, but not a refined or elevated, genius. He supplied what was wanting in the colours and chiaroscuro according to Raphael's design, but not certainly as Raphael himself would have done it. The sum which Giulio received he bestowed as a dowry on his sister, when he gave her in marriage to Lorenzetto the sculptor, who had been a friend and pupil of Raphael. The cardinal did not send the picture to Narbonne, but, unwilling to deprive Rome of such a masterpiece, he presented it to the church of San Pietro in Montorio, and sent in its stead the Raising of Lazarus, by Sebastian del Piombo, now in our National Gallery. The French carried off the Transfiguration to Paris in 1797, and when restored, it was placed in the Vatican, where it now is."—Mrs. Jameson's History of Our Lord, vol. i.
3rd Room.—
Entrance Wall.—Madonna and Saints: Titian.
"Titian's altar-piece is a specimen of his pictures of this class. St. Nicholas, in full episcopal costume, is gazing upwards with an air of inspiration. St. Peter is looking over his shoulder at a book, and a beautiful St. Catherine is on the other side. Farther behind, are St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua; on the left St. Sebastian, whose figure recurs in almost all of these pictures. Above, in the clouds, with angels, is the Madonna, who looks cheerfully on, while the lovely Child holds a wreath, as if ready to crown a votary."—Kugler.
"In this picture there are three stages, or whatever they are called, the same as in the Transfiguration. Below, saints and martyrs are represented in suffering and abasement; on every face is depicted sadness, nay, almost impatience; one figure in rich episcopal robes looks upwards, with the most eager and agonized longing, as if weeping, but he cannot see all that is floating above his head, but which we see, standing in front of the picture. Above, Mary and her Child are in a cloud, radiant with joy, and surrounded by angels, who have woven many garlands; the Holy Child holds one of these, and seems as if about to crown the saints beneath, but his Mother withholds his hand for the moment(?). The contrast between the pain and suffering below, whence St. Sebastian looks forth out of the picture with gloom and almost apathy, and the lofty unalloyed exultation in the clouds above, where crowns and palms are already awaiting him, is truly admirable. High above the group of Mary hovers the Holy Spirit, from whom emanates a bright streaming light, thus forming the apex of the whole composition. I have just remembered that Goethe, at the beginning of his first visit to Rome, describes and admires this picture; and he speaks of it in considerable detail. It was at that time in the Quirinal."—Mendelssohn's Letters.
Sta. Margherita da Cortona: Guercino. She is represented kneeling,—angels hovering above,—in the background is the Convent of Cortona.
Right Wall: