Curiosities of Christian History Prior to the Reformation

by James Paterson

THE DIVINE RAPHAEL’S MADONNA DI SAN SISTO.

The Benedictines of St. Sixtus at Placentia asked Raphael to paint the Madonna with the Child, St. Sixtus and St. Barbara. It was the last Madonna he painted; and, as if he had foreseen his approaching end, he made the picture one of surpassing beauty. In the midst of an immense and profound glory filled with cherubim heads, says Passavant, the Virgin is standing holding in her arms the Infant Jesus. Her feet scarcely touch the cloud which bears her; she stands out from the mystery of the heavens, and appears in her sweet and majestic grandeur. Beneath her St. Sixtus on the left and St. Barbara on the right are kneeling in adoration. Two little angels of celestial beauty lean on a cornice at the bottom, with a charming look of intelligence. The features of the Virgin, whose triumphant majesty is unequalled, wear an expression of nobleness, innocence, sweetness, and modesty; her Son, whose attitude is simple and childlike, bears in His whole countenance a Divine character, and His penetrating glance goes straight to the heart. It is no longer the graceful, smiling Child of the other Madonnas, but the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, who at the last day will become the Sovereign Judge. Wonderful power of art! In that little head, so calm, so sweet, and yet so severe, reside both the flame of the purest poetry and all the depth of Christian faith. The Madonna di San Sisto is indeed rendered Divine by the genius of the most ideal artist that God has ever created; and it is the work that contributed most to procure Raphael the surname of “the Divine.” Even in its technical part it does not resemble any of the other works of Raphael; although its execution is of extreme simplicity, it has none of that art which is only formed for delighting the eye. All in it is seen by the light of enthusiasm, and but for the little angels at the bottom painted as an after-thought on the clouds, we should scarcely see a trace of human hands in the picture. The picture is now in Dresden, and has excited admiration and the greatest veneration for three centuries.

RAPHAEL’S CARTOONS.

Raphael was commissioned by the Pope to paint cartoons for certain pieces of tapestry to be made in Flanders. The artist was fired with a desire to rival Michael Angelo’s, and he looked forward to these compositions being copied in fabrics of wool or silk and gold, which might be hung up before the wainscoting on high festivals, according to the customs of the Byzantines and Romans. The ten pieces of tapestry were afterwards made with great magnificence and perfection, and arrived from Flanders at Rome in 1519, only a few months before Raphael’s death, and hung up in St. Peter’s. He had the satisfaction of seeing this work crowned with complete success. Vasari says that these tapestries seem rather to have been performed by miracle than by the aid of man. The choice of subjects was prescribed to Raphael. The cartoons were sent to Arras and copied in tapestry. After being hung up in the Sistine chapel, the tapestries were pillaged by the troops of Charles V. in 1527, and carried off as spoils of war, and were sold at Lyons. In 1555 they were restored to the Pope. They were again stolen in the Revolution of 1789, and passed into the hands of the Jews, who at one time thought of burning them for the sake of the gold worked up in the fabric. In 1808, however, the Pope again possessed them, and they are now in the Vatican. As to the cartoons from which the tapestries were copied, these lay neglected in the manufactory at Arras till 1630. Rubens, having seen them there, described them to Charles I., who bought them for Whitehall Palace. At his death they were sold by auction, and Cromwell bought them for £300 for the nation. Charles II. was once on the point of selling them, but was persuaded not to do so. The cartoons were all riddled with needle prickings, and intersected by narrow bands, but William III. had them cleaned and put up at Hampton Court Palace. They are now kept at South Kensington Museum. They are drawn with chalk and coloured in distemper.

A DIVINE MASTER’S LAST MASTERPIECE.

Vasari, a contemporary and biographer of Raphael, says that the painter worked indefatigably at his picture of the Transfiguration of the Saviour which was destined for France. The Saviour is depicted on Mount Tabor, with eleven disciples awaiting Him at the foot. Meanwhile, a youth possessed of a spirit is brought to be healed, and he is shown writhing with contortions caused by the malignant spirit. An old man, with a face of apprehension and open eyes, watches the Apostles, as if anxious to know if there was hope. One woman, a principal figure, kneeling and pointing to these two, shows their misery. The Apostles look on full of compassion. In this work the master has produced figures and heads of unrivalled beauty, which has stamped him as the most excellent and Divine of all artists. Whoever shall desire to see in what manner Christ, transformed into the Godhead, should be represented, let him go and behold it in this picture. The Saviour is shown floating over the mount in clear air; the figure, foreshortened, is between those of Moses and Elias, who, illumined by His radiance, awaken into life beneath the splendour of the light. Prostrate on the earth are Peter, James, and John, in attitudes of great and varied beauty: one has his head bent entirely to the ground; another defends himself with his hands from the brightness of that immense light which proceeds from the splendour of Christ, who is clothed in vestments of snowy whiteness, His arms thrown open and the head raised towards heaven, while the essence and Godhead of all the three persons united in Himself are made apparent in their utmost perfection by the Divine art of Raphael. But as if that sublime genius had gathered all the force of his powers into one effort, whereby the glory and the majesty of art should be made manifest in the countenance of Christ, having completed that as one who had finished the great work which he had to accomplish, he touched the pencils no more, being shortly afterwards overtaken with death from a fever in 1520, at the age of thirty-seven.

RAPHAEL’S PICTURE OF ST. CECILIA.

A noble lady in 1513 built a chapel near Bologna to St. Cecilia, and Raphael was asked to paint an altarpiece. Passavant thus describes the work: “It was in one of his inspired moments that the master composed this exquisite painting. Everything in it speaks of faith and zeal. All the noble countenances bear the Divine stamp, and yet whatever may be the exultation of their souls, their attitudes are full of the calmest majesty. St. Paul leaning on a naked sword represents knowledge and wisdom, whilst on the other side St. John shows the full blessing of Divine love. Mary Magdalene, holding a vase of perfumes, is opposite to St. Paul, as if to indicate that, if the repentance of the apostle and his unwearied activity in the Church obtained forgiveness for him for his former sins, she also had been forgiven much because she had loved much. And as St. Paul, converted through a vision, is by the side of the living St. John, so St. Augustine, also converted to the faith of Christ, is by the side of the Magdalene. Surrounded by these great and touching figures St. Cecilia is standing, radiant with ecstasy, listening to the Divine harmonies sung by the angels in heaven. The earthly organ falls from her hands, she trembles with holy enthusiasm, and her soul seems longing to fly away to the heavenly country. The beauty of the style and the depth of expression are not the only things that render this a masterpiece, but the combination of these with harmony, richness, and powerful colouring. The colouring responds to the poetry of the subject; it carries us into an ethereal and mysterious atmosphere. No colourist has ever equalled this splendour, which we call almost Divine. Titian’s ‘Assumption’ excites feelings of joyfulness, Correggio’s ‘St. Jerome’ a gentle emotion, but Raphael’s ‘St. Cecilia’ brings us nearer to heaven.” It was this picture that killed Francia with mortification and self-humiliation. All Bologna was enthusiastic at the sight of so Divine a work. The picture still remains at Bologna.

THE INQUISITION ON SACRED ART (1522).