§ 66. THE ARTISTS. 603
says that he combined so many rare gifts that he might be called a mortal god rather than a simple man. The portraits, which present him as an infant, youth and man, are as characteristic and impressive as Giotto's Dante and Guido Reni's Beatrice Cenci.
Like Goethe, Raphael was singularly favored by fortune and was free from the ordinary trials of artists — poverty, humiliation and neglect. He held the appointment of papal chamberlain and had the choice between a cardinal's hat and marriage to a niece of Cardinal Bibbiena, with a dowry of three thousand gold crowns. But he put off the marriage from year to year, and preferred the dangerous freedom of single life. His contemporary and admirer, Vasari, says, when Raphael felt death approaching, he " as a good Christian dismissed his mistress from his house, making a decent provision for her support, and then made his last confession. "
JThe painter's best works are devoted to religious characters and events. On a visit to Florence after the burning of Savonarola, he learned from his friend Fra Bartolomeo to esteem the moral reformer and gave him, as well as Dante, a place among the great teachers of the Church in his fresco of the Theologia in the Vatican. His Madonnas represent the perfection of human loveliness and purity. In the Madonna di San Sisto at Dresden, so called because Sixtus IV. is introduced into the picture, the eye is divided between the sad yet halfjubilant face of the Virgin Mother, the contemplative gaze of the cherubs and the pensive and sympathetic expression of the divine child.
Grmim_sayg^Raphaers_Madnrinq..s nrp not Italian faces b_ut \yomen who are lifted above national characteristics. The Madonnas of da Vinci, Correggio, Titian, Murillo and Rubens contain the features of the nationality to which these painters belonged. Raphael alone has been able to give us feminine beauty which belongs to the European type as such.i
The las-tw^he greatest, and the purest of Raphael's works is the Transfiguration in the Vatican. While engaged on it, he 5ied, on Good Friday, his birthday. It was suspended over 1 Raphael, p. 428 aqq.
604 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
his coffin and carried to the church of the Pantheon, where his remains repose in his chosen spot near those of his betrothed bride, Maria di Bibbiena. In that picture we beliokl the divinest figure that ever appeared on earth, soaring high in the air, in garments of transparent light, and with arms outspread, adored by Moses on the right hand and by Elijah on the left, who represent the Old Covenant of law and promise. The three favorite disciples are lying on the ground, unable to face the dazzling splendor from heaven. Beneath this celestial scene we see, in striking contrast, the epileptic boy with rolling eyes, distorted features, and spasmodic limbs, held by his agonized father and supported by his sister; while the mother imploringly appeals to the nine disciples who, in their helplessness, twitted by scribes, point up to the mountain where Jesus had gone. In connecting the two scenes, the painter followed the narrative of the Gospels, Matt. xvii. 1-14; Mark ix. 2-14; Luke ix. 28-37. The connection is being continually repeated in Christian experience. Descending from the Mount of Transfiguration, we are confronted with the misery of earth and, helpless in human strength, we look to heaven as the only source
of help.
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.
Michelangelo Buonarr-oti ^^<i 10 years older than Raphael, and survived him 44 years. He drew j^e^inspjration^fmLhis sculptures and pictures from the Old Testajnenjt, from Dante and from Savonarola. He praised Dante in two sublime sonnets and heard Savonarola's thrilling sermons against wickedness and vice, and witnessed his martyrdom. Vasari and Condi vi both bear witness to his spotless moxalit^. He deplored the corruptions of the papal court.
For Rome still slays and sells Christ at the court, Where paths are closed to virtue's fair increase. ^
The artist's works have colossal proportions, and refuse to be judged by ordinary rules. They are divided between painting, as the frescos in the Sistine chapel of St. Peter's, architecture as in St. Peter's dome, and ^^rks of statuary, as Moses in Rome and David in Fh)rence, His Pieta in St. Peter's, a 1 Symonds, III. 511).