Raphael also executed for the wealthy Agostino Chigi, the _protégé_ of
Julius II. and Leo X., the frescos in the Church Santa Maria della Pace.
Cinelli tells this anecdote: "Raphael of Urbino had painted for Agostino
Chigi, at Santa Maria della Pace, some prophets and sibyls, on which he
had received an advance of five hundred scudi. One day he demanded of
Agostino's cashier (Giulio Borghesi) the remainder of the sum at which
he estimated his work. The cashier, being astonished at this demand, and
thinking that the sum already paid was sufficient, did not reply. 'Cause
the work to be estimated by a judge of painting,' replied Raphael, 'and
you will see how moderate my demand is.'
"Giulio Borghesi thought of Michael Angelo for this valuation, and
begged him to go to the church and estimate the figures of Raphael.
Possibly he imagined that self-love, rivalry, and jealousy would lead
the Florentine to lower the price of the pictures.
"Michael Angelo went, accompanied by the cashier, to Santa Maria della
Pace, and, as he was contemplating the fresco without uttering a word,
Borghesi questioned him. 'That head,' replied Michael Angelo, pointing
to one of the Sibyls, 'that head is worth a hundred scudi.'... 'And the
others?' asked the cashier. 'The others are not less.'
"Some who witnessed this scene related it to Chigi. He heard every
particular, and, ordering, in addition to the five hundred scudi for
five heads, a hundred scudi to be paid for each of the others, he said
to his cashier, 'Go and give that to Raphael in payment for his heads,
and behave very politely to him, so that he may be satisfied; for if he
insists on my also paying for the drapery, we should probably be
ruined.'"
From 1512 to 1514, Raphael frescoed the second Vatican hall, La Stanza
d'Eliodoro. The first mural painting was "The Miraculous Expulsion of
Heliodorus from the Temple at Jerusalem," the angels attacking him as he
is taking the money destined for widows and orphans.
The second fresco is the "Miracle of Bolsena," where, in the reign of
Urban IV., a priest, who doubted the reality of transubstantiation, saw
the blood flow from the Host while he was celebrating mass. These are
called the most richly colored frescos in the world, exceeding the
celebrated ones of Titian in the Scuola di San Antonio, at Padua.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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