1. Christ in the Garden, with three disciples sleeping in the
distance, No. VIII. of Passavant's Engravings, a Peruginesque
picture, "of miniature finish" as described by Vasari, before whose
time it had passed to the Camaldolese Convent at Urbino, having been
gifted by Duchess Leonora to two members of that fraternity at her
son's baptism. Long subsequently, a prior of the Gabrielli is said
to have alienated it to his own family; and in 1844 it was purchased
from the Roman prince of that name by Mr. William Coninghame, at the
sale of whose interesting collection in 1849, it was acquired by Mr.
Fuller Maitland of Stansted in Essex.
2. and 3. Two small pictures which, unless commissioned as _ex voto_
offerings, belong rather to the class of romantic than devotional
compositions. They represent St. George and St. Michael subduing
their respective monsters, allegories of their triumphs over sin. The
former of these is supposed to have been executed for Guidobaldo, and
presented by him to the French King, by whom the latter was ordered
as its companion. Both remain in the Louvre.
4. Another St. George slaying the Dragon with a lance, while the
former one uses a sword. This picture, signed on the horse trappings
RAPHELLO V., is of especial interest to our countrymen,
the Knight's knee being encircled by the Garter of England, as patron
of that order: it was painted by the Duke's command in commemoration
of his receiving this distinction; and in all probability was
carried as a present to Henry VII. by Castiglione, in 1506, when
he went to London as proxy at his master's installation. There it
graced the palace of the Tudors and Stuarts until sold for £150 by
the Commonwealth to Lord Pembroke. It was subsequently purchased
by Catherine of Russia from the Crozat Collection, in which it is
engraved.
[Illustration: _Anderson_
MARGHERITA LA FORNARINA
_After the spoiled picture by Raphael in the Galleria Barberini in
Rome_]
5. and 6. Two easel pictures of the Madonna, stated by Vasari to have
been commissioned for the Duke of Urbino, are traced by Passavant
to the Imperial Gallery at St. Petersburg, and to M. Nieuwenhuys of
Brussels.
7. The portrait of Raffaele by himself, now in the Florence Gallery,
is understood to have been executed at Urbino in 1506, whence it was
carried to Rome by Federigo Zucchero, and placed in the academy of
St. Luke, until obtained thence by the influence and gold of Cardinal
Lorenzo de' Medici. Passavant considers that the hair and eyes have
been darkened by restorations, and corrects a mistake of the Canonico
Crespi, who has occasioned some confusion by mistaking an old copy of
it still in the Albani Palace at Urbino for a fresco, and by writing
to Bottari in 1760 as if he had there discovered an original likeness
of Sanzio.[*181]
[Footnote *181: None of these pictures save the last seems to be from
Raphael's hand.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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