Morelli,[20] in appealing to the internal testimony of the frescoes in
the Sixtine Chapel, tells us it was their landscape backgrounds which
first opened his eyes. He further cites the overcrowding in the
composition--"a fault which Pintoricchio very often commits, Perugino
hardly ever." Even the falcon in the air is repeated by Pintoricchio in
his frescoes at Siena. The children he compares with those in the chapel
in Ara Cœli. He sees the character of the master plainly stamped on
many of the individual figures, and on the plan of the composition.
Evidence more minute and conclusive is derived from the book of drawings
to which I have already alluded. Towards the middle of the nineteenth
century these, on the authority of Professor Bossi, were assigned to
Raphael. Bossi bought the book at a sale, and deciding that they were
studies by the great Urbinate, was full of elation at the acquisition of
such a priceless treasure. When at Bossi's death they were bought by the
nation, Passavant, Count Cicognara, and Marchese Estense, all noted
connoisseurs, unhesitatingly pronounced them to be by Raphael, and for
his work they still pass in the Accademia in Venice.
[20] _Italian Masters in German Galleries_, pp. 264-284.
It would take far too much space to go with Morelli through all the
fifty-three drawings, with a circumstantial criticism which leaves only
three (detached and on different paper) to the younger master. We must
content ourselves with examining those which Pintoricchio used for
figures in frescoes which remain to us. A number of these examples
occur in "The Journey of Moses." On one sheet is a sketch for the woman
kneeling with outstretched arms, who performs the rite upon the little
son of Moses. On another page is a study for the drapery of the seated
woman. Again, the heads of four women are drawn on one sheet; no less
than three of these are introduced in the fresco. One of the two upper
heads is used for the woman bearing a jar, the position being very
slightly altered; while of the two lower heads, that on the left is a
study for Zipporah leading her child, the other for the head of the
woman with the child upon her knee. The quaint head-dresses are
reproduced to a nicety: one with outstanding bows on either side, and
the loose, flying scarf, knotted in front, the other with the scrolled
cornucopia-like ornament curling round the ear. For "The Baptism" we
have a study of the seated woman in the background, and for two of the
nude figures of youths. For Perugino's fresco, "The Giving of the Keys,"
Pintoricchio has left two drawings for St. John, standing with his hand
upon his breast; one of the two is ruled in squares for transferring to
the wall, and this is the one adopted by Perugino. From two other
studies figures have been introduced; the cloaked man, third from the
left, and two just above, in the background. There is also an elaborate
drawing for the Madonna in the altar-piece in Santa Maria del Popolo,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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