That Raffaello in his last years, and when at the height of his
celebrity, did exchange drawings with Albert Durer, is attested by the
biographers of both: and that the design here described is one of that
number, is incontestably proved, not only by the peculiarity of style,
the elegance and facility of outline, the characteristic contrast of
solid and muscular parts, but by the identity of the handwriting with
the manuscripts of Albert still existing at Nürnberg, his native city.
I therefore think it no improbable conjecture to suppose that Raffaello,
by transmitting this specimen of his hand to Albert, intended to make
him sensible of the difference between imitating Nature and dryly
copying a model, and so impress him with the necessity of contrasting
his outline according to the different texture of the parts in the
bodies before him.
This interesting leaf is one foot three inches three lines in height,
and ten inches eight lines in width, Vienna measure; and in perfect
preservation.
II.
This design differs in nothing from the well-known picture of the
Transfiguration, but the absolute nudity of all the figures.
That Raffaello was accustomed to sketch in naked outlines, may be known
from most collections that possess something of his hand; but perhaps
none but this may be able to produce a design, of a numerous and
complete composition, in which every figure is rendered with anatomical
correctness and finished chiaroscuro.
Another singularity of this important leaf is, the characteristic
disparity of execution in the figures; for though all are drawn with the
pen, and on the first glance seem hatched in one uniform manner, it soon
appears on close inspection, that they cannot have been produced by the
same hand.
The figures of the three Disciples on the Mount, especially the
foreshortened one, are treated with that spirited facility and
confident decision which always mark the pen of Raffaello. Those of the
Saviour and the collateral prophets, though drawn with less precision
and contours here and there, by repeated strokes, corrected, still
exhibit on the whole the same spirit, facility, and confidence of hand.
Of the actors below, the figure of John, with hands crossed on his
breast, and the three next to him have the same Raffaellesque
characteristics, and so the whole of the females kneeling on the
foreground; but of the adjoining apostle, with the book in his hand, the
projected leg and foot are absolutely out of drawing; whilst the
Demoniac and his father, with all the remaining figures, drawn by mere
practice, without a symptom of the master spirit, give palpable proofs
of a different hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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