The Louvre: Fifty Plates in ColourBrockwell, Maurice W.
History
The Louvre: Fifty Plates in Colour
Brockwell, Maurice W.
Musée du Louvre
Two years before his death Raphael had designed the large but by no
means imposing _St. Michael overcoming Satan_ (No. 1504), the execution
of which on panel was certainly due to Giulio Romano. It was a gift
from Lorenzo de’ Medici to François I., the original cartoon being
presented by Raphael to the Duke of Ferrara. This picture, like the
_Holy Family of Francis I._, was originally protected by folding wings,
the inner sides of which were lined with green velvet, while the outer
were gilded and painted with arabesques. The two pictures arrived at
Fontainebleau in July 1518, having been carried on the back of mules
by way of Florence and Lyons. As early as 1530 the _St. Michael_ was
restored by Primaticcio and by many others subsequently, notably in
1752. The picture was transferred to canvas by Picault, who received
for his labours the large sum of 11,500 _livres_, a sum quite out of
proportion to its æsthetic or financial value to-day. It was again
restored in 1776, 1800, and 1850. It is signed in gilt characters on
the edge of the Archangel’s tunic:
RAPHAEL VRBINAS PINGEBAT MDXVIII.
The Demon is not shown, as in the early and small picture of the same
subject (No. 1502), as a dragon, but as a half-human monster with
horns and tail. The foreshortening is undoubtedly clever, but the
picture is too instantaneous in its dramatic action. In the course of
time the high lights have gone down and the shadows darkened in the
metallic-looking figure of the Archangel.
The _Virgin with the Blue Diadem_ or the _Virgin with the Veil_ (No.
1497) is one of at least ten pictures in this collection which were
carried out by Giulio Romano (1492?-1546). It is here credited to
Raphael. It has been repeatedly restored. A very large number of
replicas, variants, and old copies of this panel exist. The following
“Raphaels” may be regarded as the work of Giulio: the _Small Holy
Family with St. Elizabeth_ (No. 1499); the much restored _Saint
Margaret_ (No. 1501); the _Portrait of Joan of Arragon_ (No. 1507),
whom Raphael apparently never saw; and the _Portraits of Two Men
seen to the Bust_ (which has been called _Raphael and his Fencing
Master_) (No. 1508). Giulio certainly painted the _Triumph of Titus
and Vespasian_ (No. 1420), the _Venus and Vulcan_ (No. 1421), and the
_Portrait of a Man_ (No. 1422), which are catalogued under his name,
and in all probability the three large Cartoons entitled _A Triumph_,
_The Triumph of Scipio_, and _The Taking and Burning of a City_, which
hang on the Escalier Daru. The _Circumcision_ (No. 1438) which figures
officially under the name of the Bolognese painter Bartolommeo Ramenghi
(Il Bagnacavallo) (1484-1542) is by Giulio Romano.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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