Raphael Segnatura

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MICHAEL BAXANDALLfresco undertaking. And in general the intention of the latercontracts is clear: the client will confer lustre on his picture notwith gold but with mastery, the hand of the master himself.The fifteenth-century client seems to have made his opulentgestures more and more by becoming a conspicuous buyer ofskill. Not all clients did so: the pattern described here is aperceptible drift in fifteenth-century contracts, not a norm withwhich they all comply. Borso dEste [see p. 65] was not the onlyprincely primitive out of touch with the decent commercial practice of Florence and Sansepoicro. But there were enough enlightened buyers of skill, spurred on by an increasingly articulatesense of the artists individuality, to make the public attitude topainters very different in 1490 from what it had been in 1410.

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5. RAPHAELS FRESCOESIN THESTANZA DELLA SEGNATURA

Sydney J. FreedbergINTRODUCTION

Sydney Freedbergs Painting of the High Renaissance in Rome andFlorence is a deta iled s tudy of interrelationships in the painting ofthese two cities from the latter part of the fifteenth century to 1521.The text weaves back and forth between Florence and Rome and backand forth from artist to a rtist, developing an intricate evolution ofform and style. The selection chosen for this anthology analyzesRaphaels first challenging commission at the papal court of Julius II:a series of frescoes long recognized as both a definitive monument inthe classical style of the H igh Renaissance and the maturation ofRaphaels art. The intensity of Freedbergs analysis provokes new insights into the nature of High Renaissance art, particularly with respectto the blend of ingredients that make up what we have called theClassical style.The prototype for Freedbergs study is a familiar classic: HeinrichWlfflins Classic Art, first published in German (1899) . It is instructiveto read in conjunction with Freedbergs work the reviews of it byJuergen Schulz in The Art Bulletin, XLV, 2 (1963), and by CreightonGilbert, in The Art Journal, XXI, 4 (1962). Freedbergs Painting inItaly 1500 to 1600 (1971) modifies some interpretations in the workcited above. For further reading on Raphael, see Oskar Fischel,Raphael, trans. by Bernard Rackham (1948); John Pope-Hennessy,Raphael (1970); EdgarWind, The Four Elements in Raphaels Stanza

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ii. Raphael, Ca rto on for School of Athens, 15091510, Cha rco al and black cha lk,heightened with white , ga x 243 (Galleria Ambrosiana, Milan; Alinari/Editorial Photocolor Arch ive s, Inc.)of a sphere. Like the organiza tion of the whole compositionalstruc ture, that of its par ts is more than before spatia lly inclus iveand expansive.As is necessary in the Classical proposition, the growth of human form is no t a grow th of physical dimension only; it is equa llya growing of the power of spiritual sensation. The size and breadthof action of the figures answers to their grander and more vitalenergies of mind. Furthermore , these sta tes of mind, as the facesshow them, are not only stronger than in the preceding fre scoesbut also more explicitly defined; and the body also, in its Classicalfunc tion of interpenetration with the spirit, is much more explicitlyarticulate than before of its con ten t. What Raphael achieves in thefigures of the School of Athens rep resen ts a measurab ly higherdeve lopmen t of Classical style. Where, however, in the two earlierfrescoes it could be asser ted that his developm en t in figure sty lewas, in all but force and magn itude , proceeding pan passu withthat of Michelangelo, it is now evident that the con temporaryaccomplishment of Michelangelo in 1511 has explored possibilities

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of Classical figure style that Raphael has not approached. This isdespite the fact that in the School of Athen s it becomes for thefirst tim e ce rta in that Raphael has studied the Sistine Ceiling, perhaps at fir st in its half-completed state at the end of 1510.There is no thing among the figures of the second plan ofRaphaels fresco that is not wholly understandable as a consequence of his pr ior evolution, but the figures of the foreground,exactly those in which he shows himself the most advanced, demand knowledge of Michelange lesque precedent . The Pythagorasat the leftstill, like the figures jus t behind him, reminisc ent ofthe models of Leonardomost strongly shows community withthe Sis tine Seers; in their deve loped musculature, complex postures, and ex trao rdina ry articulateness of body the youths aroundEuclid to the right are indebted to the Prophets and Ignudi both .It is the so-called Heraclitus, the Pens ieroso in the cente r foreground of the fresco (unforeseen in the original cartoon in theAmbrosiana) (F ig. 11), who is most exactly dependent on theCeiling. This figure, a compound of Michelangelos Isaiah and99


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Raphael Segnatura