Great Artists, Vol 1. | Page 3

become my master." As nearly as we can learn, he
remained in this studio nine years, from 1495 to 1504.
Perugino's style of painting greatly pleased Raphael. He was naturally
teachable and this, with his admiration for Perugino's pictures, made his
first work in the studio very much like his master's. Indeed it is almost
impossible to tell some of his earliest pictures from those of his teacher.
Let me tell you about one. It is called "The Marriage of the Virgin";
and you would have to go to the Brera gallery in Milan to see it.
The legend runs thus: The beautiful Mary had many lovers all wishing
to marry her. Now here was a difficulty indeed, and so the suitors were
required to put by their rough staves for a night. The promise was that
in the morning one would be in blossom, and its owner should have
Mary for his wife. We can imagine that these lovers were anxious for
day to dawn, and that all but one was sad indeed at the result. In the
morning there were the rods, all save one, brown and rough and bare,
but that one lay there alive with delicate buds and flowers, and all the
air was full of fragrance. This was Joseph's, and he went away glad and
brought his young bride. This first great picture of Raphael's
represented this marriage taking place at the foot of the Temple steps.
The disappointed lovers are present and, I am sorry to say, one of them
is showing his anger by breaking his barren rod even while the
marriage is taking place.
The first and the last work of a great man are always interesting, and
that is why I have told you so much about this picture. You will be still
more interested in Raphael's last picture, "The Transfiguration."
While in the studio he made many friends. With one he went to Siena

to assist him in some fresco painting he had to do there. Of course you
know that fresco is painting on wet plaster so that the colors dry in with
the mortar.
The conversation of the studio was often of art and artists, and so the
beautiful city of Florence must often have been an engaging subject.
Think of what Florence was at this time, and how an artist must have
thrilled at its very name! Beautiful as a flower, with her marble palaces,
her fine churches, her lily-like bell-tower! What a charm was added
when within her walls Leonardo da Vinci was painting, Michael
Angelo carving, Savonarola preaching. In the early years of Raphael's
apprenticeship, the voice of the preacher had been silenced, but still,
"with the ineffable left hand," Da Vinci painted, and still the marble
chips dropped from Angelo's chisel as a David grew to majesty beneath
his touch.
To Raphael, with his love of the beautiful, with his zeal to learn,
Florence was the city of all others that he longed to see. At last his
dream was to be realized. A noble woman of Urbino gave him a letter
to the Governor of Florence, expressing the wish that the young artist
might be allowed to see all the art treasures of the city. The first day of
the year 1505 greeted Raphael in Florence, the art center of Italy. We
can only guess at his joy in seeing the works here and in greeting his
fellow artists.
Angelo and Da Vinci had just finished their cartoons for the town hall,
"The Bathing Soldiers," and "The Battle of the Standard," and they
were on exhibition. All Florence was studying them, and of this throng
we may be sure Raphael was an enthusiastic member. While here he
painted several pictures. Among them was the "Granduca Madonna,"
the simplest of all his Madonnas--just a lovely young mother holding
her babe. It is still in Florence, and to this day people look at it and say
the Grand Duke, who would go nowhere without this gem of pictures,
knew what was beautiful.
[Illustration: RAPHAEL IN HIS STUDIO.]
Raphael did not stay long in Florence at this time, but soon returned to

Perugia. His next visit to Florence was of greater length. During these
years, 1506 to 1508, he painted many of his best known pictures. In
studying the works of Raphael you must never tire of the beautiful
Madonna, for it is said that he painted a hundred of these, so much did
he love the subject and so successful was he in representing the child
Jesus and the lovely mother. Some of his finest Madonnas belong to
this time. Let us look at a few of them.
One, called "The Madonna of the Goldfinch," shows Mary seated with
the Child Jesus at her knee and the