By the death of his patron, Julius II. in 1513, Raphael fortunately lost only a friend. His successor, Leo X., was es ardent a patron of the arts, and he immediately en gaged Raphael to proceed with his labours, and to make designs for the great hall of Constantine. Leo likewise employed him to draw the celebrated Cartoons representing the origin and progress of the Christian !eligion, as copies for tapestry, which was.to be wrought in Flanders, for ornamenting the hall of Constantine. They were completed at the expense of 70,000 crowns. Seven of the originals were afterwards purchased by Charles I., and are now in England. The lncendio del But tro was the best picture which he finished for the Vatican.
In consequence of the death of Bramante, in 1514, Ra phael obtained the situation of architectural superintend ant of the Vatican, and in that new office he executed many architectural designs. In 1515, he accompanied the Pope to Florence to design the facade of the church St. Lorenzo, and he planned also the Bishop of Troja's house in the street of St. Gallo in Florence. His other architectural designs are the Caffarelli palace in Rome, which is regarded as his chef d'oeuvre; a palace for M. Giovanni Baptista dell' Aquila in Rome ; a villa for Cardinal Julius de Medici; a set of stables in the Lan gara, for Prince Ghigi ; and a chapel in the church of St. Maria del Popolo. He is said also to have designed a palace for himself.
Like his great contemporary Michael Angelo, Ra phael enjoys the reputation of being an excellent sculp tor. One of his works of this kind is the statue of a child, which seems to be lost. In the Ghigi chapel, however, there is a statue of Jonah, executed from Raphael's own model, by Lorenzetto, which is con sidered equal to the best productions of the art.
In addition to the labours which we have already enumerated, Raphael executed the Fresco designs which ornament the palace of Agostino Ghigi ; the celebrated portrait of Leo X., with the Cardinals de Medici and Rossi, now in the Louvre; the St. Michael, and the Vision of Ezekiel, both in the Louvre; a Ma donna child, and St. Anne for Florence ; a large picture of the carrying of the Cross for a monastery at Paler mo; the picture of St.,,Joim, in the Orleans collection ; and the Transfiguration, now in the• Louvre, a picture of immortal touch, which terminated the labours of the divine Raphael.
While on the eve of finishing that grand picture, Raphael was seized with an illness, from which he never recovered. His malady has been ascribed, with out any authority, to sensual excesses, but this is a misapprehension which ought to be carefully corrected.
He had become early attached to the beautiful daughter of a baker at Rome, called, by way of distinction, La Bella Fornarina. Having become his mistress, his at tachment to her was constant, and he left her by his will in a state of independence. The infirmities of a naturally weak constitution had been increased by his professional labours. When under die influence of a violent fever, his physicians are stated to have bled when they ought to have strengthened him ; and. in consequence of this alleged mismanagement, Raphael died on 7th of April, in the year 1520, at the early age of 37. His body lay in state in the hall of his own house, and at the public funeral with which he was honoured, the Transfiguration was carried in procession before his body ; and, in place of being sent to France, as was originally intended, the Cardinal de Medici or dered it to be placed in the church of St. Pietro, in N1ontorio. His remains were carried to the Pantheon, and, at the express desire of Leo X., Cardinal Bembo wrote an inscription in honour of his memory.
The following character of Raphael as an artist, is taken from 1:obeli's edition of Pilkington's Dictionary.
,* The general opinion has placed Raphael at the head of his art, not because he possessed a decided su periority over every other painter in every branch, but because no other artist ever arrived at uniting with his own peculiar excellence all the other parts of the art in an equal degree with him.
The drama, or in other words the representation of character in conflict with passion, was his sphere; to represent this, his invention in the choice of the mo ment, his composition in the arrangement of his actors, and his expressions in the delineations of their emotions, were, and are, and perhaps will he, unrivalled. And to this he added a style of design dictated by the subject itself, a colour suited to the subject. all the grace which propriety permitted, or sentiment suggested, and as much chiaro-scuro as was compatible with his supreme desire of perspicuity and evidence. It is therefore only when he forsook the drama, to make excursions into the pure epic or sublime, that his forms became inadequate, and were inferior to those of M. Angelo It is only in subjects where colour from a vehicle becomes the rul ing principle, that he is excelled by Titian. He yields to Correggio only in that grace, and that chiaro-scuro, which is less the minister of propriety and sentiment, than its charming abuse, or voluptuous excess.; and which sacrifices to the eye what was claimed in vain by the mind.