every one to be most beautiful, and saw continually before his eyes the numerous antiquities to be found in that city, and which he studied continually, he had, nevertheless, not yet given to his figures that grandeur and majesty which he always did impart to them from that time forward. For it happened at the period to which we now refer, that Michelangelo, as we shall furthermore set forth in his life, had made such clamours in the Sistine Chapel, and given the Pope such alarms, that he was compelled to take flight and sought refuge in Florence. Whereupon Bramante, having the key of the chapel, and being the friend of Raphael, permitted him to see it, to the end that he might understand Michelangelo’s modes of proceeding.[1] The sight thus afforded to him caused Raphael instantly to paint anew the figure of the prophet Isaiah, which he had executed in the Church of Sant’ Agostino, above the Sant’ Anna of Andrea Sansovino, although he had entirely finished it; and in this ’work he profited to so great an extent by what he had seen in the works of Michelangelo, that his manner was thereby inexpressibly ameliorated and enlarged, receiving thenceforth an obvious increase of majesty.
But when Michelangelo afterwards saw the work of Raphael, he thought, as was the truth, that Bramante had committed the wrong to himself of which we have here spoken, for the purpose of serving Raphael, and enhancing the glory of that master’s name.[2]
No long time after this, Agostino Chisi, a very rich merchant of Siena, who was a great admirer of all distinguished men, gave Raphael a commission to paint a chapel. This he did because, some short time previously, the master had pro-
- ↑ “That Raphael should secretly visit the works of Michael Angelo by the means here described,” observes an Italian writer, “is very unlikely, but the fact that there were many who would not have scrupled to do so, may have suggested the suspicion to Michael Angelo and his followers.” It is, besides, well known that the Sistine Chapel wiis thrown open to the public about the time when this secret visit is said to have taken place.
- ↑ It is now the general opinion among good judges, that the manner of Raphael was rather injured than ameliorated by whatever influence he may have permitted the works of Michael Angelo to exercise over it. The Isaiah, which is one of his feeblest works, was completed in 1.512. It suffered considerable injury from an ignorant pretender, who affected to clean it, in the reign of Paul IV., and was afterwards re-touched by Daniel of Volterra, who very probably rendered it still more feeble.
