chapel of Pope Julius,[1] which had been painted by Buonarroto.[2]
But when Benvenuto had seen the works here alluded to,: he was not only amazed, but felt almost in despair, as he regarded the graceful animation which Raphael was imparting to the art, and remarked the profound knowledge of design evinced by Michelagnolo. He anathematized the manner of Lombardy, and that which he had acquired with so much study and labour at Mantua; nay, had it been possible, he would very fain have divested himself of all that he had learned with so much pains: but since better might not be, he resolved to unlearn that which he had given his youth to acquiring; and after the loss of so many years, he determined from a master to become once more a disciple.[3]
He thereupon began to copy and draw from those works which he considered the best and most difficult, giving scarcely any of his attention to other matters, but labouring perpetually at these designs for two years, when his bad manner had become changed for a good one to such an extent that he was now held by the artists in much account: nay, what was more, he demeaned himself in such sort, and displayed so much diffidence as well as courtesy, that he
- ↑ The Sistine Chapel, which Vasari calls the Chapel of Julius, from that Pontiff having given the commission for its decoration.—Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ Here is another manifest inaccuracy, most probably an errror of the copyist or the press. In the Kunstblatt for 1844, No. 165, we have an original memorandum by Michael Angelo’s own hand, wherein he notifies the commencement of his paintings in the Sistine Chapel as taking place on the 10th of May, 1508. That but little by the hand of Raphael was to be seen at the date given in the text is also known, but for the details respecting these matters, which cannot here find place, our readers are referred to Rehberg, Rafael Sanzio aus Urbino, München, 1824; Fea, Notizie, &c., Rome, 1822; Quatremere de Quincy, Histoire de la Vie et des Ouvrages de Raphael, Paris, 1824; Platner und Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom; Duppa, Life of Rajfaello Sanzio, London, 1816; and Passavant, Rafael Von Urbino und sein Vater Giovanni Santi, Leipsig, 1839, which last is perhaps the best authority among all the many we possess, as regards accuracy in describing the works of Raphael.
- ↑ This account of the discontent of Benvenuto with the Lombard manner is to be taken with certain grains of allowance, and rather as comparing it with that of Raphael, than as declaring it to be bad in itself. It is to be remarked also that at the time here in question, Correggio had not yet obtained his fame among the Lombards.
