When darkness seems to shroud the world, traditional art can help. Art’s ultimate role is to uplift us by reminding us of how to be good, true, and the best we can be. When traditional artists create such enduring art, it can awaken our innate goodness. The works of Italian Renaissance master Raffaello Sanzio (better known as Raphael) reach the epitome of such art. And more than five centuries after his death, Raphael’s art is relevant now more than ever.
A new and ambitious exhibition at The National Gallery, London, highlights Raphael’s oeuvre and shows how his sensibility and artistic brilliance in multiple mediums transcend time.
Opening on April 9, “The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Raphael” is one of the first shows to concentrate on Raphael’s entire career. Raphael is known by many as a painter, draftsman, and architect, but some may be surprised to learn that he was also a poet, an archaeologist and a keeper of antiquities, and a designer of prints, sculpture, tapestry, and applied arts.
Ninety exhibits will be on display, many by Raphael, and some works made from his designs in media that he didn’t practice in, such as bronze. Together the images and objects tell the story of Raphael’s life, his art and designs, and his development as an artist.
Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael
Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci have long been seen as the greatest artists of the High Renaissance. “What Raphael does, more than the others, is work with idealism,” exhibition co-curator Matthias Wivel said in a phone interview. Raphael’s idealism is not only in the religious sense; he invites us to be good, individually and together. Wivel explained that that’s why Raphael has been regarded as central to the Western canon of visual arts more than Michelangelo and Leonardo—a remarkable feat considering that Raphael died young, at 37 years old, and his career lasted just two decades, whereas Michelangelo, for instance, worked until his death at 88 years old.Raphael first studied Leonardo’s and Michelangelo’s art in Florence, and he worked hard to refine their techniques. Raphael may have been seen in the shadows of his older and more established peers; Leonardo was 31 years Raphael’s senior, and Michelangelo was 8 years older than Raphael.
Raphael’s peers differed in their styles. In general, Leonardo approached his art as a scientist; he observed nature and tried to suppress the subjectivity when he worked. Whereas, Wivel explained, Michelangelo’s art is the opposite. It’s extremely emotionally engaging and is about his experience of being embodied in the world and the problems that that entailed.
Besides observing his older peers’ artistic style and technique, he learned from Leonardo’s interest in human psychology and from Michelangelo’s ability to articulate emotionally through his art.
Raphael integrated other artists’ ideas into his works so well that he made them his own. That talent made him rivals, most notably Michelangelo’s. For instance, before Michelangelo had a chance to paint his composition “The Creation of Adam” in the Sistine Chapel, Raphael adapted Michelangelo’s preparatory drawing and included it in his fresco “The Parnassus” in the Vatican. Michelangelo must’ve been fuming.
Oh! The Secret of Raphael’s Sweet Madonnas
Raphael is popularly known as the painter of sweet Madonnas and for his painting “The School of Athens” at the Vatican. Raphael’s Madonnas may hold the key to why his work is universally affecting.In his painting “The Garvagh Madonna,” Raphael rendered a confident Christ child. The child’s mother, Mary, has just released him from her arms so that he can pass a carnation to the toddler who will later become St. John the Baptist. Mary pulls John close to her, encouraging him to take the flower. Take away the classical Roman costumes and we could simply be looking at a loving family portrait of a mother and her charges.
Raphael made the scene relatable to us all by its emotionality, but the image means more. It crosses the divide between heaven and earth. There are tender moments between a mother and child that, at the same time, reinforce the Christian message. “It is a way of communicating the Christian message through a quasi-universal experience, which everybody recognizes and which engages people emotionally more than anything else,” Wivel said.
The Christ child appears wise beyond his years. He knows that he’s on earth for something greater. He sits in his mother’s lap but she doesn’t support him. While John wears a fur for warmth, the Christ child is naked; he wants nothing of this world, except to teach others to follow God.
Raphael’s Appealing Art
Raphael rendered beauty where graceful figures harmoniously gather. Whether he painted figures alone, or in small or complex groupings, each painting conveys solemnity and calls us to reflect. His art overflows with grace and harmony. Both qualities are inherent in the natural order of all things; one only has to look at nature to see that.
For Christians, “Christ is the advent of grace,” Wivel explained. But grace, in a general sense, pleases, harmonizes, and makes sense. “[Raphael’s] very good at making things seem natural, even things that are really very contrived,” he said.
Raphael’s charisma and good nature shines through the many accounts of his life. Artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari, who was about 9 years old when Raphael died, praised Raphael the most. Raphael enjoyed working with many artists and craftsmen, and it seemed they loved him. “He was never seen to go to court without having with him, as he left his house, some 50 painters, all able and excellent, who kept him company in order to do him honor. In short, he lived not like a painter but like a prince,” Vasari wrote.
Direct accounts of Raphael’s character are sparse. Only two personal letters written by him survive. Both are to his maternal uncle who raised him, and they reveal Raphael as an extremely ambitious and socially adept man, Wivel said.
Raphael embodied decorum in his art by not exaggerating the emotions. “He doesn’t become expressive in the way Michelangelo does. He is quite restrained,” Wivel said.
Some people see Raphael’s work as too sentimental. But Wivel sees Raphael’s restraint throughout his work, something the artist learned from classical forms and art. Raphael’s restraint was to use sentiment righteously in his works rather than using emotions for manipulative purposes. His art had to be authentic to be so affecting.
Raphael’s work is appealing because he reminds us of the best in ourselves and who we might aspire to be. “He provides us with an ideal of civilization that we may aspire toward,” he said. Raphael’s “The School of Athens” shows this well, Wivel said of the fresco. “It really is about the building of knowledge in the way that enlightenment is furthered by communication and exchange. … And ultimately, that’s what we depend on for our survival.”
