The Hermitage possesses two works Raphael (Raffaello Santi, 1483-1520), one of them - "Madonna Conestabile" - was most likely written in 1504, the other - "The Holy Family" - around 1506.
"Madonna Conestabile" (the name is conditional and, just like in the works of Leonardo, comes from the name of the former owner) - a small-format painting (17.5 x 18 cm), slightly smaller than a sheet of a student's notebook, solved in the form of a tondo. It is interesting that Raphael starts with such almost miniature things ("Madonna Conestabile" is no exception; the "Dream of the Knight" - London, National Gallery are close to her in size; "Three Graces" - Chantilly, Condé Museum, etc.), but it was Raphael who was to become one of the founders of the monumental style of the Roman school of painting.
The traditional theme is treated very simply. A young mother holds a baby in her arms. The views of Mary and Christ are focused on the book. The artist brought the group closer to the foreground, and gave the landscape as a wide panorama. Raphael's impressions of his native places are clearly reflected in the landscape - this is Umbria with a soft line of hills, a calm expanse of lakes and distant snow-capped peaks. Thin slender trees stretch upwards, their branches not covered with leaves stand out in an intricate pattern against the blue sky. Spring awakening nature is perceived as an accompaniment to the image of the Madonna, young and pure, like the world around her.
In this picture, Raphael still follows the early Renaissance artists, writing out the details - a boat sailing on the lake, people walking along the shore, some buildings in the distance.
The picture is framed by an elegant gilded frame. Its juicy grotesque ornament perfectly complements the miniature-careful painting. Initially, the frame was integral with the wooden board of the picture and, obviously, was made according to the drawing of Raphael himself.
According to legend, the artist painted in Perugia "Madonna with a book" for Alfaio di Diamante, who bequeathed the work to his heirs. In the 18th century, the Alfano family received the title of Counts of della Staffa. In the same century, the "Madonna with a Book" passed into the hands of relatives of della Staffa, who became known as the Counts of Conestabile della Staffa. Bought from this family in 1871, "Madonna with a Book" arrived in St. Petersburg. But during the journey from Italy to Russia, cracks in the wooden base increased. They assembled a special commission to decide how to save the "new" Raphael, and decided to replace the base tree with canvas. For this purpose, the picture was sawn out of the frame, the cracks were glued together so that they practically became invisible. On the front side, a fabric was glued onto the painting and attached to a marble board. On the reverse side, they began to remove the tree, and when its layer by layer was removed, then Raphael's original drawing was found from the back: the baby was holding a pomegranate in his hand. Then the paint layer was reinforced on a new canvas, and the sticker was washed off from the front side. Thus the painting was transferred to canvas.
Why, in the process of work, Rafael refused the fruit, replacing it with a book, is unknown. But the meaning of the work has not changed. The subject plays an even more formal role in Raphael than, for example, in Leonardo da Vinci in the Benois Madonna. Despite the compositional closeness of the "Madonna Conestabile" to the Umbrian images, Raphael has that ingenious "slightly" that allows him to achieve crystal clear image and composition. In search of a correspondence between the circle and the composition contained in it, he gently repeats the outline of the tondo in the tilt of Mary's head, in the line of the cloak covering her left shoulder. But, unlike the later works of the master, the plane of the foreground remains decisive.
In 1504, Raphael moved from his native places to Florence, where he spent four years. This period became very important in his life, since in Florence the young artist got acquainted with the most advanced art of his time and, first of all, with the art of Leonardo, who had a noticeable influence on him.
During his stay on the banks of the Arno, Raphael painted "The Holy Family" or, as this picture is also called, "Madonna with a beardless Joseph."
The assumption that Raphael made a painting for Guidobaldo de Montefeltro is based on the words of Giorgio Vasari: "... made for Guidobaldo Montefeltro, then captain of the Florentines, two paintings depicting the Madonna, small, and excellent, in his second manner" (speaking of the second manner, Vasari is referring to the Florentine period).
The painting changed many owners in its lifetime until it ended up in the famous Crozat collection. As part of this collection, it was purchased for the Hermitage in 1772. In 1827 she was transferred to canvas.
The texts for engravings from the best things of the Crozat collection about the "Holy Family" provided the following information: "Mr. Barrois very cheaply bought this picture, which belonged to the Angouleme house. It was kept in it without much attention. Some unskillful painter, wanting to renew it and not knowing how to combine his work with the work of its creator, he rewrote it all again, so that Raphael's brush was no longer visible in it.But when Mr. Barrois bought it, Vandin, having cleaned it of extraneous work, returned to the light her original letter, which, instead of damaging became much fresher; the paints of an unskillful painter superimposed on her served as a tire for her and preserved her from the harmful effects of the air.
This story was the reason for the creation of the poem "Revival" by A. S. Pushkin:
The barbarian artist with a sleepy brush Blackens the picture of a genius And draws his lawless drawing Above it senselessly. But paints alien with years Fall off with decrepit scales; The creation of a genius before us Comes out with the same beauty.
The most interesting results were obtained during the study of the "Holy Family" in the physical X-ray laboratory of the Hermitage. The image, taken in infrared light, showed the original drawing, made by the method, which in Russia was called gunpowder. The artist pierced the contours of the preparatory drawing on the sheet with a needle, then it was applied to the primed basis of the future work - canvas or wood - and rubbed with charcoal or paint. The substance, getting into the holes, left the contours of the pattern on the ground.
Invisible to the naked eye, the drawing of the "Holy Family" is subtle and expressive. In addition, the author's corrections are clearly visible - for example, the outlines of the fingers of St. Joseph, at first more elongated, his face is more individualized, he is almost bald, the shape of the ear has been altered, etc.
The excellent drawing found in infrared rays serves as indisputable proof that the "Holy Family" was painted by Raphael, which was sometimes doubted, due to not very successful old restorations.
Compared with the Conestabile Madonna, the Madonna with the beardless Joseph is monumentally solved. The composition looks simple to elementary, but simplicity is deceptive, behind it lies the strict thoughtfulness and accuracy of each part of the work.
Madonna's hairstyle - her hair is braided, - a greenish scarf and other everyday details do not reduce the impression of the majesty and solemnity of the scene.
The Madonna is a typically Raphael image. Subsequently, the artist will write in a letter to the famous humanist Count Castiglione: "... in order for me to write a beauty, I need to see many beauties ... But due to the lack of beautiful women, I use some idea." These words quite clearly define one of the characteristic features of the art of the High Renaissance masters - not just a blind copying of nature, but a generalization and typification of what they saw.
"The Holy Family" is a heartfelt and sublimely sad picture. The figures are depicted on the background of the steppe, but on the right, in the opening of the semicircular arch, a calm landscape is visible, creating an amazing impression of the depth of space. If in other, similar in style and time of creation, paintings by Raphael, the baby is given in lively and frisky movement ("Madonna of Orleans" - Chantilly, Condé Museum; "Bridgewater Madonna" and "Madonna with a Palm Tree", both - Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland ), then in the Hermitage work he gently clung to the breast of his mother, thoughtfully pressing him to her, raising his eyes to St. Joseph, answering him with a calm, kind look. Mary's hand was either about to touch the child, or just touched him. However, it is unlikely that the artist thought about the great emotional expressiveness of the gesture. The soft outline of the hand is continued in the rounded lines of the baby's body, in the crossed arms of Joseph. Raphael avoids sharp corners, a sharp intersection of lines: "as a result of smooth contours, the echo of color spots, the arrangement of figures against the background of a steppe, slightly enlivened by pilasters, an impression of harmony, grandeur, simplicity inherent in the works of Raphael is born. In them, he seems to concentrate the best human quality, creates a new concept of beauty, a typical ideal of the Renaissance, the master cleanses his images of everything everyday, prosaic, raising them to a pedestal of perfection.
Raphael is a complex artist. For many centuries, his authority was indisputable, his painting was considered almost the highest achievement of European art. In the 20th century, which survived two world wars, Raphael seems to many to be too cold and calm. But the desire for harmony, which no one has expressed with such skill as Raphael, for humanity and perfection, awakens an unflagging interest in the artist’s work even today.
In the Hermitage there are no originals of the Roman period of Raphael's work - the highest stage of the master's activity, which began in 1508, when he moved from Florence to Rome, and continued until his death.
In Rome, the master created such programmatic works as paintings in the main halls of the Vatican Palace, the Sistine Madonna and others.
In part, an idea of Raphael's activities in the Eternal City can be given by a copy from the Vatican gallery, the so-called Loggias of Raphael *, painted according to the plan of the great Urbino by his students in 1518-1519.
* (The loggias - a gallery open on one side with arched openings - was reproduced in the 80s of the 18th century by the architect Quarenghi, who built the Hermitage Theater. A group of artists led by X. Unterberger copied frescoes on canvas in Rome in the gallery of the Vatican Palace, then they were mounted in the walls in St. Petersburg. The reliefs available in the Vatican are rendered by means of painting.)
The copy in no way replaces the original, and yet it is of great importance as the only reproduction of the Renaissance interior within the walls of the Hermitage.
The solution of the gallery, built by the architect Bramante in Rome, determines the rhythmic alternation of arches dividing the gallery into thirteen parts; each of them ends with a cross-domed arch, in which, in turn, there are four plot compositions. They are included in an ornamental frame. The paintings on the ceiling are called "Raphael's Bibles". The artist stopped at fifty-two most important biblical scenes, starting from the moment God separated light from darkness, ending with the Last Supper.
The main impression received by the viewer from the loggias is the harmonic clarity of the entire structure; the design of the gallery can be traced in the ratio of bearing and carried parts. Painting is strictly coordinated with the architectural design.
In decor, Raphael created a free variation on the theme of antique paintings, the so-called grotesques. A similar ornament became widespread after the ruins of the Golden House, a building from the time of Emperor Nero, which burned down in 64, were found in Rome at the end of the 15th century. The discovered ruins of the "Golden House" began to be called because of the similarity with caves - grottoes and, accordingly, the ornament that adorned them - grotesques.
Vasari gave the following definition to grotesques: “Grotesks are a kind of painting, free and amusing, with which the ancients decorated the walls, where in some places nothing else was suitable, except for objects floating in the air, and therefore they depicted all sorts of ridiculous monsters generated by the whims of nature and fantasy and the whims of artists who do not observe any rules in these things: they hung a load on the thinnest thread that it cannot withstand, attached legs to a horse in the form of leaves, and crane legs to a man, and endlessly all sorts of other funny ideas, and the one who invented something more wonderful, that one was considered worthy. Later, they were in order, and they began to be very beautifully displayed on friezes and panels, with stucco alternating with picturesque. "
Grotesque ornament was very widespread in Italy, especially after the work of Raphael in the Vatican.
With extraordinary grace, with true Renaissance freedom, with the richest imagination, Raphael combines ancient gods, satyrs, nymphs with motifs taken from wildlife, introduces entire landscapes, creates garlands of vegetables, fruits, flowers, musical instruments. The murals stretch along the plane of the pilasters, obediently echoing the easily rounded ceiling, sometimes opening like a balustrade into the blue (picturesque) sky, sometimes resembling an elegant mosaic.
Here among the leaves - fantastic and real - squirrels jump, lizards slide, mice make their way, beetles crawl, and each time the artist avoids symmetry, giving the animals a different movement, placing a different number of leaves on the branches, replacing one form with another. None of the motifs is repeated exactly, you can tirelessly look at one detail after another, all the while discovering something new.
In the paintings of the Loggias, the world is philosophically comprehended in its own way, its beauty and diversity are conveyed in a concise and concentrated form. The dimensions of the gallery are perfectly correlated with the human figure. Elegant, spacious, filled with air and light, the gallery is a true brainchild of Renaissance architecture and painting. A person, according to the artist, should be aware of himself as the center of the world, bright and clear, and his mind should easily comprehend the laws of the universe.
The activities of Raphael and his students in Rome can also be judged from nine frescoes in the Hermitage.
Most of them come from the Villa Palatina, which, according to legend, belonged to Raphael himself. Then the villa was in the hands of different owners, until it became the property of the Salesian sisters, who adapted it into a monastery. However, the secular nature of the murals - they are dedicated to the history of the goddess of Love, Venus - was completely unsuitable for the new purpose of the building, and the nuns, according to the then director of the Hermitage Gedeonov, "outraged by the liberty of the plots, in 1856 rather presented than sold the frescoes to the Marquis of Campana, who hastened to transfer the painting to the canvas.
The transfer to canvas and subsequent, not too successful restorations, led to the fact that already when they entered the Hermitage in 1861, the frescoes were in very poor condition.
As a result of the restoration carried out in the museum in recent years, the painting has been strengthened, but it is no longer possible to restore its original freshness.
The five frescoes repeat on an enlarged scale the lovely murals created by Raphael and his students in 1516 in the stuffet (bathroom) of Cardinal Bibiena in the Vatican.
For an era that sought to reconcile paganism with Christianity, it is significant that the clergy orders the artist to paint paintings depicting the gods of Olympus.
In the Villa Palatina, repetitions of the compositions of the stuffets took on a new meaning, not only because of their large size, but also because in the villa they decorated the portico, and not the enclosed space, and thus were associated with the open surrounding space.
Antiquity is perceived by the artist as the golden age of mankind. The world that appears in the paintings is majestically beautiful and harmonious, and its inhabitants, loving and suffering, do not lose their physical and spiritual perfection.
The plots of a number of scenes were inspired by the then very famous "Metamorphoses" of the Roman poet of the 1st century Ovid. One of the episodes reproduces the moment when Cupid, kissing his mother Venus, accidentally wounded her in the chest with an arrowhead, which aroused her love for Adonis.
The mother was once kissed by a boy girded with a body, And with a protruding arrow he accidentally scratched her chest. Wounded, the goddess removed her son with her hand ...
The naked goddess sits under a tree, touching her wounded chest, Cupid stands next to her. The beauty of the human body for Raphael, as for the ancients, is in full accordance with the beauty of the inner. Each time has its own ideal. If in this respect we compare the representations of Quattrocento and Cinquecento, then we can use the comparison of a bud with a blossoming flower. Raphael, who fully expressed the aesthetic norms of the era in art, preferred body forms that had reached their full flowering and had nothing to do with the angular, sometimes fragile nudity of figures in the painting of the 15th century.
In "Venus Putting on a Sandal", the main theme of the fresco is the smooth gesture of the goddess, graceful and strong at the same time. The movement does not lose its softness even when it is intended to be swift, for example, in the scene "Venus with Cupid on dolphins", where the goddess and her son race across the sea on dolphins. Then calm comes again: in another fresco, "Venus and Adonis", the goddess, tired of hunting, rests with her lover, "leaning against him, resting her head on her chest."
It is no coincidence that one of the writings of the 19th century said about the Palatine frescoes: "Beautiful, like Pompeian painting."
Indeed, in the murals conceived by Raphael and carried out by his students, the intoxication with life and admiration for the beauty of man, so characteristic of antiquity, are captured.
Despite the poor preservation, the frescoes expand our understanding of the monumental and decorative art of the High Renaissance.
The painting "The Holy Family" was presented to the Primorsky people Marina Ageeva, director of the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts. More precisely, not the painting itself, but a kind of video report on how the work was restored Rafael Santi.
“The picture was found in Nizhny Tagil in the attic of the manor house, which belonged to Demidov she said. - In 1924, this building was transferred to the Tagilstroy trust, and, while cleaning up, the new owners discovered the painting and did not immediately understand what they were holding in their hands. She was in bad shape. The board was broken in half, the paint layer was lost and there were numerous chips on it. Igor Grabar, the restorer described that even traces of forged boots were found on it. Perhaps she fell and they just walked on her, not even suspecting that this was not a simple board.
Another version of the "Holy Family (Madonna with a beardless Joseph)", attributed to Raphael Santi. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Many years passed before, after the restoration, she returned to the gallery. I can't even believe that this painting is over 500 years old. She has a detective story. Art critics and historians have established that at first she was in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, so she also has a second name - Madonna del Popolo. It was popular, so in the 40s of the 16th century it was stolen, but soon the canvas was returned. In the 17th century, it was seized by a cardinalSfondrati. And after his death, the picture was not found. She disappeared, and then appeared in the church of Santa Casa (translated as a holy hut) in the small town of Loreto (Italy). According to legend, she was born thereMaria- mother Jesus Christ. The masters of that century said that instead of a picture there was a copy. Perhaps it was taken out or hidden.
This picture was claimed by himself Napoleon. In 1797, he demanded an indemnity - a hundred paintings and other works of art. The Holy Family was acquired by him as a private deal. The convoy went to France. He walked for three months, and for a whole month he stayed in the castle of the dukes Orleans.
Accompanying people were fed, watered and given all sorts of signs of attention. That's how a small sign appeared on the picture - the coat of arms of the duke Orleans- with three lilies. When the convoy arrived in France, and the boxes were opened, instead of the original, there was a miserable copy, on which even the paint did not dry out.
The most famous "Holy Family of the Falconieri", Raphael Santi, 1507. Fragment. Photo: Public Domain
It is known that the "Holy Family" was in the collectionNikolai Demidov. He acquired the painting incognito. A few years ago, a note was found in the archives ofNikolai Demidovin which he said thatRaphaelasked for 6,000 guineas. Perhaps he or his children brought the painting to Russia, to Nizhny Tagil. Eyewitnesses said that some Italian icons were in the family cryptDemidov.
The unique work in the city was nicknamed "Tagil Madonna". A year and a half ago, an agreement was concluded with Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on the demonstration of the painting on Sakhalin Island. Primorye also expressed a desire to show the canvas to the inhabitants of the region.
public domain
“She is taken out once a year by special invitation, but since we drove so far to the East, we agreed that she would visit Vladivostok, but not for a month, but for two whole, continuedMarina Vladimirovna. - I used to work in the museum as the main curator. For me, all things were native. We were worried for them, as for children: what kind of safety is here, whether the climate suits them, how they will live here. Indeed, in the museum itself, the Madonna is located in a separate room, where there are chairs so that you can sit down and think about art.
IN there were no attempts on her life in the museum itself. God save! I read the author's detective Markova. Two small sketches were stolen from our exposition in 1993 Levitan, the result was a detective. I read it, and suddenly I find the lines, they say, “what is there Levitan, they have there Raphael hanging." With this detective, I came to the city administration. She demanded to organize the protection of the country's heritage. So thanks Markov we have replaced all the technical equipment of the gallery.”
"The Holy Family of the Falconieri", Raphael Santi, 1507. Fragment. Photo: Public Domain
The Primorsky Art Gallery has already prepared a hall in which an exhibition of one painting will be shown. canvasRafael Santiwill be a gift in the Year of Culture for Primorye residents.
February 19, 2013
Leonardo's younger contemporary, one of the greatest masters of the Renaissance, Raphael Santi (1483–1520), was often called the "master of the Madonnas". In many works, where the artist depicted the Madonna and Child, he embodied the humanists' dream of a beautiful person living in a reasonable and harmonious world in different ways.
Madonna Conestabile by Raphael
The Conestabile Madonna (Hermitage, room 229) was executed by Raphael, the creator of one of the outstanding creations of the human genius, the Sistine Madonna (Dresden, Art Gallery), at the beginning of his creative path. Using the composition of his teacher Perugino, the young Raphael outlines the figure of the Madonna, calmly standing against the backdrop of the landscape. During the transfer of the painting from board to canvas, carried out in the Hermitage in 1881 for better preservation of the work, it turned out that Raphael, in Mary's hand, originally depicted a pomegranate, as Perugino did. Later, however, the artist wrote (on top of the fruit) a book. The mood of the Madonna is consonant with the tranquility of the spring landscape. The fusion of man with nature, peace and balance in the picture are also emphasized by the shape of the tondo (circle). The smooth contours of the figures echo the circle of the elegant frame. The gilded frame, decorated with a relief ornament with winged griffins, was apparently made according to a drawing by Raphael himself. This small work introduces us to the sublime and poetic world of subtle and sincere feelings.
Holy Family by Raphael
Somewhat later, in 1506, when Raphael was already working in Florence, he created the "Holy Family" (Hermitage, room 229). Depicting Mary, the baby Christ and Saint Joseph, the artist avoids everyday credibility, discarding all random features and everyday details. The figured group is placed against the background of a smooth wall with two clear vertical pilasters. The work is dominated by smooth, rounded lines that enhance the sense of harmony. The faces are idealized, although not devoid of specific features (Joseph, for example, is depicted without a beard: it was then not in fashion in Florence; hence the second name of the painting is “Madonna with a beardless Joseph”). Compositional unity is achieved not only by the general mood, but also by the fusion of silhouettes, the unifying role of color (green, golden yellow). Here, as in other paintings, Raphael affirms the spiritual beauty and greatness of man.
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Wood, oil. 131 x 107 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich
"The Holy Family of Kanijani" refers to the same period of Raphael's work as " Position in the coffin". The name of the painting comes from the Florentine Canigiani family, who owned this work by Raphael before it passed into the Medici collection, and then to Germany after the marriage of Anna Maria Lodovica Medici to the Elector of the Palatinate.
Raphael. Madonna of Kanijani (Holy Family of Kanijani). Old, distorted version before von Sonnenburg's restoration
Madonna and Righteous Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist) are sitting on the grass with their children. Joseph the Betrothed stands above them, showing the importance of Jesus' adoptive father and reflecting the growth in Joseph's veneration after 1500.
Raphael. Madonna Kanijani. Detail. 1507
In the Canigiani Madonna, Raphael synthesizes the elements he adopted from Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo and combines them with a distinctly northern landscape and delicate color passages dominated by iridescent tones.
Raphael. Madonna Kanijani. Scenery
The pyramid, into which the figures fit perfectly, is borrowed from Leonardo, but the mutual feelings between the participants in the scene, expressed by the looks they exchange, and their general serene mood, give the composition a calm descriptive character. The general tone of the Canigiani Madonna is thus quite different from Leonardo's tense and agitated art. Raphael creates here a plot full of human participation and transparent calmness.
Raphael. Madonna Kanijani. Version after restoration by Hubert von Sonnenburg
In 1982, the German restorer Hubert von Sonnenburg undertook a meticulous restoration of the Canigiani Madonna and removed the distorting blue layer of paint applied in the 18th century on the sky. Raphael's original concept can now be seen again, with putti (angels) on the left and right at the top.
