صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

RACINE, JEAN, was born towards the end of 1639 at Ferté Milon, in the present department of Aisne, France. He was the son of an officer of the excise, but lost both his parents while he was a child. He studied first at Beauvais, and afterwards in the celebrated school of Port Royal des Champs, under Lemaistre, Lancelot, and the Abbé Hanon. He applied himself especially to the study of the Greek poets. After three years spent at Port Royal he went to finish his education at Paris, in the Collège d'Harcourt, in 1658. He had long shown a decided inclination for poetry, and on the occasion of the marriage of Louis XIV. in 1660 he entered the lists with various other poets who wrote in honour of that event; and his composition, 'La Nymphe de la Seine,' being considered as the best, was noticed by the king, who sent to the young poet, through Colbert, a present of 100 louis-d'or. In 1664 Racine brought out his first tragedy, 'La Thebaïde, ou les Frères Ennemis,' a subject which was suggested to him by Molière. He next wrote his Alexandre,' which is a feeble composition. Corneille, who was then grown old, advised Racine to give up writing tragedy. Boileau, on the contrary, encouraged him; and Racine, having studied hard for some years to improve himself, produced in 1667 his Andromaque,' which was acted with great applause. In the next year he wrote Les Plaideurs,' a humorous comedy in imitation of the Wasps' of Aristophanes, which was so much relished by Louis XIV. that he bestowed upon the author a pension, accompanied by a very flattering letter. Racine now produced in succession Britannicus,' 'Bérénice,' 'Bajazet,' 'Mithridate,' 'Iphigénie,' and Phèdre,' which last is often considered his masterpiece; but when 'Phèdre' was first brought on the stage in 1677, a rival coterie intrigued against him, and succeeded in running down the work, which so disgusted Racine that he resolved to write no more plays. About that time he married the daughter of the treasurer of Amiens, a match which proved a happy one. Racine frequented the court, where he had a warm friend in Madame de Maintenon, and he was appointed by Louis XIV. historiographer of the kingdom, together with Boileau. Of his historical labours however only a few fragments remain. Several years after, at the entreaty of Madame de Maintenon, he wrote another drama, Esther,' which was acted in the house of education of St. Cyr in 1689, and was well received. In the following year he wrote 'Athalie,' which was performed in the same place, and was afterwards published; but it was received very coldly, although it has since been acknowledged to be Racine's noblest composition. This was also Boileau's opinion at the time, who told him so, adding that the judgment of the public would right itself in time-a prediction however which was not accomplished till long after Racine's death.

[ocr errors]

'Athalie' was the last play of Racine. He continued to visit Madame de Maintenon, to whom he used to read parts of his projected history of Louis XIV. As he came to advert to the system of administration, he could not help reflecting upon the wanton prodigality of expenditure, the enormous burden of taxation, the disastrous wars caused by mere ambition, and the consequent distress of the country, and the misery of a great part of the population. Racine was a man of honest feelings; he became animated with his subject; and Madame de Maintenon was evidently affected by his picture. She suggested to him to draw up a memoir of what he thought could be done in the way of alleviating the distress of the people. Racine complied, and delivered his memoir to madame for her perusal. As she was reading it one day in her cabinet, Louis XIV. entered, and she could not conceal from him the paper nor the author of it. Louis, having glanced at the memoir, observed with a frown that, "as M. Racine could make excellent verses, he fancied that he knew everything; as if, because he was a great poet, he ought to be also a minister of state." Racine was informed of this, and from that time he was banished from the court. He had been for some years in a declining state of health, under the influence of mental excitement and of melancholy, and the mortification which he now felt embittered his sufferings. His complaint, which was an abscess in the liver, was badly treated by the physicians, and he sank rapidly. Louis XIV., being informed of his danger, showed great interest in his fate, and sent to inquire after him; indeed, the whole court sympathised with the dying poet. At last an operation was performed; but three days after Racine expired, in the midst of acute pain, on the 22nd of April 1699, in his fifty-ninth year. He was interred, according to his request, in the abbey of Port Royal des Champs, a spot for which he had always retained a great affection. After the destruction of that monastery in 1709, the remains of Racine were transferred to Paris, and deposited in the church of St. Etienne du Mont, by the side of those of Pascal. Louis XIV. bestowed upon his widow a pension of 2000 livres, and the reversion of it on her sons till the death of the youngest.

The plays of Racine have gone through many editions; one of the best is that of 1768, Euvres de Jean Racine, avec des Commentaires par Luneau de Boisjermain,' 6 vols. 8vo. It also contains his 'History

RADCLIFFE, JOHN, M.D.

of Port Royal,' the 'Fragmens Historiques,' several discourses delivered in the French Academy, of which he was a member, and other small compositions, with a biography of Racine.

His son, LOUIS RACINE, published memoirs of his father's life, two volumes of commentaries on his plays, and a poem, 'La Religion,' in six cantos. He was born in 1692 and died in 1763.

Racine adhered strictly to what are called the classical unities, and his subjects were chiefly taken from ancient history; but his personages, though Greek or Roman by name, are French in their character. His great merit lay in his delineation of the passions, his exquisite pathos, and the harmony of his verse. By common cousent he stands at the head of French dramatists of the classic school.

RACZYNSKI, EDUARD, a Polish nobleman of literary tastes and talents, was born at Posen in 1786, the son of Count Philip Raczynski, a Polish general. Count Eduard entered the Polish army, and took some share in Napoleon's campaign of 1807; but on the fall of Napoleon I., when he became a simple Prussian subject, he withdrew from a military career. He travelled in Turkey in 1814, and published an account of his journey in one of the most splendid volumes in the Polish language, ‘Dziennik Podrozy do Turcyi' (folio, Breslau, 1821, illustrated with numerous plates). The rest of his life was chiefly devoted to literary pursuits. His 'Obraz Polakow i Polski' (Picture of the Poles and Poland in the 18th Century,' 21 vols., Breslau, 1840, &c.), is a valuable collection of memoirs, most of them before unpublished. Another of his most prominent works is his Gabinet medalow Polskich,' or 'Cabinet of Polish Medals,' in 4 vols. 4to (Berlin and Posen, 1841-45), with a text in Polish and French. His Wspomnienia Wielkopolski' ('Memorials of Great Poland,' 2 vols., with an atlas of plates), is also deserving of mention. The 'Codex Diplomaticus Majoris Poloniæ,' or collection of documents illustrating the history of Poland, which he edited, had been originally compiled by his grandfather, Count Kazimierz Raczynski; but a companion work, the Codex Diplomaticus Lithuania,' was his own. Among other benefactions to Posen, he founded a public library in that town, erecting a building for the purpose, presenting to it a collection of 21,000 volumes, and endowing it with a fund for the maintenance of the librarian, who is at present Lukaszewicz, one of the first historians and antiquaries in Poland, to whom the count gave the appointment. On the 20th of January 1845 Raczynski destroyed himself, by means of an ornamental cannon which was kept in his park. It was currently reported that the motive of the act was, that in looking over some old family papers, he had found that one of his ancestors had received part of the family estates as a bribe from Catharine II. of Russia to betray the cause of his country. The lady of Count Raczynski, who survived him, was the widow of Count Jan Potocki, also a Polish author of eminence, who destroyed himself thirty years before in 1815. His son, Count Roger Raczynski, who succeeded him, generously abolished the feudal dues that were payable to him by 4000 peasants of the twenty-seven villages on the estates of the family. * RACZYNSKI, ATHANASIUS, the younger brother of Count Eduard, born on the 2nd of May 1788, entered the Prussian diplomatic service, was in 1840 the Prussian ambassador at Copenhagen, and afterwards at Lisbon and Madrid, but quitted the latter post in 1853, and has since lived in retirement. His literary works have been chiefly on subjects of art, and written in the French language. His account of modern art in Germany ('Histoire de l'Art Moderne en Allemagne,' 3 vols. 4to, with atlas, Paris, 1836-42), though not a work of much depth, is the most convenient general view of the subject that has yet appeared. The same praise may be given to his 'Arts in Portugal,' and Historico-artistical Dictionary of Portugal,' both in French, published at Paris in 1846 and 1847.

RADCLIFFE, JOHN, M.D., was born in 1650, of a good family at Wakefield in Yorkshire. From the grammar-school of his native town he passed to University College, Oxford, at the age of fifteen. He took his degree of B.A. in 1669, and became senior scholar of his college, but, as no fellowship became vacant there, he accepted a fellowship at Lincoln College. He took his degree of M.A. in 1672, and commenced the study of physic, which he pursued in no other medical school, but attended the different courses of anatomy, chemistry, and botany delivered in the University. He is represented by his biographers as having "recommended himself more by ready wit and vivacity than by any extraordinary acquisitions in learning" being visited in his rooms by Dr. Bathurst, the president of Trinity College, and asked by him where was his library, he is said to have pointed to a few vials, a skeleton, and a herbal in one corner of his room, and exclaimed with emphasis, "There, sir, is Radcliffe's library." In 1675 he took his degree of M.B., and began to practise as a licentiate in Oxford, where by some happy cures he soon acquired a great reputation. In 1677 he relinquished his fellowship in accordance with the statutes of his college, which require all the fellows after a certain time to enter into holy orders. He wished however to keep his rooms in college, and to reside there as a commoner, but this Dr. Marshall, the Rector (whom he is supposed to have offended by some witticisms), refused to allow, which so much disgusted him that in after-life he lavished the whole of his munificence on his former college, University, leaving to Lincoln only the second presentation to a living if no fellow of University chose to accept it. In 1682 he took the degree of M.D., and went out a Grand Compounder. At length, in 1684, he removed

RADEMACKER, GERARD.

to the metropolis, and settled in Bow-street, Covent Garden, where in less than a year he got into great practice, to which perhaps his plea santry and ready wit contributed as much as his reputed skill in his profession. He was now in the high road to wealth and reputation, and he arrived at both, though his success is said to have been due rather to his manners than to his ability. On the other hand we have the testimony of Dr. Mead, that "he was deservedly at the head of his profession, on account of his great medical penetration and experience." In 1686 he was appointed by the Princess Anne her principal physician, and from this time till his death he enjoyed the undisputed favour of the court, during the reigns of William and Anne; and although he often offended both the king and queen by his freedoms, yet such was the opinion of his medical skill, that he was always sent for in any case of danger. There are few events in his life that require particular notice, and the greater part of his biographers have only given a collection of anecdotes-which it would be out of place to repeat here-showing at once his wonderful skill in forming a correct prognosis, his rudeness and brutality towards his patients even of the highest rank, and the enormous sums of money which he received as fees. Towards the end of the reign of James, the then celebrated Master of University College, Obadiah Walker, his fellow-collegian, was in vain employed to influence his religious principles. The answer of Radcliffe was firm and dignified: "being bred up a Protestant at Wakefield, and having continued such at Oxford, where he had no relish for absurdities, he saw no reason to change his principles and turn Papist in London." In 1713 he was elected into parliament for the town of Buckingham, but only two of his speeches have been preserved, and it does not appear that he was at all distinguished as a senator. He was sent for to attend Queen Anne when she lay at the point of death, but, being much indisposed himself, and knowing the case to be desperate, he declined coming, for which he was much blamed at the time, and intimation was given him that the populace in London were disposed to tear him in pieces if he should venture to come to town from his country-house. It is probable that the agitation of his mind concurred with a broken constitution in bringing him to an end two months afterwards, November 1, 1714, at the age of sixtyfour. His body lay in state at the house at Carshalton, where he died, till November 27, it was then removed to an undertaker's in the Strand, and thence escorted to his favourite city Oxford, where it was interred with great solemnity in St. Mary's church.

It only remains to give a brief account of his posthumous benefactions, which were indeed most munificent, and which well entitle him to hold an eminent place in the long list of benefactors to the University of Oxford. After making a life provision for some of his relations, he bequeathed his whole fortune to public uses. To St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London he gave for ever the yearly sum of 500l. towards mending their diet, and a further yearly sum of 1007. for buying of linen. He left 40,000l. for the building of a library at Oxford, which he endowed with an annual stipend of 150l. for the librarian (who is chosen by the same electors that appoint the travelling fellows, to be hereafter mentioned); 100l. per annum for repairs, and 100l. per annum for the purchase of books and manuscripts relating to the science of physic; comprehending, as that term was then understood, anatomy, botany, surgery, and natural philosophy. [A description of this building is given under OXFORD in GEOG. Div., vol. iv., col. 31.] To University College he left 5000l. to build the master's lodge there, making one side of the eastern quadrangle. He also left them his Yorkshire estate in trust for the foundation of the two Travelling Fellowships to be held by "two persons to be chosen out of the University of Oxford, when they are M.A., and entered on the Physic line." The electors are, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor of the University, the bishops of London and Winchester, the two principal secretaries of state, the two chief justices of the Queen's Bench and Common Pleas, and the Master of the Rolls. The appointment is 300l. per annum to each of the fellows, and apartments in University College. They hold their fellowships "for the space of ten years, and no longer, the [first] half of which time, at least, they are to travel in parts beyond sea for their better improvement." He also bequeathed the perpetual advowson of the rectory of Headbourne Worthy, in Hampshire, to trustees for the benefit of University College for ever, so that a member of that society should always be presented to it on every vacancy. He gave to the same college during his life 1100l. for increasing their exhibitions and for general repairs, and the painted window at the east end of their chapel appears from the inscription under it to be his gift. After the payment of the bequests above mentioned, he gave to his executors, in trust, all his estates in Buckinghamshire, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, and Surrey, to be applied in such charitable purposes as they all, in their discretion, should think best; but no part thereof to their own use or benefit. Out of these funds were built the Infirmary (1770) and the Observatory (1772) at Oxford, and the Lunatic Asylum on Heddington Hill near that city also received in 1827 so much assistance from the same source, that the committee gave it the name of the 'Radcliffe Asylum;' and the trustees have ever been found ready to contribute according to their means to every charitable and useful purpose.

RADEMACKER, GERARD, was born at Amsterdam in 1673. His father, an architect, much esteemed by Lairesse and other artists,

[blocks in formation]

instructed him in drawing and perspective, and would have brought him up to his own profession, but perceiving his predilection for painting, he placed him under A. van Goor, a respectable portraitpainter. Gerard applied himself to his studies with unremitting perseverance so long as his master lived; and at his death, being sufficiently advanced to give lessons in design, he was engaged by the Bishop of Sebaste to teach his niece drawing. His agreeable manner gained the favour of the bishop, who, being soon afterwards obliged to go to Rome, invited Rademacker to accompany him; he spent three years at Rome, where he greatly improved himself. He was fond of representing views of the principal ruins and ancient monuments, which he designed with accuracy and spirit. On his return to Holland his success produced him numerous friends and abundance of employment. He did not however confine himself to architectural subjects, but painted many historical and emblematical pieces. His fertile invention and facility of execution enabled him to paint many pictures in a short time. He is reckoned one of the best masters of the Dutch school for a certain grandeur of style, which had been cultivated by the study of the best models. He died at Amsterdam in 1711. RADEMACKER, ABRAHAM, supposed to be a younger brother of GERARD RADEMACKER, was born at Amsterdam in 1675, and attained a high rank as a landscape-painter. At first he drew in Indian ink, in which style he acquired great perfection. He then practised in watercolours; and he subsequently painted with equal success in oil-colour. His invention was fertile; he composed readily and agreeably, and embellished his landscapes with picturesque ruins and buildings, and with well-designed groups of figures and animals. He engraved in a masterly manner a set of nearly 300 plates, from his own designs, of the most interesting views of ancient monuments in Holland and the Austrian Netherlands; they were published at Amsterdam in 1731. He died in 1735.

RADETZKY DE RADETZ, FIELD MARSHAL, COUNT JOSEPH, was born at the castle of Trebnice, in the Klattauer district, in Bohemia, on the 2nd of November 1766. He was the son of Count Peter Eusebius Radetzky, and of the Baroness Maria Bechyne. The family name was formerly spelt Hradecky. Having entered the army as cornet, in the 2nd Austrian Cuirassiers, in 1784, he became sub-lieutenant, February 3, 1787. In 1788 he served in the Turkish campaign under Marshal Lacy, and was raised to the rank of first lieutenant for his services at the siege of Belgrade. When the Austrian army entered France in 1793, Radetzky, then a captain, was sent to the new scene of war; and he was present in all the Italian campaigns from 1795 to 1800, serving alternately under Beaulieu, Wurmser, Alvinzi and Melas, and distinguishing himself greatly at the battles of Arcola, Rivoli, and Marengo. Meanwhile, in 1797, he was promoted to the rank of major, and in 1799 he became adjutant-general to Melas, who soon learned to appreciate his zeal and gallantry, and repeatedly mentioned his name in his despatches. For his gallant behaviour at the battles of Novi (May 15, 1799) and Marengo (June 14, 1800), he was created colonel, and appointed to command the Archduke Albert's cuirassiers, and received the order of Maria Theresa.

From the peace of Luneville in 1801, to 1805, Colonel Radetzky was not employed in the field; but at the latter period he was made major-general. During the contest at Aspern, May 21-22, 1809, when the place was six times retaken by the Austrians from the French, few officers contributed so much to the victory as Radetzky. On the 1st of June he received the command of the 4th corps, with the rank of lieutenant-field-marshal. At the battle of Wagram, July 6, 1809, he commanded the Austrian cavalry. In April 1810 he was nomi. nated commander of the military order of Maria Theresa. From that period until the end of 1812 his services were employed at home in the war-office.

During the whole campaign of 1813, when the tide of war had turned against Napoleon I., Lieutenant-Field-Marshal Radetzky acted as chief of the staff to Prince Schwartzenberg; and the Austrian commander attributed the victory of Kulm mainly to Radetzky's skill and gallantry. But his crowning feat of arms was at the battle of Leipzig, October 18, 1813, the plan of which he drew up. As is well known this decisive action was a succession of battles which lasted three days. The Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia were present, and 1600 pieces of artillery thundered over the field. Although he had then been nearly thirty years in the service, Radetzky received his first wound at Leipzig. Throughout the campaign of 1814 within the French territory he was continually in action, and on the 31st of March he entered Paris, riding by the side of the Emperor Alexander. Radetzky was appointed in 1822 CommanderGeneral of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom; and in 1830, in his sixty-fourth year, after forty-six years of service, he was created fieldmarshal.

But it was the Italian insurrection, in 1848, which first gave promi. nence to the name of Radetzky. As early as the year 1846, manifest signs of a turbulent spirit were visible in Italy. The stringent rule of the Austrian government had long excited a rancorous feeling against their foreign masters, and the Italians panted for an opportunity to reject the yoke. The reforms of Pope Pius IX., served only to promote the smouldering irritation. Societies were formed to diffuse the secret spirit of revolt throughout the entire peninsula. In 1847,

[blocks in formation]

the movement was all but brought to a crisis, when Austria claimed and enforced the right to place a garrison in Ferrara. Immediately a Civic or National Guard was constituted in every Italian state. Then came the revolution in Paris, in February 1818, followed by similar movements in Vienna and Berlin, which raised the spirit of insurrection to its height. On the 18th of March 1848, barricades were erected in every street in Milan; the fighting lasted for three days; after which Marshal Radetzky drew his troops out of that city, and retreated to Verona. The Austrian army, at that time in Italy, amounted to nearly 75,000 men; but it was scattered over an extensive line of operations. Consequently the insurgents were at first triumphant; the tricolor flag appeared upon all the towers of Italy, except those of Verona, Mantua, Legnano, and Peschiera; and Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, having united himself to the league, a most gallant contest was maintained for five months. More than once the veteran marshal had to quit the field; but every time he retired in good order. At other times victory was on his side. At length, on August 4, 1848, Radetzky, after a series of successful attacks on the Italian posts, advanced against Milan, at the head of the Austriau army; the Milanese lost heart, and deaf to the remonstrances of Charles Albert, urging them to defend the city, they held a council of war, and determined to abandon Milan. A deputation was sent to Marshal Radetzky, and the terms obtained were:" that the Piedmontese army was to be withdrawn in two days from the Lombard territory; that the Austrians were to enter Milan on the 6th of August; and that the lives and property of the people were to be respected." The struggle was now virtually at an end. Radetzky's superior strategy, and the disunion of his opponents rendered it an easy task for him to break up the Sardinian forces, and he was again master of all Lombardy. The Emperor of Austria in return for his services sent him an autograph letter of thanks, accompanied by the first class order of St. George. In March 1849, the rebellion in Hungary incited the Italians to make a new attempt to establish their independence; but it was rendered abortive by the prompt and energetic measures of the marshal. Since then, full of years, and loaded with honours by his sovereign, he several times applied in vain for leave to resign his command. Nor was it until the opening of 1857, that he obtained this permission, in a courteous letter from the emperor, after a prolonged service of seventy-three years in the Austrian armies.

Marshal Radetzky married in 1798 the Countess Frances StrassoldoGräfenberg, by whom he has a son and daughter living. [See SUP.] RAEBURN, HENRY, the son of a manufacturer at Stockbridge, near Edinburgh (which now forms part of that city), was born there on the 4th of March 1756. He lost both his father and mother whilst young, and was apprenticed by his elder brother to the business of a goldsmith. During the time of his apprenticeship he painted miniatures, which were executed in such a manner as to attract notice, and soon came to be in general demand. As he was able to complete two of these in a week, his master readily agreed to allow him to withdraw from the trade, receiving as an equivalent part of the young painter's earnings.

Obtaining some of David Martin's pictures to copy, he adopted oil-painting, and after a time wholly abandoned miniatures. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he became a portrait-painter, and gained very extensive practice. In 1779 he married, and some time after came to London, where he was much noticed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, by whose advice he went to Italy, where he remained two years, carefully studying the works of the great masters. In 1787 he returned and established himself in Edinburgh, where in a short time he became the chief portrait-painter. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of that city, of the Imperial Academy of Florence, and of the South Carolina and New York academies. In 1812 he was elected an associate and in 1815 a member of the Royal Academy, London. On the visit of George IV. to Scotland in 1822, Raeburn was knighted at Hopetown House, and in the summer of the following year he was appointed portrait-painter to the king for Scotland, an honour which he did not long enjoy. He died on the 8th of July 1823. Amongst his chief portraits may be enumerated those of Lord Eldon, Sir Walter Scott, Dugald Stewart, Professor Playfair, James Watt, Francis Jeffrey, Henry Mackenzie, John Rennie, and Sir Francis Chantrey. His style was free and bold, his drawing correct, his colouring rich, deep, and harmonious; and the accessories, whether drapery, furniture, or landscape, appropriate, and though carefully executed, always kept duly subordinate. He had a peculiar power of rendering the head of his figure bold, prominent, and imposing. The strict fidelity of his representations may in a great degree be attributed to his invariable custom of painting, whether the principal figure or the minutest accessory, from the person or the thing itself, never giving a single touch from memory or conjecture. The portraits of Sir Henry Raeburn, with some deficiencies, possess a freedom, a vigour, and a spirit of effect, and convey an impression of grace, life, and reality which may be looked for in vain amidst thousands of pictures, both ancient and modern, of more elaborate execution and of minuter finish.

RAFFAELLE, RAFAEL, RAFFAELLO, or RAPHAEL, SANZIO, was born at Urbino, on the 6th of April 1483, and not on Good Friday

[blocks in formation]

(March 28) of that year, as Vasari erroneously fancied. He was the son of Giovanni de' Santi, a painter of merit in that city, some of whose works still exist; a specimen of them may be seen in the Berlin Gallery (No. 215, first division), bearing the name of Giovanni, and showing considerable beauty, but with weak colouring. Although Raffaelle lost his parents before he was twelve years old, he imbibed the rudiments of art from his father. Other artists of that peculiar school which fixed itself in Umbria, such as Nicolo Alunno of Foligno, and Andrea Luigi of Assisi, probably exercised some influence over the young painter. At what age he became the pupil of Perugino we know not, but traces of the scholar's hand are supposed to be visible in several of the works of the master; among others in the frescoes of the Cambio at Perugia, which were painted about the year 1500. The career of Raffaelle is usually divided into three periods, of which the first terminates with his visit to Florence, in the autumn of 1504; the second comprises the time from that date until he was invited to Rome by Julius II., about the middle of 1508; and the third extends to his death, in 1520.

1. To begin with the works executed before Raffaelle's visit to Florence. One of the earliest of these now extant is probably the Virgin with the Book,' in the Berlin Gallery (No. 223, first division), and a still more important picture of this period is the 'Adoration of the Magi,' in the same collection (223 a). The latter is executed on linen, in size colours ('al guazzo'), and was originally intended for the high altar at Ferentillo; it was purchased by the late king of Prussia from the Ancajani family at Spoleto, for the sum of 6000 scudi, and has suffered a good deal from the peeling of some of the colours.

The pictures painted at Citta di Castello were, the Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino' (said to have disappeared from the Vatican during the French occupation); the 'Sposalizio, or Marriage of the Virgin' (now in the Brera at Milan), and the Christ on the Cross,' in the collection of Cardinal Fesch. Lanzi, on the authority of mere tradition, states that the first of these three was painted when Raffaelle was only seventeen, that is, in 1500; and he assigns the last to about the same time: both probably approach very nearly in time to the 'Sposalizio,' which bears the date of 1504. The 'Coronation of the Virgin' (now in the Vatican) clearly shows the struggle of new principles, although Vasari, whose contempt for the simplicity of the earlier style led him to content himself with very general resemblances, refers to this picture as one of those which prove how closely Raffaelle imitated the manner of Perugino. Notwithstanding Vasari's assertion to the contrary, it seems probable that both the Coronation of the Virgin' and the 'Crucifixion' belonging to Cardinal Fesch were posterior to the 'Sposalizio.'

Raffaelle's share in the frescoes executed by Pinturicchio, in the Libreria of the Cathedral at Siena, has been much exaggerated. There is little doubt that he never worked there in person, although he furnished some drawings to his fellow-pupil; two of these are yet extant, one in the Florence Gallery, and the other in the Baldeschi collection at Perugia. Vasari's whole account of Raffaelle's first visit to Florence is confused in the highest degree. He describes him as induced to quit Siena by the report of Leonardo's Battle of the Standard' and of M. Angelo's Cartoon, although the latter work was not exhibited till 1506, while the frescoes of Pinturicchio were probably completed in 1503, and the date of Raffaelle's journey is fixed to October 1504, by the letter of recommendation for the Gonfaloniere Soderini from the Duchess of Sora. Quatremère de Quincy tries to solve the difficulty by assuming a visit to Florence in 1503, and another in the following year, but a strong presumption against this supposition is furnished by the total absence of all trace of Florentine principles in the 'Marriage of the Virgin.' Susceptible of new impressions in art as Raffaelle afterwards showed himself, it is impossible that the first introduction to his great Florentine contemporaries should have left no trace in his works. Now the pictures of 1505 exhibit clear traces of a new influence. In fact, at the time of his arrival at Florence, art had just reached the point which enabled him to reap the fullest benefit from the new field thus thrown open. He studied the works of Masaccio, and became the friend of Fra Bartolomeo and Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. In the following year we find him employed again at Perugia. The fresco in San Severo, and the altarpiece for the Ansidei family (now at Blenheim) were painted in 1505. Whether the picture executed for the nuns of St. Antonio of Padua at Perugia, which is at Naples, be of the same or of a later date, is a disputed point.

Four pictures of the 'Virgin and Child' of Raffaelle's Florentine period are distinguished by different characters, though all exquisitely beautiful. The Madonna del Gran Duca,' in the Pitti Palace, is the most simple, and, to our judgment, the most admirable of them all. It still breathes much of the spirit of the Umbrian school. The other three are the Madonna Tempi' at Munich, the Colonna Madonna' at Berlin, and the picture in the possession of Lord Cowper at Panshanger. To the same time must be attributed the 'Madonna del Cardellino,' in the tribune at Florence, the 'Belle Jardinière' at Paris, and the Holy Family,' with the Palm, in the Bridgewater collection. The first of these three, was painted for Lorenzo Nasi. Raffaelle's power and fidelity as a portrait-painter are well shown in the beautiful portraits of Angelo and Maddalena Doni, in the Pitti

RAFFAELLE, SANZIO.

palace, and in two heads of monks, in the Academia at Florence. The St. Catherine,' which passed from the Aldobrandini collection into that of Mr. Beckford, and afterwards into the National Gallery, was executed in the latter part of the artist's residence at Florence. The two works which must be considered as closing this division are the 'Madonna del Baldacchino' or 'di Pescia,' left unfinished when the painter started for Rome, and the Entombment of Christ.' The former picture bears some resemblance in its technical details to the works of Fra Bartolomeo: it is now in the Pitti palace. The latter was painted by order of Atalanta Baglioni for S. Francesco at Perugia, and forms part of the Borghese collection. It is an elaborate composition, of the greatest beauty and power of expression, proving how much Raffaelle had profited by his Florentine studies.

The invitation given by Julius II. to Raffaelle would be sufficiently accounted for by the celebrity of the artist himself, although it is very probable that his connection with the family Della Rovere, or the favour of his fellow-countryman Bramante, facilitated his introduction at the papal court. He seems to have left Florence, rather suddenly, towards the end of the year 1508. The 'Stanze' decorated by the pencil of Raffaelle were the livingrooms of the papal court in the time of Leo X. His frescoes suffered during the occupation of Rome by the imperial troops in 1527, and by subsequent neglect, when the popes had transferred their residence to the Quirinal. In the years 1702 and 1703 they were cleaned and restored by Carlo Maratti, who repainted the larger portion of the decorative framework.

The Camera della Segnatura was the first worked on by Raffaelle. The figures of Theology, Poetry, Philosophy, and Justice on the ceiling, preceded in execution the large paintings on the walls. Of these last the Disputa del Sacramento,' as it is commonly called, was the earliest. In simple beauty and severe dignity, in energy and individual character, this work has never been surpassed; in technical excellence, and the picturesque qualities of breadth, composition, and softness, it is certainly inferior to the 'Parnassus' and the School of Athens,' which came next. The allegorical figures of Temperance, Fortitude, and Prudence, in the semicircular division on the remaining side of the room, are among the most beautiful of Raffaelle's designs. In the Stanza d'Eliodoro, the fresco of Heliodorus,' together with that of the Mass of Bolsena' and the scripture subjects in the ceiling, were executed in the pontificate of Julius. It is impossible to show more complete understanding of the application of painting to a story than Raffaelle has displayed in the first of these compositions. The colouring of the Mass of Bolsena' is admirable.

In 1513 Leo X. succeeded to the papal chair. The two remaining frescoes in the Stanza d'Eliodoro, that is to say, 'Attila repelled from Rome' and the 'Liberation of St. Peter,' belong to his reign. The latter is supposed to allude to the pope's escape, when Cardinal de' Medici, after the battle of Ravenna; and the former to the retreat of the French from Italy.

In the third room, or Stanza del Incendio, the ceiling contains some paintings of P. Perugino, which were spared when those of other masters were destroyed to make room for the works of Raffaelle. The subjects on the walls are the 'Burning of the Borgo' (or suburb of Rome), the Victory over the Saracens at Ostia,' the 'Coronation of Charlemagne,' and the 'Death of Leo III.' The execution of all these was more or less left to pupils; those in the Sala di Costantino were wholly painted by Julio Romano and others, from designs by Raffaelle.

The loggie, or open colonnades, designed by Bramante, were decorated under the directions of Raffaelle by his principal scholars. The cartoons for the tapestry to be hung round the Sistine Chapel were prepared in 1515 and 1516, at the desire of Leo X. These cartoons were cut into strips for the convenience of the workmen at Arras. By some unaccountable neglect they remained in Flanders, and seven of the ten were, after the expiration of a century, bought by Charles I. at the suggestion of Rubens. When the property of the crown was sold by the Commonwealth they were valued at 300l., and purchased by Cromwell's order at that price for the nation. William III. caused these precious fragments to be properly mounted and put up at Hampton Court. In 1766 they were removed to Buckingham House, thence carried to Windsor, and in 1804 again restored to Hampton Court. There they remained till 1865, when they were placed, on loan, in the South Kensington Museum. The cartoons are among the noblest works of Raffaelle extant. In composition they are unrivalled, and their whole conception is admirably adapted to the purpose which they were meant to fulfil.

[ocr errors]

The Isaiah' in San Agostino was probably painted in 1512 or 1513, and the Sibyls' in Santa Maria della Pace shortly afterwards. Rumohr, on technical grounds, places the latter (one of the artist's most admirable works) about 1515. Their subjects and their mode of treatment sufficiently establish in a general sense that imitation of Michel Angelo of which so much has been said.

We must now return to the smaller works of Raffaelle. Vasari says that his portrait of Julius II. was so like as to inspire fear, as if it were alive. The original thus spoken of is supposed to be in the Tribune at Florence. Two copies of it are in the Pitti palace, and one in our own National Gallery. The last came from the Borghese collection. On the subject of Raffaelle's own portrait a good deal of

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

controversy has taken place. It is certainly difficult to detect much resemblance between the portrait in the Florence collection and that purchased by the king of Bavaria from the Altoviti family; and the expression of Vasari, "à Bindo Altoviti fece il ritratto suo," is ambiguous, but nevertheless we believe the picture now at Munich to be the work of Raffaelle and his own portrait.

Three portraits exist, which are believed to represent Raffaelle's mistress, the so-called Fornarina, painted by himself. One of these is in the Barberini, another in the Sciarra palace (at Rome), and the third is in the Tribune at Florence. This last picture bears the date of 1512, and was at one time attributed to Giorgione. Certain it is that the colour would be worthy of the Venetian master, and that the face and form are Venetian in their character.

The Madonna della Seggiola, the Madonna del Duca di Alba, and several others of somewhat similar feeling belong to the early part of Raffaelle's residence at Rome. The Madonna di Foligno, now in the Vatican, was painted for Gismondo Conti, probably about the time of the completion of the Camera della Segnatura. The Vision of Ezekiel is said to have been paid for in 1510; two pictures of the subject exist, one in the Pitti palace, and another, from the Orleans gallery, in the collection of Sir Thomas Baring. It is disputed whether either, and if either, which of these two is the original. The St. Cecilia at Bologna was ordered about 1510, and completed somewhat later; it has suffered greatly from restoration.

The four great altar-pieces of Raffaelle's later time are1. The Madonna del Pez, painted for San Domenico at Naples, and now (1833) in the Iglesia Vieja of the Escurial. It is a composition of the purest and simplest beauty. 2. The Madonna di Santa Sisto, the well-known pride of the Dresden gallery. It is painted on canvas, and Rumohr conjectures that it was intended for a 'drapellone,' or large standard, to be carried in procession, attached to two poles. A picture, by Guido, painted on grey silk, and called 'il pallione,' from being used in this manner, is to be seen in the Pinacoteca at Bologna (No. 138). The most striking points in the Madonna di Santa Sisto are the deeply meditative anticipation of future suffering in the Virgin, and the superhuman character imparted to the Christ by the union of a childish form with the severe thoughtfulness of maturer age. 3. The Spasimo di Sicilia, executed for Santa Maria dello Spasimo, at Palermo, is now in the public gallery at Madrid. There is something academical in the figure of the executioner, but the deep feeling in the right-hand group of women reminds us of the Borghese entombment. This picture has suffered much by restoration, and has acquired a sort of brickdust colour. 4. The Transfiguration, usually considered to be Raffaelle's masterpiece. It was left unfinished at his death.

Besides the above-named works, we must allude to the Visitation and the Perla, both in the sacristy of the Escurial. The latter formed part of the collection of Charles I. of England.

The Archangel Michael, and the Holy Family, painted in 1518, for Francis I., are first-rate pictures of the artist's later time. In the portrait of Leo X., with the Cardinals de' Medici and Rossi (painted not earlier than 1518), Raffaelle has shown that he could rival the Flemish masters in the accurate imitation of ordinary household objects. The Violin-Player, in the Sciarra palace at Rome, also bears the date of 1518. The portraits of Joanna of Aragon, Baltasar Castiglione, and others, we have not space to dwell on.

Raffaelle occupied himself with architecture as well as painting, and seems to have felt a zealous interest in all remains of ancient art. The Psyche and the Galatea, executed in the Farnesina at Rome for Alessandro Chigi, are his principal works which represent mythological subjects.

On his birthday the 6th of April 1520, being Good Friday, this greatest of all modern painters died of an attack of fever, at the age of thirty-seven. All that is recorded of his public and private character represents him as most amiable, and as the object of sincere affection on the part of his immediate friends. As an artist he was especially distinguished in two things. In the first place, whatever was the principle of art which he adopted at different periods of his life, in each and all successively he attained the greatest excellence. In his early pictures the spirit of Perugino and of the Umbrian school beamed with double purity and beauty; but his powers were not limited within the narrow circle which hemmed in his master and caused him to reproduce the same forms and the same expression through the course of a long life. Raffaelle came to Florence at a fortunate moment. The anatomical studies of Leonardo and M. Angelo, and the powers of Masaccio, had exactly provided the fresh food for which his genius was craving. The religious feeling of his earlier works became a little unspiritualised in the worldly city of Florence, but his technical power received a great accession of strength, while his capacity for seizing real life is sufficiently shown by the portrait of Maddalena Doni. His Madonnas at this time lose something of their thoughtful melancholy, and often acquire a smiling character, such as we find in the works of Leonardo. Still his pictures exhibit excellence peculiar to himself.

In his third period, many persons, like Monsieur Rio (l'Art Chrétien) may consider the 'Disputa' as the last gleam of primitive simplicity or beauty. It may be said that thenceforth the Christian painter became paganised by contact with the heathen courts of Julius II.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

time he effected many improvements in the political constitution of the colony and in the condition of the inhabitants. He emancipated the slaves here, as he had done in Java, for which act he did not however escape censure. He established a British settlement at Singapore, which has proved a most important commercial station, and founded a college there for the encouragement of Anglo-Chinese and Malay literature. Though distinguished by his administrative abilities, Sir Stamford Raffles owes his reputation chiefly to his researches into the natural productions of Sumatra, and particularly to his numerous zoological discoveries. During one of his journeys into the interior, accompanied by the enterprising and lamented Dr. Arnold, he discovered the gigantic parasitical plant (or rather flower) which has been called the Rafflesia Arnoldii." In 1820 he sent home a large collection of preserved animals, which are now in the museum of the London Zoological Society. The excitement of various official and scientific engagements in a pestilential country, together with many domestic afflictions (four out of his five children, and almost all his personal friends, dying from the effects of the climate), so completely destroyed his health, that he was obliged to resign his appointment and return to England in 1824. In February of that year he embarked with Lady Raffles on board the ship Fame, which took fire the same night, by the carelessness of the steward. The crew and passengers with difficulty saved themselves in the boats, and Sir Stamford was obliged to remain at Bencoolen till the following April. By this disastrous event he entirely lost the greatest part of the extensive collection which he had formed of animals and plants, as well as many volumes of manuscripts and drawings relative to the civil and natural history of nearly every island in the Malayan Archipelago ; besides this, which might be considered as a public loss, his own pecuniary loss by the burning of the ship amounted to upwards of 20,000Z.

After his return to England he founded the present Zoological Society, of which he was the first president. His health, however, never recovered the shock which it had sustained, and he died in 1826, before he had had time to arrange the numerous materials which he had collected in the East. He left several manuscripts behind him. (Memoir by Lady Raffles.')

and Leo X. It is true that at this particular time a change took place in the style of art adopted by Raffaelle. He had acquired a new sense for the effect of masses in his drapery and in his lights and shades, and he worked on principles more consonant with the modern notions of picturesque composition. Which of the two sources of pleasure from painting is the purest and the most genuine may be a subject of dispute; but there can be no dispute as to the fact that in each line, as he successively adopted them, Raffaelle attained the highest pitch of excellence of which they respectively admitted. We cannot however allow that an artist who could execute the Cartoons had lost the power of conceiving and worthily embodying Christian subjects. The second consideration which seems to place Raffaelle before all other painters is the fact that of the large number of works attributed to him with any certainty, hardly one can be called ordinary or common-place in its character. If we consider the early age at which he died, his pictures are very numerous. The best of them are confessedly superior to the finest productions of other masters, and their average quality is in a still greater degree superior to the average quality of the works of any other painter. Besides the 'St. Catherine,' and the Portrait of Julius II., mentioned above, the National Gallery possesses a small fraction on panel, by Raffaelle, of The Vision of a Knight,' with the original pen-and-ink drawing from which it was traced; also a portion of a cartoon of The Murder of the Innocents,' painted over with oil, and the Garvagh (or Aldobrindini) Madonna, one of the most exquisite productions of his earlier Roman period: it was purchased in 1865 for the large sum of 9,000l. RAFFLES, SIR THOMAS STAMFORD, the son of a captain in the West India trade, was born at sea, off Jamaica, July 5, 1781. His early education was imperfect, for he was taken from school at the age of 15, and placed as an assistant clerk in the India House. In this situation he showed so much talent and industry, that he attracted the notice of the directors, and in 1805 was appointed under-secretary to the new government formed by the East India Company at PuloPenang, or Prince of Wales' Island. Here he devoted his attention to the study of the Malay language, the vernacular dialect of almost all the Eastern islands, in which he made rapid progress, as well as in a knowledge of the productions of Penang and the adjoining country, and the manners of the inhabitants. These acquirements rendered him so useful to the government, that he was soon appointed chief secretary, an office which he filled with the greatest ability: intense application in an unhealthy climate, however, soon brought on serious illness, which compelled him to go to Malacca, in 1808, for the recovery of his health. During his stay at Malacca, Raffles had an opportunity of mixing with a great number of natives congregated there from all parts of the Archipelago, from China, Cochin-China, &c., with whom he freely associated. He thus obtained a very considerable knowledge of their customs, trades, and languages, which was afterwards of great value to him. In 1809 he published his first literary essay, 'On the Malay Nation,' by which he attracted the notice of Lord Minto, governorgeneral of India, who sent for him to Calcutta, and was anxious to place him in the government of the Moluccas. Other events however interfered with this intention, for Raffles so strongly represented to Lord Minto the advantages which would accrue to the English government from the reduction of the Dutch settlement of Java (Holland being at that time annexed to France), that an expedition was fitted out against Batavia, in 1811, which was attended with complete success, that place being speedily captured. Raffles offered such valuable assistance in the preliminary arrangements of this expedition and in the execution of it, that he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Java and its dependencies. He was only thirty years of age when he undertook this responsible situation, which he held for five years, being recalled in 1816, shortly before the island was restored to the Dutch. In his administration he evinced great energy of character, | and displayed an anxious desire to advance the welfare of the native population. He found it necessary to make great alterations in the economy of the government, and a complete revision of the judicial system of the colony. He likewise abolished the system of slavery in the island. The policy of some of his measures was considered doubtful by the authorities at home, and his youth made him an object of jealousy to some of his colleagues; a number of charges were consequently brought against him, which led to his recal. But the board of directors of the East India Company afterwards acknowledged that his measures were all undertaken from most benevolent and laudable motives. Raffles devoted a considerable portion of time to the investigation of the natural productions of Java, and during his residence there he made many excursions into the interior, and col-sachusetts had been reached by the Northmen five centuries before lected much geological and geographical information respecting the island, as well as many interesting facts concerning the numerous ruins and other antiquities, and the character of the different native tribes. He arranged and published the different materials which he had thus collected, on his return to England, in his 'History of Java,' which appeared in 1817, 2 vols. 4to.

In 1818 he was appointed lieutenant governor of Fort Marlborough, the seat of the English government at Bencoolen, on the island of Sumatra, and again returned to India, having first received the honour of knighthood. He remained at Bencoolen six years, during which

RAFN, CARL CHRISTIAN, the great living promoter of Ice landic literature, was born on the 16th January 1796, at Brahesborg in the island of Funen. Even when a boy at the Cathedral-school of Odensee he voluntarily applied himself to the study of Icelandic; he followed up the same pursuit at the University of Copenhagen, where he took his degrees in jurisprudence. Being appointed in 1821 to a post at the university library, his attention was directed to the vast quantity of Icelandic manuscripts, yet unpublished, belonging to the collection bequeathed there by Arnas Magnæus, and to the use that might be made of them for shedding a light on hitherto obscure portions of history. Early in 1824 he had a meeting of three Icelandic students at his lodgings to consider of the best means of promoting this object, and in 1825 he proposed and set on foot the "Society for Northern Antiquities," "Selskab for Nordisk Oldkyndighed,' which a few years after was taken under the patronage of the King of Denmark, and which has awakened the attention of the world to the subject it has prosecuted. Rafn was appointed its earliest secretary, an office which he continues to hold, and he has devoted his life to its objects. It had been customary to issue such Icelandic works as were published by the Danish government and the Arne-Magnæan Commission, in volumes of cumbrous size, with Latin or Danish translations and sometimes both, printed on the same or opposite pages, and altogether in the most unattractive form. Under Rafn's direction twelve volumes of the 'Forumanna Sögur' or 'Stories of the Ancients' were printed in portable octavos, twelve volumes of a Danish translation and twelve of a Latin were printed to correspond with them, and thus the student had an opportunity of acquiring either the original only, or in case he wanted one, whichever translation he pleased. Rafn took a great share in the translation and editorship connected with these works and with the other publications issued by the society. The 'Antiquitates Americanæ,' issued by him in a quarto volume in 1837 is of all the one that has produced the most sensation. In this a collection is made of all the passages in the old Icelandic sagas which describe the voyages to and history of Vinland. A summary in English by Dr. Rafn is prefixed, entitled 'America discovered by the Scandinavians in the Tenth century, an abstract of the historical evidence contained in this work.' The abstract, which was reprinted in the Transactions of the London Geographical Society,' has been translated into every language of Europe, from Polish to Portuguese, and it is now a received doctrine that MasColumbus. Dr. Rafn is now engaged on a similar work entitled, 'Antiquités Russes,' to prove by scattered passages from the sagas that the Russian monarchy was founded by Scandinavian sea-rovers. In his 'Gronlands Historiske Mindesmærker,' or 'Historical Memorials of Greenland,' (3 vols. 1838-40) brought out in conjunction with Finn Magnusson, he rendered a similar service to the less attractive annals of that barren coast. Among his other works is an edition of the Færeyinga Saga,' or 'History of the Feroe Islands,' in which the Icelandic original is accompanied not only by a Danish translation but by one in the Feroe language, made by a resident clergyman, and &

[ocr errors]
« السابقةمتابعة »