Review of Shearman's Collection of Raphael Documents
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BOOK REVIE'WS was inserted to make it more imrnediate, in 1936, in which most documents are not of the role previously played by Golzio) for all suggest that it was the fint scene to be published in full. monographic study, and can thereby assumea painted, and technical evidence prompts us to In the period since Shearman's book has canonical position which inhibits ftesh con- reconsider the sequence of the frescos inde- appeared the re-daring ofthe Monteluce doc- sideration of the evidence. pendendy oftheir preparation on paper. uments to r5o5, not r5o3 bp.sr-96),, and of In a moment of characteristic wit. Shear- If Raphael's contemporaries averred that Raphael's appointrnent as Sctiptor Breuium in man describes what a biography of Raphael his art was not innate but born from studying I5II, not r5og (pp.r5o-52),3have made pos- based entirely upon f).lsedocuments would 'Would be other artists, they were not totally wrong, par- sible new interpretations ofthe artist's career. like (p. r 5). he have been asamused by ticularly in regard to his early career. Raphael Sadly, however, Shearman's Corpus doesn't what a student's chronology of Raphael's life seemed to need models to emulate and sur- acfually tell us very much more about based on this publication might be like? There pass. His syncretic method, by which he Raphael than we knew already. There are would be much that was good and uncon- selected from al1 available models, painting new documents in this book (for instance, tentious, but Raphael would be said to have techniques, lighting, figure moti6, poses, those connected with Alberrinelli, supplied by been in Rome in rso2/o3; in r5o4 the only 'Signed landscape motifi, backdrops, accoutrements Louis Waldman), and it is extremely useful to entry would read and dated The Spos- and cosfumes may make him particularly have them gathered together in one place (if alizio in Citti di Castello (now Milan, Brera)',6 'gilded interesting in an age of multivalent informa- not in one volume), but we do not have the wh.ile in r5o8 Raphael would have a tron. What Raphael can teach our age is his kind of material relating to Raphael that we metal garland for Michelangelo's Dauid and unique senseof quality, by which he selected have, for example, for Michelangelo: two painted a Madonna for the Audience-Cham- what he needed to form his own style and autograph letters for the former versus r,4oo ber of the Nove in thePalazzo Vecchio'. which determined everything he made. Since to or from the latter. There are several reasons These three examples are at the core of the Raphael's art has become a synonym for the for this scarcity of biographical material. problemwith a compendium ofthis nature: in classicalideal, it is with this messagethat the There is no evidence that Raphael kept a the first case Shearman followed a disputed 'classic'wi]l notion of continue to be valid. written archive, while it is quite clear that interpretation, in the second he excluded a Michelangelo kept letten as well as financial much-discussed document, and in the third ' The authon refrailed fiom giving the provenanceof accounts. Raphael also had a relatively small he included a contentious newcomer. In each the works ir the exhibition md relegated those of the family (no living parents or siblings to write case Shearman's commentary is much more National Gallery's pahtings to Nicholas Pemy's contri- to), and in one letter he makes it clear that he nuanced, but the final conclusion, or at leastthe bution. did not much like writing letters anyway.+ ostensibleconclusion, is worthy of comment. ' Sheaman: Raphael in eaily modern sources- J. Shearman, as his tide makes clear, decided ln 1977, Shearman proposed that Raphael t48j-t6oz, New Haven and London zoo3; see the to publish not just documents dating from visited Rome in r5oz--o3 and again in 15o6.z review in this issueon pp.69G-98 below. 'V/hile Raphael's liferime, : See M. Mena Marqu6s, ed.: exh. crt. Rafael en but also material dating this reviewer is not especially resistant to Espafia,Madrid (Museo del Prado) 1985. from the eighty years that followed the artist's the idea, the philological proof (in which, + SeeSheaman, oqt.cit. (note 2), pp.g7-98. death (these documents and sources make up incidentally, Shearman's position has changed j A new presentation of the drawings of Perugino and more than two thirds of the book). lt is over time)8 is difFsult to accept. I cannot see Raphael in theseyears, oudined in the present writer's questionable if it was really worth reprinting how tJre relevant phrase in Raphael's (and lecture'Raphael md Perugino'at the Raphael Slmpo- Vasari's r55o and 1568 lives here - they are Castiglione's) letter to Leo X (pp.Soo-+S) - 'poi sium held at the Nacional Gallerv. London. in Novem- readily available elsewhere and Shearman did ch'io sono in Roma' followed by a varying ber zoo4, is forthcoming. not attempt to comment on their texts as he number of yean depending on which manu- did for other documents and sources - but script one is reading - can be related to any- much of this posthumous material is fascinat- thing other than the artist's definitive transfer to Raphael in Early Modern Sources ing and opens up new lines of inquiry; for Rome in r5o8.e Sirnilarly, the relegation to the (1483-16oz). ByJohn Shearman. 2 vols. xii + example, the will of Cardinal Ferrero made in section of false documents of the letter from 'il 1706 pp. with 37 b. & w. ills. flale Univenity 1584 which leaves quadro della Madonna di Giovanna Feltria della Rovere of rst October Press, London and New Flaven, zoq, d7). Rafaeled'Urbino ched in Roma' to his executor, r5o4 in which Raphael is recommended to ISBN o-3oo-o99r8-j. Virgilio Crescenzi (pp.r3o9-ro). Virgilio's Soderini and said to wish to'stare qualchetempo son, Pier Paolo (1572-1645, from 16rr a in Fiorenzaper imparare',runs the risk of being Reviewedby TOM HENRY cardinal), apparendy owned Raphael's Sr taken as definitive (pp:a57-62). Yet, as Catherine,now in the National Gallery, Lon- Shearman's four-page commentary on this cRowE AND cAVALCASELLE's description of don, in the early seventeenth century (the pic- document makes clear, the case against its Raphael's pursuit of artistic perfection can ture has a wax sealon the reverse which could authenticity is not proved, even if Shearman - 'no reasonably be applied to John Shearman's only belong to this cardinal or Iessprobably himself entertained doubt that the letter is a thirry-yean' pursuit of Raphael documents: - to Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi; Fig.36).s lf forgery' (p.r3). In the absenceof a manuscript 'Between lJrbino and Rome ffor which read these picrures were identical it might provide that can be properly studied, it is very hard to Aldenhot and Harvard], the poles of his exis- some early provenance for the St Catherine? assesssuch anomalies as speaking of Giovanni tence, he wandered with but one apparent While the subjects do not match, Raphael's Santi (who died in August r4g4) n the present pulpose in life, the pu{pose - diligently pur- Catherine could have been mistaken for an tense (p.r457), but it must be acknowledged sued and never abandoned - of studying enraptured Madonna, and the Crescenzi con- that, if it is a fake, it brilliandy anticipates gen- everlthing that had been done by others nection is striking. Altematively the farnily uine documentation that was published only before him, of assimilating the good and elim- may have owned two paintings by Raphael, subsequendy.roThis is not to tum a blind eye inating the bad amongst the numerous exam- which would be equally interesting. to the document's deficiencies, but keeping an ples which had come within his ken." It is a pity that the author is no longer with open mind in the absenceof a manuscript. Some idea of Shearman's extraordinary us, so that one could debate some ofthe more The case for identifying Raphael as the 'RffieIIo odyssey may be gleaned from his ninety-nine contenlious points contained in these fwo di Giovanni dipintore' gilding metal- 'per page bibliography and the philological and volumes. He would have been the first to work and receiving forty-two kre una historiographical commentaries which fol- aglee that this publication would be a failure Nostra Donna' in r5o8 was originally pub- Iow each document included in this monu- ifit acted as an obstacle to further research or lished by Francesco Caglioti; Louis Waldman 'I mental piece of scholarship, which runs to reflection, writing, have never felt that it is instead idenrifies this artist as the Florenrine over r,7oo pages,and a measure ofits impor- a mark of respect to suspend criticism' (p.r). Raffaello di Giovanni Riccomani.rr Shear- tance is the impossibility of returning to This is all the more important because books man's commentary on these documents Vincenzo Golzio's earlier corpus of Raphael of this type tend to act as comerstones (or as makes it clear that he did not believe that they 'our documents and sources, first published bible' to borrow Shearman's descriotion refer to Raphael, and it was therefore an 696 ocroBER 2oo6 cxLvrrr . THE BURLTNGToN MAGAzTNE -e BOOK RTVIIWS reveal strong Flemish influence, the one in its status of the painting, may always have served And ifbefore, then we would have to associ- motifs, the other in its sharp and enamel-like only to give texture to the green wall cloth ate him very closely with Perugino before he technique.