Raphael at the Vatican
Horace Vernet (1789-1863) · 1832
In a courtyard of the Vatican the young Raphael, seated with a drawing board, sketches a peasant woman who holds her children, the living model for one of his Madonnas. Pupils gather around him to watch. On the steps behind, an older, bearded man in working clothes passes with his head down and a box under his arm: Michelangelo, who has no time for the crowd. Higher up, the pope and his court look on, and through the arches the Roman light pours in over the whole scene.
Vernet painted the canvas in Rome in eighteen thirty two, signing it there, while he was director of the French Academy at the Villa Medici. It is a picture about art itself: Raphael finding beauty in the everyday, Michelangelo solitary and severe, the two temperaments of the Renaissance set side by side. The costumes, the marble and the varied faces are handled with Vernet's usual speed and confidence. The state bought the painting from the artist on the fourth of February eighteen thirty three for fourteen thousand francs, and it was shown at the Salon of that year. It hung at the Luxembourg museum before coming to the Louvre.
Did You Know? Vernet painted the picture in Rome while he was director of the French Academy there, and he gave the young Raphael the whole Renaissance as supporting cast.
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