A Second Look at Raphael: Sublime Poetry

Head of an Angel in Profile View (Cartoon Fragment for the Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, Stanza di Eliodoro), ca. 1512, charcoal, black chalk, traces of white gouache highlights, outlines pricked for transfer of the design, on two glued sheets of paper; with restoration

See Part I, Part III

Following my earlier reflections on Raphael: Sublime Poetry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this second set of images offers a return to the work of the Urbinese master.

The exhibition continues to reward attention. What may seem immediately clear at first glance deepens on a second look—there is a quiet order and balance that becomes more apparent the longer one lingers. These works do not overwhelm; they draw the viewer in steadily, almost imperceptibly.

(L) Heads of Two Apostles ("Auxiliary Cartoon" for the Oddi Altarpiece), ca. 1503-4, black chalk drawn freehand over pounce marks (spolvero underdrawing), with unrelated designs in pounce marks (spolvero, on paper, Raphael. (R) Head of an Apostle (Saint James; "Auxiliary Cartoon" for the Oddi Altarpiece), ca. 1503-4, black chalk drawn freehand over pounce marks (spolvero underdrawing), on paper, Raphael

(L) Studies for the Battle of Anghiari Cartoon and the Proportions of the Head, ca. 1490-95; 1503-5, pen and two hues of brown ink (lighter color later reworked with black-brown ink), over traces of preliminary stylus work, soft black chalk, and red chalk, on paper, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). (R) Composition Sketches for the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, with and without the Infant Saint John the Baptist; Diagram of a Perspectival Projection, ca. 1482-85, silverpoint, partly reworked by the artist with pen and brown ink on paper prepared pink; lines ruled with metalpoint, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

(L) The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (Studies for the Madonna of the Meadow), ca. 1506, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache (partly oxidized), over preliminary stylus underdrawing; red chalk (sketch at upper left; over a faint grid marked with compass or caliper points, on paper, Raphael. (R) The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (Study for the Madonna of the Meadow); Fragmentary Studies of Drapery, ca. 1506, red chalk over preliminary stylus underdrawing, on paper, Raphael

(L) Psyche Presenting the Phial of Water to Venus (Study for a Pendentive in the Loggia di Psiche, Villa Farnesina), ca. 1517-18, slightly purplish red chalk over extensive stylus underdrawing, on paper, Raphael. (R) The Phrygian Sibyl (Early Idea for the Chigi Chapel, Santa Maria della Pace), ca. 1511-13, red chalk over preliminary stylus underdrawing, some black chalk, on paper, Raphael

(L) Mother and Child (Study for the Madonna della Seggiola), ca. 1512-15, metalpoint, highlighted in white gouache, on paper prepared gray; outlines stylus-incised by a later hand, Raphael. (R) Bust of a Seated Young Woman in Profile, ca. 1503, black chalk over preliminary stylus underdrawing, slight retouching by another hand in pen and brown ink, with traces of white gouache highlights, on paper, Raphael

(L) Young Woman in Half-Length, ca. 1503-5, black chalk on paper, Raphael. (R) Study of a Female Saint in Half-Length (Saint Catherine?), ca. 1504, black chalk over preliminary stylus underdrawing, on paper, Raphael

(L) The Heads of the Virgin and Child (Sheet from the "Pink Sketchbook"), ca. 1507-9, probably two types of metalpoint on paper prepared pink, Raphael. (R) Head of a Young Woman in Three-Quarter View, Looking Down (Study for the Figure of Charity, Sala di Costantino), ca. 1519-20, charcoal, soft grayish black chalk, and denser black chalk, slight accenting of deep shadows with wetted black chalk, with traces of white gouache highlights (now sunken) and fine stylus-incised outlines, on beige paper, Raphael

(L) The Seated Virgin and Child, ca. 1501-3, pen and brown ink over abundant, soft grayish black-chalk underdrawing, on paper, Raphael. (R) Composition Study for the Holy Family with Saints and a Pomegranate, ca. 1507-8, pen and brown ink over leadpoint underdrawing, squared in red chalk, on paper; upper portion of the sheet outlined like an arch, with the field colored in blue gouache, Raphael