[Illustration: FIG. 44.--SAINT CECILIA LISTENING TO THE SINGING OF ANGELS. _By Raphael._]
Raphael left two hundred and eighty-seven pictures and five hundred and seventy-six studies and drawings, and all done in so short a life. In considering him and the story of his life, we find that it was not any one trait or talent that made his greatness; but it was the rare union of gifts of genius with a personal charm that won all hearts to him. His famous picture of "St. Cecilia," with its sweetness of expression and lovely color--its union of earthly beauty with spiritual feeling, is a symbol of the harmonious and varied qualities of this prince of painters (Fig. 44).
GIULIO ROMANO (1492-1556) was the favorite pupil of Raphael, and the heir of a part of his estate; but his remaining works would not repay us for a study of them.
Of course, the influence of so great a master as Raphael was felt outside of his own school, and, in a sense, all Italian art of his time was modified by him. His effect was very noticeable upon a Sienese painter, BAZZI, or RAZZI, called IL SODOMA (1477-1549), who went to Rome and was under the immediate influence of Raphael's works. He was almost unrivalled in his power to represent beautiful female heads.
His important works were frescoes, many of which are in the churches of Siena. Doubtless Bazzi was lost in the shadow of the great Raphael, and had he existed at a time a little more distant from that great man, he would have been more famous in his life.
During the sixteenth century the Venetian school reached its highest excellence. The great difference between it and the school of Florence was, that the latter made beauty of form the one object of its art, while the Venetian painters combined with grace and ease the added charm of rich, brilliant color.
GIORGIO BARBARELLI, called GIORGIONE (1477-1511), was the first great artist of Venice who cast off the rigid manner of the Bellini school, and used his brush and colors freely, guided only by his own ideas, and inspired by his own genius.
He was born at Castelfranco, and was early distinguished for his personal beauty. Giorgione means George the Great, and this title was given him on account of his noble figure. He was fond of music, played the lute well, and composed many of the songs he sang; he had also an intense love of beauty--in short, his whole nature was full of sentiment and harmony, and with all these gifts he was a man of pure life. Mrs. Jameson says of him: "If Raphael be the Shakspeare, then Giorgione may be styled the Byron of painting."