he could command symbolic meanings, where they were appropriate, for instance in his
frescos in the Vatican."--"The idea of the transcendental [in his Madonnas] is conveyed by
nothing but the purest beauty of woman and child. Art after one millennium and a half has
returned to that height where its creatures appear god-like by themselves, without special
attributes." ( J. Burckhardt.) Raphael's works, like Greek statues, do not evoke even the
supernatural by artificial means for fear of obscuring nature or of adulterating it.

Anton Raphael Mengs observed with great acuity how Raphael's ambition to render the
essence of nature guided his hand when he was drawing. "He always kept in mind the main
motif; first he considered proportion, then the basic forms, then the skeleton and movements,
the main muscles and sinews, and finally the smallest veins and even wrinkles when they
were to be found. In his works we are always aware of the essential forms which stand out in
clarity." This is a very analytical description of Raphael's procedure, and none of his draw-
ings proves that he actually proceeded in this fashion with method aforethought. But an at-
tentive contemplation of his drawings shows that Mengs, not a mean draughtsman himself,
interpreted shrewdly. His observations are borne out especially by some of the rapid sketches
(no 41 ). And, of course, the firm grasp of essential form, from the beginning, prevented Raph-
ael's figures from ever losing coherence, regardless of all the detail that might accumulate
during their further execution. His figures are nature seen in its essentials. Therefore they
are true and beautiful. "Et tout ce que forma l'adresse de sa main, porte un air noble et
grand qui semble plus que humain."

"Form to him was only a vehicle of character or pathos, and to those he adapted it in a
mode and with a truth, which leaves all attempts at emendation hopeless. His invention con-
nects the utmost stretch of possibility with the most plausible degree of probability, in a man-
ner, that equally surprises our fancy, persuades our judgment and affects our heart." Into these
sentences Fuseli gathered everything that has to be said about Raphael's expression. He found
his works to have breadth, so that they appeal to our intellect, our feeling and our taste. He
found truth in them: human nature rendered at its most characteristic, and its freakishness
ignored, "the utmost stretch of possibility with the most Plausible degree of probability."

He who does not see Raphael's expression does not even see Raphael. It is for expression's
sake that Raphael perfected himself in technique and studied nature. In fact, nature to him
was life; and life manifests itself in expression. He never painted or drew anything only be-
cause of its looks. Inanimate nature had no interest for him except when it served to under-
line the spectacle of the human soul which was his proper subject. And there is no poet who
depicted emotions and passions with a better understanding than he did.

It is a commonplace to refer to his Madonnas as the perfect representations of mother and
child. But it is worthwhile to examine them carefully, one by one, to discover how many vari-
ations Raphael could develop from this traditional theme. The means which he employed
were not new. Every conceit that he used seems to have been coined in the preceding cen-
tury; his Virgins recall those of Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Rossellino and the other
Florentines (no. 53). Leonardo and Michelangelo inspired him (nos. 25, 26 ). And yet, the
spirit of his Virgins is new: though grown in dignity, they are more human than those of the
older masters. They are not as precious as Desiderio's Madonnas; they do not have the sad-
ness of those by Donatello and Michelangelo. And Leonardo attained only in a few drawings

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