The Academy,Vol.Ill,No.61,
1S72,Dez.1, S. 445-447
CxMttn's Life of Raphael. [Das Lebtn Raphaels von Urbina.
^Italiani&cher Text von Vasari. Uebcrsetzung und Commentar
von Herman Grimm. Erster Theil.] Berlin: Dummler.
Herman- Grimm’s contribution to Raphaelesque literature
is an instalment of a larger work. It comprises Vasari’s
life of Raphael, turned, we knew not why, into modern
Italian by Professor Tobler, and the same text conveniently
divided into chapters, reprinted in Italic fragments and com-
.merited at considerable length. Grimm’s purpose seems to
be, at some future period, to write a biography of Raphael
j for which these commentaries shall be a book of reference,
! enabling him to dispense with notes and tell his story with-
; out further interruption. PI is views and arguments will, he
1 doubtless thinks, have been exhaustively put, and the reader
will thus take the benefit of a continuous narrative which—
we may surely predict—will have more than the usual attrac
tions of Grimm’s manner.
The questions which prominently arise as we read this
first volume of commentary are important. Does Grimm
exhaust the materials, artistic and literary, at his command,
and does he make such use of them as will preclude the
necessity of commenting his own commentary?
None who peruse this work with a previous, knowledge of
the subject will deny the vast reading, the comprehensive
grasp of sources, and the subtlety 7 with which conclusions are
drawn. It is striking with what clearness problems of per
plexing intricacy are treated ; and it may be admitted that i
there is a natural plausibility even in the solutions from 1
which we feel bound to dissent.
Nothing appears more interesting, in our opinion, than j
the short but telling essays in which Grimm, with the help !
of engravings and photographs, sketches the gradual trans
formation of Raphael’s compositions, from their first im
perfect conception to their final completion. We note in the
course of these excursions a judicious and close criticism
enlivened and adorned by sparkling lightness of style.
Guided by a casual observation of the Abbe du Los
which escaped earlier research, Grimm is enabled to name
almost all the figures in the “ School of Athens"; and it is
probable that he might have gone further had he not been
restrained by considerations which have since been al ly
combated by Scherer.* Sidonius Apollinaris and Marsilio
Ficino’s Plato are the true and only sources from which
Raphael’s literary friends derived the subject of the “ School
of Athens”; and it will be difficult for future writers to
contend that this vast and noble composition contains a
single figure connecting the philosophers of Greece with
the apostles and fathers of the Christian faith. d e think,
indeed, that here it will be necessary lor Grimm to sur
render his position as a trimmer between two itiflerent
schools and to assert a decided and final opinion ot nis own.
There is much again that commands attention in the
parallel, frequently drawn, between Raphael and the heioes
of the Tuscan schools of his time, Lionardo, bra Barto
lommeo, and Michael Angelo; for though here and theie
something might be brought forward to modify his tews and
bring his thoughts into a different channel, Ins opinions
might be maintained with very little further expansion or
modification.
On one or two questions of moment, it may be nece.v-aiy
to express the belief that Grimm will not be precluded from
the necessity of making concessions, and we may be deli
berately compelled to assert that it is impossible for a
* W. Scherer's Uclvr Raphael's Sciatic -on A then (-- pages, Vienna, iS.-aj has
r.n important complement to tins volume of Grimm s commentaries.