Raphael and Castiglione's Friendship

The letter, published by Ludovico Dolce in 1554, was written by Raphael in 1514 to Baldassare Castiglione, a humanist literate, diplomat, courtier and famous author of The Book of the Courtier. Only five years older than Rapahel, he became friend of the artist in 1504 while he was visiting Urbino and their friendship lasted until Rapheal’s death. In a letter to Cardinal Bibbiena, Pietro Bembo recalls the good moments he had while travelling with Castiglione and Raphael on excursions into the Tivoli countryside to visit Roman antiquities which were being unearthed. This episode not only shows the familiarity of their relationship, but also suggests how their friendship was cemented by the common interest in the study of the antiquity. It is no coincidence, therefore, that Raphael chooses to address this letter to the Count: he could resort to his knowledge and intellectual support.

The topics touched upon in this letter are not entirely new in the cultural milieu of those years. The perfection of the arts achieved in the classical era, the figure of the artist striving through his efforts (fatiche) to the ideal beauty of the ancient times and the illuminating example of Vitruvius are all themes found also in Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Commentaries and in Leon Battista Alberti’s De Re Aedificatoria, both written around fifty years earlier. In this letter, nevertheless, the artist expresses questions which seem to go beyond the vision of his predecessors. Are the classical models still inspiring examples in the artist’s time? Is there any continuity between the ancient past and the concurrent times in which Raphael lived?

To answer these questions, we first need to define the peculiarities of the context in which Raphael conceived the letter. At the time of the letter, he had been living in Rome for five years already. When he moved there in 1509 A.D. he came in direct contact with the legacy of ancient Rome: glorious ruins were unearthed, admired and studied and the classical buildings discovered represented a great technical challenge for the artists. It is worth mentioning the scale of the discoveries at that time: at the end of the15th century the Domus Aurea was discovered. The Hadrian Villa, which had been almost forgotten during the Middle Ages , is being excavated. In 1506 was discovered the Laocoön Group that was later placed in the Belvedere Garden at the Vatican.

When he moved to Rome, he could also have admired Bramante’s Tempietto and Palazzo Caprini, which, by that time had been finished, while the major works of the other architect for the Belvedere and Saint Peter’s were still in progress.

In the city of Rome, Raphael was also involved in the ambitious projects of urban renovation promoted by Pope Julius II. On the 1st of August 1514, after the death of Bramante, he was nominated magister operis of Saint Peter’s.

“The Holy Father, in honouring me, has laid a heavy burden upon my shoulders: the direction of the work at St.Peter’s. I hope, indeed, I shall not sink under it”. Raphael uses the image of a burden that, at the same time, makes him proud and worries him. It should be noted that, throughout the letter, the artist resorts to the conventional formulas of captatiobenevolentiae. His sense of being “small” in comparison to the great task he has been give, should be read also as a form of captatiobenevolentiae. Even the expressions of high esteem towards the count, as opposed to the humble tone he uses when referring to his own works or capacities, are a rhetorical expedient used to praise the intellectual qualities of his addressee and gain his benevolence. Raphael states, for instance, that he would feel a “great master” only in half of the compliments about his painting Galatea were true. It is finally worth noticing how very often he uses verbs with a dubitative hue, such as “I am afraid of”, “I hope”, “nor do I know whether”, which reflect the modesty of the artist in expressing his own thoughts or judgments.

Nevertheless, the image of the “burden”carries a powerful metaphorical meaning and should not be read only as a rhetorical device. Apart from the audacity and the scale of St. Peter’s project, which undoubtedly represents for the artist a great technical challenge, it is with amoral responsibility that Raphael has to deal with. We should remember that, in order to build the new St. Peter’s basilica, Julius II took the drastic decision of demolishing the old one. This was a very venerable site, built in the V century over the place where Saint Peter had been martyred. How does the ideal of restoring the artistic and moral heritage of the past coincide with the necessary destruction of part of it? This passage contains the seeds of an idea that Raphael will fully develop in his letter to Pope Leo X in 1519.

“Rome was so noble and so powerful that men believed her to be (…) above all fortune and beyond nature, exempt from death and destined to endure forever”.

Raphael follows:“But my thoughts rise still higher. I should like to revive the handsome forms of the buildings of the ancient”.

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“Vitruvius affords me much light, but not sufficient”. In this passage becomes evident the distance separating Raphael’s conception with the vision of Leon Battista Alberti or Ghiberti. The example of past alone is not enough to proceed further. There is a sense that the aspiration towards the classical ideals has reached a peak above and the artist is not imitating the past, but creating something new.

“I used to marvel and at the same time grieve that so many excellent and superior arts and sciences from our most vigorous antique past could now seem lacking and almost wholly lost”