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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 4
Lesson 5: Raphael- Raphael, an introduction
- Raphael and his drawings
- Raphael, Marriage of the Virgin, 1504
- Raphael, Madonna of the Goldfinch
- Raphael, La belle jardinière
- Raphael, School of Athens
- Raphael, School of Athens
- Raphael, Alba Madonna
- Raphael, Portrait of Pope Julius II
- Raphael, Galatea
- Raphael, Pope Leo X
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Raphael, Galatea
Raphael, Galatea, c. 1513, fresco, Villa Farnesina, Rome, 9' 8" x 7' 5". Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- Why was Polyphemus chasing Galatea?(8 votes)
- Actually he is singing a song to her as she rides away making fun of him.(14 votes)
- Did Rome go through a similar "cleansing" of the secular subjects in art as did Florence under Savonarola's influence prior to the high renaissance? If so, when did the secular or classical subjects re-emerge in these grand commissions?(6 votes)
- No, Rome did not experience a cleansing of secular subjects that Florence experienced under Savonarola's rule. Savonarola was a religious extremist and held multiple "bonfires of the vanities" where art cosmetics and other items he viewed as vanities were collected and publicly burned. Pope Alexander VI actually intervened and excommunicated Savonarola from the church because of his increasing influence and extreme beliefs. That being said once the Counter-Reformation began art censorship did effect Roman art. The most famous example being Michelangelo's Last Judgement fresco. Most secular/classical subjects were intended for private residences. This work for example is a private commission by Agostino Chigi and not a public work of art.(2 votes)
- Did people back in the Renaissance not know what dolphins look like, or are the two dolphins in the painting intentionally exaggerated and unrealistic?(3 votes)
- Here are some thoughts: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/5323526/A-School-of-Dolphins-by-Charles-Avery-review.html
And here are some more: https://suite.io/suzanne-hill/9bs211
Long story short - it seems that people did not know very much about dolphins, and the little knowledge that was held was of a 'mythological nature'. Raphael may have been defaulting to the old notion of the dolphin as a monster associated with the underworld - the story of Polyphemus, Acis and Galatea is not a merry one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acis_and_Galatea_(mythology)).(2 votes)
- How old are these buildings?(2 votes)
- According to Wikipedia, the Villa Farnesina was built between 1506-1510 for Agostino Chigi, a banker and treasurer of Pope Julius II. Later it was acquired by the Farnese family.
Check out the Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Farnesina(3 votes)
- Where is Polyphemus in the painting? What was Galatea doing on the island of Polyphemus?(2 votes)
- Polyphemus is in the painting to the left of this, she was visting the island of Polyphemus.(1 vote)
- When was this video published(1 vote)
- Cite this page as: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "Raphael, Galatea," in Smarthistory, December 6, 2015, accessed May 13, 2017, https://smarthistory.org/raphael-galatea/.(1 vote)
- was Polyphemus chasing Galatea or singing to her?(1 vote)
- How old are the paintings ?(1 vote)
- Well, just do the simple math. Subtract 1513, when the fresco was painted, away from this year. Then, you will can get the answer to your question.(1 vote)
- This villa looks huge, how many people would actually go and stay there back in the day?(0 votes)
- I don't know that it was open to the public but from the pic I think you could fit about 150(0 votes)
Video transcript
(lively music) Dr. Steven Zucker: Rome
gets hot in the summer, and the wealthy would
build villas, that is, country houses just
outside the city's walls. Dr. Beth Harris: We're
in one of those retreats, the Villa Farnesina, and we've
walked through a lovely garden. Dr. Zucker: We're in this
long room that's open to the river and lets the
breezes flow through, cooling the hot summer airing room. Dr. Harris: Framing the
windows are decorative frescoes and scenes of
Italianate landscapes; and on the ceiling, frescoes that tell us in astrological symbols the birthdate of the patron, whose name was Chigi. He's a wealthy banker who managed the financial affairs of the
papacy, of Pope Julius II, who is just north,
building a new St. Peter's. Dr. Zucker: I'm not sure that I would use the word "wealthy" for Chigi. I think "fabulously wealthy"
would be more appropriate. The most famous painting in the villa is by Raphael: Galatea. Dr. Harris: Galatea was a sea nymph. She was chased in the scene by Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant who makes an appearance in Homer's Odyssey, but also
in other mythic stories. Dr. Zucker: The painting
by Raphael shows this nude who's got this wonderful tortion, that shows of Raphael's
really superb knowledge of the anatomy of the human body. Dr. Harris: I think of
this pose as so typically high Renaissance in its complexity. We can see this spyro twisting of the body also in Michaelangelo's
slaves from about this time. She's riding on a seashell,
being pulled by dolphins. Dr. Zucker: As if that
wasn't enough, you have wind whipping to her right,
so that her hair and the drapery is pushing
out almost horizontally, to the right, whereas her arms are holding the dolphins' reins to
the left; and so there's this wonderful accentuated tortion. Dr. Harris: I think you
see that through the whole composition, of kind of
pulling in one direction, and then pulling in another. If we look at the sea
nymphs and sea creatures that surround her, they
also seem to move out, pulling her in different directions. Dr. Zucker: Well, there are
these different stresses. For instance, the nymph in the foreground is trying to move to
her left, but is being restrained by that male figure. Dr. Harris: The figures in the background move in opposing directions. Dr. Zucker: For all that movement, this is not a baroque painting. This is a high Renaissance painting, and so there is still a
sense of clarity and order. Dr. Harris: In fact, a
kind of sense of a pyramid. Dr. Zucker: Galatea
herself is framed by three groups of figures: you have the nymphs and the dolphins on the right; you have that angelic figure, perhaps
cupid, in the foreground; the nymphs on the left. Then you have three putti at the top, each with their bows
drawn and looking as if their arrows will be loosed on her. Dr. Harris: There really
is movement and spiraling, but also, simultaneously,
stability and balance. Dr. Zucker: There's also playfulness. Look up at the putti again,
with the bows and arrows. There's actually a fourth, with a quiver, who's hiding behind a
cloud, seeming as if he perhaps is scheming and
planning this attack. Dr. Harris: Or maybe he's supplying the arrows to the other three cupids. The figures remind me of Michaelangelo. I mean, look at how
Raphael is accentuating the musculature of Galatea, and also the back muscles of those sea creatures. There's real interest in
physicality and musculature here that's very different
from a similar image by Botticelli of The Birth
of Venus, where we have a female nude rising from the sea. Dr. Zucker: And so, unlike the Botticelli, which is so dependent on
line, there's real use of light and shadow, of
chiaroscuro, here to really accentuate the musculature of the body. Dr. Harris: The figures
have weight, unlike the weightless forms that Botticelli gives us. Dr. Zucker: Well, they
also move through space in a way that Botticelli's figures don't because they're so flat and so decorative. Look, for instance, at
the large male figure in the lower left, and the way his shoulder comes out towards us. That's not something that you would see in those more decorative
paintings by Botticelli. So, I think we shouldn't be taking these paintings too seriously. I mean, they're a beautiful
expression, of course, of the high Renaissance
interest in the classical, but this is really about pleasure. It's about wealth and love. Dr. Harris: And those themes relate to the interest of the patron. Dr. Zucker: He has built this lavish villa that he can enjoy, and so can we. (lively music)