Raphael
This first of the famous "Stanze" or "Raphael Rooms" to be painted, now known as the "Stanza della Segnatura" after its use in Vasari's time, was to make a stunning impact on Roman art, and remains generally regarded as his greatest masterpiece, containing "The School of Athens", "The Parnassus" and the "Disputa". Raphael was then given further rooms to paint, displacing other artists including Perugino and Signorelli. He completed a sequence of three rooms, each with paintings on each wall and often the ceilings too, increasingly leaving the work of painting from his detailed drawings to the large and skilled workshop team he had acquired, who added a fourth room, probably only including some elements designed by Raphael, after his early death in 1520. The death of Julius in 1513 did not interrupt the work at all, as he was succeeded by Raphael's last Pope, the Medici Pope Leo X, with whom Raphael formed an even closer relationship, and who continued to commission him. Raphael's friend Cardinal Bibbiena was also one of Leo's old tutors, and a close friend and advisor.
Transfiguration (Raphael)
The first descriptions of the painting after Raphael’s death in 1520 called the Transfiguration already a masterpiece, but this status evolved until the end of the 16th century. In his notes of a travel to Rome in 1577, the Spanish humanist Pablo de Céspedes called it the most famous oil-painting in the world for the first time. The painting would preserve this authority for more than 300 years. It was acknowledged and repeated by many authors, like the connoisseur François Raguenet, who analysed Raphael’s composition in 1701. In his opinion, its outline drawing, the effect of light, the colours and the arrangement of the figures made the Transfiguration the most perfect painting in the world.
Jonathan Richardson sen. and jun. dared to criticise the overwhelming status of the Transfiguration, asking if this painting could really be the most famous painting in the world: “Celui-cis est assurément le principal Tableau simple qu’il y ait à-present au Monde, & qui peut-être ait jamais été?” They criticised that the composition was divided into an upper and a lower half that would not correspond to each other. Also the lower half would draw to much attention instead of the upper half, while the full attention of the viewer should be paid to the figure of Christ alone.
This criticism did not diminish the fame of the painting, but provoked counter criticism by other connoisseurs and scholars. For the German speaking world, it was the assessment by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that prevailed. He interpreted the upper and the lower half as complementary parts. This assessment was quoted by many authors and scholars during the 19th century and thus the authority of Goethe helped to save the fame of the Transfiguration.