RAPHAEL. "The APHAEL was born at Urbino, on Good Friday, March 28th, 1483. His father, Giovanni Sanzio, an indifferent painter, instructed him in the rudiments of drawing, while Pietro Perugino perfected him in his studies, and predicted his future eminence. He became distinguished while yet a youth; when only sixteen years old, he surprised the artists of Perugia, with his "Crowning of the Virgin," "The Crucifixion." "The Virgin lifting the veil from the infant Saviour," and Marriage of the Virgin," in all of which the dawn of his greatness was visible, though the manner of Perugino predominated. Of a second "Marriage of the Virgin," Lanzi, in his account of the ancient painters, thus speaks of it :"The composition very much resembles that which he adopted in a picture of the same subject in Perugia, but there is sufficient of modern art in it to indicate the commencement of a new style. The two espoused have a degree of beauty which Raphael scarcely surpassed in his mature age in any other countenances. The Virgin, particularly, is a model of celestial beauty. A youthful band, festively adorned, accompany her to the espousals; splendour vies with elegance; the attitudes are engaging, the veils variously arranged, and there is a mixture of ancient and modern drapery, which, at so early a period, cannot be considered as a fault. In the midst of these accompaniments, the principal figure triumphantly appears, not ornamented by the hand of art, but distinguished by her native nobility, beauty, modesty, and grace. The first sight of this performance strikes us with astonishment, and we involuntarily exclaim, How divine and noble the spirit which animated her heavenly form!" It is related of Michael Angelo, that when he first looked on the works of his rival Raphael, he exclaimed, "This excellence comes not from nature, but from study and application,' It would be difficult, however, to name an artist in whose works nature and study are so beautifully united; he founded all his compositions in nature; he wrought from the living model, but adorned it from his own wondrous fancy: all that he touched rose immediately into grace and divinity. This is the charm of the works of Raphael; all is graceful and god-like; there is nothing mean, nothing little, either in shape or sentiment; yet all is natural, though ideal; he never rises out of the region of human sympathy; he makes man great and noble, covers him with manly beauty, and breathes into him a spirit worthy of heaven. Having left proofs of his genius at Sienna and at Florence, Raphael hastened to Rome, whither he was invited by Pope Julius the Second, who was not insensible to the merits of a painter in whose works a higher divinity than usual was visible. He was conducted into the Vatican, and desired to imagine decorations for those superb apartments called La Segnatura. This agreeable task he performed with such readiness and success, that Julius ordered all the other paintings on the walls of his palace to be obliterated and replaced by the productions of Raphael. In obedience to this flattering mandate, he painted in the first compartment, "the Dispute on the Sacrament;" on the second, "the School of Athens ;" on the third, "Justinian delivering the Civil Law to Trebonianus ;" and in the fourth, he has represented" Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus," surrounded by Greek, Latin, and Italian poets; Homer is placed between Virgil and Dante. These works, and others of equal merit, filled Rome with wonder. He was subsequently employed by Leo the Tenth, who highly honoured him. The divine Cartoons of Raphael, which the fine taste of the first Charles enriched this country with, were sold for three hundred pounds when the parliament overthrew the king, and dispersed his works of art; the Restoration placed them in the royal gallery, but they returned with their original lustre diminished; having been exposed to wind and rain, tossed about from place to place, and cut down by profane hands to fit them to one of their abodes; so that it is altogether wonderful that any traces are seen of their original splendour and beauty. That they are greatly changed from what they were even a huudred years ago, is evident from the heads in the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, which were cut out from one of them that was nearly destroyed by some accident, and from the large French engravings of single heads done about the same time, which are as finished and correct as possible. A skeleton is barely left of the Cartoons; but their mighty relics tell us what the entire fabric must have been. The last, and perhaps greatest work of Raphael, is the "Transfiguration of Christ." He has delineated the disciples of our Lord at the foot of Mount Tabor, seeking in vain to relieve a youth possessed of an evil spirit; horror, doubt, and pity, seem to sway them by turns; above them, Jesus is revealed in a sunburst of glory, with Moses and Elias on his right hand and left; the three favoured apostles kneel in awe and astonishment on the ground. This truly divine work was all but finished, when a burning fever interposed, and carried him off on Good Friday, which was the day of his birth, 1520, when he had just completed his thirty-seventh year. His body lay in state in his studio; the picture of the "Transfiguration," was placed at his head, and cardinals honoured him by walking at his funeral. Leo the Tenth was not less sensible to his loss, which he regarded as a public disaster to Italy, and to the graphic world. At the request of this pope, Cardinal Bembo composed the following brief but expressive epitaph, to be inscribed on his tomb; "Ille his est Raphael, timuit quo sospite vinci Never was a spectacle more affecting; never was an artist so universally respected. The gentleness of his nature had attached him to every one. Just and generous to his contemporaries, though not ignorant of their intrigues, it was his custom to thank heaven that he was permitted to live at the same time with Michael Angelo. Generous and mild to his disciples, whom he loved and instructed as his children; courteous even to those who were unknown to him, he constantly assisted with his counsel all who applied to him for advice and instruction. He was remarkably handsome, both in feature and form, and so well beloved, that he never went abroad without a great number of followers. He lived and died single. La Bella Fornarina, a young beauty of Rome, to whom he was greatly attached, received as much of his fortune as made her independent. The fame of Raphael, high as it was in his own day, has increased rather than diminished in ours. J. M. T. JOHN CHURCHILL, DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. N the midst of the horrors of the civil wars was born, and in the midst of the vices of the restoration of Charles II. was educated, John Churchill, afterwards famous as Duke of Marlborough. His descent has been traced from heroes and statesmen, and many centuries of hereditary honours are called by his biographers to give dignity to his name; but without seeking for accessary dignity in the uncertain rolls of genealogy, John Churchill accumulated in his own person sufficient glory to have ennobled a whole race. It is, nevertheless, undoubted that his family was ancient and respectable. His father was a private gentleman of Wooten Bassett, in Wiltshire, and his mother was a daughter of Sir John Drake, of Ash, in Devonshire. The devoted adherence of his father to the royal cause during the civil wars, brought temporary ruin on his house; and the mother of the great general was forced to take refuge at the seat of his grandfather, where he was brought into the world on the 24th of June, 1650. With the Restoration, the property of his family returned; his father was knighted, sent to parliament, and employed in several offices of trust and emolument; and the young John Churchill, who was then a second son, was placed by Sir Winston Churchill under the eare of a clergyman of the church of England, who impressed his mind with those political and religious principles, which afterwards affected the whole course of his life. Anxious for his son's advancement, Sir Winston Churchill withdrew him, at the age of twelve, from the private mode of life in which he had hitherto been brought up; and, obtaining for him the place of page of honour to the Duke of York, afterwards James II., he plunged him at once into the midst of a dissolute and unprincipled court. Yet the young page yielded as little to its depravity as any of its actors; and he there acquired that grace of action and dignity of demeanour which, joined to high talent and personal beauty, rendered him the most distinguished man, not only of his country, but of his age. The society of the Duke of York, naturally of a fearless and warlike disposition, encouraged in the heart of Marlborough that military inclination of which he gave strong and early indications. At fifteen he received from the prince the commission of ensign in the guards, and volunteered his services against the Moors, who were then besieging Tangiers. In this expedition he first distinguished himself as a soldier. He returned to the court with honor; and, becoming intimate with the gallant, unhappy Duke of Monmouth, he obtained a company in his regiment, and followed him to France. At this time, Louis XIV. was preparing for that great expedition against Holland; and Charles II. had been induced to grant an auxiliary force of 6,000 men to support an overgrown power, and depress a nation which it was his best interest to uphold. Churchill marched with the English forces, and |