"Raphael'S Hours."

It has been a discussion of long standing among art critics, as to whether Raphael ever painted the series of pictures, twelve in number, known as "Raphael's Hours," or even made the designs for them. No definite conclusion has as yet been reached; we can but give the various theories as to their history and describe the pictures. Our authority is drawn mainly from "Raphael: His Life and Works," by J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, and an extract from the "Journal of Speculative Philosophy," of 1877, translated from the German of Carl Clauss. According to Passavant ("Raphael," II., p. 353), the Hours were executed by some disciple of Raphael in the interior of a Roman Palace. A more modern writer, after quoting Passavant, affirms that the assumption of historians as to the place in which the Hours were displayed can be neither proved nor disproved, but that to affirm that they were in the Vatican, was equivalent to confounding them with another cycle of frescoes which Raphael left in the bath room of Cardinal Bibbiena. That the Hours are due to Raphael's disciples, there is no reason to doubt; that they had their origin in sketches made by Raphael himself is all the more probable, because none of his disciples were capable of creating figures so completely in the spirit of the antique, yet so fully impressed with the stamp of the Italian revival as are these. The question which still remains to be decided is where were these Hours placed, and how can it be shown that they were part of the decoration of the Sala Borgia at the Vatican. Previous to 1805-6, we learn from a rare print by Montagnani that the ceiling was decorated in a form different from that which we now see. It contained frescoes of the twelve figures of the Hours, in groups of three, on two sides of the rectangle, resting (as handed down to us in the copper plates engraved by Fosseyeux and his comrades in 1805 and 1806) not on the air, but on flowers rising from antique meanders. The point which is still obscure is, the time when the ceiling of the Sala Borgia was altered. The Hours were identical with antique figures engraved by Piranesi from the wall decorations at Herculaneum. It may be that the originals were at Herculaneum and were copied by Roman imitators before the opening of the Christian era. It is characteristic of the Hours, that some critics of the nineteenth century ascribed them to Raphael, while ignorance of the place in which they were executed was absolutely universal.

Many of Raphael's sketches for the Pompeiian style of wall decorations have come down to us in the form of copies by his scholars, or as drawings or engravings. To these last belong the well-known allegorical representations called "Raphael's Hours." These are supposed to be a part of the original decorations entitled "The All-conquering Power of Love," in a room of the Vatican (the so-called bath room of Cardinal Bibbiena); on similar grounds they are said to have been drawn in the Villa Spada on the Palatine Hill. But no trace of these paintings is to be found in either of these places. And, moreover, there is nothing known as to where the originals were found from which these copies were engraved; while all agree that they are not unworthy, for the most part, of the name of the great master. So much for the uncertain history; now for the pictures.

These pictures do not adopt our system of hours, but that of the Orientals, according to which the day, from sunrise to sunset, was divided into six hours, as was also the night from sunset to sunrise. The Hours are represented by twelve female figures gracefully draped and floating in space. They are supposed to depict the various moods which the different hours of the day and night produce in the minds of men. They are clearly distinguishable in character and wonderfully wrought out in form, and their rapid yet graceful motion suggests the flight of time.

The First Hour of the day, swift in flight and joyous, comes with high-held torch to awaken the sleepers; she holds in the loose folds of her robe the roses with which she daily adorns the southern gate of heaven.

With a beaming smile, holding in her extended hands the already ascended sun, floats the Second Hour over the awakened earth.

Under the sign of Jupiter, the shining one who rules in the regions of light, comes the Third Hour of the day. She bears in her hands a censer, reminding one of the offering to be brought to that god.

The Fourth Hour bears in her hands a sun dial which denotes the afternoon hours.

The Fifth Hour represents to us the departing day. In her left hand she holds a bunch of grain, the fruit of her creation; with the right she points to the rising moon.

The Sixth and last Hour of the day floats in with the twilight, bearing in one hand a flower greeting, in the other a bat, the symbol of wavering imagination and of the coming night.

The Hours of the night are, perhaps, more beautiful than those of the day. The first bears in one hand the sleep-inducing poppyheads,--in the other an owl, guardian of the night. Her face is filled with an expression of longing, as if she faintly remembered the pleasures of the day. The planet Mars, rising above her head in the background, betokens the many evils which threaten mankind during the night.

The Second Hour of the night is more strongly emblematic of the flight of time. With her right hand she holds aloft an hourglass, with her left the drapery which her swift motion disarranges.

The Third, or midnight Hour hovers under the sign of the planet Saturn, shielding with her dark raiment an animal of night.

The blessings of night are represented, in the Fourth Hour, by a winged figure crowned with flowers, pouring from an urn the blessings of dew.

The Fifth Hour, under the planet Venus, holds in her arms an owl, sacred to Minerva, goddess of wisdom,--this betokens the secrets which discover themselves to the inspired seeker in the stillness of night.

Finally, the Sixth Hour represents the sweet pictures which the dreams of early morning bring. Over her head is the planet Mercury, which, as morning star, appears before the sun. The butterfly wings of the figure and the singing swan on her arm suggest Psyche floating upward to her everlasting home.

The small panel pictures at the bases of the Hours are as beautiful as they are interesting. Their meaning may be easily traced. The swan (First Hour of Day), the dove (Second Hour of Day), and the ram (Fourth Hour of Day), are animals sacred to Venus. The bristly animals (Fourth Hour of Night) and the panther betoken the double nature of love; and the snake-teasing squirrel (First Hour of Night) its play with jealousy. The altar wound round with a snake (Fifth Hour of Day) signifies prosperity or health. The lizard before the urn containing diseases, evil dreams, etc. (First Hour of Night), is the good angel of the sleeper. The tripod with a flame watched by a cock (Sixth Hour of Night) is the altar of the Penates, or household gods, the symbol of peaceful home life. The meaning of the owl, which flies away before the emblems of the Arts, as also of the other animals with which the fancy of the painter plays, needs no further explanation. The arrangement of the pictures (the drawing of the figures on a dark background) is that of Pompeiian wall-paintings. The Hours are conceived in the spirit of the antique, yet in the general contour, in the beauty of the lines of motion, and particularly in the rendering of forms, there is more suggestive of Raphael than of the antique. Altogether, in the amount of beauty they unfold, the Hours furnish a rich fountain of art enjoyment. An American calling on Mary Cowden Clarke (to whom we owe the Shakespearean master-key), at her Villa Novello in Genoa, found the hall of entrance frescoed with large copies of these Hours, which are sure to be more and more reproduced. If not from Raphael's hand, these fairy-like creations are surely after his heart.