[Raphael] Williams, Mary E[lizabeth].

The Hours of Raphael in Outline – Together with the Ceiling of the Hall Where They Were Originally Painted.

Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1891. Large Folio (36.5 cm x 44 cm). 19 pages of text plus 16 plates. Illustrated Hardcover (green cloth with gilt lettering and ornament). The binding only slightly rubbed. Otherwise in excellent condition with only minor signs of external wear.

Mary Elizabeth Williams, artist and author, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 12, 1825, the second daughter and youngest of three children born to Willard and Betsey (Osgood) Williams. She was the sister of Dr. Henry W. Williams (1821-1895), the celebrated eye doctor, and Abigail Osgood Williams (1823-1913), with whom she lived and traveled for much of her life. Her father died circa 1833 and her mother two years later; she and her sister apparently then went to live with Mary Osgood, a relative on her maternal side, at the Osgood farm in South Salem.
Mary Elizabeth studied and taught art in Salem for many years. In 1860, she and her sister Abigail traveled to Rome, Italy, where they resided for 18 years (making an occasional return to their Salem home), studying and collecting art. Although primarily based in Rome during this period, Mary Elizabeth and Abigail traveled throughout Europe, visiting at some point England, Paris, Venice, and Florence. The two sisters took lessons in the Italian school of painting while in Rome, and made contact with many people of importance in the art world during this period.
Upon their return, Mary Elizabeth and Abigail resided on Lafayette Street in Salem, where they ran a gallery of art in their house. In approximately 1894, they took a trip through the Mediterranean, going up the Nile River in their own private boat, visiting Athens, the Dardanelles, and stopping at Constantinople. Mary Elizabeth never married. She died in Salem on September 15, 1902. (Phillips Library)

Abigail Osgood Williams, artist, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in October 1823 to Willard and Betsey (Osgood) Williams, and was the older sister and companion to Mary Elizabeth Williams. During the 1850s Abigail Williams helped run the house of her divorced brother, Dr. Henry W. Williams and his son, Charles H. Williams. In 1860, she traveled to Rome, Italy, with her sister, where they resided for 18 years. Upon their return Abigail lived with her sister in Salem until her death on April 26, 1913. (Phillips Library)

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (March 28 or April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking.

After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael’s more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. (Wikipedia)

• Keywords: Catalogue Four – International Art · Catalogue Three – Literature by Women · Catalogue Winter 2020 / 2021 · High Renaissance · History of Art – Rare · Illustrated Books Rare · Italian Art · Italian Culture · Italian History · Italian History – Rare · Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino known as Raphael · Renaissance · Renaissance – Rare · Renaissance Art · Women in Art
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 100306AB

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