Raphael (1483–1520)

A painter of the Italian Renaissance admired for the balance and harmony of his compositions, and who had a major influence on art of the later Baroque period. Born in the town of Urbino, he was the son of a painter, Giovanni Santi, who was a court painter to the Duke of Urbino, Federigo da Montefeltro. After the death of his father in 1494, the eleven-year-old Raphael took on greater responsibility for managing the Santi workshop, and quickly developed a reputation as one of the best painters in Urbino. His earliest known works are paintings done for the Church of San Nicola in the nearby town of Castello. In 1500 Raphael apprenticed to the painter Pietro Vannucci, also known as Perugino, under whom he developed a striking, expressive personal style in a series of religious paintings, including the Marriage of the Virgin, and the Mond Crucifixion. Ambitious and hardworking, he moved to Florence in 1504, and soon came under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings as well as the works of Fra Bartolommeo. The Mona Lisa of Leonardo served as a model for Raphael's portraits of Agnolo and Maddalena Doni, which he completed in 1505. In Florence, Raphael painted a series of Madonnas in which he adopted Leonardo's sfumato method of soft contours as well as Leonardo's typical pyramid composition, with complex groups of figures rising to a single point. His most famous work from this period, the Entombment, borrowed ideas from Michelangelo's painting Battle of Cascina.

In 1508 Raphael left Florence for Rome, where he was engaged by Pope Julius II to decorate a series of rooms known as the Stanza della Segnatura. These fresco paintings, which the artist completed in 1511, were based on the subjects of theology, philosophy, poetry, and law. They include The Triumph of Religion and The School of Athens, one of the most important works of the late Renaissance, in which classical philosophers gesture and pose in a setting of opulent grandeur. Over the following years Raphael also painted frescoes in the Stanza d'Eliodoro that include The Expulsion of Heliodorus, The Miracle of Bolsena, The Repulse of Attila from Rome by Leo I, and the Liberation of St. Peter. In his studio he completed a series of famous Madonnas, including the Sistine Madonna, The Madonna of the Chair, Madonna with the Fish, and the Alba Madonna.

The work he completed at the Vatican spread Raphael's name and fame throughout Italy. In Rome, he presided over one of the city's busiest and most successful workshops. Raphael hired a large staff of assistants to complete the frescoes in the Stanza dell'Incendio and the Vatican loggias between 1514 and 1519. In this period he also created a series of ten cartoons (designs) of the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul for tapestries that were to decorate the Sistine Chapel. These drawings were sent to workshops in Brussels, Belgium, where they helped to spread his fame and painting style to northern Europe.

In the meantime, the pope engaged Raphael as his chief architect after the death of Donato Bramante in 1514. Raphael designed chapels in Sant' Eligio degli Orefici and Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, and a small section of the new Basilica of Saint Peter. He also designed several aristocratic palaces, adopting for them the classical style of Donato Bramante, adding detailed ornaments and flourishes that would become typical of later Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

In Rome Raphael also created several masterpieces of Renaissance portraiture, including famous paintings of Baldassare Castiglione, Pope Julius II, and the latter's successor, Pope Leo X. He collaborated with Marcantonio Raimondi in his printing shop to produce such engravings as The Massacre of the Innocents and Lucretia. These inexpensive prints were made by the thousands and circulated throughout Italy, making Raphael's name and works known to commoners as well as aristocrats. His largest painting, The Transfiguration, was still unfinished in 1520, when Raphael died suddenly at a young age and of mysterious causes.

See Also: Julius II; Leo X; Leonardo da Vinci; Michelangelo Buonarroti; painting