Raphael1483 - 1520
For centuries Raphael has been recognised as the supreme High Renaissance painter, more versatile than Michelangelo and more prolific than their older contemporary Leonardo. Though he died at 37, Raphael's example as a paragon of classicism dominated the academic tradition of European painting until the mid-19th century.
Raphael (Raffaello Santi) was born in Urbino where his father, Giovanni Santi, was court painter. He almost certainly began his training there and must have known works by Mantegna, Uccello, and Piero della Francesca from an early age. His earliest paintings were also greatly influenced by Perugino. From 1500 - when he became an independent master - to 1508 he worked throughout central Italy, particularly Florence, where he became a noted portraitist and painter of Madonnas.
In 1508, at the age of 25, he was called to the court of Pope Julius II to help with the redecoration of the papal apartments. In Rome he evolved as a portraitist, and became one of the greatest of all history painters.
He remained in Rome for the rest of his life and in 1514, on the death of Bramante, he was appointed architect in charge of St Peter's.
1. Raphael, self-portrait, c1506. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence.
2. Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian Man, c1490. Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice
3. Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1508-12. Vatican Palace, Vatican City
Raphael’s birthplace, Urbino
Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, was court painter. He almost certainly began his training there.
1. Pietro Perugino, The Virgin and Child with an Angel, 1496-1500, London, National Gallery.
2. Pietro Perugino, The Archangel Raphael with Tobias, 1496-1500, London, National Gallery.
Raphael, Fragments from the Baronci altarpiece, 1500-1. Museo di Capodimonte,
Naples
1. Raphael?, Madonna and Child, mid 1490s? Casa Raffaello, Urbino
2. Raphael, The Tempi Madonna, c1507-8. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
3. Raphael, The Terranuova Madonna, c1505. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
1. Raphael, Mond Crucifixion, 1502-3, London, National Gallery
2. Raphael, Ansidei altarpiece, 1505, National Gallery, London
2. Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503-6. Musée du Louvre, Paris
3. Raphael, Study for a Portrait of a Young Woman, c1505-6. Musée du Louvre, Paris
1. Raphael, Madonna of the Pinks, c1506-7, National Gallery, London.
2. Leonardo da Vinci, Benois Madonna, c1478. Hermitage, St Petersburg
1. Attr. Cesare da Sesto, after Leonardo, Leda and the Swan, c1515. Wilton House,
Salisbury
2. Raphael, drawing of Leda and the Swan, c1505-7. The Royal Collection.
3. Raphael, St Catherine of Alexandria, c1507. National Gallery, London.
4. Raphael, The Triumph of Galatea c1512. Villa Farnesina, Rome
1. Raphael, Studies for the Alba Madonna, c1509-11. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille.
2. Raphael, Alba Madonna, c1509-11. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
3. Raphael, The Entombment (detail), 1507. Galleria Borghese, Rome
4. Michelangelo, Doni Tondo, c 1505-6? Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence
1. Raphael, The Ecstasy of St Cecilia, c1515-16. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna
2. Marcantonio Raimondi, after Raphael The Ecstasy of St Cecilia, c1515-16.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1. Raphael, “La Donna Velata”, 1512-13, Pitti Palace, Florence.
2. Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, c1512-14, Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
