Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
of the
High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
.
His work
His or HIS may refer to:
Computing
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Education
* Hangzhou International School, in ...
is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the
Neoplatonic
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...
ideal of human grandeur. Together with
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...
and
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was ins ...
, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
His father was
court painter
A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...
to the ruler of the small but highly cultured city of Urbino. He died when Raphael was eleven, and Raphael seems to have played a role in managing the family workshop from this point. He trained in the workshop of Perugino, and was described as a fully trained "master" by 1500. He worked in or for several cities in north Italy until in 1508 he moved to Rome at the invitation of the pope, to work on the Vatican Palace. He was given a series of important commissions there and elsewhere in the city, and began to work as an architect. He was still at the height of his powers at his death in 1520.
Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his early death at 37, leaving a large body of work. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
: his early years in
Umbria
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, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two popes and their close associates. Many of his works are found in the
Vatican Palace
The Apostolic Palace ( la, Palatium Apostolicum; it, Palazzo Apostolico) is the official residence of the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the V ...
, where the frescoed
Raphael Rooms
The four Raphael Rooms ( it, Stanze di Raffaello) form a suite of reception rooms in the Apostolic Palace, now part of the Vatican Museums, in Vatican City. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop. Together wit ...
were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is ''
The School of Athens
''The School of Athens'' ( it, Scuola di Atene) is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. The fresco was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate the rooms now known as the , in the Apostolic Pa ...
'' in the Vatican
Stanza della Segnatura
The four Raphael Rooms ( it, Stanze di Raffaello) form a suite of reception rooms in the Apostolic Palace, now part of the Vatican Museums, in Vatican City. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop. Together with Mi ...
. 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
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniqu ...
.
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. Thanks to the influence of art historian
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and foundin ...
his work became a formative influence on
Neoclassical painting, but his techniques would later be explicitly and emphatically rejected by groups such as the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Jame ...
.
Background
![Giovanni Santi - Christ supported by two angels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Giovanni_Santi_-_Christ_supported_by_two_angels.jpg)
Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of
Urbino
Urbino ( ; ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of F ...
in the
Marche
Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...
region, where his father
Giovanni Santi
Giovanni Santi (c. 1435 – 1 August 1494) was an Italian painter, decorator, and the father of Raphael. He was born in 1435 at Colbordolo in the Duchy of Urbino. He studied under Piero della Francesca and was influenced by Fiorenzo di Lorenz ...
was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by
Federico da Montefeltro
Federico da Montefeltro, also known as Federico III da Montefeltro KG (7 June 1422 – 10 September 1482), was one of the most successful mercenary captains (''condottieri'') of the Italian Renaissance, and lord of Urbino from 1444 (as Duke fro ...
, a highly successful
condottiere
''Condottieri'' (; singular ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian captains in command of mercenary companies during the Middle Ages and of multinational armies during the early modern period. They notably served popes and other Euro ...
who had been created
Duke of Urbino
The Duchy of Urbino was an independent duchy in early modern central Italy, corresponding to the northern half of the modern region of Marche. It was directly annexed by the Papal States in 1625.
It was bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the east ...
by
Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV ( it, Sisto IV: 21 July 1414 – 12 August 1484), born Francesco della Rovere, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 August 1471 to his death in August 1484. His accomplishments as pope include ...
– Urbino formed part of the
Papal States
The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
– and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for
masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...
-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to demonstrate awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and
Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters.
Federico was succeeded by his son
Guidobaldo da Montefeltro
Guidobaldo (Guido Ubaldo) da Montefeltro (25 January 1472 – 10 April 1508), also known as Guidobaldo I, was an Italian condottiero and the Duke of Urbino from 1482 to 1508.
Biography
Born in Gubbio, he succeeded his father Federico da Montefe ...
, who married
Elisabetta Gonzaga
Elisabetta Gonzaga (1471–1526) was a noblewoman of the Italian Renaissance, renowned for her cultured and virtuous life. A member of the House of Gonzaga, she was a sister of Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and by marriage the Duch ...
, daughter of the ruler of
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...
, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by
Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...
. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through
Baldassare Castiglione
Baldassare Castiglione, Count of Casatico (; 6 December 1478 – 2 February 1529),Dates of birth and death, and cause of the latter, fro, ''Italica'', Rai International online. was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissanc ...
's depiction of it in his classic work ''
The Book of the Courtier
''The Book of the Courtier'' ( it, Il Cortegiano ) by Baldassare Castiglione is a lengthy philosophical dialogue on the topic of what constitutes an ideal courtier or (in the third chapter) court lady, worthy to befriend and advise a Prince or pol ...
'', published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. Raphael became close to other regular visitors to the court:
Pietro Bibbiena and
Pietro Bembo
Pietro Bembo, ( la, Petrus Bembus; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was an Italian scholar, poet, and literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller, and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the ...
, both later
cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would later be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full
humanistic education
Humanistic education (also called person-centered education) is an approach to education based on the work of humanistic psychologists, most notably Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Rogers is regarded as the founder of humanistic psychology and ...
however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin.
Early life and work
![Raffaello Sanzio - Guidobaldo da Montefeltro - WGA18653](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Raffaello_Sanzio_-_Guidobaldo_da_Montefeltro_-_WGA18653.jpg)
Raphael's mother Màgia died in 1491 when he was eight, followed on August 1, 1494, by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A
self-portrait
A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...
drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of
Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and
Luca Signorelli
Luca Signorelli ( – 16 October 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cortona in Tuscany, who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescos of the ''Last Judgment'' (1499–15 ...
, who until 1498 was based in nearby
Città di Castello
Città di Castello (); "Castle Town") is a city and '' comune'' in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of Umbria. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain along the upper part of the river Tiber. The city is north o ...
.
According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master
Pietro Perugino
Pietro Perugino (, ; – 1523), born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil.
E ...
as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed; eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from
Timoteo Viti
Timoteo Viti (Urbino, 1469 – 1523, Urbino), sometimes called Timoteo della Viti or Timoteo da Urbino, was an Italian Renaissance painter, who was closely associated with Raphael, who was fourteen years his junior.
Career
Born in Urbino, Viti wa ...
, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495. Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to
Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern
art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...
s claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes
cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both
Perugia
Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia.
The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part ...
and
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500.
His first documented work was the ''
Baronci altarpiece'' for the church of Saint
Nicholas of Tolentino
Nicholas of Tolentino ( la, S. Nicolaus de Tolentino, (c. 1246September 10, 1305), known as the ''Patron of Holy Souls'', was an Italian saint and mystic. He is particularly invoked as an advocate for the souls in Purgatory, especially during ...
in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino.
Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the ''
Mond Crucifixion
The ''Mond Crucifixion'' or ''Gavari Altarpiece'' is an oil on poplar panel dated to 1502–1503, making it one of the earliest works by Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, perhaps the second after the c.1499-1500 Baronci Altarpiece. It origin ...
'' (about 1503) and the
Brera ''
Wedding of the Virgin'' (1504), and for Perugia, such as the ''
Oddi Altarpiece''. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in
fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...
, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite
cabinet painting
A cabinet painting (or "cabinet picture") is a small painting, typically no larger than two feet (0.6 meters) in either dimension, but often much smaller. The term is especially used for paintings that show full-length figures or landscapes at a ...
s in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the ''
Three Graces'' and ''
St. Michael
Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
'', and he began to paint
Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to
Siena
Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...
at the invitation of another pupil of
Perugino
Pietro Perugino (, ; – 1523), born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil.
...
,
Pinturicchio
Pinturicchio, or Pintoricchio (, ; born Bernardino di Betto; 1454–1513), also known as Benetto di Biagio or Sordicchio, was an Italian painter during the Renaissance. He acquired his nickname (meaning "little painter") because of his sma ...
, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the
cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of imag ...
s, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the
Piccolomini Library in
Siena Cathedral
Siena Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Siena) is a medieval church in Siena, Italy, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.
It was the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Siena, and ...
. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career.
File:CrocefissioneRaffaello.jpg, The ''Mond Crucifixion
The ''Mond Crucifixion'' or ''Gavari Altarpiece'' is an oil on poplar panel dated to 1502–1503, making it one of the earliest works by Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, perhaps the second after the c.1499-1500 Baronci Altarpiece. It origin ...
'', 1502–03, very much in the style of Perugino
Pietro Perugino (, ; – 1523), born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil.
...
(National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
)
File:PalaOddiRaffaello.jpg, The ''Coronation of the Virgin
The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God th ...
'' 1502–03 (Pinacoteca Vaticana
The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...
)
File:Raffaello - Spozalizio - Web Gallery of Art.jpg, The '' Wedding of the Virgin'', Raphael's most sophisticated altarpiece of this period (Pinacoteca di Brera
The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...
)
File:Lvr-george.jpg, ''Saint George and the Dragon'', a small work (29 x 21 cm) for the court of Urbino (Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...
)
Influence of Florence
![Raphael Madonna of the Pinks](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Raphael_Madonna_of_the_Pinks.jpg)
Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period" of about 1504–1508, he was possibly never a continuous resident there. He may have needed to visit the city to secure materials in any case. There is a letter of recommendation of Raphael, dated October 1504, from the mother of the next Duke of Urbino to the
Gonfaloniere of Florence
Gonfaloniere of Justice () was a post in the government of medieval and early Renaissance Florence. Like Florence's Priori, it was introduced in 1293 when Giano Della Bella's Ordinances of Justice came into force.
He was one of the nine citi ...
: "The bearer of this will be found to be Raphael, painter of Urbino, who, being greatly gifted in his profession has determined to spend some time in Florence to study. And because his father was most worthy and I was very attached to him, and the son is a sensible and well-mannered young man, on both accounts, I bear him great love..."
As earlier with Perugino and others, Raphael was able to assimilate the influence of Florentine art, whilst keeping his own developing style. Frescos in Perugia of about 1505 show a new monumental quality in the figures which may represent the influence of
Fra Bartolomeo
Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo (, , ; 28 March 1472 – 31 October 1517), also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di S. Marco, and his original nickname Baccio della Porta, was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects ...
, who Vasari says was a friend of Raphael. But the most striking influence in the work of these years is
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...
, who returned to the city from 1500 to 1506. Raphael's figures begin to take more dynamic and complex positions, and though as yet his painted subjects are still mostly tranquil, he made drawn studies of fighting nude men, one of the obsessions of the period in Florence. Another drawing is a portrait of a young woman that uses the three-quarter length pyramidal composition of the just-completed ''
Mona Lisa
The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best kno ...
'', but still looks completely Raphaelesque. Another of Leonardo's compositional inventions, the pyramidal ''Holy Family'', was repeated in a series of works that remain among his most famous easel paintings. There is a drawing by Raphael in the
Royal Collection
The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world.
Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...
of
Leonardo's lost ''Leda and the Swan'', from which he adapted the
contrapposto
''Contrapposto'' () is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the ...
pose of his own ''Saint Catherine of Alexandria''. He also perfects his own version of Leonardo's
sfumato
Sfumato (, ) is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. It is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance. Leonardo da V ...
modelling, to give subtlety to his painting of flesh, and develops the interplay of glances between his groups, which are much less enigmatic than those of Leonardo. But he keeps the soft clear light of Perugino in his paintings.
Leonardo was more than thirty years older than Raphael, but Michelangelo, who was in Rome for this period, was just eight years his senior. Michelangelo already disliked Leonardo, and in Rome came to dislike Raphael even more, attributing conspiracies against him to the younger man. Raphael would have been aware of his works in Florence, but in his most original work of these years, he strikes out in a different direction. His ''
Deposition of Christ
The Descent from the Cross ( el, Ἀποκαθήλωσις, ''Apokathelosis''), or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after hi ...
'' draws on classical
sarcophagi
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
to spread the figures across the front of the picture space in a complex and not wholly successful arrangement. Wöllflin detects in the kneeling figure on the right the influence of the Madonna in Michelangelo's ''
Doni Tondo
The ''Doni Tondo'' or ''Doni Madonna'', is the only finished panel painting by the mature Michelangelo to survive. (Two other panel paintings, generally agreed to be by Michelangelo but unfinished, ''The Entombment'' and the so-called '' Manche ...
'', but the rest of the composition is far removed from his style, or that of Leonardo. Though highly regarded at the time, and much later forcibly removed from Perugia by the
Borghese
The House of Borghese is a princely family of Italian noble and papal background, originating as the Borghese or Borghesi in Siena, where they came to prominence in the 13th century and held offices under the ''commune''. During the 16th century, ...
, it stands rather alone in Raphael's work. His classicism would later take a less literal direction.
File:PalaAnsidei.jpg, The ''Ansidei Madonna
The ''Ansidei Madonna'' (Italian: Pala Ansidei) is a 1505–1507 painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael, painted during his Florentine period. It shows the Blessed Virgin Mary sitting on a wooden throne, with the child Christ ...
'', c. 1505, beginning to move on from Perugino
File:Raphael - Madonna in the Meadow - Google Art Project.jpg, The '' Madonna of the Meadow'', c. 1506, using Leonardo's pyramidal composition for subjects of the Holy Family.
File:Raffael 020.jpg, ''Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Catherine of Alexandria (also spelled Katherine); grc-gre, ἡ Ἁγία Αἰκατερίνη ἡ Μεγαλομάρτυς ; ar, سانت كاترين; la, Catharina Alexandrina). is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, wh ...
'', 1507, possibly echoes the pose of '' Leonardo's Leda''
File:Raffaello, pala baglioni, deposizione.jpg, ''Deposition of Christ
The Descent from the Cross ( el, Ἀποκαθήλωσις, ''Apokathelosis''), or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after hi ...
'', 1507, drawing from Roman sarcophagi
Roman period
Vatican "Stanze"
In 1508, Raphael moved to Rome, where he resided for the rest of his life. He was invited by the new pope,
Julius II, perhaps at the suggestion of his architect
Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style ...
, then engaged on
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...
, who came from just outside Urbino and was distantly related to Raphael. Unlike Michelangelo, who had been kept lingering in Rome for several months after his first summons, Raphael was immediately commissioned by Julius to fresco what was intended to become the Pope's private library at the
Vatican Palace
The Apostolic Palace ( la, Palatium Apostolicum; it, Palazzo Apostolico) is the official residence of the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the V ...
. This was a much larger and more important commission than any he had received before; he had only painted one altarpiece in Florence itself. Several other artists and their teams of assistants were already at work on different rooms, many painting over recently completed paintings commissioned by Julius's loathed predecessor,
Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI ( it, Alessandro VI, va, Alexandre VI, es, Alejandro VI; born Rodrigo de Borja; ca-valencia, Roderic Llançol i de Borja ; es, Rodrigo Lanzol y de Borja, lang ; 1431 – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Churc ...
, whose contributions, and
arms
Arms or ARMS may refer to:
*Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body
Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to:
People
* Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader
Coat of arms or weapons
*Armaments or weapons
**Fi ...
, Julius was determined to efface from the palace. Michelangelo, meanwhile, had been commissioned to paint the
Sistine Chapel ceiling
The Sistine Chapel ceiling ( it, Soffitto della Cappella Sistina), painted in fresco by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance Renaissance art, art. The Sistine Chapel is the large papal chapel built with ...
.
![4 Estancia del Sello (El Parnaso)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/4_Estancia_del_Sello_%28El_Parnaso%29.jpg)
This first of the famous "Stanze" or "
Raphael Rooms
The four Raphael Rooms ( it, Stanze di Raffaello) form a suite of reception rooms in the Apostolic Palace, now part of the Vatican Museums, in Vatican City. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop. Together wit ...
" to be painted, now known as the ''
Stanza della Segnatura
The four Raphael Rooms ( it, Stanze di Raffaello) form a suite of reception rooms in the Apostolic Palace, now part of the Vatican Museums, in Vatican City. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop. Together with Mi ...
'' after its use in Vasari's time, was to make a stunning impact on Roman art, and remains generally regarded as his greatest masterpiece, containing ''
The School of Athens
''The School of Athens'' ( it, Scuola di Atene) is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. The fresco was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate the rooms now known as the , in the Apostolic Pa ...
'', ''
The Parnassus
''The Parnassus'' (, referring to Mount Parnassus) is a fresco painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael in the Raphael Rooms ("''Stanze di Raffaello''"), in the Palace of the Vatican in Rome, painted at the commission of Pope Ju ...
'' and the ''
Disputa''. Raphael was then given further rooms to paint, displacing other artists including Perugino and Signorelli. He completed a sequence of three rooms, each with paintings on each wall and often the ceilings too, increasingly leaving the work of painting from his detailed drawings to the large and skilled workshop team he had acquired, who added a fourth room, probably only including some elements designed by Raphael, after his early death in 1520. The death of Julius in 1513 did not interrupt the work at all, as he was succeeded by Raphael's last pope, the
Medici
The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...
Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political an ...
, with whom Raphael formed an even closer relationship, and who continued to commission him. Raphael's friend Cardinal Bibbiena was also one of Leo's old tutors, and a close friend and advisor.
Raphael was clearly influenced by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling in the course of painting the room. Vasari said Bramante let him in secretly. The first section was completed in 1511 and the reaction of other artists to the daunting force of Michelangelo was the dominating question in Italian art for the following few decades. Raphael, who had already shown his gift for absorbing influences into his own personal style, rose to the challenge perhaps better than any other artist. One of the first and clearest instances was the portrait in ''The School of Athens'' of Michelangelo himself, as
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire.
Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote ...
, which seems to draw clearly from the Sybils and ''ignudi'' of the Sistine ceiling. Other figures in that and later paintings in the room show the same influences, but as still cohesive with a development of Raphael's own style. Michelangelo accused Raphael of plagiarism and years after Raphael's death, complained in a letter that "everything he knew about art he got from me", although other quotations show more generous reactions.
These very large and complex compositions have been regarded ever since as among the supreme works of the
grand manner
Grand Manner refers to an idealized aesthetic style derived from classicism and the art of the High Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, British artists and connoisseurs used the term to describe paintings that incorporated visual metaphors i ...
of the High
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
, and the "classic art" of the post-antique West. They give a highly
idealised depiction of the forms represented, and the compositions, though very carefully conceived in
drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...
s, achieve "sprezzatura", a term invented by his friend Castiglione, who defined it as "a certain nonchalance which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived and effortless ...". According to
Michael Levey
Sir Michael Vincent Levey, LVO, FBA, FRSL (8 June 1927 – 28 December 2008) was a British art historian and was the director of the National Gallery from 1973 to 1986.
Biography
Levey was born in Wimbledon, London, and grew up in Leigh-on-S ...
, "Raphael gives his
iguresa superhuman clarity and grace in a universe of Euclidian certainties". The painting is nearly all of the highest quality in the first two rooms, but the later compositions in the Stanze, especially those involving dramatic action, are not entirely as successful either in conception or their execution by the workshop.
File:Raffael Stanza della Segnatura.jpg, Stanza della Segnatura
The four Raphael Rooms ( it, Stanze di Raffaello) form a suite of reception rooms in the Apostolic Palace, now part of the Vatican Museums, in Vatican City. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop. Together with Mi ...
File:Raphael - The Mass at Bolsena.jpg, ''The Mass at Bolsena
''The Mass at Bolsena'' is a painting by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1512 and 1514 as part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms that are now known as the Raphael Rooms, in the Apostolic P ...
'', 1514, Stanza di Eliodoro
File:Raphael - Deliverance of Saint Peter.jpg, ''Deliverance of Saint Peter
The ''Liberation of Saint Peter'' is a fresco painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael.(Arnold NESSELRATH "RAPHAEL ET PINTURICCHIO" Louvre éditions page 177 "cette oeuvre peinte entièrement par l'artiste lui même") It was painted ...
'', 1514, Stanza di Eliodoro
File:Raphael - Fire in the Borgo.jpg, ''The Fire in the Borgo
''The Fire in the Borgo'' is a painting created by the workshop of the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael between 1514 and 1517. Though it is assumed that Raphael did make the designs for the complex composition, the fresco was most likely painted ...
'', 1514, Stanza dell'incendio del Borgo, painted by the workshop to Raphael's design
Architecture
![PalazzoBranconioDellAquila](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/PalazzoBranconioDellAquila.jpg)
After Bramante's death in 1514, Raphael was named architect of the new
St Peter's. Most of his work there was altered or demolished after his death and the acceptance of Michelangelo's design, but a few drawings have survived. It appears his designs would have made the church a good deal gloomier than the final design, with massive piers all the way down the nave, "like an alley" according to a critical posthumous analysis by
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger
250px, A model of the Apostolic Palace, which was the main project of Bramante during Sangallo's apprenticeship.
250px, The church of Santa Maria di Loreto near the Rome.html"_;"title="Trajan's_Market_in_Rome">Trajan's_Market_in_Rome.
image: ...
. It would perhaps have resembled the temple in the background of ''
The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple
''The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple'' is a fresco of the Italian renaissance painter Raphael. It was painted between 1511 and 1512 as part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms that are now known as the Stanze di R ...
''.
He designed several other buildings, and for a short time was the most important architect in Rome, working for a small circle around the Papacy. Julius had made changes to the street plan of Rome, creating several new thoroughfares, and he wanted them filled with splendid palaces.
An important building, the
Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila
The Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila is a lost palace in the ''rioni of Rome, rione'' Borgo (rione of Rome), Borgo of Rome (west of Castel Sant'Angelo), designed by Raphael for Giovanbattista Branconio dell'Aquila, a papal advisor and goldsmith.
I ...
for Leo's Papal
Chamberlain
Chamberlain may refer to:
Profession
*Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure
People
*Chamberlain (surname)
**Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...
Giovanni Battista Branconio, was completely destroyed to make way for
Bernini's ''piazza'' for St. Peter's, but drawings of the façade and courtyard remain. The façade was an unusually richly decorated one for the period, including both painted panels on the top story (of three), and much sculpture on the middle one.
The main designs for the Villa Farnesina were not by Raphael, but he did design, and decorate with mosaics, the
Chigi Chapel
The Chigi Chapel or Chapel of the Madonna of Loreto ( it, Cappella Chigi or Cappella della Madonna di Loreto) is the second chapel on the left-hand side of the nave in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. It is the only religious build ...
for the same patron,
Agostino Chigi
Agostino Andrea Chigi (29 November 1466 – April 11, 1520) was an Italian banker and patron of the Renaissance.
Born in Siena, he was the son of the prominent banker Mariano Chigi, a member of the ancient and illustrious Chigi family. He moved ...
, the Papal Treasurer. Another building, for Pope Leo's doctor, the
Palazzo Jacopo da Brescia
Palazzo Jacopo da Brescia was a Renaissance palace in Rome, Italy, which was located in the Borgo rione.
It was built for Jacopo (also known as Giacomo di Bartolomeo) da Brescia, a physician at the service of Pope Leo X, between 1515 and 1519. I ...
, was moved in the 1930s but survives; this was designed to complement a palace on the same street by Bramante, where Raphael himself lived for a time.
![ChigiLorenzetto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/ChigiLorenzetto.jpg)
The
Villa Madama
Villa Madama is a Renaissance-style rural palace (villa) located on Via di Villa Madama #250 in Rome, Italy. Located west of the city center and a few miles north of the Vatican, and just south of the Foro Olimpico Stadium. Even though incomplete, ...
, a lavish hillside retreat for Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, later
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...
, was never finished, and his full plans have to be reconstructed speculatively. He produced a design from which the final construction plans were completed by
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger
250px, A model of the Apostolic Palace, which was the main project of Bramante during Sangallo's apprenticeship.
250px, The church of Santa Maria di Loreto near the Rome.html"_;"title="Trajan's_Market_in_Rome">Trajan's_Market_in_Rome.
image: ...
. Even incomplete, it was the most sophisticated villa design yet seen in Italy, and greatly influenced the later development of the genre; it appears to be the only modern building in Rome of which
Palladio made a measured drawing.
Only some floor-plans remain for a large palace planned for himself on the new
via Giulia
Via or VIA may refer to the following:
Science and technology
* MOS Technology 6522, Versatile Interface Adapter
* ''Via'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Noctuidae
* Via (electronics), a through-connection
* VIA Technologies, a Taiw ...
in the
rione of Regola, for which he was accumulating the land in his last years. It was on an irregular island block near the river Tiber. It seems all façades were to have a
giant order
In classical architecture, a giant order, also known as colossal order, is an order whose columns or pilasters span two (or more) storeys. At the same time, smaller orders may feature in arcades or window and door framings within the storeys th ...
of
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s rising at least two storeys to the full height of the
piano nobile
The ''piano nobile'' (Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ''bel étage'') is the principal floor of a palazzo. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the hou ...
, "a grandiloquent feature unprecedented in private palace design".
Raphael asked Marco Fabio Calvo to translate
Vitruvius
Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
's ''
Four Books of Architecture'' into Italian; this he received around the end of August 1514. It is preserved at the Library in Munich with handwritten margin notes by Raphael.
Antiquity
In about 1510, Raphael was asked by Bramante to judge contemporary copies of ''
Laocoön and His Sons
The statue of ''Laocoön and His Sons'', also called the Laocoön Group ( it, Gruppo del Laocoonte), has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures ever since it was excavated in Rome in 1506 and placed on public display in the Vatican Museums ...
''. In 1515, he was given powers as Prefect over all antiquities unearthed within, or a mile outside the city.
[ Anyone excavating antiquities was required to inform Raphael within three days, and stonemasons were not allowed to destroy inscriptions without permission. Raphael wrote a letter to Pope Leo suggesting ways of halting the destruction of ancient monuments, and proposed a visual survey of the city to record all antiquities in an organised fashion. The pope intended to continue to re-use ancient masonry in the building of St Peter's, also wanting to ensure that all ancient inscriptions were recorded, and sculpture preserved, before allowing the stones to be reused.][Jones & Penny:205 The letter may date from 1519, or before his appointment]
According to Marino Sanuto the Younger Marin Sanudo, italianised as Marino Sanuto or Sanuto the Younger (May 22, 1466 – 1536), was a Venetian historian and diarist. His most significant work is his ''Diarii'', which he had intended to write up into a history of Venice.
Biography
...
's diary, in 1519 Raphael offered to transport an obelisk from the Mausoleum of August to St. Peter's Square for 90,000 ducats. According to Marcantonio Michiel
Marcantonio Michiel (1484–1552) was a Venetian noble from a family prominent in the service of the State who was interested in matters of art. His notes on the contemporary art collections of Venice, Padua, Milan and other northern Italian centr ...
, Raphael's "youthful death saddened men of letters because he was not able to furnish the description and the painting of ancient Rome that he was making, which was very beautiful". Raphael intended to make an archaeological map of ancient Rome but this was never executed. Four archaeological drawings by the artist are preserved.
Other painting projects
The Vatican projects took most of his time, although he painted several portraits, including those of his two main patrons, the popes Julius II
Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or the ...
and his successor Leo X
Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political an ...
, the former considered one of his finest. Other portraits were of his own friends, like Castiglione, or the immediate Papal circle. Other rulers pressed for work, and King Francis I of France
Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin on ...
was sent two paintings as diplomatic gifts from the Pope. For Agostino Chigi, the hugely rich banker and papal treasurer, he painted the '' Triumph of Galatea'' and designed further decorative frescoes for his Villa Farnesina
The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy.
Description
The villa was built for Agostino Chigi, a rich Sienese banker and the treasurer of Pope Julius II. B ...
, a chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Pace
Santa Maria della Pace is a church in Rome, central Italy, not far from Piazza Navona. The building lies in rione Ponte.
History
The current building was built on the foundations of the pre-existing church of Sant'Andrea de Aquarizariis in 148 ...
and mosaics in the funerary chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo it, Basilica Parrocchiale Santa Maria del Popolo
, image = 20140803 Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo Rome 0191.jpg
, caption = The church from Piazza del Popolo
, coordinates =
, image_size ...
. He also designed some of the decoration for the Villa Madama, the work in both villas being executed by his workshop.
One of his most important papal commissions was the Raphael Cartoons
The Raphael Cartoons are seven large cartoons for tapestries, belonging to the British Royal Collection but since 1865 on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, designed by the High Renaissance painter Raphael in 1515–16 and show ...
(now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
), a series of 10 cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of imag ...
s, of which seven survive, for tapestries with scenes of the lives of Saint Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
and Saint Peter
Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...
, for the Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...
. The cartoons were sent to Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
to be woven in the workshop of Pier van Aelst
Pieter Coecke van Aelst or Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder ( Aalst, 14 August 1502 – Brussels, 6 December 1550) was a Flemish painter, sculptor, architect, author and designer of woodcuts, goldsmith's work, stained glass and tapestries. . It is possible that Raphael saw the finished series before his death—they were probably completed in 1520. He also designed and painted the '' Loggie'' at the Vatican, a long thin gallery then open to a courtyard on one side, decorated with Roman-style grottesche
Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...
. He produced a number of significant altarpieces, including ''The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia'' and the ''Sistine Madonna
The ''Sistine Madonna'', also called the ''Madonna di San Sisto'', is an oil painting by the Italian artist Raphael. The painting was commissioned in 1512 by Pope Julius II for the church of San Sisto, Piacenza, and probably executed ''c.'' 151 ...
''. His last work, on which he was working up to his death, was a large '' Transfiguration'', which together with ''Il Spasimo
''Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary'', also known as ''Lo Spasimo'' or ''Il Spasimo di Sicilia'', is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael, of c. 1514–16, now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. It is an important work ...
'' shows the direction his art was taking in his final years—more proto-Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
than Mannerist
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...
.
File:Raphael's Triumph of Galatea 01.jpg, '' Triumph of Galatea'', 1512, his only major classical mythological subject, for Chigi's villa (Villa Farnesina
The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy.
Description
The villa was built for Agostino Chigi, a rich Sienese banker and the treasurer of Pope Julius II. B ...
)
File:Raphael Spasimo.jpg, ''Il Spasimo
''Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary'', also known as ''Lo Spasimo'' or ''Il Spasimo di Sicilia'', is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael, of c. 1514–16, now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. It is an important work ...
'', 1517, brings a new degree of expressiveness to his art ( Museo del Prado)
File:The Holy Family - Rafael.jpg, '' The Holy Family'', 1518 (Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...
)
File:Transfiguration Raphael.jpg, '' Transfiguration'', 1520, unfinished at his death (Pinacoteca Vaticana
The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...
)
Painting materials
Raphael painted several of his works on wood support (''Madonna of the Pinks
The ''Madonna of the Pinks'' (c. 1506 – 1507, it, La Madonna dei garofani) is an early devotional painting usually attributed to Italian Renaissance master Raphael. It is painted in oils on fruitwood and now hangs in the National Gallery, Londo ...
'') but he also used canvas (''Sistine Madonna
The ''Sistine Madonna'', also called the ''Madonna di San Sisto'', is an oil painting by the Italian artist Raphael. The painting was commissioned in 1512 by Pope Julius II for the church of San Sisto, Piacenza, and probably executed ''c.'' 151 ...
'') and he was known to employ drying oils such as linseed
Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in W ...
or walnut oil
Walnut oil is oil extracted from walnuts, '' Juglans regia''. The oil contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, and saturated fats.
Composition
Walnut oil is composed largely of polyunsaturated fatty acids (72% of tota ...
s. His palette was rich and he used almost all of the then available pigments such as ultramarine
Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. The name comes from the Latin ''ultramarinus'', literally 'beyond the sea', because the pigment was imported into Europe from mines in Afg ...
, lead-tin-yellow
Lead-tin-yellow is a yellow pigment, of historical importance in oil painting, sometimes called the "Yellow of the Old Masters" because of the frequency with which it was used by those famous painters.
Nomenclature
The name lead-tin yellow ...
, carmine, vermilion
Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It i ...
, madder lake
Alizarin (also known as 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, Mordant Red 11, C.I. 58000, and Turkey Red) is an organic compound with formula that has been used throughout history as a prominent red dye, principally for dyeing textile fabrics. Historic ...
, verdigris
Verdigris is the common name for blue-green, copper-based pigments that form a patina on copper, bronze, and brass. The technical literature is ambiguous as to its chemical composition. Some sources refer to "neutral verdigris" as copper(II) ...
and ochres
Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...
. In several of his paintings (Ansidei Madonna
The ''Ansidei Madonna'' (Italian: Pala Ansidei) is a 1505–1507 painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael, painted during his Florentine period. It shows the Blessed Virgin Mary sitting on a wooden throne, with the child Christ ...
) he even employed the rare brazilwood lake, metallic powdered gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
and even less known metallic powdered bismuth
Bismuth is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental ...
.
Workshop
Vasari says that Raphael eventually had a workshop of fifty pupils and assistants, many of whom later became significant artists in their own right. This was arguably the largest workshop team assembled under any single painter, and much higher than the norm. They included established masters from other parts of Italy, probably working with their own teams as sub-contractors, as well as pupils and journeymen. We have very little evidence of the internal working arrangements of the workshop, apart from the works of art themselves, which are often very difficult to assign to a particular hand.
The most important figures were Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-cent ...
, a young pupil from Rome (only about twenty-one at Raphael's death), and Gianfrancesco Penni
Gianfrancesco Penni (1488/1496–1528), also known as Giovan Francesco, was an Italian painter. His brother Bartolommeo was an artist of the Tudor court of Henry VIII, and another brother, Luca, ended up as one of the Italian artists of the Sch ...
, already a Florentine master. They were left many of Raphael's drawings and other possessions, and to some extent continued the workshop after Raphael's death. Penni did not achieve a personal reputation equal to Giulio's, as after Raphael's death he became Giulio's less-than-equal collaborator in turn for much of his subsequent career. Perino del Vaga
Perino (or Perin) del Vaga (nickname of Piero Bonaccorsi) (1501 – October 19, 1547) was an Italian painter and draughtsman of the Late Renaissance/ Mannerism.
Biography
Perino was born near Florence. His father ruined himself by gambling, a ...
, already a master, and Polidoro da Caravaggio
Polidoro Caldara, usually known as Polidoro da Caravaggio ( – 1543) was an Italian painter of the Mannerist period, "arguably the most gifted and certainly the least conventional of Raphael's pupils", who was best known for his now-vanished pa ...
, who was supposedly promoted from a labourer carrying building materials on the site, also became notable painters in their own right. Polidoro's partner, Maturino da Firenze, has, like Penni, been overshadowed in subsequent reputation by his partner. Giovanni da Udine
150px, Portrait in Vasari's Vite
Giovanni Nanni, also Giovanni de' Ricamatori, better known as Giovanni da Udine (1487–1564), was an Italian painter and architect born in Udine. A painter also named ''Giovanni da Udine'' was exiled from his na ...
had a more independent status, and was responsible for the decorative stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
work and grotesques surrounding the main frescoes. Most of the artists were later scattered, and some killed, by the violent Sack of Rome in 1527
The Sack of Rome, then part of the Papal States, followed the capture of the city on 6 May 1527 by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor during the War of the League of Cognac. Despite not being ordered to storm the city, wit ...
. This did however contribute to the diffusion of versions of Raphael's style around Italy and beyond.
Vasari emphasises that Raphael ran a very harmonious and efficient workshop, and had extraordinary skill in smoothing over troubles and arguments with both patrons and his assistants—a contrast with the stormy pattern of Michelangelo's relationships with both. However though both Penni and Giulio were sufficiently skilled that distinguishing between their hands and that of Raphael himself is still sometimes difficult, there is no doubt that many of Raphael's later wall-paintings, and probably some of his easel paintings, are more notable for their design than their execution. Many of his portraits, if in good condition, show his brilliance in the detailed handling of paint right up to the end of his life.
Other pupils or assistants include Raffaellino del Colle
Raffaellino del Colle (1490–1566) was an Italian Mannerist painter active mostly in Umbria. He was born in the frazione of Colle in Borgo Sansepolcro, province of Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy.
Biography
He is also called ''Raffaellino della Colle'' ...
, Andrea Sabbatini
Andrea Sabbatini (1487–1530) (var. Andrea Sabatini or Andrea da Salerno) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance.
He was born in Salerno, and initially trained under Raimondo Epifanio in Naples, but move to Rome and became a close discipl ...
, Bartolommeo Ramenghi
Bartolomeo Ramenghi (1484–1542), also called ''Bagnacavallo'', ''il Bagnacavallo'' or ''il Baruffaldi'', was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, active in Emilia-Romagna.
He received the nickname, Bagnacavallo, from the village Bagnacavallo ...
, Pellegrino Aretusi, Vincenzo Tamagni, Battista Dossi
Battista Dossi (ca. 1490–1548), also known as Battista de Luteri, was an Italian painter who belonged to the Ferrara School of Painting. He spent nearly his entire career in service of the Court of Ferrara, where he worked with his older ...
, Tommaso Vincidor
Tommaso di Andrea Vincidor (1493 – 1536) was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect who trained with Raphael and spent most of his career in the Netherlands. He was also called Tommaso Vincitore, Tommaso da Bologna and Thomas Polonier ...
, Timoteo Viti
Timoteo Viti (Urbino, 1469 – 1523, Urbino), sometimes called Timoteo della Viti or Timoteo da Urbino, was an Italian Renaissance painter, who was closely associated with Raphael, who was fourteen years his junior.
Career
Born in Urbino, Viti wa ...
(the Urbino painter), and the sculptor and architect Lorenzetto
Lorenzo Lotti, also known as Lorenzetto, (1490–1541), born Lorenzo di Lodovico di Guglielmo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect in the circle of Raphael.
He was born in Florence and married the sister of Giulio Romano, another ...
(Giulio's brother-in-law). The printmakers and architects in Raphael's circle are discussed below. It has been claimed the Flemish Bernard van Orley
Bernard van Orley (between 1487 and 1491 – 6 January 1541), also called Barend or Barent van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a versatile Flemish artist and representative of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, who ...
worked for Raphael for a time, and Luca Penni
Luca Penni (c.1500/1504–1556) was an Italian painter of the 16th century best known for his work in France as part of the First School of Fontainebleau. He was nicknamed ''Le Romain'' (the Roman).
Life
Penni was born in Florence. He and his ...
, brother of Gianfrancesco and later a member of the First School of Fontainebleau
The School of Fontainbleau (french: École de Fontainebleau) (c. 1530 – c. 1610) refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered on the royal Palace of Fontainebleau that were crucial in forming the ...
, may have been a member of the team.
Portraits
File:Elisabetta Gonzaga - Raphael.jpg, '' Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga'', c. 1504
File:Rafael - Alessandro Farnese.jpg, ''Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese
The ''Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese'' is a portrait of cardinal Alessandro Farnese (the future Pope Paul III) by Raphael, executed ''circa'' 1509-1511.
The cardinal posed near a window with a bright foreground, leading into a dark hall. ...
'',
File:Pope Julius II.jpg, ''Portrait of Pope Julius II
''Portrait of Pope Julius II'' is an oil painting of 1511–1512 by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. The portrait of Pope Julius II was unusual for its time and would carry a long influence on papal portraiture. From early in its lif ...
'', c. 1512
File:Raffaello Sanzio - Ritratto di Bindo Altoviti.jpg, '' Portrait of Bindo Altoviti'', c. 1514
File:Baldassare Castiglione, by Raffaello Sanzio, from C2RMF retouched.jpg, ''Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione
''Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione'' is a c. 1514–1515 oil painting attributed to the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. Considered one of the great portraits of the Renaissance, it has an enduring influence. It depicts Raphael's frien ...
'', c. 1515
Drawings
Raphael was one of the finest draftsmen in the history of Western art, and used drawings extensively to plan his compositions. According to a near-contemporary, when beginning to plan a composition, he would lay out a large number of stock drawings of his on the floor, and begin to draw "rapidly", borrowing figures from here and there. Over forty sketches survive for the ''Disputa'' in the Stanze, and there may well have been many more originally; over four hundred sheets survive altogether. He used different drawings to refine his poses and compositions, apparently to a greater extent than most other painters, to judge by the number of variants that survive: "... This is how Raphael himself, who was so rich in inventiveness, used to work, always coming up with four or six ways to show a narrative, each one different from the rest, and all of them full of grace and well done." wrote another writer after his death. For John Shearman
John Kinder Gowran Shearman (pronounced "Sherman"; 24 June 1931 – 11 August 2003) was an English art historian who also taught in America. He was a specialist in Italian Renaissance painting, described by his colleague James S. Ackerman as "th ...
, Raphael's art marks "a shift of resources away from production to research and development".
When a final composition was achieved, scaled-up full-size cartoons were often made, which were then pricked with a pin and "pounced" with a bag of soot to leave dotted lines on the surface as a guide. He also made unusually extensive use, on both paper and plaster, of a "blind stylus", scratching lines which leave only an indentation, but no mark. These can be seen on the wall in ''The School of Athens'', and in the originals of many drawings. The "Raphael Cartoons", as tapestry designs, were fully coloured in a glue distemper medium, as they were sent to Brussels to be followed by the weavers.
In later works painted by the workshop, the drawings are often painfully more attractive than the paintings. Most Raphael drawings are rather precise—even initial sketches with naked outline figures are carefully drawn, and later working drawings often have a high degree of finish, with shading and sometimes highlights in white. They lack the freedom and energy of some of Leonardo's and Michelangelo's sketches, but are nearly always aesthetically very satisfying. He was one of the last artists to use metalpoint (literally a sharp pointed piece of silver or another metal) extensively, although he also made superb use of the freer medium of red or black chalk. In his final years he was one of the first artists to use female models for preparatory drawings—male pupils ("garzoni") were normally used for studies of both sexes.
File:Raphael - Young Man Carrying an Old Man on His Back, c. 1514 - Google Art Project.jpg, Young Man Carrying an Old Man on His Back, c. 1514
File:Raphael - Study for La Belle Jardinière.jpg, Study for La Belle Jardinière
File:Raphael - Nude Studies, 1515 - Google Art Project.jpg, Nude Studies, 1515
File:Raphael. Marriage of Alexander and Roxana. Study for Villa Farnesina. 1510s. Albertina, Vienna.jpg, Marriage of Alexander and Roxana. Study for Villa Farnesina
File:Raffaello, studio per le tre grazie della farnesina.jpg, Red chalk study for the Villa Farnesina
The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy.
Description
The villa was built for Agostino Chigi, a rich Sienese banker and the treasurer of Pope Julius II. B ...
''Three Graces''
File:Raphaël - Étude Madone d'Albe 1.jpg, Sheet with study for the ''Alba Madonna
The ''Alba Madonna'' is a tondo (circular) oil on wood transferred to canvas painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael, created ''c.'' 1511, depicting Mary, Jesus, and John the Baptist in a typical Italian countryside.
After a ce ...
'' and other sketches
File:Raffaello, studi per madonne col bambino.jpg, Developing the composition for a ''Madonna and Child''
File:Estudosguardasressurreicao-rafael-ashmuseum1.jpg, Study for soldiers in this ''Resurrection of Christ'', c. 1500
Printmaking
Raphael made no prints himself, but entered into a collaboration with Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figu ...
to produce engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
s to Raphael's designs, which created many of the most famous Italian prints of the century, and was important in the rise of the reproductive print. His interest was unusual in such a major artist; from his contemporaries it was only shared by Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...
, who had worked much less successfully with Raimondi. A total of about fifty prints were made; some were copies of Raphael's paintings, but other designs were apparently created by Raphael purely to be turned into prints. Raphael made preparatory drawings, many of which survive, for Raimondi to translate into engraving.
The most famous original prints to result from the collaboration were ''Lucretia'', the ''Judgement of Paris'' and ''The Massacre of the Innocents'' (of which two virtually identical versions were engraved). Among prints of the paintings ''The Parnassus
''The Parnassus'' (, referring to Mount Parnassus) is a fresco painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael in the Raphael Rooms ("''Stanze di Raffaello''"), in the Palace of the Vatican in Rome, painted at the commission of Pope Ju ...
'' (with considerable differences) and ''Galatea'' were also especially well known. Outside Italy, reproductive prints by Raimondi and others were the main way that Raphael's art was experienced until the twentieth century. Baviero Carocci, called "Il Baviera" by Vasari, an assistant who Raphael evidently trusted with his money, ended up in control of most of the copper plates after Raphael's death, and had a successful career in the new occupation of a publisher of prints.
File:The_Massacre_of_the_Innocents_MET_DP839588.jpg, ''The Massacre of the Innocents'', engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figu ...
from a design by Raphael. First state, "without fir tree"
File:Urteil des Paris.jpg, ''Judgement of Paris'', still influencing Manet
A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...
, who used the seated group in his most famous work.
File:Galatea (engraving).jpg, Galatea, engraving after the fresco in the Villa Farnesina
The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy.
Description
The villa was built for Agostino Chigi, a rich Sienese banker and the treasurer of Pope Julius II. B ...
Private life and death
From 1517 until his death, Raphael lived in the Palazzo Caprini
Palazzo Caprini was a Renaissance palazzo in Rome, Italy, in the Borgo rione between Piazza Scossacavalli and via Alessandrina (also named Borgo Nuovo). It was designed by Donato Bramante around 1510, or a few years before.
It was also known ...
, lying at the corner between piazza Scossacavalli
Piazza Scossacavalli, also named Piazza di San Clemente, Piazza di Trento, Piazza d'Aragona, Piazza Salviati, was a square in Rome, Italy, important for historical and architectonic reasons. The square was demolished together with the surrounding ...
and via Alessandrina
Via Alessandrina is an urban street in Rome (Italy), at the southern end of the ''Rioni of Rome, Rione'' Monti (rione of Rome), Monti, passing alongside the ruins of the Imperial Fora.
It was originally the main road axis of the former Alessandr ...
in the Borgo, in rather grand style in a palace designed by Bramante.[Gigli (1992), p. 46] He never married, but in 1514 became engaged to Maria Bibbiena, Cardinal Medici Bibbiena's niece; he seems to have been talked into this by his friend the cardinal, and his lack of enthusiasm seems to be shown by the marriage not having taken place before she died in 1520.[Vasari:230–31] He is said to have had many affairs, but a permanent fixture in his life in Rome was "La Fornarina", Margherita Luti
Margarita Luti (also Margherita Luti or ''La Fornarina'', "the baker's daughter") was the Mistress (lover), mistress and Model (art), model of Raphael. The story of their love has become "the Archetype, archetypal artist–model relationship of ...
, the daughter of a baker (''fornaro'') named Francesco Luti from Siena who lived at Via del Governo Vecchio. He was made a "Groom of the Chamber
Groom of the Chamber was a position in the Household of the monarch in early modern England. Other ''Ancien Régime'' royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. In France, the Duchy of Burgundy, and in Eng ...
" of the Pope, which gave him status at court and an additional income, and also a knight of the Papal Order of the Golden Spur
The Order of the Golden Spur ( it, Ordine dello Speron d'Oro, french: Ordre de l'Éperon d'or), officially known also as the Order of the Golden Militia ( la, Ordo Militia Aurata, it, Milizia Aurata), is a papal order of knighthood conferre ...
. Vasari claims that he had toyed with the ambition of becoming a cardinal, perhaps after some encouragement from Leo, which also may account for his delaying his marriage.
Raphael died on Good Friday
Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...
(April 6, 1520), which was possibly his 37th birthday. Vasari says that Raphael had also been born on a Good Friday, which in 1483 fell on March 28, and that the artist died from exhaustion brought on by unceasing romantic interests while he was working on the Loggia. Several other possibilities for his death have been raised by later historians and scientists, such as a combination of an infectious disease and bloodletting
Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease. Bloodletting, whether by a physician or by leeches, was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily flu ...
. In his acute illness, which lasted fifteen days, Raphael was composed enough to confess his sins, receive the last rites
The last rites, also known as the Commendation of the Dying, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of Christian faith, when possible, shortly before death. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortall ...
, and put his affairs in order. He dictated his will, in which he left sufficient funds for his mistress's care, entrusted to his loyal servant Baviera, and left most of his studio contents to Giulio Romano and Penni. At his request, Raphael was buried in the Pantheon, Rome, Pantheon.
Raphael's funeral was extremely grand, attended by large crowds. According to a journal by Paris de Grassis, four cardinals dressed in purple carried his body, the hand of which was kissed by the Pope. The inscription in Raphael's marble sarcophagus, an elegiac poetry, elegiac distich written by Pietro Bembo
Pietro Bembo, ( la, Petrus Bembus; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was an Italian scholar, poet, and literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller, and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the ...
, reads: "Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die."
File:Raphael colonna 01.jpg, Probable self-portrait drawing by Raphael in his teens
File:Sanzio 01 Raphael.jpg, Self-portrait, Raphael in the background, from ''The School of Athens
''The School of Athens'' ( it, Scuola di Atene) is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. The fresco was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate the rooms now known as the , in the Apostolic Pa ...
''
File:Raphael missing.jpg, ''Portrait of a Young Man (Raphael), Portrait of a Young Man'', 1514, lost during the Second World War. Possible self-portrait by Raphael
File:Portrait de l'artiste avec un ami, by Raffaello Sanzio, from C2RMF retouched.jpg, Possible ''Self-portrait with a friend'', c. 1518
Critical reception
Raphael was highly admired by his contemporaries, although his influence on artistic style in his own century was less than that of Michelangelo. Mannerism, beginning at the time of his death, and later the Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
, took art "in a direction totally opposed" to Raphael's qualities; "with Raphael's death, classic art—the High Renaissance—subsided", as Walter Friedländer put it. He was soon seen as the ideal model by those disliking the excesses of Mannerism:the opinion ...was generally held in the middle of the sixteenth century that Raphael was the ideal balanced painter, universal in his talent, satisfying all the absolute standards, and obeying all the rules which were supposed to govern the arts, whereas Michelangelo was the eccentric genius, more brilliant than any other artists in his particular field, the drawing of the male nude, but unbalanced and lacking in certain qualities, such as grace and restraint, essential to the great artist. Those, like Lodovico Dolce, Dolce and Pietro Aretino, Aretino, who held this view were usually the survivors of Renaissance Humanism, unable to follow Michelangelo as he moved on into Mannerism.
Vasari himself, despite his hero remaining Michelangelo, came to see his influence as harmful in some ways, and added passages to the second edition of the ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Lives'' expressing similar views.
Raphael's compositions were always admired and studied, and became the cornerstone of the Academic art, training of the Academies of art. His period of greatest influence was from the late 17th to late 19th centuries, when his perfect decorum and balance were greatly admired. He was seen as the best model for the history painting, regarded as the highest in the hierarchy of genres. Sir Joshua Reynolds in his ''Discourses'' praised his "simple, grave, and majestic dignity" and said he "stands in general foremost of the first [i.e., best] painters", especially for his frescoes (in which he included the "Raphael Cartoons"), whereas "Michael Angelo claims the next attention. He did not possess so many excellences as Raffaelle, but those he had were of the highest kind..." Echoing the sixteenth-century views above, Reynolds goes on to say of Raphael:
The excellency of this extraordinary man lay in the propriety, beauty, and majesty of his characters, his judicious contrivance of his composition, correctness of drawing, purity of taste, and the skilful accommodation of other men's conceptions to his own purpose. Nobody excelled him in that judgment, with which he united to his own observations on nature the energy of Michael Angelo, and the beauty and simplicity of the antique. To the question, therefore, which ought to hold the first rank, Raffaelle or Michael Angelo, it must be answered, that if it is to be given to him who possessed a greater combination of the higher qualities of the art than any other man, there is no doubt but Raffaelle is the first. But if, according to Longinus (literature), Longinus, the sublime, being the highest excellence that human composition can attain to, abundantly compensates the absence of every other beauty, and atones for all other deficiencies, then Michael Angelo demands the preference.
Reynolds was less enthusiastic about Raphael's panel paintings, but the slight sentimentality of these made them enormously popular in the 19th century: "We have been familiar with them from childhood onwards, through a far greater mass of reproductions than any other artist in the world has ever had..." wrote Wölfflin, who was born in 1862, of Raphael's Madonnas.
In Germany, Raphael had an immense influence on religious art of the Nazarene movement and Düsseldorf school of painting in the 19th century. In contrast, in England the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Jame ...
explicitly reacted against his influence (and that of his admirers such as Joshua Reynolds), seeking to return to styles that pre-dated what they saw as his baneful influence. According to a critic whose ideas greatly influenced them, John Ruskin:
The doom of the arts of Europe went forth from that chamber [the Stanza della Segnatura], and it was brought about in great part by the very excellencies of the man who had thus marked the commencement of decline. The perfection of execution and the beauty of feature which were attained in his works, and in those of his great contemporaries, rendered finish of execution and beauty of form the chief objects of all artists; and thenceforward execution was looked for rather than thought, and beauty rather than veracity.
And as I told you, these are the two secondary causes of the decline of art; the first being the loss of moral purpose. Pray note them clearly. In mediæval art, thought is the first thing, execution the second; in modern art execution is the first thing, and thought the second. And again, in mediæval art, truth is first, beauty second; in modern art, beauty is first, truth second. The mediæval principles led up to Raphael, and the modern principles lead down from him.
By 1900, Raphael's popularity was surpassed by Michelangelo and Leonardo, perhaps as a reaction against the etiolated Raphaelism of 19th-century academic artists such as Bouguereau.[Ettlinger & Ettlinger:11] Although art historian Bernard Berenson in 1952 termed Raphael the "most famous and most loved" master of the High Renaissance, art historians Leopold and Helen Ettlinger say that Raphael's lesser popularity in the 20th century is made obvious by "the contents of art library shelves ... In contrast to volume upon volume that reproduce yet again detailed photographs of the Sistine Ceiling or Leonardo's drawings, the literature on Raphael, particularly in English, is limited to only a few books". They conclude, nonetheless, that "of all the great Renaissance masters, Raphael's influence is the most continuous."[Ettlinger & Ettlinger:230]
See also
* List of paintings by Raphael
* Domenico Alfani, a close friend of Raphael whose paintings have often been mistaken for those of the better-known artist
Notes
Footnotes
Citations
References
* Anthony Blunt, Blunt, Anthony, ''Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1660'', 1940 (refs to 1985 edn), OUP,
* Cecil Gould, Gould, Cecil, ''The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools'', National Gallery Catalogues, London 1975,
* Ettlinger, Leopold D., and Helen S. Ettlinger, ''Raphael'', Oxford: Phaidon, 1987,
* Roger Jones and Nicholas Penny, ''Raphael'', Yale, 1983,
* Landau, David in:David Landau & Peter Parshall, ''The Renaissance Print'', Yale, 1996,
* Pon, Lisa, ''Raphael, Dürer, and Marcantonio Raimondi, Copying and the Italian Renaissance Print'', 2004, Yale UP,
*
* John Shearman, Shearman, John; ''Raphael in Early Modern Sources 1483–1602'', 2003, Yale University Press,
* Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...
, ''Life of Raphael'' from the ''Lives of the Artists'', edition used: ''Artists of the Renaissance'' selected & ed Malcolm Bull, Penguin 1965 (page nos from BCA edn, 1979)
* Heinrich Wölfflin, Wölfflin, Heinrich; ''Classic Art; An Introduction to the Renaissance'', 1952 in English (1968 edition), Phaidon, New York.
*
Further reading
* The standard source of biographical information is now: V. Golzio, ''Raffaello nei documenti nelle testimonianze dei contemporanei e nella letturatura del suo secolo'', Vatican City and Westmead, 1971
* ''The Cambridge Companion to Raphael'', Marcia B. Hall, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ,
* New catalogue raisonné in several volumes, still being published, Jürg Meyer zur Capellen, Stefan B. Polter, Arcos, 2001–2008
* ''Raphael''. James H. Beck, Harry N. Abrams, 1976. ,
* ''Raphael'', Pier Luigi De Vecchi, Abbeville Press, 2003.
* ''Raphael'', Bette Talvacchia, Phaidon Press, 2007.
* ''Raphael'', John Pope-Hennessy, New York University Press, 1970,
* ''Raphael: From Urbino to Rome''; Hugo Chapman, Tom Henry, Carol Plazzotta, Arnold Nesselrath, Nicholas Penny, National Gallery Publications Limited, 2004, (exhibition catalogue)
* ''The Raphael Trail: The Secret History of One of the World's Most Precious Works of Art''; Joanna Pitman, 2006.
* ''Raphael: A Critical Catalogue of his Pictures, Wall-Paintings and Tapestries'', catalogue raisonné by Luitpold Dussler published in the United States by Phaidon Publishers, Inc., 1971, (out of print, but an online version is her
*
Raphael at the Metropolitan: The Colonna Altarpiece
', Wolk-Simon, Linda. (2006). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. .
* ''Raphael and the Antique'', Claudia La Malfa, Reaktion Books, 2020.
External links
*
Raphael Research Resource
from the National Gallery, London
Ten drawings and three paintings from the Royal Collection
Most of the Raphael/Raimondi prints from the San Francisco Museums
Website of Teylers Museum
on the provenance of the Raphael drawings in the museum's collection.
Birthplace Museum of Raphael, Urbino, on the Artist's Studio Museum Network website
Mobilier national (France) collection of tapestries
Raphael Santi
at ColourLex.
Guide to the Raphael Spurious Letters undated
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{Authority control (arts)
Raphael,
Italian Renaissance architects
Italian Renaissance painters, Raphael
1483 births, Raphael
1520 deaths, Raphael
Italian portrait painters
Architects of Roman Catholic churches
Catholic painters
History painters
People from Urbino, Raphael
Burials at the Pantheon, Rome
16th-century Italian architects
16th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters