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Raphael (1483-1520) is known by many other names including Raffaello Sanzio, Rafael Sanzio de Urbino, and Raffaello Santi. He was born in Urbino and first learned to paint from his father Giovanni Santi. Around 1495, Raphael went to Perugia and became a member of Pietro Perugino's workshop. This man's artistic influence is evident in Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, which Raphael painted at the tender age of 20. At 21 he left Perugia and moved to Florence. Until now he had only had a rural schooling so it was important that he brush up on his skills. While in Florence he studied the art of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Maddalena Doni is based off of Leonardo's Mona Lisa. He also learned techniques from his contemporary, Fra Bartolommeo.
Raphael's art during the High Renaissance leaned toward Mannerism and finally Baroque. In 1508 Raphael was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint frescoes in the Vatican Stanze in Rome. These four rooms came to be known as 'The Raphael Stanze'. His well-known School of Athens is located in the Stanza della Segnatura. During his short life, he painted portraits for Pope Julius II and Baldassare Castiglione, produced a large number of Madonnas, co-constructed St. Peter's Basilica, and even became the Commissioner of Antiquities in Rome. He is most celebrated for his paintings of angels and madonnas. He completely changed the way people thought of madonnas by making them appear 'greater than mortal mothers.' Examples of this include the Madonna of the Goldfinch, Sistine Madonna, Madonna della Sedia and Madonna del Baldacchino.
Raphael died at only 37 years old and was buried in the Pantheon in Rome.
Raphael, for all his purity, is but an earthly spirit ceaselessly investigating the solid.
-Charles Baudelaire, salon review, 1846
During the Renaissance, when they wished to imitate Immortal Greece, they poduced Raphael.
-Salvador Dali, Dali by Dali (1970)
While we may term other works paintings, those of Raphael are living things; the flesh palpitates, the breath comes and goes, every organ lives, life pulsates everywhere.
-Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters (1568)
From the [Sistine] Chapel we went to the loggias of Raphael, and, though I hardly dare to admit it, I could not look at them any longer. After being dilated and spoiled by Michelangelo's great forms, my eye took no pleasure in the ingenious frivolities of Raphael's arabesques.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey (1786-1788; trans. Auden, 1962)
The Knight's Dream
1503-1504
National Gallery, London
Marriage of the Virgin
1504
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Madonna of the Goldfinch
(Madonna del Cardellino)
1505-1506
The Uffizi, Florence
Saint George and the Dragon
c. 1506
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Apollo and Marsyas
1509-1511
Vatican, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome
The Prophets Hosea and Jonah
1510
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The School of Athens
1510-1511
Vatican, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome
Sistine Madonna
c. 1513-1514
Dresden Gallery, Dresden, Germany
The Transfiguration, unfinished
1519-1520
Vatican
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