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Raphael Sanzio or Raffaello (April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520) was an Italian master painter and architect of the Florentine school in High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings. He was also called Raffaello Sanzio, Raffaello Santi, Raffaello da Urbino or Rafael Sanzio da Urbino.
Early life and work
Raphael was born in Urbino. The surname Sanzio derives from the latinization of the Italian, Santi, into Santius (also, when signing solely using his baptismal name, "Raphael"). His father, Giovanni Santi, was also a painter in the court of Urbino.
In 1491, his mother Màgia died; his father died on August 1, 1494, having already remarried. Thus orphaned at eleven, Raphael was entrusted to his uncle Bartolomeo, a priest. He had already shown talent, according to Giorgio Vasari - he tells that since childhood Raphael had been "a great help to his father". His father's workshop continued and probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. He is described as a "master" in 1501. In Urbino he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello and Luca Signorelli. According to Vasari, his father placed him in Umbrian master Pietro Perugino's workshop as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother"; the subsequent influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is most obvious. The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari, and has been disputed. But most modern historians agree that Raphael worked as an assistant to Perugino around 1500.
His first documented work was an altarpiece for the church of San Nicola of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. It was ordered in 1500 and finished in 1501 (it was later seriously damaged during an earthquake in 1789 and today only fragments of it remain). In the following years he painted works for other churches there (like the Wedding of the Virgin, today in the Brera) and for Perugia.
Florentine period
Moving to Florence when he was around 20, he was exposed to Leonardo da Vinci, "whom he never ceased to admire as a mentor and father figure", and to Michelangelo, just eight years his senior, "with whom he later had a stormy and competitive relationship." (Leonardo died in 1519, one year before Raphael, but Michelangelo lived until 1564.) Raphael learned from both men, but while he made use of their exploration of human anatomy, he added sentiment to his paintings. Raphael's time in Florence was very productive and the influences of Leonardo and Michelangelo (who were working on the Mona Lisa and David, respectively, at the time) is unmistakeable. At the time, Raphael's paintings bore "a strong Da Vinci influence with its pyramidal composition, contour, balance and interplay of light and dark (chiaroscuro) and sfumato (extremely fine, soft shading instead of line to delineate forms and features)," while others reveal a Michelangelic inspiration.
Roman period
At the end of 1508, he moved to Rome (at the urging of Donato Bramante, the architect of St. Peter's) and was immediately commissioned by Julius II to paint some of the rooms at his palace at the Vatican. This marked a turning point - he was only twenty-five years old, an artist in formation, and had not received commissions of such importance and prestige. He well exploited the situation, and remained almost exclusively in the service of Julius and his successor Leo X. At the time, he painted "a series of frescoes in the papal apartments" as well as those of the "Stanza della Segnatura, which include his vast School of Athens." Similar to Michelangelo, Raphael also included the likeness of his peers in his frescos. So much so that Michelangelo (who was working on the Sistine Chapel at the time) accused Raphael of perceived plagarism and years after Raphael's death, complained in a letter that "everything he knew about art he got from me."
In 1514 (following Bramante's death), he was named architect of the new St Peter's . Much of his work there was altered or demolished after his death, but he designed other buildings, and for a short time was both the most important architect and painter in Rome. In 1515 he was entrusted with the preservation and recording of the Vatican collections of ancient sculpture.
After his arrival in Rome, he devoted his efforts to the great Vatican projects, although he still painted portraits of his two main patrons, the popes Julius II and his successor Leo X, the latter portrait considered one of his finest.
One of his most important papal commissions was the Raphael Cartoons (now Victoria and Albert Museum), a series of 10 cartoons for tapestries with scenes of the lives of Saint Paul and Saint Peter, intended as wall decoration for the Sistine Chapel. The cartoons were sent to Bruxelles to be sewn in the workshop of Pier van Aelst; the first three tapestries were sent to Rome in 1519. It is possible that Raphael saw the finished series before his death — they were completed in 1520 for Leo X.
Raphael, who in Rome lived in Borgo, never married, but it appears that in 1514 he was engaged to Maria Bibbiena (cardinal Medici Bibbiena's niece); she died in 1520. The other woman in his life was La Fornarina, a beauty named Margherita, the daughter of a baker (fornaro) named Francesco Luti from Siena who lived at via del Governo Vecchio. Art historians and doctors debate whether the right hand on the left breast in La Fornarina reveal a cancerous breast tumour detailed and disguised in a classic pose of love.
According to Vasari, his premature death on Good Friday (April 6, 1520, his 37th birthday) was caused by a night of excessive sex with her, after which he fell into a fever and, not telling his doctors that this was its cause, was given the wrong cure, which killed him. Whatever the cause, in his acute illness Raphael had the wit to receive the last rites, and put his affairs in order. He took the care to dictate his will, in which he left sufficient funds for her care, entrusted to his loyal servant Bavera. Vasari underlines that Raphael was also born on a Good Friday, in 1483, on 27 or 28 March. At his request, he was buried in the Pantheon.
Printmaking
Raphael made no prints himself, but entered into a collaboration with Marcantonio Raimondi to produce engravings 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. A total of about fifty prints were made; some were copies of Raphael's paintings, but other designs were apparently created only to be made into prints. Raphael made preparatory drawings, many of which survive, for Raimondi to translate into engraving. The two most famous original prints to result from the collaboration were Lucretia and The Massacre of the Innocents. Outside Italy, reproductive prints by Raimondi and others were the main way that Raphael's art was experienced until the twentieth century.
Legacy
The inscription in his marble sarcophagus, a distichon written by Pietro Bembo, reads: "Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori." Meaning: "Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he died, feared herself to die."
Raphael was highly admired by his contemporaries. When compared to Michelangelo and Titian, he was sometimes considered inferior; at the same time, it was maintained that none of them shared all the qualities possessed by Raphael, "ease" in particular.
Chronology of main works
Early works
Resurrection of Christ (The Kinnaird Resurrection) (1499-1502) - Oil on wood, 52 x 44 cm, São Paulo Art Museum, São Paulo, Brazil
Angel (fragment of the Baronci Altarpiece) (1500-1501) - Oil on wood, 31 x 27 cm, Pinacoteca Civica Tosio Martinengo, Brescia, Italy
Angel (fragment of the Baronci Altarpiece) (1500-1501) - Oil on wood, 57 x 36 cm, Louvre, Paris
Holy Family with Madonna of the Veil (1500-1510) - Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples
St. Sebastian (1501-1502) - Oil on wood, 43 x 34 cm, Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
The Crowning of the Virgin (Oddi Altar) (c. 1501-1503) - Oil on canvas, 267 x 163 cm, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican, Rome
The Annunciation (Oddi Altar, predella) (c. 1501-1503) - Oil on canvas, 27 x 50 cm, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican, Rome
The Adoration of the Magi (Oddi Altar) (c. 1501-1503) - Oil on canvas, 27 x 150 cm, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican, Rome
The Presentation in the Temple (Oddi Altar, predella) (c. 1501-1503) - Oil on canvas, 27 x 50 cm, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican, Rome
Madonna Solly (Madonna with the Child) (1500-1504) - Oil on tablet, 53 x 38 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Mond Crucifixion (Città di Castello Altarpiece) (1501-1503) - Oil on wood, 281 x 165 cm, National Gallery, London
Three Graces (c. 1501-1505) - Musée Condé, Chantilly, France
St. Michael (c. 1501) - Louvre, Paris
Portrait of a Man (c. 1502) - Oil on wood, 45 x 31 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome
Connestabile Madonna (1502-1503) - Tempera on wood, 17,5 x 18 cm, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Madonna and Child (1503) - Oil on wood, 55 x 40 cm, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena
The Marriage of the Virgin (1504) - Oil on roundheaded panel, 174 x 121 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Vision of a Knight (1504) - Egg tempera on poplar, 17.1 x 17.1 cm, National Gallery, London
St. George (1504) - Oil on tablet, 31 x 27 cm, Louvre, Paris
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (Colonna Altarpiece), (1504-1505) - Tempera and gold on wood, 172,4 x 172,4 cm (main panel), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Portrait of Perugino (c. 1504) - Tempera on wood, 57 x 42 cm, Uffizi, Florence
Florentine period
Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga (c. 1504) - Oil on wood, 52,9 x 37,4 cm, Uffizi, Florence
Portrait of Pietro Bembo (c. 1504) - Oil on wood, 54 x 69 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Self-portrait (1504-1506) -
Madonna of the Grand Duke (c. 1505) - Oil on wood, 84 x 55 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
The Ansidei Madonna (The Madonna between St. John Baptist and St. Nicholas of Bari) (c. 1505-1506) - Oil on poplar, 274 x 152 cm, National Gallery, London
Young Man with an Apple (1505) - Oil on wood, 47 x 35 cm, Uffizi, Florence
Christ Blessing (1505) - Oil on wood, 30 x 25 cm, Pinacoteca Civica Tosio Martinengo, Brescia, Italy
Madonna Terranova (1504-1505) - Oil on wood, 87 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
The Madonna of the Goldfinch (c. 1505) - Uffizi, Florence
Madonna del Prato (The Madonna of the Meadow) (c. 1505) – Oil on wood, 113 x 88 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
St. George and the Dragon (1505-1506) - Oil on wood, 28.5 x 21.5 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington
La Donna Gravida (1505-1506) - Oil on wood, 66 x 52 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Portrait of Agnolo Doni (1505-1507) - Oil on wood, 63 x 45 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Portrait of Maddalena Doni (1505-1507) - Oil on wood, 63 x 45 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Madonna of the Pinks (1506)
Young Woman with Unicorn (1506, disputed) - Oil on canvas, 65 x 51 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome
Madonna with Beardless St. Joseph (1506) - Tempera on canvas transferred from wood, 74 x 57 cm, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1507) - Oil on wood, 72 x 55 cm, National Gallery, London
Canigiani Holy Family (1507) - Oil on wood, 132 x98 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
La belle jardinière (1507) - Louvre, Paris
The Deposition of Christ (The Entombment) (1507-1508) - Oil on wood, 184 x 176 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome
The Three Theological Virtues (tryptic) (1507) - Oil on wood, 16 x 44 cm (each), Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican, Rome
Portrait of a Young Woman (La Muta) (1507-1508) - Oil on wood, 64 x 48 cm, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino
The Tempi Madonna (Madonna with the Child) (1508) - Alte Pinakothek, Munich
La Madonna de Bogota (Madonna with the Child) (1507) - NY Bank Volt, New York
Roman period
Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1509-1511) - Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples
La disputa (1509-1510) - Fresco, width at base 770 cm, Vatican, Rome
The School of Athens (1509-1510) - Fresco, width at base 770 cm, Vatican, Rome
Madonna of Loreto (Madonna del Velo) (1509-1510) - Oil on wood, 120 x 90 cm, Musée Condé, Chantilly, France
Aldobrandini Madonna (1510) - Oil on wood, 38,7 x 32,7 cm, National Gallery, London
Madonna with the Blue Diadem (1510-1511) - Oil on wood, 68 x 44 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Portrait of a Cardinal (1510-1511) - Oil on wood, 79 x 61 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Alba Madonna (1511) - Oil on canvas, diameter 98 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington
The Parnassus (1511) - Fresco, width at base 670 cm, Vatican, Rome
The Cardinal Virtues (1511) - Fresco, width at base 660 cm, Vatican, Rome
Portrait of Pope Julius II (1511-1512) - Oil on wood, 108 x 80,7 cm, National Gallery, London
The Prophet Isaiah (1511-1512) - Fresco, 250 x 155 cm, Sant'Agostino, Rome
The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (1511-1512) - Fresco, width at base 750 cm, Vatican, Rome
Portrait of Pope Julius II (1512) - Oil on wood, 108,5 x 80 cm, Uffizi, Florence
The Madonna of Foligno (1511-1512) - Oil on wood, 320 x 194 cm, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican, Rome
The Triumph of Galatea (1511-1513) - Fresco, 295 x 224 cm, Villa Farnesina, Rome
Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami (1512-1514) - Boston
Sistine Madonna (c. 1513-1516) - Oil on canvas, 265 x 196 cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
Madonna della seggiola (Madonna with the Child and Young St. John) (1513-1514) - Oil on wood, diameter 71 cm, Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence
Madonna dell'Impannata (1513-1514) - Oil on wood, 158 x 125 cm, Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence
Madonna della tenda (1514) - Oil on wood, 65,8 x 51,2 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
The Fire in the Borgo (1514) - Fresco, width at base 670 cm, Vatican, Rome
The Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila (1514) - Fresco, width at base 750 cm, Vatican, Rome
Deliverance of Saint Peter (1514) - Fresco, width at base 660 cm, Vatican, Rome
Portrait of Bindo Altoviti (c. 1514) - Oil on tablet, 60 x 44 cm - National Gallery of Art, Washington
The Sibyls (1514) - Fresco, width at base 615 cm,Santa Maria della Pace, Rome
The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia (1514-1516) - Oil on wood, 220 x 136 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna
Portrait of Balthasar Castiglione (c. 1515) - Oil on canvas, 82 x 67 cm, Louvre, Paris
Woman with a Veil (La Donna Velata) (1515-1516) - Oil on canvas, 82 x 60,5 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami (1515-1516) - Oil on wood, 91 x 61 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila in Borgo (c. 1515-1517) - Destroyed
Portrait of Andrea Navagero and Agostino Beazzano (1516) -
Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena (c. 1516) - Oil on canvas, 85 x 66,3 cm , Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Double Portrait (c. 1516) - Oil on canvas, 77 x 111 cm , Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome
Church of Sant'Eligio degli Orefici near Via Giulia (c. 1516)
Creation of the World (1516) - Mosaic in the Chigi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo
Transfiguration (1517-c. 1520) - Oil on wood, 405 x 278 cm, Vatican Museum, Rome
Portrait of Pope Leo X with two Cardinals (1517-1518) - Oil on wood, 155 x 118 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary (1516-1517) - Oil on panel transferred to canvas, 318 x 229 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
The Holy Family of Francis I (1518) - Louvre, Paris
Ezechiel’s Vision (1518) – Oil on wood, 40 x 29 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
St. Michael Vanquishing Satan (1518) - Louvre, Paris
Madonna of the Rose (1518) - Oil on wood, Luke Brugnara Collection
Self-portrait with a Friend (1518-1519) - Oil on canvas, 99 x 83 cm, Louvre, Paris
Portrait of a Young Woman (La fornarina) (1518-1519) - Oil on wood, 85 x 60 cm, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome
Visitation - Museo del Prado, Madrid
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