... study for a future painting. ScalaArt Resource, NYRaphael painter 1483-1520 properly, Raffaelo Sanzio, Italian painter ho as one of the leading artists of the Italian Renaissance. He created many of the most significant paintings of the early 16th century and his art as extremely influential for centuries after his death.Raphael as born in Urbino on March 28 or April 6, 1483. His father, the artist Giovanni di Santi, orked mainly for Francesco Gonzaga in Mantua, and Raphael spent his youth in a courtly environment. In 1500, so Vasari records, Raphael as apprenticed to Perugino, a highly respected artist ho as one of the first in Italy to paint extensively in oil. He employed pure strong colours for his figures, hich ere imbued ith a particularly seet air of piety, often setting them in landscapes infused ith pale, shimmering light.Raphaels early paintings include large altarpieces as ell as smaller orks, both devotional and secular, many of them made for the court at Urbino. One such is a small panel painting, St George Slaying the Dragon c. 1505, National Gallery of Art, ashington, D.C. it seems to be connected ith Guidobaldo da Montefeltros election to the Order of the Garter in 1504 and is remarkable for its miniature precision and the knoledge of the ork of the Flemish painter Han Memling that it displays. Raphaels earliest large-scale paintings ere executed in Città di Castello, hich as a days ride from Urbino. orks such as the Sposalizio or Marriage of the Virgin 1504, Brera, Milan and the Coronation of the Virgin c. 1503, Vatican Museum, Rome demonstrate Peruginos influence in their static composition and seet figure style. Although intentionally similar in composition to earlier orks by Perugino, Raphaels paintings already possessed a dynamic spatial quality that is lacking in the formers ork, and his consummate technical mastery and idealizing imagination led to his orking in competition ith his former master on altarpieces in Perugia, for instance the Ansidei Altarpiece 1505, National Gallery, London made for Bernardino Ansidei for the chapel of St Nicholas of Bari in the Servite church of San Fiorenzo.Raphaels visit to Florence in about 1504 seems to have been motivated by his desire to see the ork of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps in order to improve his skills in areas such as anatomy and perspective, here he as still inexpert. He did not settle there but visited frequently beteen 1504 and 1508. His ork during these years as extremely varied in nature and scale, ranging from the series of madonnas he painted for individuals, such as the Small Coper Madonna c. 1505, National Gallery of Art, ashington, D.C. to the large-scale religious orks commissioned for churches, such as The Entombment 1507, Borghese Gallery, Rome.Raphaels style developed fully during the years 1504-1508. He lost Peruginos air of seetness and developed a bolder, more monumental manner that as partly inspired by the orks of Fra Bartolommeo. hile his madonnas ere idealized portraits of tranquil omen, he also painted real sitters in La Muta c. 1507, Ducal Palace, Urbino, the subjects finger extends to press against the picture frame, creating an arresting and original pictorial device that reinforces the analogy that a painting is akin to a indo.During his period in Florence, Raphael as influenced by the pyramidal compositions of Leonardo, as can be seen in La Belle Jardinire c. 1507, Muse du Louvre, Paris. This is one of a series of paintings of the Virgin and Child, often ith St John the Baptist, in an outdoor setting. Leonardos influence is also apparent in the Bridgeater Madonna c. 1507, Duke of Sutherland Collection, on loan to National Gallery of Scotland here, the Virgins seetly smiling expression and contraposto tisted pose are derived from Leonardo, hile the pose of the Infant Jesus is derived from Michelangelo.In 1508 Raphael as summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II in order to decorate a suite of offical rooms in the Vatican knon as the Stanze. He started ith the Stanza della Segnatura, the office in hich documents ere sealed, producing a series of frescos concerned ith different aspects of the human intellect. The most famous of these, the School of Athens 1509-1511, represents groups of Greek philosophers in a monumental Classical setting. Despite the great number and variety of figures, the painting has a remarkably balanced, unified composition, dominated by the eloquently gesturing figures of Plato and Aristotle in the centre. The other frescos in the Stanza, representing theology, poetry, and la, have a similarly harmonious quality, hich also characterizes the Stanza dellEliodoro 1511-1514. This as folloed by to further rooms, hich ere mostly executed by Raphaels assistants, in particular Giulio Romano, ho ere also responsible for painting the Vatican Loggie, completed in 1519. During this period Raphael also produced a series of cartoons 1515-1516, Royal Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London for tapestries that ere to be hung in the Sistine Chapel. These memorable compositions, representing scenes from the lives of St Peter and St Paul, ere to be enormously influential on later artists.As ell as orking for the papacy, Raphael also received important commissions from private patrons, in particular the banker Agostino Chigi, for hom he decorated to chapels, at Santa Maria della Pace c. 1512-1513 and Santa Maria del Popolo 1516. For Chigi he also adorned the Villa Farnesina ith sensual mythological frescos depicting Galatea c. 1511 and scenes from the story of Cupid and Psyche 1516-1517, the latter painted so as to create a trompe loeil effect of tapestries suspended overhead. Raphaels interiors ere profoundly influenced by the grotesque style of ornamentation inside the Domus Aurea, the recently excavated palace of the Roman emperor Nero. This is particularly apparent in the stuccoed loggia of the Villa Madama, built by Raphael for Cardinal Giulio de Medici begun c. 1518. Raphael also experimented ith profuse decoration on an exterior in the no destroyed Palazzo Branconio dellAquila. Such orks contrast greatly ith the austere beauty of SantEligio degli Orefici, a small church, in the form of a domed Greek cross, hich as designed by Raphael and probably Bramante around 1509. hile the churchs lucid geometrical structure and restrained decoration typify the High Renaissance, the later buildings clearly anticipate the complexity of Mannerism. During this period Raphael also produced memorable orks on panel and canvas, including a number of portraits these included a remarkably frank depiction of the aged Pope Julius II c. 1511, National Gallery, London, as ell as Pope Leo X and To Cardinals c. 1519, Uffizi, Florence and the nobleman Baldassare Castiglione c. 1516, Muse du Louvre, Paris. Raphael also executed a number of extraordinary altarpieces, including the celebrated Sistine Madonna c. 1513, Gemldegalerie, Dresden, a magnificent image of t...
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