Raphael | High Renaissance painter

For centuries Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483-1520) has been recognised as the supreme High Renaissance painter, more versatile than Michelangelo and more prolific than their older contemporary Leonardo.

Though he died at 37, Raphael's example as a paragon of classicism dominated the academic tradition of European painting until the mid-19th century.

Raphael (Raffaello Santi) was born in Urbino where his father, Giovanni Santi, was court painter.

He almost certainly began his training there and must have known works by Mantegna, Uccello, and Piero della Francesca from an early age. His earliest paintings were also greatly influenced by Perugino.

From 1500 - when he became an independent master - to 1508 he worked throughout central Italy, particularly Florence, where he became a noted portraitist and painter of Madonnas.

In 1508, at the age of 25, he was called to the court of Pope Julius II to help with the redecoration of the papal apartments.

In Rome he evolved as a portraitist, and became one of the greatest of all history painters.

He remained in Rome for the rest of his life and in 1514, on the death of Bramante, he was appointed architect in charge of St Peter's. | © The National Gallery, London

Painting materials

Raphael painted several of his works on wood support (Madonna of the Pinks) but he also used canvas (Sistine Madonna) and he was known to employ drying oils such as linseed or walnut oils.

His palette was rich and he used almost all of the then available pigments such as ultramarine, lead-tin-yellow, carmine, vermilion, madder lake, verdigris and ochres.

In several of his paintings (Ansidei Madonna) he even employed the rare brazilwood lake, metallic powdered gold and even less known metallic powdered bismuth.

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: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, 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, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career.

The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura.

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.

After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo exceeded his 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, 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. | Source: © Wikipedia

Per secoli Raffaello è stato riconosciuto come il pittore supremo del Rinascimento, più versatile di Michelangelo e più prolifico del loro contemporaneo più anziano, Leonardo.

Anche se morì a 37 anni, l'esempio di Raffaello come un esempio di classicismo dominò la tradizione accademica della pittura europea fino alla metà del 19 ° secolo.

Raffaello (Raffaello Santi) è nato ad Urbino dove suo padre, Giovanni Santi, era pittore di corte.

Ha quasi certamente iniziato la sua formazione lì e deve aver conosciuto opere di Mantegna, Uccello e Piero della Francesca sin da piccolo. Anche i suoi primi dipinti furono fortemente influenzati dal Perugino.

Dal 1500 - quando divenne un maestro indipendente - al 1508 lavorò in tutto il centro Italia, in particolare a Firenze, dove divenne un noto ritrattista e pittore di Madonne.

Nel 1508, all'età di 25 anni, fu chiamato alla corte di papa Giulio II per aiutare con la ristrutturazione degli appartamenti papali.

A Roma si è evoluto come ritrattista ed è diventato uno dei più grandi pittori della storia. Rimase a Roma per il resto della sua vita e nel 1514, alla morte del Bramante, fu nominato architetto responsabile di San Pietro. | © The National Gallery, Londra