Raffaello Sanzio - Raphael
1483-1520
Raphael Sanzio or Raffaello 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.
Raphael was born in Urbino. His father, Giovanni Santi, was also a painter in the court of Urbino. His mother and father died soon. Having been orphaned at eleven, Raphael was entrusted to his uncle Bartolomeo, a priest. Raphael had already shown talent. He managed his father's workshop, 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 and Luca Signorelli. His father probably placed him in Umbrian master Pietro Perugino's workshop as an apprentice. The subsequent influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is most obvious. His first documented work was an altarpiece for the church of San Nicola of Tolentino in Cittą di Castello. In the following years he painted works for other churches there.
He moved to Florence at the age of 20, where he was exposed to Leonardo da Vinci, "whom he never ceased to admire as a mentor and father figure", and to Michelangelo. 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. Raphael's paintings were under "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.
At the end of 1508, he moved to Rome and was immediately commissioned by Julius II to paint some of the rooms at his palace at the Vatican. This marked a turning point, and he was only twenty-five years old. He remained almost exclusively in the service of Julius and his successor Leo X. 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."
For a short time he was both the most important architect and painter in Rome. 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.
Raphael, who in Rome lived in Borgo, never married. He prematurely died on Good Friday (April 6, 1520).
Raphael made no prints himself, but he entered into collaboration with Marcantonio Raimondi who produced engravings after his designs. It created many of the most famous Italian prints of the century, and was important in the rise of the reproductive print. 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.
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