In 1483, Raphael was born in a humble abode near the Ducal Palace in Urbino. Casa Santi still conserves today the frescoes of the Madonna di Casa Santi - one of the most refined works of 15th century art in the Marche which shows the future artist with his mother – and is attributed to Giovanni Santi or to Raphael himself. At that time Urbino was a chest of treasures, foremost of which was the Ducal Palace. The young Raphael was particularly attracted by the Duke’s Study which clearly demonstrated the luxurious taste of the Urbino court under Federico da Montefeltro. The city in the Marche housed many masterpieces, and Raphael was particularly influenced by La Città Ideale, recently attributed to Bramante, and the Brera Altarpiece, painted by Piero della Francesca for the Duke’s mausoleum in the Church of St. Bernardino. Only fragments survive of his debut work, the large Altarpiece of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino. The influence of his teacher, Perugino, is seen in the Mond Crucifixion (1503, National Gallery, London), Coronation of the Virgin (Oddi Altarpiece) (1503, Vatican Museums), and the Marriage of the Virgin (1505, Pinacoteca of Brera).
His time in Florence lasted from 1504 to 1508. A shot of Ponte Vecchio from the Arno River introduces the Brancacci Chapel in the Church del Carmine, frescoed by Masolino and Masaccio, where Raphael too would train. This is the period of his portraits, including those of Agnolo Doni and Maddalena Strozzi (1506, Uffizi, Florence), and versions of the Madonna, emblem of female, maternal beauty, in particular Madonna of the Goldfinch (1506, Uffizi), Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John (1508, Louvre), the Baglioni Altarpiece (1507, whose central part, the Borghese Deposition, is conserved in the Galleria Borghese in Rome) and the Madonna of the Baldacchino (1506-1508, Galleria Palatina, Florence), which was never completed because of his sudden move to Rome.
“If Florence shaped me, Rome consecrated me”. It was 1508 when Pope Julius II of the Rovere family summoned the 33 year old Michelangelo, to commission the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the 25 year old Raphael, whom he asked to decorate the Pope’s new apartments (later to become the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican Museums): the Room of the Signatura with the School of Athens and the Room of Heliodorus with the Deliverance of St Peter. His successor as Pope, Leo X de’ Medici, commissioned the decoration of two more rooms, the Room of the Fire in the Borgo and the Hall of Constantine which he was unable to complete. In addition to the Papal apartments, Raphael created altarpieces including the Madonna of Foligno, Madonna col Bambino Sgambettante, and the Sistine Madonna, famous for the two pensive cherubs who peek down, today one of the best known of his paintings and the entire figurative cult of the Renaissance. Raphael also frescoed Cardinal Bibbiena’s Vatican apartment. On 26 December 1519 the tapestries that he had created in just 4 years were displayed in the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo had finished the ceiling fresco only several years earlier. Raphael also frescoed the Villa Farnesina (Triumph of Galatea, Loggia of Psyche) during the period of his love for La Fornarina who is portrayed in several works; it is uncertain whether the painting that bears this name in Palazzo Barberini is really his beloved, and much more likely that La Velata (1516, Galleria Palatina, Florence) provides us with information about her real features. Raphael was working on the Transfiguration when he died on 6 April 1520 after a short illness. His tomb in the Pantheon bears an epitaph by Pietro Bembo “Here lies Raphael feared by nature during his life for his conquest of her; but now that he is dead fears to die herself”.
In 1483, Raphael was born in a humble abode near the Ducal Palace in Urbino. Casa Santi still conserves today the frescoes of the Madonna di Casa Santi - one of the most refined works of 15th century art in the Marche which shows the future artist with his mother – and is attributed to Giovanni Santi or to Raphael himself. At that time Urbino was a chest of treasures, foremost of which was the Ducal Palace. The young Raphael was particularly attracted by the Duke’s Study which clearly demonstrated the luxurious taste of the Urbino court under Federico da Montefeltro. The city in the Marche housed many masterpieces, and Raphael was particularly influenced by La Città Ideale, recently attributed to Bramante, and the Brera Altarpiece, painted by Piero della Francesca for the Duke’s mausoleum in the Church of St. Bernardino. Only fragments survive of his debut work, the large Altarpiece of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino. The influence of his teacher, Perugino, is seen in the Mond Crucifixion (1503, National Gallery, London), Coronation of the Virgin (Oddi Altarpiece) (1503, Vatican Museums), and the Marriage of the Virgin (1505, Pinacoteca of Brera).
His time in Florence lasted from 1504 to 1508. A shot of Ponte Vecchio from the Arno River introduces the Brancacci Chapel in the Church del Carmine, frescoed by Masolino and Masaccio, where Raphael too would train. This is the period of his portraits, including those of Agnolo Doni and Maddalena Strozzi (1506, Uffizi, Florence), and versions of the Madonna, emblem of female, maternal beauty, in particular Madonna of the Goldfinch (1506, Uffizi), Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John (1508, Louvre), the Baglioni Altarpiece (1507, whose central part, the Borghese Deposition, is conserved in the Galleria Borghese in Rome) and the Madonna of the Baldacchino (1506-1508, Galleria Palatina, Florence), which was never completed because of his sudden move to Rome.
“If Florence shaped me, Rome consecrated me”. It was 1508 when Pope Julius II of the Rovere family summoned the 33 year old Michelangelo, to commission the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the 25 year old Raphael, whom he asked to decorate the Pope’s new apartments (later to become the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican Museums): the Room of the Signatura with the School of Athens and the Room of Heliodorus with the Deliverance of St Peter. His successor as Pope, Leo X de’ Medici, commissioned the decoration of two more rooms, the Room of the Fire in the Borgo and the Hall of Constantine which he was unable to complete. In addition to the Papal apartments, Raphael created altarpieces including the Madonna of Foligno, Madonna col Bambino Sgambettante, and the Sistine Madonna, famous for the two pensive cherubs who peek down, today one of the best known of his paintings and the entire figurative cult of the Renaissance. Raphael also frescoed Cardinal Bibbiena’s Vatican apartment. On 26 December 1519 the tapestries that he had created in just 4 years were displayed in the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo had finished the ceiling fresco only several years earlier. Raphael also frescoed the Villa Farnesina (Triumph of Galatea, Loggia of Psyche) during the period of his love for La Fornarina who is portrayed in several works; it is uncertain whether the painting that bears this name in Palazzo Barberini is really his beloved, and much more likely that La Velata (1516, Galleria Palatina, Florence) provides us with information about her real features. Raphael was working on the Transfiguration when he died on 6 April 1520 after a short illness. His tomb in the Pantheon bears an epitaph by Pietro Bembo “Here lies Raphael feared by nature during his life for his conquest of her; but now that he is dead fears to die herself”.
The painter Raphael Sanzio is seen through his work in the three phases of his lifetime: Urbino, the town of his birth; Florence, where he was trained, and Rome, which consecrated him as one of the greatest artists who ever lived.