Raphael
- This article is about the Renaissance artist. For other uses, please see Raphael (disambiguation).
Raphael or Raffaello (April 6 1483 – April 6, 1520) was a master painter and architect of the Florentine school in the Italian High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and softness of his paintings. He was also called Raffaello Sanzio, Raffaello Santi, Raffaello da Urbino or Rafael Sanzio da Urbino.
Biography
The surname Sanzio derives from the latinization of the Italian, Santi, into Santius (also, when signing solely using his baptismal name, "Raphael"). His father, Santi Giovanni, was also a painter in the court of Urbino.
In 1491 his mother Màgia died and his father then died on 1 August 1494. Thus orphaned at eleven, Raffaello was entrusted to his uncle Bartolomeo, a priest. He had already shown talent, as recounted by his contemporary Giorgio Vasari - he tells that since childhood Raphael had been "a great help to his father". Unfortunately it is not known precisely how Raphael assisted and, lacking any documentation on this part of his life, his formative phase remains unknown.
Nevertheless, in Urbino he came into contact with the works of Uccello and Signorelli. The most obvious influence on his early first works is that of Pietro Vannucci, aka Perugino. According to Vasari, on a trip to Perugia with his father, Raphael impressed Perugino.
His first documented work was an altarpiece for the church of San Nicola of Tolentino in 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 at Brera) and for Perugia.
In 1504 he went to Florence, where he learnt lessons from Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. He spent a large part of 4 years there (the so-called "Florentine period"), but continued to travel to and work in other places (Perugia, Urbino and perhaps also Rome). He made friends with the local painters, particularly Bartolomeo, one of those who influenced him to leave behind the thin style and graceful of the Perugino for more grandiose and powerful forms.
At the end of 1508, he moved permanently 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 - beforehand 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
In 1514 he was named architect of the new St Peter's. Much of his works there were altered or demolished after his death, but he built other buildings and for a short while he was the most important architect in Rome, as well as the most important painter. In 1515 he was entrusted with the preservation and recording of the Vatican collections of ancient sculpture.
After his arrival in Rome portraits became a secondary task for Raphael as he devoted his efforts to the great Vatican projects, although he still painted portraits of his 2 main patrons, the two popes Julius II and his successor Leo X, the latter being considered one of his finest portraits.
One of his most important papal commissions was the 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.
Raffaello, who in Rome lived in Borgo, never married, but it appears that in 1514 he was engaged to Maria Bibbiena (a cardinal's granddaughter), which was terminated by her death. The other woman to his name is "La Fornarina", a beauty named Margherita, the daughter of a baker (fornaro) named Francesco Luti from Siena who lived at via del Governo Vecchio 48. According to Vasari his premature death on Good Friday, 6 April, 1520, 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 Raffaelo 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 27th or 28th March. As he had asked, he was buried in the Pantheon. 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 [1].
Raphael was highly admired by his contemporaries. When compared to Michelangelo and Titian, he was sometimes considered inferior to those masters. 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
- 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
- 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
- Portrait of a Man - Oil on wood, 45 x 31 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome
- Madonna Solly (Madonna with the Child) (1500-1504) - Oil on tablet, 53 x 38 cm, Staatliche Museen zu 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
- The 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
- Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga (c. 1504) - Oil on wood, 52,9 x 37,4 cm, Uffizi, Florence
- 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, (1504-1505) - Tempera and gold on wood, 172,4 x 172,4 cm (main panel), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Portrait of Pietro Bembo (c. 1504) - Oil on wood, 54 x 69 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
- Portrait of Perugino (c. 1504) - Tempera on wood, 57 x 42 cm, Uffizi, Florence
- Self-portrait (1504-1506) -
- 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
- 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 Grand Duke (c. 1506) - Oil on wood, 84 x 55 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
- Madonna of the Pinks (1506)
- Madonna with Beardless St. Joseph (1506) - Tempera on canvas transferred from wood, 74 x 57 cm, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
- Canigiani Holy Family (1507) - Oil on wood, 132 x98 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- La Belle Jardiniére (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
- 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
- The Alba Madonna (1511) - Oil on canvas, diameter 98 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- The Prophet Isaiah (1511-1512) - Fresco, 250 x 155 cm, Sant'Agostino, Rome
- Portrait of Pope Julius II (1511-1512) - Oil on wood, 108 x 80,7 cm, National Gallery, London
- 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, Massachusetts
- 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 Burning of Borgo (1514) - Fresco, width at base 670 cm, Vatican, Rome
- Portrait of Bindo Altoviti (c. 1514) - Oil on tablet, 60 x 44 cm - National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- 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)
- 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 Visitation
- 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) -
- 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
See also
References
1. The portrait of breast cancer and Raphael's La Fornarina [2]. Lancet 2002; 360:2061 (and correspondence, Lancet 2003; 361:1129-1130).
2. Raphael biography by Giorgio Vasari.
External links