Portrait of Raffaello Sanzio Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio Raphael Painting Reproductions 4 of 5

1483-1520

Italian High Renaissance Painter

Raphael or Raffaello (Urbino, Italy, April 6, 1483 - Rome, 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 de Urbino or Rafael Sanzio de Urbino.
Biography
Raphael was born the son of Giovanni Santi and Màgia di Battista Ciarla, who died in 1491. His father was a poet and a painter for the court of Mantua, and at the time of Raphael's birth, he was the head of a well known studio in Urbino. Giovanni instructed his son in painting and introduced him to the humanist court of Urbino, which at the end of the 15th century, was one of the most active cultural centres in Italy under the rule of Federico da Montefeltro, who had died seven months before Raphael's birth. There, Raphael could have encountered the works of Paolo Uccello, Luca Signorelli, and Melozzo da Forlì. Raphael showed an early talent, and by age 17, 1500, he was defined a "master".
In his biography of Raphael, Giorgio Vasari maintains that Raphael's father took the 11-year-old Raphael to Perugia to be apprenticed to Pietro Perugino. This is disputed by some authorities, although it is generally agreed that Raphael was in the Umbrian city from 1492, the year after his father died.
The first documented work by Raphael is an altarpiece for the church of San Nicola da Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town midway between Perugia and Urbino. The piece was commissioned in 1500 and completed in 1501. It was damaged by an earthquake in 1789, and today only fragments remain in the Pinacoteca Tosio Martenigo of Brescia.
Another important early commission was the Crowning of the Virgin for the Oddi Chapel in the church of San Francesco in Perugia. Raphael, probably as a member of Perugino's workshop, also worked on the frescoes of Collegio del Cambio.
The Marriage of the Virgin (1504) is the main work of this period, inspired by Perugino's Giving of the Keys to St. Peter of 1481-1482. Shortly after which he completed three small paintings, Vision of a Knight, Three Graces and St. Michael all showing the great maturity and freshness typical of his style.
In 1504 Raphael moved to Siena with the painter Pinturicchio, whom he had supplied with designs and drawings for the frescoes in the Libreria Piccolomini in Siena; and then to Florence, led by the more reasonable rule of gonfaloniere Pier Soderini after the excesses of Savonarola's years, and where two great masters, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, were at work. Raphael's presence in Florence from autumn 1504 on is confirmed. There he lived for the following four years, even though he may have travelled to Perugia, Urbino and maybe Rome. In 1507 he was commissioned by a Perugian noblewoman to paint the notable Deposition (Galleria Borghese, Rome).
In Florence, Raphael befriended several local painters, notably Fra Bartolomeo, a proponent of the idealistic principles of the High Renaissance; the influence of the latter pushed him to abandon the thin and graceful style of Perugino and embrace more grandiose and powerful forms. However, the strongest influence on Raphael's works of the Florentine period came from Leonardo da Vinci's compositions, figure placements and gestures, as well as the innovative techniques, (chiaroscuro and sfumato).
Toward the end of 1508, Pope Julius II, advised by Raphael's townsman Donato Bramante, commissioned his services in Rome. At that time Raphael was a 25 year old painter still forging his style; soon, however, he gained popular fame and the favor of the Pope. He was earning the nickname of "prince of painters." In the following 12 years Raphael never left what became his second mother country, working mainly for Julius and his successor Pope Leo X (son of Lorenzo de Medici) and painting a series of masterpieces. He became the most sought-after artist in the city.
At the end of 1508 he began decorating the apartments of Julius in the Vatican, which, in the pope's vision, were intended to glorify the Roman Church's power through the justification of humanism and neoplatonism. The best known of these frescoes are the Signature Room (Stanza della Segnatura), completed in 1511, with the famous Disputa and The School of Athens. Raphael continued to work on the rooms until 1513, under the reign of Leo X, but left the last sections almost entirely to his pupils. In the meantime he worked on other tasks, such as secular and sacred decorations for various buildings, portraits, altarpieces, cartoons for tapestries, designs for dishes and stage sceneries.
Some of the most renowned works of this period stem from his friendship with the rich Senese banker Agostino Chigi, who commissioned his beautiful fresco of Galatea in his Villa Farnesina and the Sibyls in the church of Santa Maria della Pace, along with the design and the decoration of the Chigi Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo (1513). This first architectural work earned Raphael the seat of architect of the new Saint Peter's Basilica (the construction of which began in 1506), left vacant by Bramante's death in 1514. Raphael changed the plan of the work from a Greek to a longitudinal design, but the project was again modified after his death. Two years later he drew the lines of the important Villa Madama in Rome. In 1515 he was also named as a sort of supervisor for Roman archaeology research, drawing up an archaeological map of the city.
Raphael’s prestige gave his works a role in the creation and strengthening of political alliances, as in the cases of the works now in the Louvre, which were sent to the French court, and in the Portrait of Lorenzo de Medici for the Florentine party.
Raphael never married, even though in 1514 he was betrothed to Maria Bibbiena, niece of a cardinal, but the engagement was ended by her premature death. According to legend his greatest love was one "Fornarina" ("the little baker"), but her existence is unconfirmed. According to Vasari, Raphael's premature death was due to the "excesses of love".
In his last years (1518-1520) the intervention of the workshop in Raphael’s works became more significant, as can been seen in works like Sicilia’s Spasimo for a church of Palermo and the Visitation now housed in the Prado of Madrid. Also, the decoration of the Constantine’s Room in the Vatican was executed entirely by his pupils based on the master’s drawings. His last autograph pictures are the Double portrait of the Louvre, the small but monumental Ezechiel's Vision and the Transfiguration.
Raphael's sudden death in Rome on his 37th birthday (reportedly just weeks before Leo was to invest him as a cardinal) was deeply lamented by all who recognized his greatness. His body lay in state in one of the rooms which demonstrated his genius, and he was honoured with a public funeral. The Transfiguration was carried before him in the funeral procession.
The unrelenting hand of death, says his biographer, set a limit on his achievement, and deprived the world of further benefit from his talents, when he had only attained an age at which most other men are but beginning to be useful. "We see him in his cradle (said Fuseli); we hear him stammer; but propriety rocked the cradle, and character formed his lips." - from The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, 1827
He was interred in the Pantheon, Italy's most honoured burial place.

111 Raphael Paintings

The Visitation, c.1517 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Visitation c.1517

Oil Painting
$2404
Canvas Print
$90.96
SKU: RSA-11320
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 200 x 145 cm
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

The Virgin with a Rose (The Holy Family with Little Saint John), c.1520 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Virgin with a Rose (The Holy Family with ... c.1520

Oil Painting
$1715
Canvas Print
$60.84
SKU: RSA-11321
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 103 x 84 cm
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

The Holy Family with an Oak Tree, c.1518 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Holy Family with an Oak Tree c.1518

Oil Painting
$2954
Canvas Print
$70.23
SKU: RSA-11322
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 144 x 110 cm
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

The Holy Family (The Pearl), c.1518 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Holy Family (The Pearl) c.1518

Oil Painting
$2830
Canvas Print
$72.81
SKU: RSA-11323
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 147.4 x 116 cm
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

The Holy Family with Raphael, Tobias and Saint Jerome (The Virgin with a Fish), c.1513/14 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Holy Family with Raphael, Tobias and Saint ... c.1513/14

Oil Painting
$2535
Canvas Print
$69.31
SKU: RSA-11324
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 215 x 158 cm
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

Christ Falls on the Way to Calvary, c.1516 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Christ Falls on the Way to Calvary c.1516

Oil Painting
$7300
Canvas Print
$67.03
SKU: RSA-11325
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 318 x 229 cm
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

The Cardinal, c.1510 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Cardinal c.1510

Oil Painting
$1368
Canvas Print
$72.21
SKU: RSA-11326
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 79 x 61 cm
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

Christ's Charge to Peter, c.1515/16 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Christ's Charge to Peter c.1515/16

Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: RSA-11327
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 343 x 532 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom

Holy Family (Madonna with Beardless Joseph), c.1505/06 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Holy Family (Madonna with Beardless Joseph) c.1505/06

Oil Painting
$1772
Canvas Print
$50.69
SKU: RSA-11328
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 72.5 x 56.5 cm
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

The Madonna Conestabile, c.1502/03 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Madonna Conestabile c.1502/03

Oil Painting
$1047
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: RSA-11329
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 17.5 x 18 cm
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Portrait of Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino, c.1518 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino c.1518

Oil Painting
$1788
Canvas Print
$52.73
SKU: RSA-11330
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 97 x 79 cm
Private Collection

A Woman Seated on a Chair Reading with a Child, n.d. by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

A Woman Seated on a Chair Reading with a Child n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.47
SKU: RSA-11331
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 19 x 14 cm
Private Collection

Head of a Muse, n.d. by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Head of a Muse n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.47
SKU: RSA-11332
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 30.5 x 22.2 cm
Private Collection

Christ in Glory, n.d. by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Christ in Glory n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.47
SKU: RSA-11333
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection

God the Father Blessing, c.1508 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

God the Father Blessing c.1508

Oil Painting
$1641
Canvas Print
$83.48
SKU: RSA-11334
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: unknown
Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, Italy

Portrait of a Young Girl , n.d. by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of a Young Girl n.d.

Oil Painting
$1387
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: RSA-11335
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: unknown
Art Museums, Strasbourg, France

The Sacrifice at Lystra, c.1515/16 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Sacrifice at Lystra c.1515/16

Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: RSA-11336
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 347 x 532 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom

The Marriage of the Virgin, 1504 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Marriage of the Virgin 1504

Oil Painting
$6336
Canvas Print
$50.82
SKU: RSA-11337
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 170.1 x 118 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy

Madonna of the Cloth, c.1514 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Madonna of the Cloth c.1514

Oil Painting
$3016
Canvas Print
$51.07
SKU: RSA-11338
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: unknown
Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

The Death of Ananias, c.1515/16 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Death of Ananias c.1515/16

Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: RSA-11339
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 342 x 532 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom

The Tempi Madonna, 1508 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Tempi Madonna 1508

Oil Painting
$1235
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: RSA-11340
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 75 x 51 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, c.1515/16 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes c.1515/16

Canvas Print
$60.02
SKU: RSA-11341
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 319 x 399 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom

Venus Seated on Clouds, n.d. by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Venus Seated on Clouds n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.47
SKU: RSA-11342
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 33 x 24.6 cm
Private Collection

Vision of Ezekiel, c.1518 by Raphael | Painting Reproduction

Vision of Ezekiel c.1518

Oil Painting
$1308
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: RSA-11343
Raffaello Sanzio Raphael
Original Size: 40 x 30 cm
Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

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