Raphael Santi (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi), was one of the greatest Italian painters of the High Renaissance. He was active in Perugia, Florence, and Rome, where he painted for secular patrons and frescoes in the Vatican. Youngest of the three most famous artists of the Italian High Renaissance, he was strongly influenced by the other two, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci.
Raphael's Difference from da Vinci and Michelangelo
There were distinct differences between Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo: Raphael was not fiery and moody but was sociable, elegant and sophisticated. Leonardo da Vinci was said to be the most sociable, and Michelangelo, the most reclusive. Raphael's personality is revealed in his art. Harmony and grace are shown in his religious and mythological scenes and his dignified portraits enhance the character of his sitters.
Early Life of Raphael Santi
Raphael (April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), was born in Urbino. He was the son of Giovanni Santi, a court painter. That time Urbino was a cultural centre of Renaissance Italy and so he was exposed to the fine works of art at an early age. At the age of 16, Raphael went to Perugia and worked with the artist Perugino, whose graceful style is reflected in Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin, 1504 (Brera, Milan).
Raphael's talent was soon recognized when he was given a place in Perugino's studio where he began to develop his style. His work showed his early concern for harmonious disposition of figures in the pictorial space.
Raphael The Professional Painter
At 21, Raphael moved to the active artistic circles in Florence where he studied the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Masaccio, and Fra Bartolommeo. His paintings were highly praised, especially Madonna and Child. He went to Rome in 1508.
Raphael's Fresco The School of Athens and other Accomplishments
A year later, Pope Julius II commissioned him to decorate the papal apartments (the Stanze della Segnatura) in the Vatican Palace, in a series of frescoes on the walls of several new apartments. Notably, this was at the same time that Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel ceiling nearby. Raphael's first fresco series there, The School of Athens (1509), is a complex but classically composed grouping of Greek philosophers and mathematicians, centered on the figures of Plato and Aristotle. It is 23 feet long, on the wall of the Vatican Palace, the Pope's residence. A second series of frescoes (1511-1514), includes the dramatic and richly coloured Mass of Bolsena.
More Work and Successes for Raphael
Raphael received many commissions. Success followed success. Within the next few years he painted not only frescoes but sacred pictures, portraits, and made drawings for tapestries. Some of these are the mythological frescoes in the Villa Farnesina in Rome (1511-1512), cartoons for tapestries for the Sistine Chapel, Vatican, the Sistine Madonna, (about 1512), and portraits, including Baldassare Castiglione (about 1515), a prominent Renaissance author. His last great work was The Transfiguration, 1519-1920. He was master at combining soft and gentle colors, curving lines and figures.
Raphael Santi's Final Years
At the height of his career, Raphael contracted a fever and died at the young age of 37. He left a legacy of magnificent paintings marking the high point of the Renaissance.
Sources:
Larousse Dictionary of Painters (1989)
Masters of Art by Samm Sinclair Baker and Natalie Baker (1987)
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