Raphael

 Raphael Sanzio of Urbino

The great painter and architect, Raphael, was born in Urbino, in Northeast Italy in 1483.
He first worked in the studio of Perugino, a fine master, and learned all the basic skills
of  a painter and followed his master's style.

"Self-Portrait" at 15 years, c. 1497

His genius in art was recognized very early.

"St. George and Dragon," 1503-1505

"Marriage of the Virgin," 1504

In 1504 he moved to Florence, the capital of Renaissance art, and there

he absorbed everything about the new style, especially from the great

masters Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, both of whom were

working in Florence at the time.  He began to be greatly influenced

by classical art, which was the source for the Renaissance.

Notice here the perfect balance and symmetry of the picture.  Your eye is

led through space by three planes = the figures in the foreground, the

figures in the middle ground, and finally the figures in the building.

Renaissance = rebirth of classical antiquity as a model in art and

literature and life.

"Three Graces," 1504

This was Raphael's first female nude and a great revolution.  He used three

actual nude women as his models.  Until this time, artists (including

Michelangelo) used pre-pubescent boys for the bodies and then put women's

heads on them).  Raphael's nude women were real nude women.  Truth.

Looking at nature and the world with open eyes.  Classical subject.

"Small Cowper Madonna," 1505

Great influence of Leonardo (hazy background).

Madonna wears only red or blue - primary colors

and symbols of blood/earth and sky.

"Madonna of the Goldfinch," 1505

Strong influence of Leonardo - hazy background, feathery trees,

a triangular structure, which is perfect and stable.  Figures are

all interlocked, not looking around - Mary looks at John, John at Jesus.

Her arms include all and make perfect triangle.

"Portrait of Agnolo Doni," 1506

Raphael accepted commissions from many clients and hired

a large studio of student assistants in Florence.  Doni was a rich fabric 

merchant and prominent figure among the Florentine upper class. 

 Raphael also painted a portrait of his wife. 

"Madonna of the Meadow," 1505-06

Triangular form, primary colors, interlocking figures,

hazy background and feathery trees.

"Self-Portrait" at 23 years, 1506

Confident, successful, honest, poised.

"Young Woman with Unicorn," 1506

"La Belle Jardiniere," 1508

The greatest of the madonnas; Raphael was painting dozens for

churches and clients at this time.  In the Louvre today.

Triangle, interlocking, but here Mary looks at Jesus and so

does St. John.  Primary colors.  Each plant in foreground

can be identified = truth to nature and reality.

Stanza della Segnatura, 1509-1511, Frescoes

In 1508 Raphael moved to Rome, which had become the capital of the Renaissance

as Florence fell apart and the Medici fled.  Rome also had many ruins of classical 

times, which could be studied first-hand.  Within weeks, Raphael obtained a

commission from Pope Julius II.  For the next twelve years he worked feverishly 

for the pope and many wealthy clients, clerical and secular, and then for 

his successor, Pope Leo X Medici, whom he had known in Florence.

He worked in paintings on canvas and on wet plaster walls, architecture, 

and preparing tapestries.  These four rooms were the popes' private library, and 

Raphael designed and painted all of the walls, huge paintings. 

"Disputation on Most Holy Sacrament" Fresco in Stanze

In Rome groups of scholars met with artists for lively discussions about

art and religion and literature and the purpose of life, and the painters

 gave visual expression to these.  In this fresco, which is painting on wet plaster,

 the upper half is heavenly with the Trinity depicted, and the figures are

discussing the meaning of the Eucharist, which is displayed on the altar below.

Without being asked, Raphael included a portrait of Julius II in this sacred

conversation, and Julius never forgot the favor.  On right, with papal tiara.

This is about the divine.  Below is all earthly.  The fresco is 30 ft wide.

"School of Athens Fresco"  1509-1510

Greatest of all the frescoes, 40 feet across.  It is set in a perfectly symmetrical building, 

actually based on the drawings of Michelangelo for the new St. Peter's Church.  In the perfect 

center are Plato, pointing upward to ideal forms, and Aristotle pointing ahead and down

 to the real world around him.  Michelangelo is the brooding foreground figure.   

Raphael is on the far right.  Each of the figures represents an ancient philosopher and

has the face and body of a contemporary figure.  The pope, scholars, cardinals,

and writers would meet in this room and discuss the various philosophers and

their ideas.  They are all from classical antiquity, no longer religious figures.

"Alba Madonna," 1510

The circular tondo form was popular during the Renaissance.

The Leonardo background and trees have disappeared.

The triangular form is kept but modified; the three figures glance

in a single line.  Each plant in the foreground can be identified and

could be an illustration in a book of botany.  This reflected Leonardo's

fascination and emphasis on the details of the real world.

The Cardinal, 1511

One of many clerical clients in Rome.  Raphael also worked for the

wealthiest man in Italy at the time, the banker and patron of the arts,

Agostino Chigi.

"Portrait of Pope Julius II delle Rovere," 1512

Julius was the greatest patron of the arts during the Renaissance.

He hired Michelangelo and Raphael both to work on different

parts of the Sistine Chapel at the same time, and they borrowed 

and competed fiercely from one another.  Julius had three

 daughters from earlier liaisons, a common practice of the time.  

He provoked a number of wars.  And he commissioned the greatest art.

He was a stern man.

"Triumph of Galatea," 1512-1513

This was the only purely classical story Raphael ever painted.

Galatea is powerful, like the women Michelangelo was painting 

in the Sistine Chapel.  The figures are swirling in a circle. 

 Galatea actually has a muscular male torso, like the figures

 Michelangelo was painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel 

at the time.

"Sistine Madonna," 1514

This Madonna was painted for the Church of San Sixto in Piacenza.

Raphael is partly making fun of Michelangelo.  He saw all the hundreds

of little angels Michelangelo was painting on the ceiling of the Sistine

Chapel, not one with an expressive face.  Raphael purposely has his

little cherubim act like real little kids - they're bored.

Two Cherubim at base of painting above 1514

Woman with a Veil / La Velata 1514

Raphael liked women very much and painted them

as both real and perfect. Michelangelo preferred

the male form.

"Baldassare Castiglione," 1515

Baldo was a close friend of Raphael from Florence.  They had attended

many discussions together at the Medici Palace about the meaning of life and 

what a good life should be and how a real man should live his life. 

 Eventually Castiglione wrote "The Courtier," the definitive exposition 

of what a true Renaissance man should be - athletic, intellectual, moral, 

artistic, musical - the ideal of a well-rounded man.

Biondo Altavisti, 1516

Biondo was a close friend of Raphael, and this portrait was

a wedding gift for his young wife, so she would remember him

when he was away on business or fighting.  The painting

remained in the Altavisti family for 300 years.

"Pope Leo X Medici and Two Nephews," 1516

Leo was the younger son of Lorenzo the Magnificent Medici of Florence.

He was intended for the church from the moment he was born.

He was well educated, cultured, intelligent, proper - but not particularly

 interested in Church affair;  he is reading a beautiful illuminated manuscript

 in this painting.  He dismissed Luther as a "drunken German."

These are perhaps his nephews, or maybe his sons.

 

La Fornarina, 1518-19

Margerita Luti, daughter of a baker.  She was Raphael's

beloved and model for a number of years.  This did not prevent

 him from having other mistresses during the same time. 

 She has a real woman's body and modeled for this painting.

"Transfiguration," 1519-1520

The last painting Raphael worked on and incomplete when he died. 

 It's unusual in having two stories.   The lower portion is the miracle 

of the young man cured of epilepsy.  The upper portion shows Jesus, 

his body transfigured into a blinding light at the miraculous moment

 he revealed his divinity to several of the apostles.

"Miraculous Draught of Fish," 1515 Tapestry

Leo X commissioned Raphael to create drawings/cartoons for ten huge tapestries

 to hang on the walls of the Sistine Chapel, to complement both the frescoes 

of the 15th century Florentine artists on the walls and the new ceiling being 

painted by Michelangelo.  The rivals frothed but produced.  

The tapestries were woven in Belgium.

Raphael painted hundreds more oil paintings and frescoes, designed 

buildings and chapels (for the Chigi Famly, for example), and

participated in the lively discussions of artists and classical scholars.

Raphael died in 1520 at the age of 37, perhaps of excessive sex with his last mistress,

according to contemporary accounts.  He was buried in the Pantheon, the great

 Roman ruin in the city, as he had requested.  Today his tomb is a shrine 

for art students.  It is traditional to leave a single carnation as a sign 

of your respect and admiration.  

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