Raphael

Italian painter, draftsman and architect (b. 1483 Urbino, Italy, d. 1520 Rome)

Born Raffaello Sanzio. His father was a professional painter of little note, but he began instructing his son at a very young age not only in the arts but also the intellectual court life of the city state of Urbino. At this time Urbino had become a center of Italian culture, rivaling such illustrious cities as Venice and Florence.

His mother died when he was eight and his father when he was eleven. Still, he was able to acquire an apprenticeship at twelve with one of the city's leading painters. It did not take him long for his talent to out grow his apprentice, by 1500, at the age of seventeen, he had already been declared a Master and was receiving significant church commissions. While working on a commission in the city of Perugia, he
apprenticed with the great Master Pietro Perugino, who became a major influence in Raphael's emerging style. Perugino's work "Giving the Keys to St. Peter" on the Sistine Chapel (1482), inspired Raphael's first major work, "The Marriage of the Virgin" (1504).

Yet, even at this early stage, his work was surpassing that of Perugino's, and his insatiable hunger for greater intellectual and artistic challenges brought at the age of twenty-one to Florence, where he embraced the works of Michelangelo, da Vinci and other masters of the High Renaissance. He quickly succeeded in Florence, painting not only works which incorporated the innovations of da Vinci but also new figure types, whose round gentle faces reveal uncomplicated and typically human sentiments and a sense of serenity and perfection.

By 1508 his fame had grown to the point that he was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II. His work for the papal court met with high praise and he deeply impressed the Pope. The fact that he was also personally handsome, charming and adept at court etiquette soon established himself as the most favored artist in Rome. He was known as the "Prince of Painters".

During his twelve years in Rome, he recieved commissions for portraits, devotional subjects, and the Pope's private rooms; he also designed tapestries. He eventually was put in charge of all papal projects involving architecture, paintings, decoration, and the preservation of antiquities.

His untimely death on his thirty-seventh birthday "plunged into grief the entire papal court and the Pope supposedly wept bitterly, proclaiming he had had intentions of making Raphael a Cardinal. A funeral mass was celebrated at the Vatican, his Transfiguration was placed at the head of the bier, and his body was buried in the Pantheon in Rome.