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Raphael (1483 - 1520)
In Raphael's work the art of the Roman High Renaissance attained full maturity. Born in 1483 in Urbino, he was initially a pupil of his father Giovanni Santi, (died 1494), and at the latest by 1499 an assistant to Perugino in Perugia, where he also came into contact with Pintoricchio, who was working there then. From 1504/05 until 1508 he was in Florence, where he studied the workshop of Fra Bartolommeo, Leonardo and Michelangelo. During this period he painted in particular a number of small-scale depictions of the Madonna, as well as portraits. Towards the end of 1508 he was called to Rome by Pope Julius II to decorate apartments (the Stanze) in the Vatican. Of the other major works from his Roman period mention should be made of the fresco of Galatea in the Villa Farnesina, completed in 1514, the cartoons executed 1515/16 for the tapestries in the Sistine Chapel, and the depiction of St. Cecilia painted c.1515 for the church of S. Giovanni in Monte in Bologna, (now in the Academy there). The decorations for the Vatican Loggias painted between 1517 and 1519 were designed by Raphael and executed by his workshop. After his arrival in Rome he was also entrusted with a number of significant architectural projects; indeed from 1515 he was principal architect to the Fabbrica di San Pietro, (i.e. to those engaged on the building of St. Peter's). From 1519 he worked on the Transfiguration for S. Pietro in Montorio, (now in the Vatican); but this workshop was unfinished when he died in Rome in 1520. He was buried in the Pantheon. |
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