Home	Raphael: The Life of Raphael of Urbino, Painter and Architect [1483-1520]
	Raphael ( 1483-1520) represents the most perfect balance of the countless and many-sided problems of artistic form that had been experimented upon, developed, and enriched through the preceding century. What can be said about the perfection of form can likewise be said of the philosophical equilibrium with which he handled the traditional problems of iconography, whether they deal with the devotional altarpiece, the monumental decoration (Stanzas), the history (tapestries), or classical mythology (Villa Farnesina). And in his integration of form and iconography he not only reflects the culture of Julius II and particularly Leo X, but also fulfills the philosophical as well as political ideal of the High Renaissance in the rebirth and re-establishment of Rome to its ancient glory (cf. the parallel ambitions of the age of Constantine and that of Innocent III). Raffaello Santi or Sanzio was born March 18, 1483, in Urbino, the son of the painter Giovanni Santi (d. 1494), who in his time had been active at the court of Duke Federigo da Montefeltre. Raphael's early training in the artist's craft probably began in the shop of his father and Pietro Perugino, who was active at various times in Urbino from 1493-99. When the latter was called to decorate the Cambio in Perugia in 1499, the young Raphael very likely accompanied him as assistant, and remained in Perugia until 1504 (therefore two years after Perugino's departure for Florence). After a short visit to Urbino, he went to Florence in the fall of that year with a letter of recommendation dated October 1, 1504, from Elizabetta della Rovere to the Florentine Gonfaloniere, Pietro Soderini. He remained in Florence four years, was recommended in 1505 as the best painter of Perugia, and was active on a number of altar commissions which reflect the influence particularly of Leonardo and Fra Bartolommeo. Probably late in 1508 he went to Rome (Vasari says he was called through the influence of his fellow-Umbrian, Donato Bramante, who as architect had just begun plans for the new cathedral of St. Peter's); the next year he was given the title of Scriptor brevium by the Pope, and was at work on the fresco decoration of the Stanza della Segnatura. This was finished by August 1511, and the same year he began the Stanza dell' Eliodoro (a Ferraran envoy mentions the due camere that Raphael is doing, in a letter of July 12, 1511, to Isabella d' Este) which in turn was finished in 1514. After this came the Sala dell' Incendio, finished in 1517. At Rome, particularly during the pontificate of Leo X, Raphael's activity expanded in many directions, and he appears to have been the center of a considerable group of artists and intellectuals at the papal court, so that as a personality his identification with the Cortegiano of his friend Baldassare Castiglione may be justified. The number of commissions for portraits, altarpieces, and large decorative projects steadily increased with each year with a corresponding increase in the participation of many assistants. Chief among the larger decorations, aside from the Stanzas, are: (1) the prophet Jesaiah in Sant' Agostino, Rome, done ca. 1512 for the prelate, Johann Gortiz of Luxemburg, and later much restored by Daniele da Volterra; (2) the fresco of the Four Sibyls in the Cappella Chigi of Santa Maria della Pace, ca. 1511/12-1514; (3) the dome mosaics of the Cappella Chigi in Santa Maria del Popolo, done 154-16 for the same Agostino Chigi by the Venetian Luigi de Pace after Raphael's designs; (4) the decoration of the destroyed corridor connecting the Vatican with the Belvedere; (5) the cartoons for the tapestries, 1515-16; (6) the decoration of the bathroom of Cardinal Bibbiena in the Vatican ( 1516); (7) the fresco decorations of the Villa Farnesina, 1517-19; (8) the frescos of the loggia on the upper story of the Vatican, ca. 1517-19; (9) the sketches and cartoons for the Sala di Constantino, 1518-19. Raphael's activity as an architect began with his appointment by Pope Leo as directing architecf of St. Peter's after the death of Bramante in 1514 and that year a model was made from his designs by Barile. His architectural style, largely influenced by Bramante, can be followed in a series of buildings in Rome after his designs: the Cappella Chigi in Santa Maria del Popolo, 1512; the Villa Madama, begun in 1515 and continued by Giulio VidoniCaffarelli; and the Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence ( 1516-20). In 1519, shortly before he died, Raphael took measurements and made plans, aided by Andrea Fulvio, the scholar and author of Antiquitates Urbis, for the reconstruction of ancient Rome and its ruins. From a Breve of August 27, 1515, Leo had appointed Raphael prefect of antiquities in Rome, which is significant in this connection as well as Raphael's consistent archaeological interest in antiquity constantly reflected in his decorative motifs. He died April 6, 1520, and was buried with all honors in the Pantheon. In general, Raphael's career is logically divided into the three periods of his activity in Perugia ( 1500-1504), Florence ( 1504-1508), and Rome ( 1508-20); his style correspondingly develops under the successive influences of Perugino, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. The discovery and understanding of the genuine Raphael, however, is not to be found obviously in the influences as such, but in the character of his interpretation, and the stylistic analysis of his many-sided activity may be approached both horizontally and vertically, i.e., both in the chronological succession of the works from one year and period to the next, and in the continuity of form that is stabilized by the limitations of iconography and decorative purpose. Raphael's earliest work is the Gonfalone or processional banner that was ordered by the Confraternity of the Holy Trinity in Città di Castello on the occasion of the plague of 1499. Two damaged canvases, now in the museum of that city, represent the Creation of Eve and the Holy Trinity with the kneeling Saints Sebastian and Roche, and though they resemble Perugino's manner, might also be associated vaguely with Timoteo Viti, who had been active in Urbino after 1495, (the similar Trinity by Viti in the Brera). The first major commission of the youthful apprentice was the altar representing St. Nicholas of Tolentino treading on the devil and being crowned by God-Father, for the chapel of Andrea Baroncio in Sant' Agostino in Città di Castello, which was ordered December 10, 1500, from Raphael and Evangelista di Piandimeleto (a former pupil of Giovanni Santi) and paid for on September 13, 1501. The original panel had been sawed to pieces and lost except for three fragments in the Museums of Brescia and Naples, the God-Father in the latter museum having long been identified as a Timoteo Viti with whose style it bears a remarkable resemblance. Aside from the single figure of Fortitude in Perugino's Cambio frescos, the best example of Raphael's most Peruginesque style is the Crucifixion of 1503 from the Mond Collection now in the National Gallery, London. It was painted for the Gavari Chapel in San Domenico in Città di Castello and is his first inscribed work: HOC OPUS FECIT DNICUS TOME DE GAVARIS MDIII. In the comparison of this panel with Perugino's Crucifixion in Santa Maria Magdalene dei Pazzi, or that in Sant' Agostino, Siena, note, however, the peculiarly spiritual, poetic quality which is more pagan and antique in character and which distinguishes Raphael from Perugino. This can be recognized in some of Raphael's very early (i.e., ca. 1500-2) and small-sized panels: the so-called Vision of a Knight in the National Gallery, which in theme is probably a variation of the classical Hercules at the Crossroads and is related to the woodcut of the contending Virtus and Voluptas in Sebastian Brand's Narrenschiff; the Three Graces in the Condé Museum of Chantilly, based on the famous classical sculpture group in Siena; likewise might be noted the more integrated drawing and vitality of the two panels representing St. George and St. Michael killing the Dragons, in the Louvre; and above all the lyric naturalism of the early Madonnas (e.g., the Madonna Conestabile della Staffa). The Coronation of the Virgin in the Vatican reflects a more perceptible break with the Perugino manner. It was painted (originally on wood, later transferred to canvas) early in 1503 for the altar of Maddalena degli Oddi in San Francesco in Perugia. The three beautifully preserved panels of the predella represent the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation in the Temple (note the clarity of their compositions as compared with Perugino's predella scenes of the same subjects belonging to the altar in Santa Maria Nuova, Fano, 1497). The comparison of his works with similar representations by Perugino, e.g., the Ascension (or rather, the Madonna in Glory) with Saints in the Pinacoteca of Bologna, of ca. 1500, or the Coronation with Saints of 1502 from San Francesco al Monte in the gallery of Perugia, will show Raphael's adherence to the rigid division of upper and lower stories in the figure composition; but it also shows the combination and enrichment of the two themes by introducing the open sarcophagus and St. Thomas with the Girdle in the lower half of the canvas. The sarcophagus and the active grouping of the apostles about it allow a more unified formal composition as well as a tangible and understandable spiritual content. The most significant work of Raphael's early period is the Sposalizio in the Brera Museum of Milan, which is signed and dated 1504, and was originally ordered by Filippo degli Albezzini for the altar of St. Joseph in the church of San Francesco, Città di Castello. It appears to be based on Perugino's altar with the same subject and composition in the Museum of Caen. There are a number of documents related to the commission for Perugino's panel, particularly that of April 11, 1499, and it therefore seems reasonably certain that it was painted earlier than Raphael's. But the fact that it is sometimes interpreted as having been painted later and based on Raphael's composition is indicative of the different stylistic characters of the two masters: to his very last years Perugino's art continued on the basic principles of form of the late Quattrocento, while each successive work of Raphael's shows a development and expansion in spiritual and artistic expression. In the comparison of the two works, note the common origin of the compositional scheme in Perugino's Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter in the Sistine Chapel; Raphael's more easily composed and clearly defined figures which move forward from either side to the central group as opposed to Perugino's formal arrangement in a frieze-like relief; Raphael's tendency to dramatize the scene by giving greater prominence to the bachelors' active breaking of their rods at the right; the greater decorative and spacial unity of figures and background by means of the more elaborate perspective and the polygonal temple as opposed to the planar design of Perugino's octagonal temple and background. The Pierpont Morgan altarpiece in the Metropolitan Museum of New York demonstrates the difference between Raphael's Perugian and Florentine styles. It was painted probably in 1505 for the high altar of the convent of Sant' Antonio in Perugia, but appears to have been started at an earlier date, ca. 1503-4, which might be inferred from the clearly Umbrian and Peruginesque composition of the throne, the upper saints, and the angels of the lunette (cf. Raphael's Coronation). The two figures of St. Peter and St. Paul were certainly done at a later date under Florentine influence (i.e., Fra Bartolommeo), and the assumption is that he finished the panel on a later trip back to Perugia (in December 1505, for instance, he is recorded there for a short time). A number of excellent predella scenes belonging to it are extant, such as the Christ Bearing the Cross, in the London National Gallery, the Pietà in the Gardner Collection of Boston, and the Christ in Gethsemane in the Metropolitan. The interesting motif of the fainting Virgin at the left of the Christ Bearing the Cross is the same used by Perugino in his contemporary Deposition for SS. Annunziata, and used several times by Sodoma. The major part of Raphael's Florentine activity is taken up by countless drawings and studies, and his famous Madonnas. The drawings reveal his growth from the small and intimate poetic expression of the Umbrian to a more broadly conceived national Italian form that came through the basic understanding of the Florentine traditions. They show his careful studies from nature and the model, the sculpture of Donatello, the engravings and paintings of Pollaiuolo, the battle scenes of Leonardo and Michelangelo, as well as the new expression in Leonardo's portrait and devotional pictures. Psychologically his position is somewhat related to that of Fra Bartolommeo. The fact that the majority of his fully executed paintings during the Florentine period are small Madonna and Child representations is not to be explained by this transitional state of mind alone, but also by the simple lack of commissions. The Madonna panels represent compositional variations (half- or full-length, seated or standing Virgin; the infant Christ Child and St. John in various playing motifs and gestures) that reflect the principles presented in Leonardo's Virgin, St. Anne, and Child. Their intimate and poetic character is a continuation of the Umbrian and Peruginesque type, yet becomes more human and recognizable and thus tends toward the sentimental. The best known of these are: the Madonna del Duca di Terranuova in Berlin (with the motif of the outstretched hand from Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks); the Madonna della Granduca in the Palazzo Pitti, the Cowper Madonna in the Widener Collection of Philadelphia, the Madonna della Casa Tempi in the Alte Pinakothek of Munich, the Madonna in the Meadow in the Vienna Museum, the Madonna del Cardellino (i.e., of the Goldfinch) in the Uffizi, La Belle Jardiniere in the Louvre, the Esterhazy Madonna (unfinished) in the Museum of Budapest, and the Holy Family from the Casa Canigiani in Munich. The names by which they are known come for the most part from their former possessors. In the study of their style note the clarity and luminosity of the color (in contrast to Leonardo's dark and richer coloration), the use of many glazes, the tendency toward a pyramidal composition and the equal clarity of the figure design, which can perhaps best be seen in the many sketches of such varying poses and compositions. The dates of execution are between 1505 and 1507, approximately in the chronological order given here. The Canigiani Holy Family is the last, most complex and stylized of the group (cf. the similar compositions by Fra Bartolommeo in the Corsini Gallery of Rome and Andrea del Sarto in the Louvre). The flying angels that originally filled in the spaces on either side of Joseph have been painted out at a later date. Raphael's maturer conception of the large and many-figured altarpiece at the end of the Florentine period can be seen in the Madonna del Baldacchino in the Pitti palace. It was painted about 1508, is unfinished, and is probably identical with that painted for the altar of the Dei family in Santo Spirito which Vasari says he left unfinished when he went to Rome. The comparison with the Sant' Antonio altar in the Metropolitan, as well as the Canigiani panel, will demonstrate the new relationship of figures to the space and a total monumental form (note the spacious niche behind the throne and baldacbin, the conversing angels in the foreground as a substitute for the Venetian music-making angels; cf. the general relationship and differences with the contemporary Venetian Santa Conversazione). The fluttering angels at the top are repainted but probably belong to the original composition. The damaged fresco of the Holy Trinity in the monastery of San Severo in Perugia was probably begun late in 1505 when Raphael was in Perugia, continued ca. 1507-8, and left unfinished. The remainder, i.e., the six standing saints of the lower half, was completed in 1521 by Perugino. An inscription below, added later but probably correct, says that the Trinity above was done by Raphael in 1505 under the priorate of Don Ottaviano Stefano Volterrano and the lower part by Perugino in 1521. Stylistically Raphael's section of the fresco shows much the same duality of composition noted in the Sant' Antonio altarpiece and even persistent in the Madonna del Baldacchino, namely the more decorative and Perugian manner of the central and upper section, as opposed to the heavy and more Florentine figures of the six seated saints. The total compositional scheme is based on Fra Bartolommeo's 1499 fresco of the Last Judgment in Santa Maria Nuova (Uffizi). Another panel which, together with the Madonna del Baldacchino and the San Severo fresco, marks the transition from the Florentine to the Roman style, is the Entombment in the Borghese Gallery of Rome, the predella to which, representing allegorical figures in grisaille of Faith, Hope, and Charity, is in the Vatican Gallery. It is signed and dated 1507, and was commissioned by Atalante Baglioni for the church of San Francesco in Perugia. Of some iconographical significance is the apparent discrepancy in Raphael's mind between the Pietià (cf. the Oxford drawing) and the Entombment, and the attempt to combine the two and dramatize the theme through the physical movement of figures in the actual transportation of the dead Saviour to the Tomb (cf. the parallel in the Deposition theme as opposed to the Crucifixion). Icongraphically the motif is related to Mantegna's engraving of the same subject; the interest in the abstract movement of figures may be related to the drastic compositions of Signorelli, but is certainly stimulated by work of Michelangelo, as can be seen in the group of the fainting Virgin at the right (cf. the same group in Raphael's predella of Christ Bearing the Cross in the National Gallery), with the twisted figure of Mary Magdalene kneeling before her (taken from Michelangelo's Doni Madonna). Likewise the figure of Christ bears a close resemblance to the design of the same figure in Michelangelo's marble Pietà in St. Peter's. The two important portraits of this period are the corresponding panels in the Pitti Palace representing Angelo Doni and his wife, Maddalena di Giovanni Strozzi, which are mentioned by Vasari as being at his time in the palazzo of their son Giovanbattista. They were probably painted between. 1505-7, hence within a few years after their marriage in 1503. In their full and plastically modeled halflength form they are interesting stylistic documents in the history of portrait painting, particularly as it developed after Leonardo. The design of the Maddalena portrait is based on that of Leonardo's Mona Lisa (cf. Raphael's drawing in the Louvre, copied after it); the comparison of the two, however, reveals Raphael's clear and more refined draftsmanship, the simpler modeling of forms, and the lighter and more luminous sense of coloration with the particular use of many glazes, similar to his contemporary Madonna pictures. The exact time of Raphael's arrival in Rome is not known. He is not mentioned among the artists of the Vatican until his appointment as Scriptor brevium on October 4, 1509. His work on the first room, from the inscription on the Parnassus, was finished by November 1511 and was probably begun in June 1509. Generally one assumes, however, that he came to Rome late in 1508. In November 1507 Pope Sixtus changed his living quarters from the Appartamente Borgia, which had been so elaborately decorated for Pope Alexander VI by Pinturicchio, to the rooms upstairs which had formerly been occupied by Nicholas V and which contained the chapel decorated by Fra Angelico. The decoration of these four rooms began in the fall of 1508 under the direction of the architect Bramante. The Stanza della Segnatura (so-called because the signing and affixing of the official seal, segno, to the papal documents took place here) was probably originally intended as a study and library, which is important to bear in mind in the analysis of the content as related to the patron and the intellectual tastes of this particular period (cf. the allegorical and intellectual content of Pinturicchio's decorations in the Borgia apartments). The rooms are square, of balanced proportions, covered by cross vaults and entered through doorways at the corners (cf. the architectural plan of Gozzoli's chapel in the Medici palace). The decorative framework of the vault was painted by Sodoma, who is recorded at work on them in October 1508. The four medallions and rectangular scenes in this design were executed by Raphael and represent allegorical figures of Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Justice, enthroned with angels holding tablets (cf. Michelangelo's sibyls). Between them are the corresponding rectangular scenes, the Fall of Man, Astronomy, the Crowning of Apollo after his victory over Marsyas, and the Judgment of Solomon. Corresponding to these again and in the same order on the side walls below the vault are the Disputà (i.e., Theology) and the School of Athens (Philosophy), the Parnassus (Poetry) and Jurisprudence (Justice). Below these in grisaille are the giving of the Civil and Canon Law (i.e., on either side of the window on the Justice wall) represented by Justinian giving the Pandects to Trebonianus, and Pope Gregory IX handing the Decretals to the jurist consistorium. This latter appears to be a group portrait in the manner of Melozzo da Forli's portrait in the Vatican: Julius II as the enthroned Gregory, with Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici (later Leo X) to the left and Alessandro Farnese (later Paul III) to the right. On the opposite wall below the Parnassus are the two grisaille scenes (executed by Giovanni Francesco Penni) representing the finding of ancient Greek and Latin scriptures, and Emperor Augustus preventing the burning of the Aeneid.The Disputà del Sacramento was the first of the frescos to be executed. It represents not a dispute in the literal sense of the word but a discussion, as the medieval scholastics understood the term, of the cardinal Mystery of the Church, represented in the Monstrance, by the learned church doctors and theologians (below) in the presence of the Trinity, the great prophets and saints above. Of the many formal and iconographical problems, note the following factors: (1) The remarkable combination of many themes and motifs which are presented in one single unified composition, which can be studied by the comparison with the Glorification of Theology (i.e., St. Thomas Aquinas) as painted by Andrea da Firenze in the Spanish Chapel of Florence, the Last Judgment by Fra Bartolommeo in the Uffizi, and the Holy Trinity as painted by Raphael himself in San Severo, and in many altarpieces by Perugino. (2) The general animation of the "discussion" through varying gestures, poses, and groupings in contrast to the trance-like saints of the late Quattrocento and related both to the spiritual atmosphere of a Santa Conversazione and the dramatic action of Leonardo's Last Supper. (3) The iconographical significance given to various compositional means, not only in the figure animation but also through the division of upper and lower half (i.e., spiritual and worldly), the linear perspective with the Monstrance at the point of flight (cf. the use of the symbol at this point rather than the more realistic and human representation given by Leonardo in his Last Supper with much the same significance), the aerial perspective in the semicircular array of saints on clouds, the golden rays and group of figures straight down the center (i.e., the Trinity: God-Father, Christ, and the Dove of the Holy Spirit) above the Monstrance, Christ accompanied by Mary and John, the Dove flanked by the four Gospels. (4) The realistic identification of figures, notably the four Church Fathers at the corners of the altar (Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine), the portraits of St. Thomas (fifth to right of altar), St. Bonaventura (with the cardinal's hat), Pope Sixtus IV next to him, Dante with his characteristic profile, and Savonarola (profile). The monk's head at the extreme left is probably Fra Angelico and the new building of St. Peter's is visible in the distance at the left. (5) The evolution of Raphael's form, which can be followed (here as well as in the other murals) in the many sketches from the nude model, studies in drapery, nude and clothed figure compositions, experiments in light and shade until a final and perfected composition was reached; the unbelievable degree to which Raphael had achieved that ideal of compositional perfection has led to the identity of the "classic" and "artistic perfection" through subsequent academic traditions (cf. Ingres). (6) Raphael's unique coloration, which has a rare luminosity in the local color patch and at the same time an even gray tone which gives a compositional unity to the wall and retains its surface decorative value. The recession of one figure behind another, and of the figure groups in three planes up the steps is aided by the juxtaposition of complementary colors whose bright values are in turn evenly distributed over the surface as a part of the total color pattern. In contrast to the darker enclosed hall of the opposite School of Athens, this is open at the top and is accented by a brilliant gold, which might have been called for by the symbolical supremacy of the Christian subject over the accompanying pagan representations. Raphael's development as a portraitist during the Roman period can best be studied in the portraits of his two famous patrons. That of Julius II in the Uffizi was painted ca. 1511/12 and, according to Vasari, given to the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. A copy of the same picture was probably painted by Titian for Duke Guidobaldo II (della Rovere) of Urbino in 1546 and is in the Pitti Palace of Florence. The characteristic features of the Pope are to be recognized in the various representations of him in the Stanza della Segnatura. The composition is a logical development of the earlier portrait of Angelo Doni, which in turn was based on Leonardo. Note the expansion from a half- to a three-quarter-length portrait; the same composition of head, shoulders, and arms in a pyramid form turned to the right but more freely and plastically built into the space, hence the use of an armchair rather than the picture frame or balustrade as a support for the arms of the portrayed; Raphael's characteristic clarity and perfection of outline defining the forms (cf. the Venetian richness and luminosity of color in the Pitti variation).