Raphael: Florentine Period

Raphael Sanzio was one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance. Raphael painted and designed many brilliant pieces of work and the stanzas inside the Vatican. He was a master at such necessities of modern art such as depth and perspective and the use of light and shadow, and was the turning point styles of paintings like the use of Madonnas in paintings. Through his short life, Raphael would make some of the most awe-inspiring, beautiful, and influential works of art during the Italian Renaissance.

Raphael was a painter during the Italian Renaissance. He is known for his paintings of the Madonna, each one a little different. He was born on April 6, 1483, in Urbino, Italy (Bio.com). His most famous painting was finished in 1507 called La belle jardinière (Bio.com). La belle jardinière is also known as Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist (Bio.com). It is different compared to the painting I will be examining but the concept and figures are still the same. Raphael died on April 6, 1520, his 37th birthday, of “unexpectedly of mysterious causes” (Bio.com).

The author of The School of Athens, is Raffaello Sanzio. He was born in the mountain town of Urbino. Raphael was born on April 6, 1483 and also died on the same day in Rome in 1520. He settled in Florence in 1505 at only fifteen-year’s old. Raphael first produced art in Urbino at a young age. Raphael produced his first piece of art at fifteen year’s old. He is a naturalistic artist. He used paint for his paintings. He started with Marriage of the Virgin (1504), the Dispute over the Sacrament (1510-1511), then the misnamed School of Athens (1510-1511), and lastly the Cardinal Virtues (1511). Raphael was part of the great trio of High Renaissance masters. He became the most prolific and most widely celebrated painter of his time. At age twenty-six-year-old Raphael was called to Rome by Pope Julius II to embark on the major phase of his career. Raphael did not approach painting as a series of solutions to technical problems of representation. Instead, he made preliminary sketches many of them preserved

Created in 1489 this masterpiece is made out of pure marble. This sculpture is located in the Vatican City. At first glance this sculpture looks like child dead in a mother's arms, which is correct but there is more too it. The sculpture represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Its shows his mother Mary holding him and he lays there dead. A very little detail that usually goes unnoticed is that Mary is not touching her son directly, but a cloth is between the two. This signifies the Higher Renaissance belief in Neoplatonic, that the beauty on earth signifies God's beauty. This masterpiece is not only amazing by the meaning but the glorious detail that Michelangelo was able to go into with practically a hammer and chisel.

From the late fifteenth century to the genesis of the sixteenth, a new movement influenced art in Europe, expanding the bleak limits of past art and created some of the most memorable masterpieces in history. The creators of these artworks during these decades of the Renaissance include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Raphael Sanzio. Influenced and sometimes driven competitively by each other, these artists share differences and similarities in their life, art style and techniques, and interests.

We all know the famous Ninja Turtles, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, but what do these names have to do with the Renaissance Art Movement? These famous names were all part of the great masters of early Renaissance art. Their talents included sculpture, painting, architecture, music and drawing, while also diving into sciences and literature. Throughout this time individual expression and worldly experience became the main themes of the century inspiring many budding artists to come.

Giotto “a forerunner of Italian Renaissance painting" also made his presence in this century. The most famous works of Giotto were completed in Padua and Florence.

Raphael was one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance. Raphael painted and designed many brilliant pieces of work and the stanzas inside the Vatican. He was a master at such necessities of modern art such as depth and perspective and the use of light and shadow, and was the turning point styles of paintings like the use of Madonnas in paintings. Through his short life, Raphael would make some of the most awe-inspiring, beautiful, and influential works of art during the Italian Renaissance.

In the years to come, Raphael painted an additional fresco cycle for the Vatican, located in the stanza d’Eliodoro (“Room of Heliodorus, The miracle of bolsena, The Repulse pf Attila from Rome and the liberation of saint peter. During the same time, the ambitious painter produced a successful series of “Madonna” paintings in his own art studio. The famed Madonna of the chair and Sistine Madonna were among them. By 1514, Raphael had achieved fame for his work at the Vatican and was able to hire a crew of assistants to help him finish painting frescoes in the Stanza dell’Incendio, freeing him up to focus on other projects. While Raphael continued to accept commissions – including portraits of Popes Julius II and Leo X – and his largest painting on canvas, The Transfiguration (commissioned in 1517), he had by this time begun to work on architecture. After architect Donato Bramante died in 1514, the pope hired Raphael as his chief architect. Under this appointment, Raphael created the design for a chapel and an area within Saint Peters new basilica. Raphael’s architectural work was not limited to religious buildings. It also extended to designing

When he was in his teens he was "commissioned to paint for the Church of San Nicola in the neighboring town of Castello" so his work even impressed the church, which was a big deal back then. Raphael was invited by a master painter, whose name was Pietro Vannuci otherwise known as Perugino, to be his apprentice in Perguia, "in the Umbria region of central Italy". In Perguia, "Pergino was working on frescoes at the Collegio del Cambia" where Raphael would go and learn how to paint frescoes. He was his apprentice for 4 years. In those 4 years he took advantage of the opportunity and gained a lot of knowledge and hands on experience

One critical patron to art in Renaissance Italy was Pope Julius II. In this period the church was often, the leading patrons of art and Pope Julius II helped keep the church one of the main patronages of this time. He commissioned many artists who created famous art pieces in Rome and in despite that many different families in Italy were rivaling the church. Julius II did whatever he could delay the plans of Lorenzo de Medici, the most powerful patron in Italy at the time. He had taken Michelangelo and commanded him to work in Rome.

Michelangelo was 13 he was criticized and motivated by Lorenzo Medici to improve his work,

Michelangelo's father beat him for spending too much time drawing and painting. He then realized early that his son was very talented and wasn't very interested in the family's banking business. He then decided to apprentice him at 13 years old to Florentine painter's workshop. Where he learned the technique fresco. Michelangelo had only been at the painter's workshop for one year when he was offered a great opportunity, in which Ghirlandaio had recommended him for. He was offered to move into the palace of Lorenzo the Magnificent, of the Medici family

Raphael followed Perugino’s method of painting all of his life. Having been commissioned the Umbrian cities and courts provided a source of wealthy and potential clients for Raphael. Raphael produced high quality work at a very young age. Urbino, where Raphael was born was considered a place where many artists flourished. Raphael worked with Perugino for about four years. Raphael began learning more by studying the works of great masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. He took along with him a lot of their techniques and style but also kept his own unique style while doing so. Many people liked and enjoyed Raphael’s company and considered him a friendly and social artist. Raphael received an important commission which was to paint the Coronation of the Virgin for the Oddi Chapel in the church of San Francesco, Perugia. This painting is now held in the Vatican Museum in Rome. In Raphael’s painting “The Marriage of the Virgin” you can see the relationships between the figures and the architecture. You can also see that the disposition of each figure in relation to the others is more informal and animated. The three small paintings that Raphael did after this one were “Vision of a Knight”, “Three Graces”, and “St Michael”. These paintings were examples of narrative paintings, showing youthful freshness and a maturing ability to control the elements of his own style. After a while Raphael’s desire for more knowledge on painting led him to look for more models to work from aside from Perugino. Raphael’s uncle Bartolomeo was subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother who his father remarried after Raphael’s mother died. Many say that after both his parents died he kept on living with his uncle and his stepmother. He lived with her when he wasn’t working as an apprentice with a master of the arts. Many of Raphael’s father’s friends say that Raphael was of great help to his father and he showed

Raphael was born Raffaello Santi or Raffaello Sanzio in Urbino on April 6, 1483, and received his early training in art from his father, the painter Giovanni Santi. In 1499 he went to Perugia, in Umbria, and became a student and assistant of the painter Perugino. Raphael imitated his master closely; their paintings of this period are executed in styles so similar that art historians