Raphael

Raphael (1483-1520), Italian painter.

Raffaello Sanzio or Santi, who is known as Raphael, studied painting in Central Italy with a well known painter of his time, Perugino.

At the age of twenty-one he went to Florence. There he continued to learn from other painters including the great Leonardo da Vinci, and produced some famous paintings of the Madonna (the mother of Jesus Christ).

In about 1508, he moved to Rome and for the next twelve years he worked for the Popes. In this same period, Michelangelo was working at the Vatican, and Raphael studied Michelangelo's work and learned from it.

In the Vatican, Raphael's first important work was a series of wall paintings in one of the Pope's offices. The most famous of these is called The School of Athens but each of the paintings is looked upon as a masterpiece.

Afterwards, Raphael always had a great deal of work to do and he had to employ assistants to help him with his paintings.

Much of his finest work is to be seen today on walls and ceilings in the Vatican, but he produced many other famous paintings. These include a large number of Madonnas, a portrait of Pope Leo X, and pictures of the Holy Family and St. Michael.

In 1514, he was appointed architect of St. Peter's Cathedral and making plans for this took up a great deal of his time.

He died at the age of thirty-six and some said his early death was due to overwork.

See Raphael: The Paintings (Art & Design) ~ Konrad Oberhuber