MILAN – Today the art world remembers the birth and death of Raffaello Sanzio. Artist symbol of the Renaissance, his masterpieces are admired all over the world: from the splendid Virgins with Child, to the Vatican Rooms, Raphael is undoubtedly one of the most loved artists. His search for beauty and harmony has become a paradigm as well as a symbol of a golden age. BEGINNINGS– Raffaello Sanzio was born on April 6, 1483 in the city of Urbino. His father Giovanni Santi, also a painter, encouraged him to study the works of Piero della Francesca who had made some of his most beautiful works in Urbino. Raffaello thus began to study drawing and perspective, his father realizing his skill, I looked for a better teacher: Perugino. In the master’s workshop he assimilates the typical grace of his works and at the same time the decorative taste of Pinturicchio.WITH PERUGINO AND THE FIRST MASTERPIECES– At seventeen, Raphael leaves Perugino’s workshop with the title of magister which gave him permission to practice as a painter. In the first period of his activity, I made some works for Citta di Castello: the Altarpiece of Blessed Nicola da Tolentino, of which today some fragments remain which are found in Brescia, Naples and Paris; the Banner of the Trinita which is found in the Civic Art Gallery of Citta di Castello; and the Mond Crucifixion located at the National Gallery in London. Subsequently he executed the altarpiece with the Coronation of the Virgin for the Oddi family today in the Vatican Pinacoteca in Rome. In the same period he painted for the Piccolomini Library in Siena, in collaboration with Pinturicchio, the frescoes with Scenes from the life of Pius II. In 1504 Raphael created one of his great masterpieces: the Marriage of the Virgin which today is located in the Brera art gallery in Milan. The work is based on a painting by Perugino but in this Raphael shows that he has surpassed the style of the master. In the same year the painter moved to Florence even if he still maintained relations with the court of Urbino and in fact executed for the court of Urbino, the portraits of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro and Elisabetta Gonzaga and the diptych with San Michele who overthrows Satan and San Giorgio who slays the dragon.
At the same time the master created two works for the city of Perugia: the Pala Colonna which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the Ansidei Altarpiece today at the National Gallery in London. IN FLORENCE– In Florence the artist came into contact with the greatest exponents of local culture Leonardo and Michelangelo. The Leonardesque influence is felt in the Madonna Terranova inserted in a tondo, the Madonna del Granduca of 1506, the small Madonna Cowper, the Holy family and the Madonna of Orleans. Between 1505 and 1508 he also painted large panels representing: the Madonna of the Goldfinch, the Madonna of the meadow and the so-called Bella Giardiniera, in these paintings the monumental figures are isolated against a landscape background. The Michelangelo influence, which began with the portraits of the Dukes of Urbino, continued in other paintings such as the Young Man with the Apple, the Lady of the Unicorn. He also executed numerous tables of private devotion in Florence: in 1506, the Dei Raffaello Sanziogli family commissioned the altarpiece for the Church of Santo Spirito:IN ROME – The painter’s fame reached Rome, where Pope Julius II entrusted him with the task, firing all the other painters, for the decoration of the Vatican Rooms. Work began in 1508 in the room known as the Segnatura which housed the Pope’s private library. Here he painted the frescoes of the Dispute of the Sacrament, the School of Athens and the Parnassus. In the same period he performed other works including the Portrait of Fedra Inghirami, the Portrait of a Cardinal, the Madonna della torre, the Madonna Aldobrandini, the Madonna alba and the Madonna della seggiola. In the villa of Agostino Chigi he frescoes the Triumph of Galatea inspired by ancient architectures described in literary texts.
Between 1511 and 1513 he painted the frescoes in the second room in the Vatican called Eliodoro with frescoes representing: Eliodoro expelled from the temple, in which, as in the School of Athens, the architecture occupies the entire background; the Miracle of Bolsena in which the clothes of the dignitaries and those of the Pope testify contacts with the Venetian culture; the Liberation of St. Peter from prison where light is the protagonist of the scene. In this period he also performed works such as the Prophet Isaiah in the church of Sant’Agostino in Rome, the Madonna di Foligno today in the Vatican Pinacoteca in Rome, the Madonna of the veil today in New York and the portrait of Julius II today in London.RAFFAELLO AND POPE LEO X– Under the pontificate of Leo X, and on the death of Bramante, Raphael was appointed architect of the San Pietro factory. In the meantime he completes the frescoes of the room of Heliodorus with the meeting of Attila and Leo the Great and begins the decoration of the third room called the Fire. In this period I also made the cartoons for the tapestries for the Sistine Chapel which depict episodes taken from the acts of the apostles. Alongside the works intended for the Pope, he carried out works for the nobles of the court, among which the banker Chigi provided cartoons for the fresco with Prophets and Sibyls in Santa Maria della Pace in Rome, I designed the funerary chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo which together with Villa Madama testifies to his activity as an architect. Between 1514 and 1516 he painted two altarpieces:MASTERPIECES IN THE VATICAN AND DEATH– His knowledge of classical art led the Pope to appoint him conservator of antiquities and to entrust him with the task of creating a plan of the city of ancient Rome of which today there is nothing left, but the importance of the relationship that the artist had with Roman art and visible in works such as the Bibbiena apartment, the Loggia of Psyche at the Farnesina, the loggias of Leo X and the loggia in the Vatican where all the decorations are inspired by Roman models. In the years between 1518 and 1520 the help of the workshop became necessary for the painter’s activity, this is also evident in the fourth room in the Vatican called the Constantine room. Among the latest works we have the Double Portrait of the Louvre, the Vision of Ezekiel at Palazzo Pitti in Florence and the Transfiguration at the Vatican Pinacoteca in Rome. Raphael died at 37,
