Painter · 1483 – 1520
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino
Key Takeaways
- Raphael was one of the three great masters of the Italian High Renaissance.
- His frescoes in the Vatican, especially The School of Athens, are celebrated worldwide.
- He painted many serene and graceful Madonnas and portraits.
- He later served as architect of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Raphael completed the great triumvirate of the Italian High Renaissance alongside Leonardo and Michelangelo. In a brief life of only thirty-seven years, he created works of such balance, clarity, and grace that his name became a byword for perfection in art.
The Vatican frescoes
Summoned to Rome by the pope, Raphael decorated a suite of rooms in the Vatican. The greatest of these frescoes, The School of Athens, gathers the philosophers of antiquity beneath soaring architecture, with Plato and Aristotle striding forward at its very center. It is one of the supreme images of human reason in Western art.
Madonnas and portraits
Raphael painted a celebrated series of Madonnas, tender and serene, that became models of devotional beauty, along with penetrating portraits of his contemporaries. In his final years he also took up architecture, serving as chief architect of the new St. Peter’s Basilica.
Legacy
Raphael learned from the older Leonardo da Vinci and rivaled the formidable Michelangelo, absorbing both into a style entirely his own. He died young, on his birthday in 1520, and was buried in the Pantheon. For centuries afterward his harmonious art remained the standard against which European painting was measured.
Influence
Raphael's harmonious compositions and idealized beauty set a standard for European painting for centuries and became the model of academic art from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century.
Legacy
Raphael is regarded, with Leonardo and Michelangelo, as one of the supreme masters of the High Renaissance, his name long synonymous with grace and perfection in art.
Life Timeline
- 1483Birth
Born at Urbino, the son of a court painter.
- c. 1504Florence
Moves to Florence and absorbs the lessons of Leonardo and Michelangelo.
- c. 1509–1511The School of Athens
Paints his masterpiece in the Vatican's Stanza della Segnatura.
- 1514Architect of St. Peter's
Appointed chief architect of the new St. Peter's Basilica.
- 1520Death
Dies in Rome on his 37th birthday.
Major Works
- The School of Athens
- Sistine Madonna
- The Transfiguration
- Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione
Controversies
- His sudden death at 37 cut short a brilliant career and left works such as The Transfiguration to be completed by his workshop.
Connections
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Raphael?
Raphael (1483–1520) was an Italian High Renaissance painter and architect famous for The School of Athens and his serene Madonnas.
What is The School of Athens?
It is Raphael's fresco in the Vatican gathering the great philosophers of antiquity, with Plato and Aristotle at its center, as an emblem of human reason.
Citations & Sources
People Like Raffaello
Leonardo da Vinci
97Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath — painter, inventor, anatomist and engineer — whose curiosity and genius made him the archetype of the 'Renaissance man'.
Why An older master of the High Renaissance whose sfumato and composition Raphael studied and absorbed.
Michelangelo
95Michelangelo was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter and architect, one of the greatest artists in history, creator of the David, the Pietà and the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Why His great rival in Rome, whose monumental figures influenced Raphael's later style.
Plato
96Plato was a Greek philosopher who founded the Academy in Athens, wrote the foundational dialogues of Western philosophy, and developed the influential theory of Forms.
Why Depicted at the very center of Raphael's School of Athens, beside Aristotle.
Aristotle
98Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath whose writings on logic, ethics, biology, politics and metaphysics shaped Western thought for over two millennia.
Why Shown alongside Plato at the heart of The School of Athens as the embodiment of philosophy.
Claude Monet
90Claude Monet was a French painter and the leading founder of Impressionism, whose studies of light and atmosphere — from Impression, Sunrise to the Water Lilies — revolutionized modern painting.
Why Also a painter & artist · Comparable historical impact
Pablo Picasso
94Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter and sculptor who co-founded Cubism and ranks among the most influential and prolific artists of the twentieth century, creating works such as Guernica and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
Why Also a painter & artist · Comparable historical impact