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.

Raphael whose full name was Raphael Sanzio, (also known as Raphael Sanzi), was
born on April 6, 1483. He was born in the town of Urbino, Italy, where he would
spend his childhood life until he was 11 years old. His father, Giovanni Sanzio,
was a painter for the court of Federigo da Montefeltro, and as well as being a
painter, he was a bit of a poet. As a young boy, Raphael learned the basics of
painting and art from his father. However, he would not live with his father
very long; as his mother did several years before, Raphael’s father died when
Raphael was 11.

After his father died, Raphael went to the town of Perugia to be an apprentice
of the painter Pietro Perugino. Perugino was a well-respected artist during the
Italian Renaissance. He had painted works in the Vatican, and he also created
masterpieces like Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter and The
Deposition. For the ten to eleven years that Raphael studied and assisted
Perugino, Raphael picked the usage of shade and light, and with Perugino,
Raphael learned what he is very famous for: depth and perspective. After
Perugino’s training, Raphael would eventually become a better artist than
Perugino himself. However, even with Perugino still teaching him, Raphael still
could create masterpieces.

One example is the brilliant The Marriage of the Virgin. Raphael created The
Marriage of the Virgin before he was even 21 years old, and he was still
Perugino’s apprentice. Even then, Raphael had a great understanding of depth and
perspective, which he shows well in The Marriage of the Virgin. In that piece,
the background is beautifully drawn, and although the background stands out, you
can still notice the people in the foreground without being distracted by the
background. These people are shown having emotions, and instead of being
motionless, some characters are making very noticeable actions and a lot of
movement, so the people do not appear lifeless. Instead, they appear sort of
realistic.

In 1504, Raphael moved to Florence. There, in Florence, some of the Italian
Renaissance’s biggest names lived and worked in Florence. In Florence, Raphael
studied Michelangelo’s use of anatomy and Leonardo da Vinci’s use of light and
shadow. He met such big names in Florence such as Michelangelo, Leonardo, and
Fra Bartolommeo, who was another painter that did such works as The Holy Family.
It was in Florence that Raphael made a name for himself as an artist.
One style of painting Raphael favored all throughout his career was that of
creating Madonnas over his short life; those are what made Raphael famous in
Florence. The way Raphael created his Madonnas, Madonna meaning Mary, the mother of Jesus, portray Mary as a loving, caring human woman. Many other artists
before Raphael portrayed Mary as an angelic-like woman that did not look too
much like a human woman, which was due to a lack of emotions and the lack of a
halo on many of the Madonnas. Some of the Madonna paintings Raphael created
include Madonna and Child Enthroned With Saints, Esterhazy Madonna, La Belle
Jardiniere, and the worldly famous Madonna of the Goldfinch.

Madonna of the Goldfinch was made in 1506, and does show a very human Mary. In
Italian, Madonna of the Goldfinch is Madonna del Cardellino. In that painting,
Mary is shown holding St. John, and St. John is holding a tiny bird for Jesus
Christ, who is an infant in that painting. Madonna of the Goldfinch is probably
influenced by Leonardo’s painting, The Virgin of the Rocks, for the faces and
figures are very similar. In Madonna of the Goldfinch and a few other paintings
Raphael made, he experimented with Leonardo’s immense use of shade, but would
always return to the lighter tones that Perugino had taught him.

In 1508, at the age of 24, Raphael was invited to the Vatican by Pope Julius II.
Raphael was summoned to the Vatican to paint things like stanzas, and was
probably recommended to the pope by Domato Bramante, an architect. He was
immediately well liked by the pope and everyone else at the Vatican due to his
personality; Raphael was a nice, gentle, and sensitive individual.

In order for Raphael to paint stanzas Pope Julius II ordered some old frescoes
to be washed away from the Vatican walls. Although he made many stanzas, he only
painted one stanza: the Stanza della Segnatura. In the other stanzas that
Raphael would make, Raphael would sketch the stanzas and his pupils would paint
whatever he sketched. In the Stanza della Segnatura, there was a stanza for each
of the four walls.. Each side represented a topic. The four sides were about
theology, poetry, philosophy, law. Each topic was represented with a painting.
Theology was represented by Disputa, poetry by Parnassus, Jurisprudence
represented law, and the extremely famous The School of Athens represented
philosophy. He started working on these stanzas in early 1509 and finished in
November 1511.

The School of Athens is arguably Raphael’s most famous piece. It is because,
with many other important reasons, of his use of depth and perspective and the
action and interaction of the people that makes this painting the famous
masterpiece it is. Unlike the title says, The School of Athens setting is not a
school. The School of Athens is actually a gathering of philosophers and
scientists.

The center pair is Plato and Aristotle, and each character’s side represents a
type of philosophy. On Plato’s side, philosophers are wondering about the
mysteries of the world. On Aristotle’s side are philosophers and scientists
concerned about nature and mankind. Other famous philosophers and scientists in
the painting include Pythagoras, Euclid, and Heraklettes. About this and other
Greco-Roman paintings, Celio Calcagnini once said, “It took many ancient heroes
and a long age to build Rome, and many enemies and centuries to destroy it. Now
Raphael has sought and discovered Rome in Rome; it takes a great man to seek,
but discovery comes of God himself.”

When Pope Julius II died in 1513, Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family,
became pope. Since Pope Leo X was a patron of the arts, he naturally loved and
supported Raphael and his art. Pope Leo also had Raphael do unusual tasks. For
instance, he had Raphael make a Vatican tapestry cartoon depicting happenings
from the Act of the Apostles. Pope Leo also had Raphael decorate Cardinal
Bibiena’s bathroom with pictures of Venus. Under Pope Leo X, Raphael painted
such pieces as Galatea, Pope Leo with 2 Cardinals, and a portrait of Raphael’s
good friend Count Baldassare Castiglione.

Baldassare Castiglione is possibly the most famous portrait ever done by
Raphael. In that portrait, the subject shown is posing in the sort of way that
Leonardo’s Mona Lisa subject posed. Baldassare Castiglione was done in 1515, and
is a very important piece; it influenced such painters as Titian and Rembrandt.
Rembrandt even sketched the painting in 1634.

Sadly, everyone’s life must end, and Raphael’s ended at an early age. Raphaeldied of a fever on his 37th birthday, which was on a Good Friday. The reason
Raphael received the fever was from overwork, and after ten days of high
temperatures from this fever, he finally died. He died by his unfinished
painting, The Transfiguration, which is located in the Vatican. His best pupil,
Giulio Romano, finished the painting.