Raphael, properly Raffaello Santi or Sanzio 1483-1520
Italian painter, one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance

Raphael was born in Urbino, the son of the poet-painter Giovanni Santi (d.1494). He studied from about 1500 at Perugia under Perugino. Among his early paintings were the Mond Crucifixion (1502-03) and Assumption of the Virgin (1504), which clearly show Perugino's influence. In 1505 he went to Siena, where he assisted Pinturicchio and took commissions including several Madonnas. He then moved to Florence, where he studied the work of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. In Raphael's portraiture especially, da Vinci's influence is visible, and the likeness of Maddalena Doni (Florence) is inspired by the Mona Lisa. Of special interest is the St George, sent by the Duke of Urbino to Henry VII of England, while the painter's own likeness and the Madonnas of Orl�ans, of the Palm, of St Petersburg and of Canigiani are attractive in other ways. The Borghese Entombment (1507) is an embodiment of all the new principles which Raphael acquired in Florence and of colour such as only he could give.

He became attracted by the style of Fra Bartolommeo and, under his influence, he completed the Madonna del Baldacchino in Florence. Some of the best work of his Florentine period was now produced: the small Holy Family, the St Catherine, the Bridgewater and Colonna Madonnas, the Virgin and Sleeping Infant, the large Cowper Madonna, the Belle Jardini�re, and the Esterhazy Madonna.

In 1508 he went to Rome at the instigation of his relative Donato Bramante, then in high favour with Pope Julius II, who had laid the foundation of the new cathedral of St Peter, and who commissioned the redecoration of the papal chambers because he disliked the frescoes of the older masters. Among Raphael's work there was the fresco series The School of Athens, centred on Plato and Aristotle. Raphael divided his time between the labours of the Vatican and easel pictures. The portraits of Julius II and the Virgin of the Popolo were now executed, drawings were furnished to the copperplate-engraver Marcantonio for the Massacre of the Innocents, and Madonnas and Holy Families were composed.

The use of pupils also enabled Raphael in the three years 1511-14 to finish the Madonna di Foligno, the Isaiah of St Agostino, the Galatea of the Farnesina, the Sibyls of the Pace, and the mosaics of the Popolo ordered by Agostino Chigi. He also painted the Madonna of the Fish (Madrid) and Madonna della Sedia (Florence), while in portraits such as Altoviti (Munich) and Inghirami (Florence) he rises to the perfect rendering of features and expression which finds its greatest triumph in the Leo X (Florence). Leo X selected Raphael to succeed Bramante as architect of St Peter's in 1514, and secured from him for the Vatican chambers the frescoes of the Camera dell' Incendio, which all illustrate scenes from the lives of Leonine Popes.

Much of Raphael's attention was meanwhile taken up with the cartoons executed, with help from assistants, for the tapestries of the Sistine Chapel. He went with Leo X to Florence and Bologna, and found there new patrons for whom he executed the Sistine Madonna, the St Cecilia of Bologna, and the Ezechiel of the Pitti, Florence. The labours subsequently completed were immense, including the Spasimo, the Holy Family and St Michael, which the pope sent to the king of France in 1518, the likeness of the vice-queen of Aragon, and the Violin-player. In wall-painting he produced, with help, the cycle of the Psyche legend at the Farnesina, the gospel scenes of the Loggie of the Vatican, and the Frescoes of the Hall of Constantine. His last work, the Transfiguration, was left unfinished when he died.

Bibliography: James Beck, Raphael (1976); J Pope-Hennessy, Raphael (1970); Sir Joseph Archer Crowe, Raphael: His Life and Works (1882-85).