Raffaello Santi – Italian artist, master of graphics and architectural solutions, representative of the Umbrian school of painting.

Raphael Santi was born at three o'clock in the morning into the family of an artist and decorator on April 6, 1483 in the Italian city (Urbino). It is the cultural and historical center of the region (Marche) in eastern Italy. The resort towns of Pesaro and Rimini are located near Raphael's birthplace.

Parents

The father of the future celebrity, Giovanni Santi, worked in the castle of the Duke of Urbino Federico da Montefeltro, his mother Margie Charla did housework.

The father early noticed his son's ability to paint and often took him with him to the palace, where the boy communicated with such famous artists as Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello and Luca Signorelli.

School in Perugia

At the age of 8, Rafael lost his mother and his father brought into the house a new wife, Bernardina, who did not show love for someone else's child. At the age of 12, the boy was left an orphan., having lost his father. The trustees sent the young talent to study with Pietro Vannucci in Perugia.

Until 1504, Raphael was educated at the school of Perugino, enthusiastically studying the teacher’s skills and trying to imitate him in everything. Friendly, charming, and devoid of arrogance, the young man made friends everywhere and quickly adopted the experience of his teachers. Soon his works became impossible to distinguish from the works of Pietro Perugino.

First famous masterpieces Raphael's paintings became:

1. “The Betrothal of the Virgin Mary” (Lo sposalizio della Vergine), 1504, exhibited in the Milan Gallery (Pinacoteca di Brera);
2. “Madonna Connestabile”, 1504, belongs to the Hermitage (St. Petersburg);
3. “The Dream of a Knight” (Sogno del cavaliere), 1504, the painting is exhibited in the National Gallery in London;
4. “The Three Graces” (Tre Grazie), 1504, is exhibited at the Musée Condé in Château de Chantilly, France;

The influence of Perugino is clearly visible in the works; Raphael began to create his own style a little later.

In Florence

In 1504, Raphael Santi moved to (Firenze), following his teacher Perugino. Thanks to the teacher, the young man met the architectural genius Baccio d'Agnolo, the outstanding sculptor Andrea Sansovino, the painter Bastiano da Sangallo and his future friend and protector Taddeo Taddei. . A meeting with Leonardo da Vinci had a significant impact on Raphael's creative process. A copy of the painting “Leda and the Swan” belonging to Raphael has survived to this day (unique in that the original itself has not survived).

Under the influence of new teachers, Rafael Santi, while living in Florence, creates more than 20 Madonnas, putting into them his longing for the love and affection he did not receive from his mother. The images breathe love, are tender and sophisticated.

In 1507, the artist took an order from Atalanta Baglióni, whose only son died. Rafael Santi creates the painting "La deposizione", the last work in Florence.

Life in Rome

In 1508, Pope Julius II (Iulius PP. II), in the world - Giuliano della Rovere (Giuliano della Rovere) invites Raphael to Rome to paint the old Vatican Palace. From 1509 until the end of his days, the artist worked, putting all his skill, all his talent and all his knowledge into his work.

When the architect Donato Bramante died, Pope Leo X (Leo PP. X), in the world - Giovanni Medici, from 1514 appointed Raphael as the leading architect of the construction (Basilica Sancti Petri), in 1515 he also becomes a custodian of valuables. The young man took responsibility for the census and preservation of monuments. For the Temple of St. Peter, Raphael drew up a different plan and completed the construction of a courtyard with loggias.

Other architectural works of Raphael:

• Church of Sant’Eligio degli Orefici, built on the street of the same name in , construction began in 1509.
• Chigi Chapel (La cappella Chigi) of the church (Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo), located in Piazza del Popolo. Construction began in 1513 and was completed (by Giovanni Bernini) in 1656.
• Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli in Rome, located at the intersection of Piazza Vidoni and Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Construction began in 1515.
• The now ruined Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila was located in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Construction was completed in 1520.
• The Pandolfini Palace in Florence on Via San Gallo was built by the architect Giuliano da Sangallo according to the sketches of Raphael.

Pope Leo X was afraid that the French might lure away the talented artist, so he tried to give him as much work as possible, not skimping on gifts and praise. In Rome, Rafael Santi continues to paint Madonnas, without departing from his favorite theme of motherhood.

Personal life

The paintings of Rafael Santi brought him not only fame outstanding artist, but also a lot of money. He never lacked both the attention of royalty and financial resources.

During the reign of Leo X, he acquired a luxurious house in the antique style, built according to his own design. However, multiple attempts to marry the young man by his patrons led nowhere. Rafael was a big fan female beauty. On the initiative of Cardinal Bibbiena, the artist was engaged to his niece Maria Dovizi da Bibbiena, but the wedding did not take place. the maestro did not want to tie the knot. The name of one famous mistress of Raphael is Beatrice from (Ferrara), but most likely she was an ordinary Roman courtesan.

The only woman who managed to win the heart of a wealthy womanizer was Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker, nicknamed La Fornarina.

The artist met a girl in the Chigi garden when he was looking for an image for “Cupid and Psyche.” Thirty-year-old Raphael Santi painted (Villa Farnesina) in Rome, which belonged to his wealthy patron, and the beauty of a seventeen-year-old girl suited this image perfectly.

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The girl’s father allowed his daughter to pose for the artist for 50 gold pieces, and later for 3,000 gold pieces he allowed Raphael to take her with him. For six years, the young people lived together, Margarita never ceased to inspire her admirer with new masterpieces, including:

• « Sistine Madonna"("Madonna Sistina"), Gallery of Old Masters (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister), Dresden, Germany, 1514;.;
• “Donna Velata” (“La Velata”), Palatine Gallery (Galerie Palatine), (Palazzo Pitti), Florence, 1515;
• “Fornarina” (“La Fornarina”), Palazzo Barberini, Rome, 1519;

After Raphael's death, young Margarita received lifelong maintenance and a house. But in 1520 the girl became a novice in the monastery, where she later died.

Death

Raphael's death left many mysteries. According to one version, the artist, tired of his nightly adventures, returned home in a weakened state. The doctors were supposed to support his strength, but they performed bloodletting, which killed the patient. According to another version, Raphael caught a cold during excavations in the underground burial galleries.

On April 6, 1520, the maesto passed away. He was buried in the (Pantheon) with due honors. Raphael's tomb can be seen during the sightseeing tour of Rome at dawn.

Madonnas

Imitating his teacher Pietro Perugino, Raphael painted a gallery of forty-two paintings of the Virgin and Child. Despite the variety of storylines, the works are united by the touching beauty of motherhood. Flaw mother's love the artist transfers it to the canvases, enhancing and idealizing a woman anxiously protecting a baby angel.

Raphael Santi's first Madonnas were created in the quattrocento style, common during the early Renaissance in the 15th century. The images are constrained, dry, human figures are presented strictly frontally, the gaze is motionless, there is calmness and solemn abstraction on their faces.

The Florentine period introduces feelings into the images of the Mother of God, anxiety and pride for her child are manifested. The landscapes in the background become more complex, and the interaction of the characters depicted becomes apparent.

In later Roman works one can discern the origins of Baroque, feelings become more complex, poses and gestures are far from Renaissance harmony, the proportions of figures are elongated, and a predominance of gloomy tones is observed.

Below are the most famous paintings and their descriptions:

The Sistine Madonna (Madonna Sistina) is the most famous of all images of the Mother of God measuring 2 m 65 cm by 1 m 96 cm. The image of the Madonna is taken from 17-year-old Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker and the artist’s mistress.

Mary, descending from the clouds, carries an unusually serious baby in her arms. They are met by Pope Sixtus II and Saint Barbara. At the bottom of the picture are two angels, presumably leaning on a coffin lid. The angel on the left has one wing. The name Sixtus is translated from Latin as “six”; the composition consists of six figures – the three main ones form a triangle; the background for the composition is the faces of angels in the form of clouds. The canvas was created for the altar of the Basilica of St. Sixtus (Chiesa di San Sisto) in Piacenza in 1513. Since 1754, the work has been exhibited in the Gallery of Old Masters.

Madonna and Child

Another name for the painting, created in 1498, is “Madonna of the House of Santi” (“Madonna di Casa Santi”). It became the artist’s first appeal to the image of the Mother of God.

The fresco is kept in the house where the artist was born, on Via Raffaello in Urbino. Today the building is called the “House-Museum of Raphael Santi” (“Casa Natale di Raffaello”). Madonna is shown in profile, reading a book placed on a stand. She has a sleeping baby in her arms. The mother's hands support and gently stroke the child. The poses of both figures are natural and relaxed, the mood is set by the contrast of dark and white tones.

Madonna del Granduca is Raphael's most mysterious work, completed in 1505. Its preliminary sketch clearly indicates the presence of a landscape in the background. The drawing is kept in the Cabinet of Sketches and Etudes in (Galleria degli Uffizi), in Florence (Firenze).

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An x-ray of the finished work confirms that the painting originally had a different background. The paint analysis carried out indicates that upper layer applied to the painting 100 years after its creation. Presumably, this could have been done by the artist Carlo Dolci, owner of the Granduca Madonna, who preferred the dark background of religious images. In 1800, Dolci sold the painting to Duke Francis III (François III) in the form in which it has survived to this day. Madonna gets the name “Granduka” from the name of the same owner (Grand Duca - Grand Duke). The painting, measuring 84 cm by 56 cm, is exhibited in the Galerie Palatine of Palazzo Pitti, Florence.

For the first time, A. S. Pushkin noticed the resemblance between Madonna Bridgewater and his wife Natalya Nikolaevna in the summer of 1830, after seeing a copy of a painting created in 1507 in the window of a book store on Nevsky Prospekt. This is another mysterious work by Raphael, where the landscape in the background is painted over with black paint. She traveled around the world for a long time, after which the Duke of Bridgewater became her owner.

Subsequently, the heirs kept the work in the Bridgewater estate in London for more than a hundred years. In the Second world war The blonde Madonna was transported to the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, where it is exhibited today.

Madonna Connestabile is the finishing work of the maestro in Umbria, painted in 1502. Before its acquisition by Count Conestabile della Staffa, it was called the Madonna del Libro.

In 1871, Alexander II bought it from the count to give it to his wife. Today this is the only work of Raphael that belongs to Russia. It is exhibited in the St. Petersburg Hermitage.

The work is presented in a rich frame created simultaneously with the canvas. When transferring the painting from wood to canvas in 1881, it was discovered that instead of a book, the Madonna initially kept a pomegranate with her - a sign of the blood of Christ. At the time of creating the Madonna, Raphael did not yet master the technique of softening the transitions of lines - sfumato, so he presented his talent with the undiluted influence of Leonardo da Vinci.

"Madonna d'Alba" was created by Raphael in 1511 at the request of Bishop Paolo Giovio. during the artist's creative zenith. For a long time, until 1931, the painting belonged to the St. Petersburg Hermitage; it was subsequently sold to Washington, USA, and today is exhibited in the National Gallery of Art.

The pose and folds of the Mother of God’s clothing are reminiscent of sculptures from antiquity. The work is unusual in that it is framed by a circle with a diameter of 945 mm. The title “Alba” was given to the Madonna in the 17th century in memory of the Dukes of Alba (at one time the painting was in the palace of Sevilla, which belonged to the heirs of Olivares). In 1836, Russian Emperor Nicholas I bought it for £14,000 and ordered it to be transferred from wood to canvas. At the same time, part of nature on the right was lost.

"Madonna della Seggiola" was created in 1514 and is exhibited in the Galerie Palatine of Palazzo Pitti. The Mother of God is dressed in the elegant clothing of women from 16th century Italy.

Madonna hugs and hugs her son tightly with both arms, as if feeling what he will have to experience. On the right, John the Baptist looks at them in the form of a little boy. All figures are drawn close-up and the background for the picture is no longer required. There is no strictness of geometric shapes and linear perspectives, but there is boundless maternal love, expressed by the use of warm colors.

Raphael's large canvas (1 m 22 cm by 80 cm) of “The Beautiful Gardener” (La Belle Jardiniere), painted in 1507, belongs to one of the most valuable exhibits of the Paris Louvre (Musée du Louvre).

Initially, the painting was called “The Holy Virgin in a Peasant’s Dress,” and only in 1720 did the art critic Pierre Mariette decide to give it a different name. Mary is depicted sitting in the garden with Jesus and John the Baptist. The son reaches out to the book and looks into his mother’s eyes. John holds a staff with a cross and looks at Christ. Halos are barely visible above the characters' heads. Peace and tranquility are given by a turquoise sky with white clouds, a lake, flowering herbs and plump children near the kind and gentle Madonna.

Madonna with the Goldfinch

Madonna with the Goldfinch (Madonna del Cardellino) is recognized as one of Raphael’s best creations, painted in 1506. Exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery (Galleria degli Uffizi) in Florence.

The customer for the painting was the artist’s friend, the merchant Lorenzo Nazi, who asked that the work be ready for his wedding. In 1548, the painting was almost lost when Mount San Giorgio collapsed on the merchant's house and neighboring houses. However, Lorenzo's son, Batista, collected all the parts of the painting from the ruins and gave them to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio for restoration. He did everything possible to give the masterpiece its original appearance, but traces of damage could not be completely hidden. The x-ray shows 17 separate elements connected by nails, new painting and four inserts on the left side.

The Small Madonna of Cowper (Piccola Madonna Cowper) was created in 1505 and named after Earl Cowper, in whose collection the work was for many years. In 1942, donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The Holy Virgin, as in many other paintings by Raphael, is represented in red robes, symbolizing the blood of Christ. A blue cape is added on top as a symbol of innocence. Although no one in Italy walked like this, Raphael depicted the Mother of God in exactly such clothes. Main plan occupied by Maria resting on a bench. With her left hand she hugs the smiling Christ. Behind you can see a church reminiscent of the Temple of San Bernardino (Chiesa di San Bernardino) in Urbino, the homeland of the author of the picture.

Portraits

There are not many portraits in Raphael's collection; he passed away early. Among them one can highlight early works made in the Florentine period and works of his mature age, created while living in Rome from 1508 to 1520. The artist draws a lot from life, always clearly defining the outline, achieving the most accurate correspondence of the image to the original. The authorship of many works is questioned; other possible authors include: Pietro Perugino, Francesco Francia, Lorenzo di Credi.

Portraits created before moving to Florence

An oil on wood work (45 cm by 31 cm), executed in 1502, is exhibited in (Galleria Borghese).

Until the 19th century the authorship of the portrait was attributed to Perugino, but recent research indicates that the masterpiece was painted by the early Raphael. Perhaps this is an image of one of the dukes, the artist's contemporaries. Flowing curls of hair and the absence of facial defects somewhat idealize the image, this did not correspond to the realism of the artists of northern Italy at that time.

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A portrait of Elizabeth Gonzaga, created in 1503, measuring 52 cm by 37 cm, is exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery.

Elizabeth was the sister of Francesco II Gonzaga and the wife of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro. The woman’s forehead is decorated with a scorpion pendant, her hairstyle, and clothes are depicted in the fashion of the author’s contemporaries.. According to art historians, the portraits of Gonzaga and Montefeltro were partially painted by Giovanni Santi. Elizabeth was dear to Raphael because she was involved in his upbringing when he was left an orphan.

Portrait of Pietro Bembo, one of Raphael's first works from 1504, represents the young Pietro Bembo, who became a cardinal, practically the artist's double.

In the image long hair the young men gently fall from under the red cap. The hands are folded on the parapet, a piece of paper is clutched in the right palm. Raphael first met Bembo in the castle of the Duke of Urbino. The portrait in oil on wood (54 cm by 39 cm) is exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts (Szépművészeti Múzeum) in Budapest, Hungary.

Portraits of the Florentine period

The portrait of a pregnant woman by Donna Gravida (La donna gravida) was executed in 1506 in oil on canvas measuring 77 cm by 111 cm and is kept in Palazzo Pitti.

In Raphael’s time, it was not customary to depict women bearing a child, but the portrait painter painted images that were close to his soul without regard to dogma. The theme of motherhood, running through all Madonnas, was also reflected in the images of worldly inhabitants. Art historians believe that this could be a woman of the Bufalini family, Città di Castello or Emilia Pia da Montefeltro. Belonging to a wealthy class is indicated by a fashionable outfit, jewelry on the hair, rings with precious stones on the fingers and a chain around the neck.

Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn (Dama col liocorno) in oil on wood, 65 cm by 61 cm, painted in 1506, is exhibited in the Borghese Gallery.

Presumably, Giulia Farnese, the secret love of Pope Alexander VI, posed for the image. The work is interesting because during numerous restorations the image of the lady was changed many times. The X-ray image shows the silhouette of a dog instead of a unicorn. Perhaps the work on the portrait went through several stages. Raphael may have been the author of the figure's torso, landscape and sky. Giovanni Sogliani could have painted the columns on the sides of the loggia, arms with sleeves and a dog. Another later coat of paint increases the volume of the hairstyle, changes the sleeves and completes the dog. After a few decades, the dog becomes a unicorn, hands are rewritten. In the 17th century, the lady becomes St. Catherine in a cloak.

Self-portrait

Self-portrait (Autoritratto) measuring 47.5 cm by 33 cm, executed in 1506, is kept in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

The work belonged to Cardinal Leopoldus Medices for a long time; since 1682 it has been included in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery. A mirror image of the portrait was painted by Raphael on the fresco “Scuola di Atene” in the main hall of the Vatican Palace (Apostolic Palace (Palazzo Apostolico)). The artist depicted himself in a modest black robe, adorning it with only a small strip of white collar.

Portrait of Agnolo Doni, portrait of Maddalena Doni

The portrait of Agnolo Doni and the portrait of Maddalena Doni (Portrait of Agnolo Doni, Portrait of Maddalena Doni) were painted in oil on wood in 1506 and complement each other perfectly.

Agnolo Doni was a wealthy wool merchant and commissioned a painting of himself and his young wife (nee Strozzi) immediately after their wedding. The image of the girl is created in the likeness of “Mona Lisa” (Leonardo da Vinci): the same rotation of the body, the same position of the hands. Careful detailing of clothing and jewelry indicates the couple's wealth.

Rubies symbolize prosperity, sapphires symbolize purity, and the pearl pendant on Maddalena's neck symbolizes virginity. Previously, both works were connected together by hinges. From the mid-20s. XIX century descendants of the Doni family pass on the portraits.

The painting The Mute (La Muta) in oil on canvas measuring 64 cm by 48 cm was made in 1507 and exhibited in the National Gallery of the Marche (Galleria nazionale delle Marche) in Urbino.

The prototype of the image is considered to be Elisabetta Gonzaga, wife of Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro. According to another version, it could be the Duke's sister Giovanna. Until 1631, the portrait was in Urbino; ​​subsequently it was transported to Florence. In 1927, the work was again returned to the artist’s homeland. In 1975, the painting was stolen from the gallery, and a year later it was discovered in Switzerland.

Portrait of a Young Man in oil on wood (35 cm by 47 cm), painted in 1505, is exhibited in Florence, in the Uffizi.

Francesco Maria della Rovere, shown here, was the son of Giovanni Della Rovere and Juliana Feltria. His uncle appointed the young man as his heir in 1504 and immediately commissioned this portrait. A young man in a red robe is presented in the modest nature of northern Italy.

The portrait of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro (Ritratto di Guidоbaldo da Montefeltro) in oil on wood (69 cm by 52 cm) was executed in 1506. The work was kept in the castle of the Dukes of Urbino (Palazzo Ducale), after which it was transported to the city of Pesaro.

In 1631, the painting entered the collection of Ferdinando II de Medici's wife, Vittoria della Rovere. Montefeltro, dressed in black, is placed in the center of the composition, which is framed by the dark walls of the room. On the right is an open window with nature outside. The stillness and asceticism of the image for a long time prevented Raphael from being recognized as the author of the painting.

Stanzas of Raphael in the Vatican

In 1508, the artist moved to Rome, where he remained until his death. The architect Domato Bramante helped him become an artist at the papal court. Pope Julius II gives his protégé the state rooms (stanzas) of the old Vatican palace, later named (Stanze di Raffaello), to be painted. Having seen Raphael's first work, the pope ordered his drawings to be applied to all surfaces, removing the frescoes of the other authors and leaving only the lampshades untouched.

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The literal translation of “Stanza della Segnatura” sounds like “signature room”; it is the only one that was not renamed according to the theme of the frescoes.

Raphael worked on its painting from 1508 to 1511. In the room, royalty signed important papers and there was a library right there. This is the 1st stanza out of 4 that Raphael worked on.

Fresco "School of Athens"

The second title of the “Scuola di Atene”, the best of the frescoes created, is “Philosophical Conversations” (“Discussioni filosofiche”). main topic- the dispute between Aristotle (Aristotels) and Plato ((Plato), written with Leonardo da Vinci) under the arches of a fantastic temple, is intended to reflect philosophical activity. The length at the base is 7 m 70 cm, more than 50 characters are placed in the composition, among which Heraclitus ((Heraclitus), painted with), Ptolemy ((Ptolemaeus), self-portrait of Raphael), Socrates (Sokrates), Diogenes (Diogen), Pythagoras (Pythagoras), Euclid ((Evklid), painted with Bramante), Zoroaster ( Zoroastr) and other philosophers and thinkers.

Fresco "Disputation", or "Dispute about Holy Communion"

The size of the “Dispute about Holy Communion” (“La disputa del sacramento”), symbolizing theology, is 5 m by 7 m 70 cm.

In the fresco, the heavenly inhabitants are engaged in a theological debate with earthly mortals (Fra Beato Angelico, Augustinus Hipponensis, Dante Alighieri, Savonarola and others). The clear symmetry in the work is not depressing; on the contrary, thanks to Raphael’s gift for organization, it seems natural and harmonious. The leading figure of the composition is a semicircle.

Fresco “Wisdom. Moderation. Force"

Fresco “Wisdom. Moderation. Strength" (“La saggezza. La moderazione. Forza”) is placed on the wall cut through by a window. Another name for a work glorifying secular and ecclesiastical legislation is “Jurisprudence” (Giurisprudenza).

Below the figure of Jurisprudence on the ceiling, on the wall above the window there are three figures: Wisdom looking into the mirror, Strength in a helmet and Temperance with reins in hand. On the left side of the window is the Emperor Justinian (Iustinianus) and Tribonianus (Tribonianus) kneeling in front of him. On the right side of the window is an image of Pope Gregory VII (Gregorius PP. VII) presenting the decrees of the popes to a lawyer.

Fresco "Parnassus"

The fresco “Parnassus” (“he Parnassus”) or “Apollo and the Muses” (“Apollo and the Muses”) is located on the wall opposite “Wisdom. Moderation. Powers" and depicts ancient and modern poets. In the middle of the image is the ancient Greek Apollo with a hand-made lyre, surrounded by nine muses. On the right are: Homer, Dante, Anakreon, Virgil, on the right are Ariosto, Horatius, Terentius, Ovidius.

Intercession was chosen as the theme for the painting of Stanza di Eliodoro higher powers for the Church. The hall, work on which has been going on since 1511. to 1514, was named after one of the four frescoes painted by Raphael on the wall. The master's best student, Giulio Romano, helped the teacher in his work.

Fresco “The Expulsion of Eliodor from the Temple”

The fresco “Cacciata di Eliodoro dal tempio” depicts the legend according to which the loyal servant of the Seleukid royal dynasty, military leader Eliodorus, was sent to Jerusalem to collect the treasury of widows and orphans from the Temple of Solomon.

When he entered the temple hall, he saw a rushing angry horse with an angel rider. The horse began to trample Eliodor with its hooves, and the rider's companions, also angels, struck the robber several times with a whip. Pope Julius II is represented in the fresco as an outside observer.

Fresco "Mass in Bolsena"

Rafael Santi worked alone on the fresco “Mass in Bolsena” without involving assistants. The plot depicts a miracle that happened in the Temple of Bolsena. The German priest was about to begin the rite of communion, deep down not believing in its truth. Then 5 streams of blood flowed from the wafer (cake) in his hands (2 of them are a symbol of Christ’s pierced hands, 2 of his feet, 1 of them is blood from the wound of his pierced side). The composition contains notes of a clash with German heretics of the 16th century.

Fresco "Bringing the Apostle Peter out of prison"

The fresco “The Deliverance of the Apostle Peter from Prison” (“la Delivrance de Saint Pierre”) is also the work entirely of Raphael. The plot is taken from the “Acts of the Apostles”, the image is divided into 3 parts. In the center of the composition is the radiant Apostle Peter, imprisoned in a gloomy prison cell. On the right, Peter and the angel emerge from captivity while the guards are sleeping. On the left is the third action, when the guard wakes up, discovers the loss and raises the alarm.

Fresco “Meeting of Leo I the Great with Attila”

A significant part of the work “The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila”, more than 8 m wide, was made by Raphael’s students.

Leo the Great has the appearance of Pope Leo X. According to legend, when the leader of the Huns approached the walls of Rome, Leo the Great went to meet him along with other members of the delegation. With his eloquence, he convinced the invaders to abandon their intentions to attack the city and leave. According to legend, Attila saw a clergyman behind Leo, threatening him with a sword. It could have been the Apostle Peter (or Paul).

Stanza dell’Incendio di Borgo is the finishing hall that Raphael worked on from 1514 to 1517.

The room was named after the main and best fresco by Raphael Santi, “Fire in the Borgo” by the maestro. His students worked on the rest of the paintings according to the given drawings.

Fresco “Fire in Borgo”

In 847, the Roman quarter of Borgo, adjacent to the Vatican Palace, was engulfed in flames. It grew until Leo IV (Leo PP. IV) appeared from the Vatican Palace and stopped the disaster with the sign of the cross. In the background is the old facade of St. Peter's Basilica. On the left is the most successful group: an athletic young man carries his old father out of the fire on his shoulders. Nearby, another young man is trying to climb the wall (presumably the artist painted himself).

Stanza of Constantine

Raphael Santi received the order to paint the “Hall of Constantine” (“Sala di Costantino”) in 1517, but only managed to make sketches of the drawings. Sudden death genius creator prevented him from finishing his work. All frescoes were executed by Raphael's students: Giulio Romano, Gianfrancesco Penni, Raffaellino del Colle, Perino del Vaga.

1. Giovanni Santi insisted that the mother feed the newborn Raphael herself, without resorting to the help of a nurse.
2. About four hundred drawings of the maestro have survived to this day., among which there are sketches and images of lost paintings.
3. The artist’s amazing kindness and spiritual generosity manifested itself not only in relation to close people. Raphael spent his entire life caring like a son for one poor scientist, translator of Hippocrates into Latin, Rabio Calve. The learned man was as holy as he was learned, so he did not accumulate a fortune for himself and lived modestly.
4. In the monastery records, Margarita Luti was designated as “the widow of Raphael.” In addition, while examining the layers of paint on the painting “Fornarina,” restorers discovered a ruby ​​ring underneath, possibly a wedding ring. The pearl decoration in the hair of “Fornarina” and “Donna Velata” also indicates marriage.
5. A painful bluish spot on the Fornarina's chest suggests that the woman had breast cancer.
6. 2020 marks the 500th anniversary of his death genius artist. In 2016, for the first time in Russia, an exhibition of Raphael Santi was held in Moscow, at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. At the exhibition entitled “Raphael. Poetry of the Image” presented 8 paintings and 3 graphic drawings collected from various museums in Italy.
7. Children are familiar with Raphael (aka Raf) as one of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” in the cartoon of the same name, who wields a piercing bladed weapon – the sai, which looks like a trident.

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Raphael was born in the city of Urbino in 1483 in the family of the artist Giovanni Santi. The atmosphere of the city and his father’s work predetermined the boy’s fate.

In the 15th century, Urbino was one of the most important cities in Italy, a large Cultural Center. Rulers of Urbino, Dukes of Montefeltro, - famous philanthropists and collectors, they realized the importance of education and enlightenment, loved mathematics, cartography, philosophy, appreciated art and patronized artists.

Giovanni Santi was a court painter and poet. In his father’s workshop, young Raphael learned the basics of painting, and as Giorgio Vasari notes in his “Biographies...”, “he helped his father paint the paintings that Giovanni created while living in Urbino.”

The boy was not even ten years old when he lost his parents and was sent (at the request of his father) to Perugia as an apprentice in the workshop of Pietro Perugino.

Raphael is a quick learner, he was barely 17 years old when he was already mentioned as an independent artist, creating works for his first customers. The artist’s self-portrait drawing dates back to this period. Very little time will pass, and Raphael will become an unsurpassed portrait painter, able to convey not only striking similarities, but also the individuality of his models with the help of color, light, and details. But for now Raphael is a modest student in the studio of a great artist.

2. Betrothal of the Virgin Mary, 1504
Pinacoteca Brera, Milan

Pietro Perugino, who became Raphael's teacher, is the star of the Umbrian school of painting, one of the most sought-after artists of his time. His style is melodic and poetic, pleasing to the eye and imbued with a special lyrical mood. Perugino's images are beautiful and sweet. It is characterized by decorativeness and balance. In an atmosphere of harmony and serenity - all of Perugino.

Raphael, subtle and perceptive, was so accurately able to capture the very essence of his teacher’s art that his first works could be mistaken for the masterpieces of the master Perugino.

In 1504, Raphael created The Betrothal of the Virgin Mary; a little earlier, Perugino painted a picture with the same plot (the wedding of Mary and Joseph).

Before us is a wedding ceremony: Joseph, in the presence of a priest, hands Mary a wedding ring.

Raphael, following the teacher, places the characters in an ideal space created according to the laws of linear perspective. Behind stands a majestic, also “ideal” temple. However, with “Betrothal,” the 21-year-old student surpasses his teacher in the art of depicting people. Look at the solemn statics of Perugino's characters and the variety of characters and movements in Raphael. Agree, Raphael's heroes are more like real people.

It is also extremely important that Raphael’s predecessors, who were fluent in the techniques of constructing perspective, lined up the characters as if in a line, both in the foreground and in the background. Raphael depicts those present at the wedding celebration more realistically, as a chaotic crowd.

It was “The Betrothal of the Virgin Mary” that became the result of training in the workshop of Pietro Perugino. The impetuous young man was already attracted by blooming Florence...

3. Self-portrait, 1506
Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Rumors are circulating in Italy that something extraordinary is happening in Florence. In the main hall of the city council building, Michelangelo and Leonardo compete in the art of frescoes. Rafael decides to be at the scene of the events.

In 1504, Raphael arrived in Florence, carrying a letter of recommendation from his patroness, Giovanna Feltria della Rovere, to the ruler of the Florentine Republic, Pier Soderini. Imagine how Raphael goes to the Palazzo Vecchio and stops, amazed, in Piazza della Signoria. In front of him greatest work art - David, a sculpture of unprecedented beauty and skill. Raphael is amazed and can't wait to meet Michelangelo.

He will live in Florence for the next four years. This stage will be for him a time of hard work, discipline and close study of the art of Michelangelo and Leonardo. His unique style was born. Undoubtedly, Raphael would not have become Raphael without these difficult years of hard work.

Vasari would later write: “The techniques that he saw in the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo forced him to work even harder in order to extract from them unprecedented benefits for his art and his manner.”

The 23-year-old artist paints his self-portrait, still imbued with the lyrical features of Umbrian painting. This image will survive centuries. It is exactly this way, gentle, impetuous and eternally young, that Raphael will forever remain for posterity.

4. Portraits of Agnolo Doni and Maddalena Strozzi, 1506
Palazzo Pitti, Florence

A gentle disposition, impeccable manners and amazing ease of communication allowed Raphael to achieve the favor of influential patrons and wealthy customers, friendship with a variety of people and popularity with women. He managed to win over even Michelangelo and Leonardo, each of whom nature endowed with a great gift and such a difficult character that many preferred to stay away from them.

One of Raphael's important clients during his Florentine period was Agnolo Doni, a wealthy textile merchant, philanthropist and art collector. In honor of his wedding with Maddalena Strozzi, he orders companion portrait. Only a few could afford such a luxury.

For Raphael the portrait painter, it was important not only the ability to convey external resemblance, but also character. One glance at the portrait of Agnolo Doni is enough, and it becomes clear that before us is an influential and strong man, this is evidenced by both his imperious pose and his intelligent, calm gaze. He is dressed well and modestly, and does not strive for ostentatious luxury. Most likely, his interests are varied: he is attracted to trade, politics, art, literature, science. He's the epitome ideal person the Renaissance, but at the same time this is not a generalized collective image, but a living Florentine, recognizable by his contemporaries.

Raphael achieves the same effect in his portrayal of Maddalena Strozzi. On the one hand, before us is a rich city dweller, proud and arrogant, on the other - a young woman, a bride. The graceful tree is designed to emphasize the gentle character of the newlywed. The pendant on Maddalena’s neck, perhaps a wedding gift from Agnolo, also has a special meaning: precious stones indicate vitality, a large pearl indicates the purity and purity of the bride.

At this time, Raphael is looking for himself and his style; he is fascinated by the Mona Lisa, which Leonardo had recently completed. He gives his Maddalena a similar pose and enthusiastically searches for his own ways to fill the portrait with magnetism. Raphael would become a master of psychological portraiture, but later, during his heyday in Rome.

5. Mute (La Muta), 1507
National Gallery of Marche, Urbino

This intimate portrait is truly unusual. The artist does not give any obvious hints, and the fact that this is a woman deprived of the ability to speak follows only from the title. The most striking thing about this portrait is the feeling that comes from it. The heroine's muteness is felt in her facial expression, in her gaze, in her inactive, tightly compressed lips. This is Raphael's outstanding talent: he is not only familiar with the smallest features and shades of human nature, but is also able to accurately convey his knowledge and observations in the language of painting.

6. Madonna with the Goldfinch, 1507

Rafael lost his mother in early childhood. Subtle and vulnerable, all his life he felt an urgent need for maternal love and tenderness. And of course, this was reflected in his art. The Madonna and Child is one of the most important subjects for Raphael. He will constantly explore the relationship between mother and child. In Florence, over 4 years, he would paint more than 20 paintings on the theme “Madonna and Child.” From static, imbued with Perugino’s mood (such is his Madonna Granduca, which you can see at the exhibition in Pushkin Museum), to mature, filled with feelings and vitality.

One of these paintings is “Madonna with the Goldfinch.” Before us are the Virgin Mary, the baby Jesus and John the Baptist, handing him a goldfinch, a symbol of the Savior’s terrible trials.

A curious story is connected with the “Madonna of the Goldfinch”, told by Giorgio Vasari: “The greatest friendship connected Raphael and Lorenzo Nasi, for whom, having only just gotten married these days, he painted a painting depicting the infant Christ standing at the knees of the Mother of God, and the young St. John , cheerfully holding out the bird to him, to the greatest joy and to the greatest pleasure of both. Both of them form a group full of a kind of childish simplicity and at the same time deep feeling, not to mention the fact that they are so well done in color and so carefully drawn that they seem to be made of living flesh, and not made with paints and drawing. The same applies to the Mother of God with her blissful and truly divine expression on her face, and in general - the meadow, the oak grove, and everything else in this work is extremely beautiful. This painting was kept by Lorenzo Nasi during his lifetime with the greatest reverence, both in memory of Raphael, who was his closest friend, and for the sake of the dignity and perfection of the work itself, which, however, almost died on November 17, 1548, when the collapse of Mount San Giorgio Lorenzo's own house collapsed along with the neighboring houses. The son of the said Lorenzo and the greatest connoisseur of art, having discovered parts of the painting in the rubbish of the ruins, ordered them to be reunited as best as possible.”

7. School of Athens, 1509–1510
Apostolic Palace, Vatican

In 1508, Raphael arrives in Rome at the invitation of Pope Julius II and again finds himself in the center of incredible events: the great Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Bramante, the chief papal architect, rebuilds St. Peter's Cathedral, and prominent artists of his time work in the Stanzas (the Pope's rooms) : Lorenzo Lotto, Peruzzi, Sodoma, Bramantino, as well as Raphael's former teacher, Pietro Perugino.

Rumors about the divine talent of the young artist also reached Julius II, who set out to decorate his reign with outstanding works of art at all costs. Wanting to test Raphael, the Pope instructed him to take care of the room intended for his personal library. Having started work, Raphael so impressed Julius II that he ordered to expel all the artists working in other rooms, destroy the frescoes they had created and entrust the entire project to 25-year-old Raphael alone. Thus began the history of Raphael's Stanzas.

Most famous fresco is rightfully considered the “School of Athens”, which occupies the wall of the Stanza della Segnatura, reserved for the collection of books on philosophy.

“The School of Athens” is a mass stage, a gathering of philosophers, sages and learned men of all times in the Ideal Temple of Wisdom (the architectural space in which the characters are gathered echoes the project of St. Peter’s Cathedral, which at this very time is being built according to Bramante’s design). In the center of the fresco are Plato and Archimedes. The first points to the sky, expressing the essence of his idealistic philosophy with just one gesture, the second points to the earth, emphasizing the importance of natural sciences and knowledge.

In addition, the “School of Athens” is the meeting place of Diogenes, Socrates, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Euclid, Epicurus, Zoroaster and other prominent figures.

It is also interesting that the three most important creators of the High Renaissance are also depicted at the meeting of the “School of Athens”. If you look closely, in Plato you will recognize Leonardo da Vinci, in the mighty Titan-Heraclitus, who sits on the steps, leaning on a block of marble - Michelangelo, look for Raphael himself second from the right in the first row.

Over the years of work on the Stanzas, Raphael becomes a celebrity, the brightest star of Rome. After Bramante's death, Raphael was appointed chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica and chief custodian of Roman antiquities. He is surrounded by patrons, customers, students, friends and beautiful women.

8. Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, 1514–1515
Louvre, Paris

In Rome, Raphael paints a portrait of his friend and philanthropist Baldassare Castiglione. Look at this extraordinary face and imagine how far the artist’s current style is from the sweet style of Perugino, how cleverly the artist managed to melt down the techniques of Leonardo and Michelangelo, creating his own unique style!

Count Baldassare Castiglione - philosopher, poet, diplomat, one of the most educated people of his time. In addition, he was known for his gentleness, meekness and balance of character. It was these qualities, in the opinion of Raphael himself, that distinguished the ideal man of the Renaissance.

A friendly, slightly thoughtful mature man looks at us from the picture. He is dressed modestly, but with great taste. His face is calm and harmonious, his gaze is penetrating and open. Despite all its external simplicity, this portrait is endowed with special magnetism and psychological depth, comparable to the effect that the image of the Mona Lisa produces on viewers.

9. Fornarina, 1518–1519 (left)
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

There were all sorts of rumors about Raphael's personal life. According to some of them, the artist was a libertine and died at the age of 37 from syphilis, according to others, less scandalous, from fever. In any case, Raphael was constantly in the center of female attention, and one can only guess what kind of women of origin and occupation posed for the images of his gentle madonnas and nymphs.

For a long time, the identity of the black-eyed beauty from the Fornarina portrait was unknown. Vasari suggests that this is a portrait of “... a woman whom he loved very much until his death, and with whom he painted a portrait so beautiful that she was as if alive.”

A few years earlier, Fornarina posed for Raphael for another masterpiece, The Veiled Lady. If you look closely, the headdresses of both the Fornarina and the Veiled Lady are held together by the same hairpin, perhaps a gift from Raphael.

According to legend, Raphael met Fornarina, the daughter of a baker (fornarina - from Italian for “bakery”), while working on the frescoes of the Villa Farnesina. Then the beauty seemed to be getting married, but Rafael bought her from her father and settled her in the house, where he met her until death separated them. There were rumors that it was Fornarina who killed Raphael. They also said that after his death she went to a monastery out of grief, or that she led such a depraved lifestyle that she was forcibly tonsured a nun.

10. Sistine Madonna, 1513–1514
Gallery of Old Masters, Dresden

« I wanted to be forever a spectator of one painting...” wrote A. S. Pushkin about Raphael’s most famous Madonna.

It was in The Sistine Madonna that Raphael managed to reach the pinnacle of his mastery. This picture is amazing. The open curtain reveals to us a heavenly vision: surrounded by a divine glow, the Virgin Mary descends to people. She has the baby Jesus in her arms, her face shows tenderness and concern. It seems that everything in this picture: hundreds of angelic faces, and the respectful gesture of Saint Sixtus, and the humble figure of Saint Barbara, and the heavy curtain - were created so that we could not take our eyes off the face of the Madonna for a second.

And of course, Raphael would not be Raphael if the features of his Fornarina were not noticeable in the beautiful image of Mary.

Raphael died in Rome on April 6 (his birthday) 1520 at the age of 37 at the zenith of his fame.

Many centuries later, while studying the art of Raphael, Pablo Picasso would say: “If Leonardo promised us paradise, then Raphael gave it to us!”

Raphael (actually Raffaello Santi or Sanzio, Raffaello Santi, Sanzio) (March 26 or 28, 1483, Urbino - April 6, 1520, Rome), Italian painter and architect.

Raphael, the son of the painter Giovanni Santi, spent his early years in Urbino. In 1500-1504, Raphael, according to Vasari, studied with the artist Perugino in Perugia.

From 1504, Raphael worked in Florence, where he became acquainted with the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolommeo, and studied anatomy and scientific perspective.
Moving to Florence played a huge role in Raphael's creative development. Of primary importance for the artist was familiarity with the method of the great Leonardo da Vinci.

Following Leonardo, Raphael begins to work a lot from life, studying anatomy, mechanics of movements, complex poses and angles, looking for compact, rhythmically balanced compositional formulas.
The numerous images of Madonnas he created in Florence brought the young artist all-Italian fame.
Raphael received an invitation from Pope Julius II to Rome, where he was able to become more familiar with ancient monuments and took part in archaeological excavations. Having moved to Rome, the 26-year-old master received the position of “artist of the Apostolic See” and the assignment to paint the state rooms of the Vatican Palace, from 1514 he directed the construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral, worked in the field of church and palace architecture, in 1515 he was appointed Commissioner of Antiquities, responsible for the study and protection of ancient monuments, archaeological excavations. Fulfilling the pope's order, Raphael created murals in the halls of the Vatican, glorifying the ideals of freedom and earthly happiness of man, the limitlessness of his physical and spiritual capabilities.

The painting “Madonna Conestabile” by Rafael Santi was created by the artist at the age of twenty.

In this painting, the young artist Raphael created his first remarkable embodiment of the image of the Madonna, which occupied an extremely important place in his art. The image of a young beautiful mother, generally so popular in Renaissance art, is especially close to Raphael, whose talent had a lot of softness and lyricism.

Unlike the masters of the 15th century, new qualities emerged in the paintings of the young artist Raphael Santi, when a harmonious compositional structure does not constrain the images, but, on the contrary, is perceived as a necessary condition for the feeling of naturalness and freedom that they generate.

Holy family 1507-1508. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Painting by artist Raphael Santi “The Holy Family” by Canigiani.

The customer of the work is Domenico Canigianini from Florence. In the painting “The Holy Family”, the great Renaissance painter Raphael Santi depicted the Holy Family in the classical vein of biblical history - the Virgin Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus Christ along with St. Elizabeth and the baby John the Baptist.

However, only in Rome did Raphael overcome the dryness and some stiffness of his early portraits. It was in Rome that Raphael's brilliant talent as a portrait painter reached maturity.

In Raphael’s “Madonnas” of the Roman period, the idyllic mood of his early works is replaced by the recreation of deeper human, maternal feelings, as Mary, full of dignity and spiritual purity, appears as the intercessor of humanity in Raphael’s most famous work - “The Sistine Madonna”.

The painting “The Sistine Madonna” by Raphael Santi was originally created by the great painter as an altar image for the church of San Sisto (St. Sixtus) in Piacenza.

In the painting, the artist depicts the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, Pope Sixtus II and Saint Barbara. The painting “The Sistine Madonna” is one of the most famous works of world art.

How was the image of the Madonna created? Was there for him real prototype? In this regard, a number of ancient legends are associated with the Dresden painting. Researchers find similarities in the Madonna's facial features with the model of one of Raphael's female portraits - the so-called “Lady in the Veil”. But in resolving this issue, first of all, one should take into account the famous statement of Raphael himself from a letter to his friend Baldassare Castiglione that in creating the image of perfect female beauty he is guided by a certain idea, which arises on the basis of many impressions from the beauties the artist saw in life. In other words, basically creative method The painter Raphael Santi turns out to be a selection and synthesis of observations of reality.

In the last years of his life, Raphael was so overloaded with orders that he entrusted the execution of many of them to his students and assistants (Giulio Romano, Giovanni da Udine, Perino del Vaga, Francesco Penni and others), usually limiting himself to general supervision of the works.

Raphael had a huge influence on the subsequent development of Italian and European painting, becoming, along with the masters of antiquity, the highest example of artistic perfection. The art of Raphael, which had a tremendous influence on European painting of the 16th-19th and, partly, 20th centuries, for centuries retained the meaning of indisputable artistic authority and model for artists and viewers.

In the last years of his creativity, based on the artist’s drawings, his students created huge cardboards on biblical themes with episodes from the life of the apostles. Based on these cardboards, Brussels masters were supposed to create monumental tapestries that were intended to decorate the Sistine Chapel on holidays.

Paintings by Rafael Santi

The painting “Angel” by Raphael Santi was created by the artist at the age of 17-18 at the very beginning of the 16th century.

This magnificent early work by the young artist is part or fragment of the Baroncha altarpiece, damaged by the 1789 earthquake. The altarpiece “Coronation of Blessed Nicholas of Tolentino, conqueror of Satan” was commissioned by Andrea Baronci for his home chapel in the church of San Agostinho in Citta de Castello. In addition to the fragment of the painting “Angel”, three more parts of the altar have been preserved: “The Most High Creator” and “The Blessed Virgin Mary” in the Capodimonte Museum (Naples) and another fragment “Angel” in the Louvre (Paris).

The painting “Madonna Granduca” was painted by the artist Rafael Santi after moving to Florence.

The numerous images of Madonnas created by the young artist in Florence (“Madonna of Granduca”, “Madonna of the Goldfinch”, “Madonna of the Greens”, “Madonna with the Child Christ and John the Baptist” or “The Beautiful Gardener” and others) brought Raphael Santi all-Italian fame.

The painting “The Dream of a Knight” was painted by the artist Rafael Santi in the early years of his work.

The painting is from Borghese’s legacy, probably paired with another work by the artist, “The Three Graces.” These paintings - "The Dream of a Knight" and "The Three Graces" - are almost miniature in composition size.

The theme of “The Knight’s Dream” is a unique refraction of the ancient myth of Hercules at the crossroads between the allegorical embodiments of Valor and Pleasure. Near the young knight, depicted sleeping against the backdrop of a beautiful landscape, stand two young women. One of them, in formal attire, offers him a sword and a book, the other a branch with flowers.

In the painting “The Three Graces” the compositional motif of three naked female figures apparently borrowed from an antique cameo. And although there is still a lot of uncertainty in these works of the artist (“The Three Graces” and “The Dream of a Knight”), they attract with their naive charm and poetic purity. Already here some features inherent in Raphael’s talent were revealed - the poetry of images, a sense of rhythm and the soft melodiousness of lines.

Battle of St. George with the Dragon 1504-1505. Louvre Museum, Paris.

The painting “The Battle of St. George with the Dragon” by Raphael Santi was painted by the artist in Florence, after he left Perugia.

“The Battle of St. George with the Dragon” is based on a biblical story popular in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The altarpiece “Madonna of Ansidei” by Raphael Santi was painted by the artist in Florence; the young painter was not yet 25 years old.

Unicorn, a mythical animal with the body of a bull, horse or goat and one long straight horn on its forehead.

The unicorn is a symbol of purity and virginity. According to legend, only an innocent girl can tame the ferocious unicorn. The painting “Lady with a Unicorn” was painted by Rafael Santi based on a mythological plot popular during the Renaissance and mannerism, which many artists used in their paintings.

The painting “Lady with a Unicorn” was badly damaged in the past, but has now been partially restored.

Painting by Raphael Santi “Madonna in Greenery” or “Mary and Child and John the Baptist”.

In Florence, Raphael created the Madonna cycle, indicating the onset of a new stage in his work. Belonging to the most famous of them, “Madonna of the Greens” (Vienna, Museum), “Madonna with the Goldfinch” (Uffizi) and “Madonna of the Gardener” (Louvre) represent a kind of variants of a common motif - the image of a young beautiful mother with the child Christ and little John the Baptist against the backdrop of a landscape. These are also variations of one theme - the theme of maternal love, bright and serene.

Altarpiece painting "Madonna di Foligno" by Raphael Santi.

In the 1510s, Raphael worked a lot in the field of altar composition. A number of his works of this kind, including the Madonna di Foligno, lead us to the greatest creation of his easel painting - the Sistine Madonna. This painting was created in 1515-1519 for the Church of St. Sixtus in Piacenza and is now in the Dresden Art Gallery.

The painting "Madonna di Foligno" in its own way compositional construction similar to the famous “Sistine Madonna”, with the only difference that in the painting “Madonna di Foligno” there is more characters and the image of the Madonna is distinguished by a peculiar internal isolation - her gaze is occupied with her child - the infant Christ.

The painting “Madonna del Impannata” by Rafael Santi was created by the great painter almost at the same time as the famous “Sistine Madonna”.

In the painting, the artist depicts the Virgin Mary with the children Christ and John the Baptist, Saint Elizabeth and Saint Catherine. The painting “Madonna del Impannata” testifies to the further improvement of the artist’s style, to the complication of images in comparison with the soft lyrical images of his Florentine Madonnas.

The mid-1510s were the time of Raphael's best portrait work.

Castiglione, Count Baldassare (Castiglione; 1478-1526) - Italian diplomat and writer. Born near Mantua, he served at various Italian courts, was the ambassador of the Duke of Urbino in the 1500s for Henry VII of England, and from 1507 in France for King Louis XII. In 1525, already at a fairly advanced age, he was sent by the papal nuncio to Spain.

In this portrait, Raphael showed himself to be an outstanding colorist, able to sense color in its complex shades and tonal transitions. The portrait of the Lady in the Veil differs from the portrait of Baldassare Castiglione in its remarkable coloristic qualities.

Researchers of the artist Raphael Santi and historians of Renaissance painting find models of this in the features portrait of a woman Raphael's resemblance to the face of the Virgin Mary in his famous painting "The Sistine Madonna".

Joan of Aragon 1518 Louvre Museum, Paris.

The customer of the painting is Cardinal Bibbiena, writer and secretary to Pope Leo X; the painting was intended as a gift to the French king Francis I. The portrait was only begun by the artist, and it is not known for certain which of his students (Giulio Romano, Francesco Penni or Perino del Vaga) completed it.

Joanna of Aragon (? -1577) - daughter of the Neapolitan king Federigo (later deposed), wife of Ascanio, Prince Taliacosso, famous for her beauty.

The extraordinary beauty of Joan of Aragon was glorified by contemporary poets in a number of poetic dedications, the collection of which comprised an entire volume, published in Venice

The artist’s painting depicts a classic version of the biblical chapter from the Revelation of John the Theologian or the Apocalypse.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought against them, but they did not stand, and there was no longer a place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him...”

Frescoes by Raphael

The fresco by artist Raphael Santi “Adam and Eve” also has another name - “The Fall”.

The size of the fresco is 120 x 105 cm. Raphael painted the fresco “Adam and Eve” on the ceiling of the pontiff’s chambers.

The fresco by artist Raphael Santi “The School of Athens” also has another name - “Philosophical Conversations”. The size of the fresco, the length of the base is 770 cm. After moving to Rome in 1508, Raphael was entrusted with painting the pope's apartments - the so-called stanzas (that is, rooms), which include three rooms on the second floor of the Vatican Palace and the adjacent hall. The general ideological program of the fresco cycles in the stanzas, as conceived by the customers, was supposed to serve to glorify the authority of the Catholic Church and its head - the Roman high priest.

Along with allegorical and biblical images, individual frescoes depict episodes from the history of the papacy; some compositions include portrait images of Julius II and his successor Leo X.

The customer of the painting “The Triumph of Galatea” is Agostino Chigi, a banker from Siena; The fresco was painted by the artist in the banquet hall of the villa.

Raphael Santi's fresco "The Triumph of Galatea" depicts beautiful Galatea swiftly moving through the waves on a shell pulled by dolphins, surrounded by newts and naiads.

In one of the first frescoes executed by Raphael, the Dispute, which depicts a conversation about the sacrament of the sacrament, cult motifs were most prominent. The symbol of communion itself - the host (wafer) - is installed on the altar in the center of the composition. The action takes place on two planes - on earth and in heaven. Below, on a stepped dais, the church fathers, popes, prelates, clergy, elders and youths were located on both sides of the altar.

Among other participants here you can recognize Dante, Savonarola, and the pious monk-painter Fra Beato Angelico. Above the entire mass of figures in the lower part of the fresco, like a heavenly vision, the personification of the Trinity appears: God the Father, below him, in a halo of golden rays, is Christ with the Mother of God and John the Baptist, even lower, as if marking the geometric center of the fresco, is a dove in sphere, a symbol of the holy spirit, and on the sides the apostles are seated on floating clouds. And all this huge number of figures, with such a complex compositional design, is distributed with such skill that the fresco leaves an impression of amazing clarity and beauty.

Prophet Isaiah 1511-1512. San Agostinho, Rome.

Raphael's fresco depicts the great biblical prophet of the Old Testament at the moment of revelation of the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah (9th century BC), Hebrew prophet, zealous champion of the religion of Yahweh and denouncer of idolatry. The biblical Book of the Prophet Isaiah bears his name.

One of the four great Old Testament prophets. For Christians, Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah (Immanuel; ch. 7, 9 - “...behold, the Virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son, and they will call his name Immanuel”) is of particular significance. The memory of the prophet is revered in Orthodox Church 9 (May 22), in Catholic - July 6.

Frescoes and last paintings of Raphael

The fresco “The Deliverance of the Apostle Peter from Prison,” which depicts the miraculous release of the Apostle Peter from prison by an angel (an allusion to the release of Pope Leo X from French captivity when he was papal legate), makes a very strong impression.

On the ceiling lamps of the papal apartments - Stanza della Segnatura, Raphael painted the frescoes “The Fall”, “The Victory of Apollo over Marsyas”, “Astronomy” and a fresco on the famous Old Testament story “The Judgment of Solomon”.
It is difficult to find any other artistic ensemble, which would give the impression of such figurative richness in terms of ideological and visual-decorative design as Raphael’s Vatican stanzas. Walls covered with multi-figure frescoes, vaulted ceilings with rich gilded decor, with fresco and mosaic inserts, a beautifully patterned floor - all this could create the impression of overload, if not for the high orderliness inherent in the general design of Raphael Santi, which brings to this complex artistic complex necessary clarity and visibility.

Until the last years of his life, Raphael paid great attention to monumental painting. One of the artist’s largest works was the painting of the Villa Farnesina, which belonged to the richest Roman banker Chigi.

In the early 1910s, Raphael painted the fresco “The Triumph of Galatea” in the main hall of this villa, which is one of his best works.

Myths about Princess Psyche tell about the desire of the human soul to merge with love. For her indescribable beauty, people revered Psyche more than Aphrodite. According to one version, a jealous goddess sent her son, the deity of love Cupid, to arouse in the girl a passion for the ugliest of people, however, when he saw the beauty, the young man lost his head and forgot about his mother’s order. Having become the husband of Psyche, he did not allow her to look at him. She, burning with curiosity, lit a lamp at night and looked at her husband, not noticing a hot drop of oil falling on his skin, and Cupid disappeared. In the end, by the will of Zeus, the lovers united. Apuleius in Metamorphoses retells the myth of the romantic story of Cupid and Psyche; the wanderings of the human soul, eager to meet its love.

The painting depicts Fornarina, the lover of Rafael Santi, whose real name is Margherita Luti. Fornarina's real name was established by researcher Antonio Valeri, who discovered it in a manuscript from a Florentine library and in a list of nuns of a monastery, where the novice was identified as the widow of the artist Raphael.

Fornarina is the legendary lover and model of Raphael, whose real name is Margherita Luti. According to many Renaissance art critics and historians of the artist’s work, Fornarina is depicted in two famous paintings by Rafael Santi - “Fornarina” and “The Veiled Lady.” It is also believed that Fornarina, in all likelihood, served as a model for creating the image of the Virgin Mary in the painting “The Sistine Madonna”, as well as some others female images Raphael.

Transfiguration of Christ 1519-1520. Pinacoteca Vatican, Rome.

The painting was originally created as an altarpiece for the Cathedral of Narbonne, commissioned by Cardinal Giulio Medici, Bishop of Narbonne. The contradictions of the last years of Raphael’s work were most reflected in the huge altar composition “The Transfiguration of Christ” - it was completed after Raphael’s death by Giulio Romano.

This picture is divided into two parts. The upper part shows the actual transformation - this more harmonious part of the picture was done by Raphael himself. Below are the apostles trying to heal a possessed boy

It was Raphael Santi’s altar painting “The Transfiguration of Christ” that became an indisputable model for academic painters for centuries.
Raphael died in 1520. His premature death was unexpected and made a deep impression on his contemporaries.

Raphael Santi deservedly ranks among the greatest masters of the High Renaissance.

Rafael Santi is a man with an incredible destiny, the most secret and beautiful painter of the Renaissance. The rulers of Italy envied the talent and intelligence of the brilliant painter, the fairer sex adored him for his cheerful disposition and angelic attractiveness, and for his kindness and generosity his friends nicknamed the artist the messenger of heaven. However, Contemporaries did not suspect that the magnanimous Raphael until the end of his days feared that his mind would fall into the abyss of madness.

History always has its beginning and continuation. So on April 6, 1483, in the small town of the Kingdom of Italy of Urbino, in the house of the court painter of the Dukes of Urbino and poet Giovanni Santi, the great Rafael Santi.

Giovanni Santi headed the most famous art workshop in Urbino. The tragedy in which he lost his beloved wife and mother occurred at night in his home. While the artist was in Rome, where he was painting a portrait of Pope John II, his brother Niccolò, in a fit of insanity, killed his elderly mother and seriously wounded the pregnant Maggia, the artist’s wife. The guards who arrived at the crime scene arrested the criminal, but he managed to escape. Seized with insane fear, Niccolo threw himself off the bridge into the icy river. The soldiers stood on the shore and tried to fish out the body when Majia Santi had already given birth to a baby and died from her wounds. Giovanni learned about the trouble from traveling traders. Having abandoned everything, he hurried home. But friends and neighbors have already christened the boy Raphael, buried his wife and mother.

The childhood of the great artist was very happy and carefree. Giovanni Santi, having survived a terrible tragedy, invested all his strength in Raphael, protecting him from the worries and troubles of the real world, warning possible mistakes and corrected those already committed. Since childhood, Rafael studied only with the best teachers, his father entrusted him with big hopes, instilling a taste for painting. The first toys Raphael there were paints and brushes from my father's workshop. And already at seven years old, Rafael Santi he expressed his gifted magical fantasies in the workshop of a court painter - in the workshop of his father. Soon Giovanni remarried Bernardina Parte, the daughter of a goldsmith. From his second marriage a daughter, Elisabette, was born.

Every day the boy brought more and more joy. Giovanni watched how his son thought and acted in his fictional world, and how these weak and still clumsy hands expressed everything on canvas. He understood that talent and supernatural abilities Raphael much more worthy than his own, so he sent the boy to study with his friend, the artist Timoteo Viti.

During the training period, a ten-year-old Raphael for the first time he departed from the canons of the classical Italian portrait of the Renaissance and mastered that unique play of colors and paints, which today is a mystery for artists and art critics around the world.

In 1494, the father of the little genius died of a heart attack, and by decision of the city magistrate, the boy remained in the care of the family of the cloth merchant Bartholomew. He was the younger brother of the artist Giovanni and, unlike the crazy Niccolo, he was sociable, had a caring, cheerful and kind disposition, did not remain indifferent and was always ready to help those who needed it. This good-natured merchant adored his orphan nephew and spared no expense on his painting education.

Already at the age of seventeen, he easily created brilliant, talented works that still delight his contemporaries. In November 1500, a seventeen-year-old youth left his small provincial town of Urbino and moved to the bustling port city of Perugio. There he entered the workshop famous painter Pietro Vannucci, known as Perugino. Having looked at the first examination papers of his new student, the gray-haired maestro exclaimed: “Today is a joyful day for me, because I have discovered a genius for the world!”

During the Renaissance, Perugino's workshop was a creative laboratory in which brilliant individuals were trained. Perugino's deep lyricism, his tenderness, calmness and gentleness found an echo in the soul Raphael. Raphael is overbearing. He quickly masters the painting style of his teacher, studies under his guidance the work on frescoes, and becomes familiar with the technique and figurative system of monumental painting.

For some time, Raphael was still under the powerful influence of Perugino. Only timidly, like a momentary splash, an unexpected compositional solution suddenly appears, unusual for Perugino. Suddenly the colors on the canvases begin to sound unique. And, despite the fact that his masterpieces of this period are imitative, one cannot stand aside and not realize what their immortal master did. First of all, it is "", "", "". All this is completed by the created monumental canvas “” in the city of Civita - Castellan.

This is like his last bow to the teacher. Raphael goes into big life.

In 1504, he arrived in Florence, where the center of Italian art was concentrated, where the High Renaissance was born and rose.

The first thing the young man saw Raphael, setting foot on the soil of Florence, there was a majestic statue of the biblical hero David in Piazza della Signoria. This sculpture by Michelangelo could not help but stun Raphael, could not help but leave an imprint on his impressionable imagination.

At this time, the great Leonardo also worked in Florence. Just then, all of Florence watched with bated breath the duel of the titans - Leonardo and Michelangelo. They worked on battle compositions for the Council Hall of the Palace of the Signoria. Leonardo's painting was supposed to depict the battle of the Florentines with the Milanese at Anghiari in 1440. And Michelangelo wrote the battle of the Florentines with the Pisans in 1364.

Already in 1505, Florentines had the opportunity to evaluate both cardboards exhibited together.

Poetic, majestic Leonardo and rebellious, with a dazzling passion for painting Michelangelo! A real titanic battle of the elements. Young Rafael you need to come out of the fire of this battle unscorched, remaining yourself.

In Florence, Raphael masters the entire amount of knowledge that an artist needs to rise to the level of these titans.

He studies anatomy, perspective, mathematics, geometry. His search for the beautiful in Man, his worship of Man emerges more and more clearly, he develops the style of a monumentalist, his skill becomes virtuosic.

In four years, he transformed from a timid provincial painter into a real master, confidently mastering all the school secrets he needed for his work.

In 1508, a twenty-five-year-old Santi arrives at the invitation of Pope Julius II to Rome. He is entrusted with painting in the Vatican. First of all, it was necessary to make frescoes in the Signature Hall, which was allocated by Julius II for a library and office. The paintings were supposed to reflect various aspects of human spiritual activity - in science, philosophy, theology, and art.

Here he is before us not only a painter, but an artist - a philosopher who dared to rise to enormous generalizations.

The Hall of the Signature - Stanza della Segnatura - reunited the ideas of the era about the power of the human mind, the power of poetry, the rule of law, and humanity. The artist brought together philosophical ideas in live scenes.

In historical and allegorical groups Santi revives the images of Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes, Socrates, Euclid, Ptolemy. Monumental works required the master to know the most complex painting techniques - fresco, mathematical calculations and a steel hand. It was truly a titanic work!

In their stanzas (rooms) Rafael managed to find an unprecedented synthesis of painting and architecture. The fact is that the interiors of the Vatican were very complex in design. The artist was faced with almost impossible compositional problems. But Santi emerged victorious from this test.

The stanzas are masterpieces not only in terms of the plastic design of the figures, the characteristics of the images, and the color. In these frescoes, the viewer is amazed by the grandeur of the architectural ensembles created by the painter’s brush, created by his dream of beauty.

In one of the frescoes of the Signature Hall, among the philosophers and educators, as if a participant in this high debate, there is himself Rafael Santi. A thoughtful young man looks at us. Large, beautiful eyes, deep gaze. He saw everything: both joy and sorrow - and better than others he felt the Beauty that he left for people.

Raphael was the most magnificent portrait painter of all times. Images of his contemporaries Pope Julius II, Baltasar Castiglione, portraits of cardinals They depict to us proud, wise and strong-willed people of the Renaissance. The plasticity, color, and sharpness of the characteristics of the images on these canvases are amazing.

In general, during his short thirty-seven-year life, the master created many unsurpassed, unique paintings. But still, the most important thing remains the inspired Madonnas, who are distinguished by their special mysterious beauty. Beauty, Kindness, and Truth are intertwined in them.

Painting " Holy Family. Madonna with Beardless Joseph“or “,” written at the age of twenty-three, represents a kind of creative “exercise” of the artist, who solved the problem of constructing a composition that was perfectly coordinated in all its parts.

Its center is marked by the figure of the Child. Highlighted by a beam of light directed directly at her, she, the brightest spot in the picture, immediately attracts the viewer’s attention. What is truly remarkable is the persistence and determination with which Santi consistently achieves the impression of an internal relationship between the characters and their spatial environment. The baby sits on Mary's lap, but his gaze is turned towards Joseph - usual for Raphael a compositional technique with which it is possible to strengthen the connection between adjacent figures not only visually, but also emotionally. Purely pictorial techniques serve the same purpose. Thus, the smooth parabolic lines outlined in the outlines of the Virgin Mary’s sleeve find an echo both in the outline of the figure of the Child and in the movement of the folds of Joseph’s cloak.

Madonna and Child - one of the leitmotifs in art Raphael: in just four years of his stay in Florence, he painted at least one and a half dozen paintings varying this plot. The Mother of God sometimes sits with the Baby in her arms, sometimes plays with him or simply thinks about something, looking at her son. Sometimes a little John the Baptist is added to them.

Thus, “”, written by him in 1512 - 1513, received the highest recognition. The mother holds the child in her arms and carries him to us, into our world. Holy Sacrament it happened - a man was born. Now life is before him. The Gospel plot is only a pretext for solving an eternal idea through a complex allegory. Life for the human being entering it is not only joy, but also quests, falls, ups, and suffering.

A woman carries her son into a cold and scary world full of accomplishments and joy. She is a mother, she anticipates the fate of her son, everything that is in store for him. She sees his future, so in her eyes there is horror, horror of the inevitable, and grief, and fear for her baby.

And yet she does not stop at the earthly threshold, she crosses it.

The Baby's face is most striking. Peering into the eyes of the Baby, unusually bright, brilliant, almost frightening to the viewer, the impression is not only of a menacing, but of something wild and “obsessed” with a meaningful look. This is God, and like God, he is also privy to the secret of his future, he also knows what awaits him in this world into which the curtain has opened. He clings to his mother, but does not seek protection from her, but as if says goodbye to her, as soon as he enters this world and accepts the full weight of the trials.

The weightless flight of the Madonna. But another moment - and she will step on the ground. She hands people the most precious thing - her son, a new person. Accept him, people, he is ready to accept mortal torment for you. This is the main idea that the artist expressed in painting.

It is this idea that awakens good feelings in the viewer, connects Santi with top names, elevates him as an artist to unattainable heights.

In the middle of the 18th century, the Benedictines sold " Sistine Madonna"to Elector Frederick Augustus II, in 1754 it ended up in the collection of the Dresden National Gallery. " Sistine Madonna"became an object of worship for all humanity. It began to be called the Greatest and Immortal picture of the world.

The image of pure beauty can be seen in the portrait "". "" was painted by the artist during his stay in Florence. The image of a young beautiful girl he created is full of charm and virginal purity. This impression is also associated with the mysterious animal lying peacefully on her lap - a unicorn, a symbol of purity, female purity and chastity.

For a long time " Lady with a unicorn"was attributed either to Perugino or to Titian. It was only in the 1930s that Raphael’s authorship was discovered and confirmed. It turned out that the artist initially depicted a lady with a dog, then a mythical creature - a unicorn - appeared on her lap.

The beautiful stranger depicted Raphael, seems to be a “deity”, a “shrine”. She is in boundless harmony with the world that surrounds her.

This job Raphael like a kind of dialogue between the genius of the Renaissance and Leonardo da Vinci, who has just created his famous “ Mona Lisa”, which managed to make a deep impression on the young artist.

Using the lessons of Leonardo, the Master of Madonnas follows the teacher. He places his model in space on the balcony and against the backdrop of the landscape, dividing the plane into different zones. The portrait of the depicted model conducts a dialogue with the viewer, creating new imagery and revealing its different, not ordinary inner world.

The color scheme in a portrait also plays a huge role. A colorful and bright palette, built on a gradation of light and pure colors, gives the landscape a clear transparency, imperceptibly shrouded in a light, foggy haze. All this further emphasizes the integrity and purity of the landscape against the background of the image of the lady.

Fresco with tempera paints on wood " Transfiguration", which Raphael began writing in 1518 by order of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici for the Cathedral of Narbonne, can be perceived as the artist's artistic commandment.

The canvas is divided into two parts. At the top is the plot of the Transfiguration. The Savior with raised hands, in fluttering righteous clothes, hovers against the background of a haze illuminated by the brilliance of His own radiance. On both sides of Him, also floating in the air, are Moses and Elijah - the elders; the first, as already noted, with tablets in hands. At the top of the mountain in different poses The blinded Apostles lie: they cover their faces with their hands, unable to bear the light emanating from Christ. On the left on the mountain there are two outside witnesses to the miracle of the Transfiguration, one of them has a rosary. Their presence does not find justification in the gospel story and was apparently dictated by some considerations of the artist unknown to us now.

There is no feeling of miracle and grace of Favorian light in the picture. But there is a feeling of emotional oversaturation of people, which overlaps the miraculous phenomenon itself.

In the lower half of the picture at the foot of the mountain Santi depicted two animated groups of people: on the left are the other nine Apostles, on the right is a crowd of Jews, in which in the foreground one can see a kneeling woman and a Jew supporting a possessed boy, whose strong writhing, clouded eyes and open mouth reveal his severe mental and physical suffering. The crowd begs the Apostles to cure the demoniac. The apostles look at him in amazement, unable to alleviate his fate; some of them point to Christ.

If you look closely at the face of Christ, which Raphael wrote on the eve of his death, and compare it with the “” artist, you can find some similarities.

Rafael Santi - Great artist with a cheerful and kind disposition, he died unexpectedly on a spring evening, at the age of thirty-seven. He left this world full of divine beauty after a short illness on April 6, 1520 in his workshop. It seemed that art died along with the Great and Revered Artist. According to Raphael Santi's will, he was buried among the great people of Italy in the Pantheon.

Raphael (actually Raffaello Santi or Sanzio, Raffaello Santi, Sanzio) (March 26 or 28, 1483, Urbino - April 6, 1520, Rome), Italian painter and architect.

Raphael, the son of the painter Giovanni Santi, spent his early years in Urbino. In 1500-1504, Raphael, according to Vasari, studied with the artist Perugino in Perugia.

From 1504, Raphael worked in Florence, where he became acquainted with the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolommeo, and studied anatomy and scientific perspective.
Moving to Florence played a huge role in Raphael's creative development. Of primary importance for the artist was familiarity with the method of the great Leonardo da Vinci.
Following Leonardo, Raphael begins to work a lot from life, studying anatomy, mechanics of movements, complex poses and angles, looking for compact, rhythmically balanced compositional formulas.
The numerous images of Madonnas he created in Florence brought the young artist all-Italian fame.
Raphael received an invitation from Pope Julius II to Rome, where he was able to become more familiar with ancient monuments and took part in archaeological excavations. Having moved to Rome, the 26-year-old master received the position of “artist of the Apostolic See” and the assignment to paint the state rooms of the Vatican Palace, from 1514 he directed the construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral, worked in the field of church and palace architecture, in 1515 he was appointed Commissioner of Antiquities, responsible for the study and protection of ancient monuments, archaeological excavations. Fulfilling the pope's order, Raphael created murals in the halls of the Vatican, glorifying the ideals of freedom and earthly happiness of man, the limitlessness of his physical and spiritual capabilities.

The painting “Madonna Conestabile” by Rafael Santi was created by the artist at the age of twenty.

In this painting, the young artist Raphael created his first remarkable embodiment of the image of the Madonna, which occupied an extremely important place in his art. The image of a young beautiful mother, generally so popular in Renaissance art, is especially close to Raphael, whose talent had a lot of softness and lyricism.

Unlike the masters of the 15th century, new qualities emerged in the paintings of the young artist Raphael Santi, when a harmonious compositional structure does not constrain the images, but, on the contrary, is perceived as a necessary condition for the feeling of naturalness and freedom that they generate.

Holy family 1507-1508. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Painting by artist Raphael Santi “The Holy Family” by Canigiani.

The customer of the work is Domenico Canigianini from Florence. In the painting “The Holy Family”, the great Renaissance painter Raphael Santi depicted the Holy Family in the classical vein of biblical history - the Virgin Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus Christ along with St. Elizabeth and the baby John the Baptist.

However, only in Rome did Raphael overcome the dryness and some stiffness of his early portraits. It was in Rome that Raphael's brilliant talent as a portrait painter reached maturity.

In Raphael’s “Madonnas” of the Roman period, the idyllic mood of his early works is replaced by the recreation of deeper human, maternal feelings, as Mary, full of dignity and spiritual purity, appears as the intercessor of humanity in Raphael’s most famous work - “The Sistine Madonna”.

The painting “The Sistine Madonna” by Raphael Santi was originally created by the great painter as an altar image for the church of San Sisto (St. Sixtus) in Piacenza.

In the painting, the artist depicts the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, Pope Sixtus II and Saint Barbara. The painting “The Sistine Madonna” is one of the most famous works of world art.

How was the image of the Madonna created? Was there a real prototype for it? In this regard, a number of ancient legends are associated with the Dresden painting. Researchers find similarities in the Madonna's facial features with the model of one of Raphael's female portraits - the so-called “Lady in the Veil”. But in resolving this issue, first of all, one should take into account the famous statement of Raphael himself from a letter to his friend Baldassare Castiglione that in creating the image of perfect female beauty he is guided by a certain idea, which arises on the basis of many impressions from the beauties the artist saw in life. In other words, the basis of the creative method of the painter Raphael Santi is the selection and synthesis of observations of reality.

In the last years of his life, Raphael was so overloaded with orders that he entrusted the execution of many of them to his students and assistants (Giulio Romano, Giovanni da Udine, Perino del Vaga, Francesco Penni and others), usually limiting himself to general supervision of the works.

Raphael had a huge influence on the subsequent development of Italian and European painting, becoming, along with the masters of antiquity, the highest example of artistic perfection. The art of Raphael, which had a tremendous influence on European painting of the 16th-19th and, partly, 20th centuries, for centuries retained the meaning of indisputable artistic authority and model for artists and viewers.

In the last years of his creative work, based on the artist’s drawings, his students created huge cardboards on biblical themes with episodes from the life of the apostles. Based on these cardboards, Brussels masters were supposed to create monumental tapestries that were intended to decorate the Sistine Chapel on holidays.

Paintings by Rafael Santi

The painting “Angel” by Raphael Santi was created by the artist at the age of 17-18 at the very beginning of the 16th century.

This magnificent early work by the young artist is part or fragment of the Baroncha altarpiece, damaged by the 1789 earthquake. The altarpiece “Coronation of Blessed Nicholas of Tolentino, conqueror of Satan” was commissioned by Andrea Baronci for his home chapel in the church of San Agostinho in Citta de Castello. In addition to the fragment of the painting “Angel”, three more parts of the altar have been preserved: “The Most High Creator” and “The Blessed Virgin Mary” in the Capodimonte Museum (Naples) and another fragment “Angel” in the Louvre (Paris).

The painting “Madonna Granduca” was painted by the artist Rafael Santi after moving to Florence.

The numerous images of Madonnas created by the young artist in Florence (“Madonna of Granduca”, “Madonna of the Goldfinch”, “Madonna of the Greens”, “Madonna with the Child Christ and John the Baptist” or “The Beautiful Gardener” and others) brought Raphael Santi all-Italian fame.

The painting “The Dream of a Knight” was painted by the artist Rafael Santi in the early years of his work.

The painting is from Borghese’s legacy, probably paired with another work by the artist, “The Three Graces.” These paintings - "The Dream of a Knight" and "The Three Graces" - are almost miniature in composition size.

The theme of “The Knight’s Dream” is a unique refraction of the ancient myth of Hercules at the crossroads between the allegorical embodiments of Valor and Pleasure. Near the young knight, depicted sleeping against the backdrop of a beautiful landscape, stand two young women. One of them, in formal attire, offers him a sword and a book, the other a branch with flowers.

In the painting “The Three Graces” the very compositional motif of three naked female figures is apparently borrowed from an antique cameo. And although there is still a lot of uncertainty in these works of the artist (“The Three Graces” and “The Dream of a Knight”), they attract with their naive charm and poetic purity. Already here some features inherent in Raphael’s talent were revealed - the poetry of images, a sense of rhythm and the soft melodiousness of lines.

The altarpiece “Madonna of Ansidei” by Raphael Santi was painted by the artist in Florence; the young painter was not yet 25 years old.

Unicorn, a mythical animal with the body of a bull, horse or goat and one long straight horn on its forehead.

The unicorn is a symbol of purity and virginity. According to legend, only an innocent girl can tame the ferocious unicorn. The painting “Lady with a Unicorn” was painted by Rafael Santi based on a mythological plot popular during the Renaissance and mannerism, which many artists used in their paintings.

The painting “Lady with a Unicorn” was badly damaged in the past, but has now been partially restored.

Painting by Raphael Santi “Madonna in Greenery” or “Mary and Child and John the Baptist”.

In Florence, Raphael created the Madonna cycle, indicating the onset of a new stage in his work. Belonging to the most famous of them, “Madonna of the Greens” (Vienna, Museum), “Madonna with the Goldfinch” (Uffizi) and “Madonna of the Gardener” (Louvre) represent a kind of variants of a common motif - the image of a young beautiful mother with the child Christ and little John the Baptist against the backdrop of a landscape. These are also variations of one theme - the theme of maternal love, bright and serene.

Altarpiece painting "Madonna di Foligno" by Raphael Santi.

In the 1510s, Raphael worked a lot in the field of altar composition. A number of his works of this kind, including the Madonna di Foligno, lead us to the greatest creation of his easel painting - the Sistine Madonna. This painting was created in 1515-1519 for the Church of St. Sixtus in Piacenza and is now in the Dresden Art Gallery.

The painting “Madonna di Foligno” in its compositional structure is similar to the famous “Sistine Madonna”, with the only difference that in the painting “Madonna di Foligno” there are more characters and the image of the Madonna is distinguished by a kind of internal isolation - her gaze is occupied with her child - the Christ Child .

The painting “Madonna del Impannata” by Rafael Santi was created by the great painter almost at the same time as the famous “Sistine Madonna”.

In the painting, the artist depicts the Virgin Mary with the children Christ and John the Baptist, Saint Elizabeth and Saint Catherine. The painting “Madonna del Impannata” testifies to the further improvement of the artist’s style, to the complication of images in comparison with the soft lyrical images of his Florentine Madonnas.

The mid-1510s were the time of Raphael's best portrait work.

Castiglione, Count Baldassare (Castiglione; 1478-1526) - Italian diplomat and writer. Born near Mantua, he served at various Italian courts, was the ambassador of the Duke of Urbino in the 1500s for Henry VII of England, and from 1507 in France for King Louis XII. In 1525, already at a fairly advanced age, he was sent by the papal nuncio to Spain.

In this portrait, Raphael showed himself to be an outstanding colorist, able to sense color in its complex shades and tonal transitions. The portrait of the Lady in the Veil differs from the portrait of Baldassare Castiglione in its remarkable coloristic qualities.

Researchers of the work of the artist Raphael Santi and historians of Renaissance painting find in the features of the model of this female portrait of Raphael a resemblance to the face of the Virgin Mary in his famous painting “The Sistine Madonna.”

Joan of Aragon 1518 Louvre Museum, Paris.

The customer of the painting is Cardinal Bibbiena, writer and secretary to Pope Leo X; the painting was intended as a gift to the French king Francis I. The portrait was only begun by the artist, and it is not known for certain which of his students (Giulio Romano, Francesco Penni or Perino del Vaga) completed it.

Joanna of Aragon (? -1577) - daughter of the Neapolitan king Federigo (later deposed), wife of Ascanio, Prince Taliacosso, famous for her beauty.

The extraordinary beauty of Joan of Aragon was glorified by contemporary poets in a number of poetic dedications, the collection of which comprised an entire volume, published in Venice

The artist’s painting depicts a classic version of the biblical chapter from the Revelation of John the Theologian or the Apocalypse.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought against them, but they did not stand, and there was no longer a place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him...”

Frescoes by Raphael

The fresco by artist Raphael Santi “Adam and Eve” also has another name - “The Fall”.

The size of the fresco is 120 x 105 cm. Raphael painted the fresco “Adam and Eve” on the ceiling of the pontiff’s chambers.

The fresco by artist Raphael Santi “The School of Athens” also has another name - “Philosophical Conversations”. The size of the fresco, the length of the base is 770 cm. After moving to Rome in 1508, Raphael was entrusted with painting the pope's apartments - the so-called stanzas (that is, rooms), which include three rooms on the second floor of the Vatican Palace and the adjacent hall. The general ideological program of the fresco cycles in the stanzas, as conceived by the customers, was supposed to serve to glorify the authority of the Catholic Church and its head - the Roman high priest.

Along with allegorical and biblical images, individual frescoes depict episodes from the history of the papacy; some compositions include portrait images of Julius II and his successor Leo X.

The customer of the painting “The Triumph of Galatea” is Agostino Chigi, a banker from Siena; The fresco was painted by the artist in the banquet hall of the villa.

Raphael Santi's fresco "The Triumph of Galatea" depicts the beautiful Galatea swiftly moving through the waves on a shell drawn by dolphins, surrounded by newts and naiads.

In one of the first frescoes executed by Raphael, the Dispute, which depicts a conversation about the sacrament of the sacrament, cult motifs were most prominent. The symbol of communion itself - the host (wafer) - is installed on the altar in the center of the composition. The action takes place on two planes - on earth and in heaven. Below, on a stepped dais, the church fathers, popes, prelates, clergy, elders and youths were located on both sides of the altar.

Among other participants here you can recognize Dante, Savonarola, and the pious monk-painter Fra Beato Angelico. Above the entire mass of figures in the lower part of the fresco, like a heavenly vision, the personification of the Trinity appears: God the Father, below him, in a halo of golden rays, is Christ with the Mother of God and John the Baptist, even lower, as if marking the geometric center of the fresco, is a dove in sphere, a symbol of the holy spirit, and on the sides the apostles are seated on floating clouds. And all this huge number of figures, with such a complex compositional design, is distributed with such skill that the fresco leaves an impression of amazing clarity and beauty.

Prophet Isaiah 1511-1512. San Agostinho, Rome.

Raphael's fresco depicts the great biblical prophet of the Old Testament at the moment of revelation of the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah (9th century BC), Hebrew prophet, zealous champion of the religion of Yahweh and denouncer of idolatry. The biblical Book of the Prophet Isaiah bears his name.

One of the four great Old Testament prophets. For Christians, Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah (Immanuel; ch. 7, 9 - “...behold, the Virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son, and they will call his name Immanuel”) is of particular significance. The memory of the prophet is revered in the Orthodox Church on May 9 (May 22), in the Catholic Church on July 6.

Frescoes and last paintings of Raphael

The fresco “The Deliverance of the Apostle Peter from Prison,” which depicts the miraculous release of the Apostle Peter from prison by an angel (an allusion to the release of Pope Leo X from French captivity when he was papal legate), makes a very strong impression.

On the ceiling lamps of the papal apartments - Stanza della Segnatura, Raphael painted the frescoes “The Fall”, “The Victory of Apollo over Marsyas”, “Astronomy” and a fresco on the famous Old Testament story “The Judgment of Solomon”.
It is difficult to find in the history of art any other artistic ensemble that would give the impression of such figurative richness in terms of ideological and visual-decorative design as Raphael’s Vatican stanzas. Walls covered with multi-figure frescoes, vaulted ceilings with rich gilded decor, with fresco and mosaic inserts, a beautifully patterned floor - all this could create the impression of overload, if not for the high orderliness inherent in the general design of Raphael Santi, which brings to this complex artistic complex necessary clarity and visibility.

Until the last years of his life, Raphael paid great attention to monumental painting. One of the artist’s largest works was the painting of the Villa Farnesina, which belonged to the richest Roman banker Chigi.

In the early 1910s, Raphael painted the fresco “The Triumph of Galatea” in the main hall of this villa, which is one of his best works.

Myths about Princess Psyche tell about the desire of the human soul to merge with love. For her indescribable beauty, people revered Psyche more than Aphrodite. According to one version, a jealous goddess sent her son, the deity of love Cupid, to arouse in the girl a passion for the ugliest of people, however, when he saw the beauty, the young man lost his head and forgot about his mother’s order. Having become the husband of Psyche, he did not allow her to look at him. She, burning with curiosity, lit a lamp at night and looked at her husband, not noticing a hot drop of oil falling on his skin, and Cupid disappeared. In the end, by the will of Zeus, the lovers united. Apuleius in Metamorphoses retells the myth of the romantic story of Cupid and Psyche; the wanderings of the human soul, eager to meet its love.

The painting depicts Fornarina, the lover of Rafael Santi, whose real name is Margherita Luti. Fornarina's real name was established by researcher Antonio Valeri, who discovered it in a manuscript from a Florentine library and in a list of nuns of a monastery, where the novice was identified as the widow of the artist Raphael.

Fornarina is the legendary lover and model of Raphael, whose real name is Margherita Luti. According to many Renaissance art critics and historians of the artist’s work, Fornarina is depicted in two famous paintings by Rafael Santi - “Fornarina” and “The Veiled Lady.” It is also believed that Fornarina, in all likelihood, served as a model for the creation of the image of the Virgin Mary in the painting “The Sistine Madonna”, as well as some other female images of Raphael.

Transfiguration of Christ 1519-1520. Pinacoteca Vatican, Rome.

The painting was originally created as an altarpiece for the Cathedral of Narbonne, commissioned by Cardinal Giulio Medici, Bishop of Narbonne. The contradictions of the last years of Raphael’s work were most reflected in the huge altar composition “The Transfiguration of Christ” - it was completed after Raphael’s death by Giulio Romano.

This picture is divided into two parts. The upper part shows the actual transformation - this more harmonious part of the picture was done by Raphael himself. Below are the apostles trying to heal a possessed boy

It was Raphael Santi’s altar painting “The Transfiguration of Christ” that became an indisputable model for academic painters for centuries.
Raphael died in 1520. His premature death was unexpected and made a deep impression on his contemporaries.

Raphael Santi deservedly ranks among the greatest masters of the High Renaissance.