Raphael Santi, the great Italian artist, graphic artist, architect, follower of the Umbrian school of painting, was born on March 28, 1483 in Urbino. The boy was eight years old when his mother died, and after another three years he was left without a father. Giovanni Santi was an artist and, shortly before his death, managed to acquaint his son with the basics of painting.

The beginning of creativity

The first works of Raphael Santi date back to 1496, when the fresco "Madonna and Child" was painted, which is now in his house-museum. Among the works of the early period are also "The banner with the Holy Trinity" (1499), the altar icon "The Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino", painted for the church of Sant'Agostino in the suburbs of Citta di Castello. The early works of Raphael Santi were distinguished by the indeterminacy of style, but nevertheless looked like paintings of a completely mature artist.

Studies

In 1501, the painter Santi entered the training of the famous artist Pietro Perugino. Work in the workshop of a senior mentor was extremely useful for Raphael. In addition to him, Perugino had several other students. All the works of Raphael Santi of that period are written in the style of a teacher. However, he insisted that his most gifted student strive to acquire his own style of painting.

The young artist developed his own style later, towards the end of his studies in the master's workshop. Some of the works of Rafael Santi, paintings, sketches, sketches, began to differ significantly from the works of the mentor. Pietro tried to develop the success of his student.

First orders

Rafael Santi, his works, skill and talent became widely known in the area, the highest ranks of the clergy heard about him, and the painter received several profitable orders for painting churches in Perugia and Citta di Castello. This was very helpful, since the novice artist did not live well and needed funds.

In 1501, Raphael Santi's works were supplemented with his first Madonna, the Madonna of Solli. The canvas literally breathed church splendor. In the future, the artist will create several more Madonnas in different interpretations. This theme will accompany the painter throughout his short life.

Church theme

Rafael Santi, whose famous works were on a religious theme, nevertheless often turned to the theme of the existence of ordinary people and tried to capture scenes from ordinary life in his paintings. However, over time, the church theme absorbed the talented painter, he understood that he could use his art in the best possible way in temples.

Therefore, at the beginning of the 16th century, he created such masterpieces as "Coronation" and "Betrothal of Mary". Both paintings were painted in 1504 and were intended for the altarpiece. In the same period, Rafael created the paintings "Portrait of Pietro Bembo", "Saint George and his battle with the dragon", "Madonna Conestabile".

Michelangelo and others

In December 1504, Rafael Santi leaves for Florence. There he met Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Bartolomeo Porta. The style of Michelangelo and Da Vinci inspires Raphael and he begins to study their style of drawing, and for greater clarity, makes copies of fragments from paintings by great artists. Da Vinci's canvas "Leda and the Swan" Santi sketches for himself almost completely. With "Saint Matthew" he does the same. Both masters reacted favorably to the efforts of the young artist. And he himself decided, if possible, to catch up in the art of painting with the Florentine masters.

New orders

Santi received his first order after his arrival from the nobleman Agnolo Doni, to create portraits of himself and his wife. In the painting depicting a noble woman, the influence of Leonardo and his La Gioconda is clearly visible. The artist called the portrait "Madonna Doni".

Having completed the order of Signor Agnolo, Rafael proceeds to paint the altarpieces "The Lady with the Unicorn", "The Entombment", "The Madonna Enthroned with Nicholas of Bari and John the Baptist". The artist's popularity is growing, he paints many holy images, among which are "The Holy One" (1507), "The Holy Family" (1508), "Saint Elizabeth with John the Baptist" (1509), "Madonna and Joseph the beardless" (1509) .

The main theme in the work of Raphael

While in Florence, Santi wrote more than twenty Madonnas. The plots were the same: either a baby in his arms, or he plays not far from John the Baptist, who is also often depicted in the picture. All the Madonnas on the canvases were depicted with the seal of maternal care on their faces. Among their images of that period, the following stand out especially: "Madonna Granduk" (1505), "Madonna Terranuova" (1505), "Madonna under a canopy" (1506), "Madonna with carnations" (1506), "Madonna with a goldfinch" ( 1506), "The Beautiful Gardener" (1508).

Vatican

At the end of 1509, Raphael leaves for Rome, where he will live until his death. With the assistance of Santi, he becomes the court painter of the Papal residence. He is instructed to paint four rooms of the palace with frescoes, the so-called "stanzas". Raphael chooses topics that reflect various types of intellectual activity of mankind: philosophy, poetry, theology and jurisprudence. In each of the rooms, the painter places frescoes in accordance with the plan. received the names "Justice", "Dispute", "Parnassus" and

Work of a lifetime

The most important masterpiece of the painter is considered to be the world-famous one created in 1513. Raphael painted the painting commissioned by the Church of the Holy Sixtus in Piacenza. This is an incredibly integral highly artistic work, it strikes with an elegant interweaving of lines, everything is subordinated to the elusive rhythm of inner harmony. The canvas is large, but all the smallest details are accessible to the eye.

"Triumph of Galatea"

A well-known philanthropist and patron of the arts, the Italian Augustino Chigi invited Rafael Santi to decorate his country villa on the banks of the Tiber with frescoes. Preference was given to subjects from the mythology of antiquity. This is how the masterpiece "The Triumph of Galatea" appeared. The fresco depicted prophets and sibyls. The painting is considered one of the best works of the artist.

Madonnas

Raphael Santi, whose most famous works are certainly Madonnas, painted pictures in one breath. Saint Mary and the baby, this plot was used by the artist most often. Sometimes he added John the Baptist, which organically linked with the main image. In total, "Madonnas" by Raphael - more than forty paintings, these are those that are in museums. It is in the exhibition collections that the best paintings by such a great artist as Rafael Santi are found. The works listed below are the Madonnas depicted by the painter throughout his short but fruitful life.

• "Sistine Madonna" - (1513-1514), art gallery in Dresden.
• "Madonna Solly" (1500-1504), Berlin Art Gallery.
• "Madonna Diotalevi" (1504), in Berlin.
• "Madonna Granduka" (1504), Florence, Palazzo Pitti.
• "Madonna of Orleans" (1506), Condé Museum, France.
• The Holy Family with a Palm Tree (1506), National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.
• "Madonna in the Green" (1506), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
• "Madonna with a Goldfinch" (1506), Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
• "Beautiful gardener" (1507), Louvre, Paris.
• "The Great Madonna of Cowper" (1508), Washington.
• "Madonna Foligno" (1511-1512), Vatican.
• "Holy Family under the Oak" (1518), Prado Museum, Madrid.
• "Madonna of Divine Love" (1518), National Museum, Naples.
• "Esterhazy Madonna" (1508), Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.

All other works of Rafael Santi, photos of which are in the catalogs dedicated to his work, can be found in registers and reference books on the art of painting.
In the period from 1513 to 1516, Raphael Santi is engaged in another papal commission, making sketches for the tapestries of the Sistine Chapel, there are only ten of them. Only seven drawings have come down to us. Then Raphael, together with his students, painted the loggias that overlooked the courtyard of the Vatican. In total, fifty-two frescoes were made on the main biblical subjects.

New positions

In March 1514, Donato Bramante died, and the pope handed over the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral under the command of Rafael Santi. A year later, the artist receives the post of curator of antiquities of the Vatican. In 1515, the famous Albrecht Durer visited the Vatican, whose engravings by that time had already made a splash all over the world. He meets Raphael, and since then both have been trying to be in creative contact, since Germany and Italy are close by.

The final

The last dying work of Raphael Santi is the Transfiguration, written in 1518-1520. The upper part of the canvas is given to the biblical story about the miracle of the transfiguration of Christ before James, Peter and John. In the lower part are the apostles and the demon-possessed youth. Rafael did not finish the picture, it was completed after the death of the master by the painter Giulio Romano.

The great artist died in April 1520, at the age of 37, from a viral fever. Buried 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, son of the painter Giovanni Santi, spent his early years in Urbino. In the years 1500-1504, Raphael, according to Vasari, studied with the artist Perugino in Perugia.

From 1504, Raphael worked in Florence, where he got acquainted with the work of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolommeo, studied anatomy and scientific perspective.
Moving to Florence played a huge role in the creative development of Raphael. Of paramount importance for the artist was familiarity with the method of the great Leonardo da Vinci.
Following Leonardo, Raphael began to work a lot from nature, studying anatomy, the mechanics of movements, complex postures and angles, looking for compact, rhythmically balanced compositional formulas.
The numerous images of the 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 get to know the ancient monuments better, took part in archaeological excavations. Having moved to Rome, the 26-year-old master received the position of “artist of the Apostolic See” and was commissioned to paint the main chambers of the Vatican Palace, from 1514 he supervised the construction of St. protection of ancient monuments, archaeological excavations. Fulfilling the order of the pope, Raphael created murals in the halls of the Vatican, glorifying the ideals of freedom and earthly happiness of a person, the limitlessness of his physical and spiritual capabilities.

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

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

In contrast to the masters of the 15th century, in the painting of the young artist Raphael Santi, new qualities have emerged, when the harmonic compositional construction does not fetter 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 years. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Painting by artist Raphael Santi "The Holy Family" Kanidzhani.

The customer of the work is Domenico Canigianini from Florence. In the painting “Holy Family”, the great Renaissance painter Raphael Santi depicted in the classical vein of biblical history - the holy family - 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 the brilliant talent of Raphael the portrait painter reached maturity.

In the “Madonnas” of Raphael 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, is the protector of humanity in Raphael’s most famous work - “Sistine Madonna”.

Rafael Santi's painting "The Sistine Madonna" was originally created by the great painter as an altarpiece for the church of San Sisto (St. Sixtus) in Piacenza.

In the painting, the artist depicts the Virgin Mary with the baby Christ, Pope Sixtus II and Saint Barbara. The painting "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 in the facial features of the Madonna a resemblance to 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 well-known statement of Raphael himself from a letter to his friend Baldassara Castiglione that in creating the image of perfect female beauty, he is guided by a certain idea that arises on the basis of many impressions from the beauties seen by the artist 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, Rafael 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 Penny and others), usually limited to general supervision of the work.

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

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

Paintings by Raphael Santi

The painting by Rafael Santi "Angel" 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 a Baronci altarpiece that was damaged by the 1789 earthquake. The altarpiece "The Coronation of Blessed Nicholas of Tolentino, the Conqueror of Satan" was commissioned by Andrea Baronci for his home chapel of 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 of the "Angel" in the Louvre (Paris).

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

Numerous images of Madonnas created by the young artist in Florence (“Granduk Madonna”, “Madonna with a Goldfinch”, “Madonna in Greenery”, “Madonna with the Christ Child and John the Baptist” or “Beautiful Gardener” and others) brought all-Italian fame to Rafael Santi.

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

The painting is from the heritage of Borghese, probably paired with another work by the artist "Three Graces". These paintings - "The Dream of a Knight" and "Three Graces" - are almost miniature compositions in size.

The theme of the "Dream of a Knight" is a kind of refraction of the ancient myth of Hercules at the crossroads between the allegorical incarnations of Valor and Delight. Near the young knight, depicted sleeping in a beautiful landscape, are two young women. One of them, in a strict attire, offers him a sword and a book, the other - a branch with flowers.

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

The altar painting by Rafael Santi "Madonna of Ansidei" 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 a ferocious unicorn. The painting “Lady with a Unicorn” was painted by Rafael Santi based on the mythological plot popular during the Renaissance and Mannerism, which was used by many artists in their paintings.

The painting "Lady with a Unicorn" was badly damaged in the past, and has now been partially restored.

Painting by Raphael Santi "Madonna in the Green" or "Mary with the 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 in the Green” (Vienna, Museum), “Madonna with a Goldfinch” (Uffizi) and “Madonna the Gardener” (Louvre) are some kind of variants of a common motif - images of a beautiful young mother with the Christ child and little John the Baptist in the background of the landscape. These are also variants of the same theme - the theme of motherly love, light and serene.

Altar painting by Raphael Santi "Madonna di Foligno".

In the 1510s, Raphael worked a lot in the field of altar composition. A number of his works of this kind, among which the Madonna di Foligno should be mentioned, lead us to the greatest creation of his easel painting - the Sistine Madonna. This picture 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 being 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 .

Rafael Santi's painting "Madonna del Impannata" 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, the complication of images in comparison with the soft lyrical images of his Florentine Madonnas.

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

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

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

Researchers 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”.

Joanna of Aragon 1518. Louvre Museum, Paris.

The customer of the painting is Cardinal Bibbiena, writer and secretary under 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 Penny or Perino del Vaga) completed.

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

The extraordinary beauty of Joanna of Aragon was sung by contemporary poets in a number of poetic dedications, the collection of which made up a whole volume published in Venice.

In the painting, the artist depicts a classic version of the biblical chapter from the Revelation of John the Theologian or the Apocalypse.
“And there was a 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, the 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 of the artist Raphael Santi "Adam and Eve" 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 of the artist Raphael Santi "The School of Athens" 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 hall adjacent to them. The general ideological program of the fresco cycles in the stanzas, according to the plan of the customers, was to serve to glorify the authority of the Catholic Church and its head, the Roman high priest.

Along with allegorical and biblical images, episodes from the history of the papacy are depicted in separate frescoes; portrait images of Julius II and his successor Leo X are included in some compositions.

The customer for 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.

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

In one of the first frescoes made by Raphael - "Disputation", which depicts a conversation about the sacrament of the sacrament, cult motifs were most affected. The very symbol of communion - the host (wafer) is installed on the altar in the center of the composition. The action takes place in two planes - on earth and in heaven. Below, on a stepped elevation, the church fathers, popes, prelates, clergymen, elders and youths settled down on both sides of the altar.

Among other participants here you can recognize Dante, Savonarola, the pious monk-painter Fra Beato Angelico. Above the whole 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 on the soaring clouds sit the apostles. And all this huge number of figures, with such a complex compositional design, is distributed with such art that the fresco leaves an impression of amazing clarity and beauty.

Prophet Isaiah 1511-1512 years. San Agostinho, Rome.

The fresco by Raphael depicts the great biblical prophet of the Old Testament at the moment of revelation about 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, the prophecy of Isaiah about the Messiah (Emmanuel; ch. 7, 9 - “... behold, the Virgin will take in the womb, and give birth to a Son, and they will call his name: Immanuel”) is of particular importance. 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 by Raphael

A very strong impression is made by the fresco “The Exposition of the Apostle Peter from the Dungeon”, which depicts the miraculous release of the Apostle Peter from the prison by an angel (a hint at the release of Pope Leo X from French captivity when he was a papal legate).

On the plafonds of the papal apartments - the station della Senyatura, 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 in the history of art that would give the impression of such figurative saturation in terms of ideological and pictorial-decorative as Raphael's Vatican stanzas. Walls covered with multi-figure frescoes, vaulted ceilings with the richest gilding decoration, with fresco and mosaic inserts, a beautifully patterned floor - all this could create the impression of congestion, if it were not for the high order inherent in the overall design of Rafael Santi, which brings 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 largest works of the artist was the painting of the Villa Farnesina, which belonged to the richest Roman banker Chigi.

In the early 10s of the 16th century, Raphael executed in the main hall of this villa the fresco "The Triumph of Galatea", which belongs to his best works.

The 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, the 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 that fell 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; wanderings of the human soul yearning to meet its love.

The painting depicts Fornarina, beloved of Rafael Santi, whose real name is Margherita Luti. The real name of Fornarina was established by the researcher Antonio Valeri, who discovered it in a manuscript from the Florentine library and in the list of nuns of a monastery, where the novice was designated 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 art critics of the Renaissance and historians of the artist's work, Fornarina is depicted in two famous paintings by Rafael Santi - "Fornarina" and "Lady in a Veil". 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 years. Pinacoteca Vatican, Rome.

Initially, the picture was created as an altar image of the Cathedral in Narbonne, commissioned by Cardinal Giulio Medici, Bishop of Narbonne. To the greatest extent, the contradictions of the last years of Raphael's work were reflected in the huge altar composition "The Transfiguration of Christ" - it was completed after the death of Raphael 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 made by Raphael himself. Below are the apostles trying to heal a demon-possessed boy.

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

Rafael Santi deservedly occupies a place among the greatest masters of the High Renaissance.

An Italian Renaissance artist, a brilliant graphic artist and a master of architectural solutions, Rafael Santi absorbed the experience of the Umbrian school of painting. In his canvases, as in a mirror, the ideals of the Renaissance were reflected. The world became kinder and cleaner when the eyes of the Raphael Madonnas looked at it - Sistine, Conestabile, Pasadena, Orleans.

Childhood and youth

The painter was born in the spring of 1483 in the 15,000-strong town of Urbino in eastern Italy. Father Giovanni dei Santi worked as a court painter for the duke, mother Margie Charla raised her son and ran the household. The Rafael family had the means to pay for the nurse, but Giovanni insisted that the wife feed the baby on her own. As a child, Raphael Santi showed an aptitude for painting. The father noticed this when he took the boy to the castle, where the masters who masterfully wielded the brush worked - the duke welcomed art, highlighting the artists.

Paolo Uccello, Luca Signorelli are the names of painters known to every Italian. The masters painted portraits of the duke and his relatives, painted the palace walls. The eyes of the young Raphael were closely watching the brush of the masters. Soon Santi realized that his son would leave both him and Uccello and Signorelli in the shade. Rafael Santi was orphaned early: as soon as he was 8 years old, his mother died. The departure of the dearest person left a mark on the creative biography of the painter. His Madonnas and portraits of beloved women seem to glow with maternal love, which the artist did not receive in childhood.

Soon Bernardine's stepmother appeared in the house, for whom her husband's son was someone else's child. At 12, the artist was left an orphan. Even then, the teenager demonstrated amazing skill, and he was assigned to the workshop of the artist Pietro Perugino. The painter taught the boy until sophisticated connoisseurs could no longer distinguish copies of Raphael from the paintings of Perugino. Santi soaked up the experience of teachers like a sponge and left behind all the students, while not getting carried away and making friends with them.

Painting

In 1504, 21-year-old Raphael Santi found himself in Florence: the young painter moved to the cradle of the Renaissance, following Perugino. The move had a beneficial effect on the career and skill of the young man - the teacher introduced Raphael to eminent painters, sculptors and architects. In the city on the banks of Arno Santi met. We know about the lost painting of the genius Leonardo "Leda and the Swan" thanks to a copy by Rafael Santi. The Florentine period of the artist gave the world 20 Raphael Madonnas with Children, in which Santi put all his longing for his mother.

The year of moving to Florence was marked by the writing of several early masterpieces by Raphael. The painting "The Betrothal of the Virgin Mary" and the painting "The Dream of a Knight" date back to 1504. The Conestabile Madonna and the Three Graces appeared in Florence. The last canvas, which is now kept in the museum of the French city of Chantilly, depicts the goddesses Innocence, Beauty and Love, holding golden balls in their hands - symbols of perfection. In the early canvases of Rafael Santi, the influence of the teacher can be traced, but after 2-3 years the artist demonstrates the author's style.

Since 1508, the painter has been living in Rome, where he received an invitation from Pope Julius II. Having heard about the young man, the priest invited Santi to paint the stanzas - the front rooms of the Vatican Palace. Having seen the sketch of the fresco by Raphael, Julius II was so delighted that he gave the painter all the surfaces, ordering him to remove the old drawings. From 1509, Raphael Santi will remain in the Eternal City, painting the stanzas, until the day of his death. Raphael's Stanzas are four halls measuring 6 by 9 meters, each of which has four fresco compositions. The artist was assisted by students, one fresco was made after the death of the painter according to his sketches.

The most famous stanza is the fresco "The School of Athens" (the second name is "Philosophical Conversations"). On it, Rafael Santi placed 50 figures of philosophers, in the guise of which the faces of artists and thinkers of Italy are recognized (written with da Vinci, similar to). Pope Leo X, who took the place of the deceased Julius II, in 1514 appointed Santi the chief architect and custodian of valuables. Raphael built the Basilica of St. Peter, making changes to the original plan of the deceased predecessor Donato Bramante, made a census of the monuments of Ancient Rome. The genius of the master belongs to the Church of Sant Eligio degli Orefici, the Chigi Chapel, the Vidoni Caffarelli Palace.

In Rome, Raphael Santi continued the gallery of Madonnas, bringing the number of paintings to 42. They are just as touching, and the beauty of motherhood shines through in the eyes, hands, every line of clothing. But in the Roman gallery of the Madonnas with Babies, the author's handwriting of the painter, individuality is already visible. The faces of women are sensual, in the eyes of anxiety for the child. Landscape compositions in the background become more complex, introducing semantic shades into the picture.

Art critics point to the quattrocento style prevailing in the early images of the Madonnas: the figures are frontal and constrained, the faces are solemnly abstract, the look is calm. The Quattrocento is eroded by sensuality during the Florentine period, and the Roman Madonnas are painted in the emerging Baroque style.

In the house of the master in Urbino, which is now called the "House Museum of Rafael Santi", an early work of the painter "Madonna from the House of Santi" is exhibited. Art critics are not sure that Raphael painted the canvas: there is an opinion that it belongs to the brush of his father, who depicted his wife with a young son. In the picture, the Madonna is turned to the viewer in profile, her eyes are fixed on the book, her hands gently touch her son. The work dates from 1498. The most mysterious is called the "Madonna of Granduk" - an early work by Raphael, dating back to 1505. It is kept in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

From an x-ray of the canvas, scientists determined that the top layer was applied a century after Rafael Santi painted the picture. Art critics agree that the artist Carlo Dolci, the owner of the canvas, applied a dark background, as he considered it to be appropriate for religious rites. "Madonna Granduca" is in the gallery of Florence.

The Conestabile Madonna is an early work by the 20-year-old artist, painted in Umbria in 1502-04. This is an unfinished miniature, which Raphael did not have time to complete due to moving to Florence. Her second title is "Madonna with a Book". The Mother of God sadly looks at the smiling baby, holding a book (presumably Holy Scripture) with his hand.

Personal life

The artist's talent was appreciated during his lifetime: the patrons, not wanting the masters to be lured away by the French, generously paid for his work. Raphael had an antique-style mansion built according to the author's design. Merchants and dukes dreamed of marrying their daughter to an eminent painter, but a subtle connoisseur of female beauty held firm. Cardinal Bibbiena, who wanted to intermarry with Santi, achieved Rafael's engagement to his niece, but the maestro refused at the last moment.

The woman who was able to win the heart of the 30-year-old Rafael was the baker's daughter, whom Santi nicknamed "Fornarina" (bun, donut). The artist saw 17-year-old Margarita Luti in the garden of Chigi, where he worked on the images of Cupid and Psyche. Rafael Santi paid the baker 50 gold pieces so that his daughter posed for him, and he was so carried away by the young beauty that he bought it from his father for 3 thousand coins.

For six years, Margarita was the artist's muse, inspiring masterpieces. After the death of Rafael, "Fornarina", having inherited a house and maintenance, gave up everything and went to a monastery. In the records of the monastery, Margarita is listed as the widow of the painter.

Death

The cause of the artist's death is unknown. According to a contemporary of Raphael, the painter and writer Vasari, the death of the 37-year-old maestro was the result of debauchery. After a stormy night, Santi returned home and complained of being unwell. The doctor performed bloodletting, which worsened the patient's condition, and he died. The second version speaks of a cold that Raphael caught in the burial galleries, where he participated in excavations.

The artist died on April 6, 1520. The place of last refuge was a tomb in the Roman Pantheon. An epitaph is engraved on the slab that covered the remains: “Here lies the great Raphael, during whose life nature was afraid to be defeated, and after his death she was afraid to die.”

Artworks

• 1504 - "Betrothal of the Virgin Mary"
• 1504-1505 - "Three Graces"
• 1506 - "Madonna in the green"
• 1506 - "Portrait of Agnolo Doni"
• 1506 - "Madonna with a Goldfinch"
• 1506 - "Portrait of a lady with a unicorn"
• 1507 - "The beautiful gardener"
• 1508 - "The Great Madonna of Cowper"
• 1508 - "Esterhazy Madonna"
• 1509 - "The School of Athens"
• 1510-1511 - "Dispute"
• 1511 - Madonna Alba
• 1511-1512 - "The Expulsion of Iliodor from the Temple"
• 1514 - "Meeting of Pope Leo I and Attila"
• 1513-1514 - "Sistine Madonna"
• 1518-1519 - "Portrait of a young woman" ("Fornarina")
• 1518-1520 - "Transfiguration"

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

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

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

Following Leonardo, Raphael began to work a lot from nature, studying anatomy, the mechanics of movements, complex postures and angles, looking for compact, rhythmically balanced compositional formulas.
The numerous images of the 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 get to know the ancient monuments better, took part in archaeological excavations. Having moved to Rome, the 26-year-old master received the position of “artist of the Apostolic See” and was commissioned to paint the main chambers of the Vatican Palace, from 1514 he supervised the construction of St. protection of ancient monuments, archaeological excavations. Fulfilling the order of the pope, Raphael created murals in the halls of the Vatican, glorifying the ideals of freedom and earthly happiness of a person, the limitlessness of his physical and spiritual capabilities.

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

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

In contrast to the masters of the 15th century, in the painting of the young artist Raphael Santi, new qualities have emerged, when the harmonic compositional construction does not fetter 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 years. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Painting by artist Raphael Santi "The Holy Family" Kanidzhani.

The customer of the work is Domenico Canigianini from Florence. In the painting “Holy Family”, the great Renaissance painter Raphael Santi depicted in the classical vein of biblical history - the holy family - 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 the brilliant talent of Raphael the portrait painter reached maturity.

In the “Madonnas” of Raphael 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, is the protector of humanity in Raphael’s most famous work - “Sistine Madonna”.

Rafael Santi's painting "The Sistine Madonna" was originally created by the great painter as an altarpiece for the church of San Sisto (St. Sixtus) in Piacenza.

In the painting, the artist depicts the Virgin Mary with the baby Christ, Pope Sixtus II and Saint Barbara. The painting "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 in the facial features of the Madonna a resemblance to 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 well-known statement of Raphael himself from a letter to his friend Baldassara Castiglione that in creating the image of perfect female beauty, he is guided by a certain idea that arises on the basis of many impressions from the beauties seen by the artist 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, Rafael 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 Penny and others), usually limited to general supervision of the work.

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

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

Paintings by Raphael Santi

The painting by Rafael Santi "Angel" 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 a Baronci altarpiece that was damaged by the 1789 earthquake. The altarpiece "The Coronation of Blessed Nicholas of Tolentino, the Conqueror of Satan" was commissioned by Andrea Baronci for his home chapel of 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 of the "Angel" in the Louvre (Paris).

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

Numerous images of Madonnas created by the young artist in Florence (“Granduk Madonna”, “Madonna with a Goldfinch”, “Madonna in Greenery”, “Madonna with the Christ Child and John the Baptist” or “Beautiful Gardener” and others) brought all-Italian fame to Rafael Santi.

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

The painting is from the heritage of Borghese, probably paired with another work by the artist "Three Graces". These paintings - "The Dream of a Knight" and "Three Graces" - are almost miniature compositions in size.

The theme of the "Dream of a Knight" is a kind of refraction of the ancient myth of Hercules at the crossroads between the allegorical incarnations of Valor and Delight. Near the young knight, depicted sleeping in a beautiful landscape, are two young women. One of them, in a strict attire, offers him a sword and a book, the other - a branch with flowers.

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

The battle of St. George with the dragon 1504-1505 years. Louvre Museum, Paris.

Rafael Santi's painting "The Battle of St. George with the Dragon" was painted by the artist in Florence after he left Perugia.

"The Battle of St. George with the Dragon" was created on the basis of a biblical story popular in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The altar painting by Rafael Santi "Madonna of Ansidei" 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 a ferocious unicorn. The painting “Lady with a Unicorn” was painted by Rafael Santi based on the mythological plot popular during the Renaissance and Mannerism, which was used by many artists in their paintings.

The painting "Lady with a Unicorn" was badly damaged in the past, and has now been partially restored.

Painting by Raphael Santi "Madonna in the Green" or "Mary with the 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 in the Green” (Vienna, Museum), “Madonna with a Goldfinch” (Uffizi) and “Madonna the Gardener” (Louvre) are some kind of variants of a common motif - images of a beautiful young mother with the Christ child and little John the Baptist in the background of the landscape. These are also variants of the same theme - the theme of motherly love, light and serene.

Altar painting by Raphael Santi "Madonna di Foligno".

In the 1510s, Raphael worked a lot in the field of altar composition. A number of his works of this kind, among which the Madonna di Foligno should be mentioned, lead us to the greatest creation of his easel painting - the Sistine Madonna. This picture 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 being 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 .

Rafael Santi's painting "Madonna del Impannata" 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, the complication of images in comparison with the soft lyrical images of his Florentine Madonnas.

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

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

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

Researchers 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”.

Joanna of Aragon 1518. Louvre Museum, Paris.

The customer of the painting is Cardinal Bibbiena, writer and secretary under 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 Penny or Perino del Vaga) completed.

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

The extraordinary beauty of Joanna of Aragon was sung by contemporary poets in a number of poetic dedications, the collection of which made up a whole volume published in Venice.

In the painting, the artist depicts a classic version of the biblical chapter from the Revelation of John the Theologian or the Apocalypse.
“And there was a 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, the 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 of the artist Raphael Santi "Adam and Eve" 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 of the artist Raphael Santi "The School of Athens" 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 hall adjacent to them. The general ideological program of the fresco cycles in the stanzas, according to the plan of the customers, was to serve to glorify the authority of the Catholic Church and its head, the Roman high priest.

Along with allegorical and biblical images, episodes from the history of the papacy are depicted in separate frescoes; portrait images of Julius II and his successor Leo X are included in some compositions.

The customer for 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.

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

In one of the first frescoes made by Raphael - "Disputation", which depicts a conversation about the sacrament of the sacrament, cult motifs were most affected. The very symbol of communion - the host (wafer) is installed on the altar in the center of the composition. The action takes place in two planes - on earth and in heaven. Below, on a stepped elevation, the church fathers, popes, prelates, clergymen, elders and youths settled down on both sides of the altar.

Among other participants here you can recognize Dante, Savonarola, the pious monk-painter Fra Beato Angelico. Above the whole 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 on the soaring clouds sit the apostles. And all this huge number of figures, with such a complex compositional design, is distributed with such art that the fresco leaves an impression of amazing clarity and beauty.

Prophet Isaiah 1511-1512 years. San Agostinho, Rome.

The fresco by Raphael depicts the great biblical prophet of the Old Testament at the moment of revelation about 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, the prophecy of Isaiah about the Messiah (Emmanuel; ch. 7, 9 - “... behold, the Virgin will take in the womb, and give birth to a Son, and they will call his name: Immanuel”) is of particular importance. 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 by Raphael

A very strong impression is made by the fresco “The Exposition of the Apostle Peter from the Dungeon”, which depicts the miraculous release of the Apostle Peter from the prison by an angel (a hint at the release of Pope Leo X from French captivity when he was a papal legate).

On the plafonds of the papal apartments - the station della Senyatura, 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 in the history of art that would give the impression of such figurative saturation in terms of ideological and pictorial-decorative as Raphael's Vatican stanzas. Walls covered with multi-figure frescoes, vaulted ceilings with the richest gilding decoration, with fresco and mosaic inserts, a beautifully patterned floor - all this could create the impression of congestion, if it were not for the high order inherent in the overall design of Rafael Santi, which brings 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 largest works of the artist was the painting of the Villa Farnesina, which belonged to the richest Roman banker Chigi.

In the early 10s of the 16th century, Raphael executed in the main hall of this villa the fresco "The Triumph of Galatea", which belongs to his best works.

The 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, the 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 that fell 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; wanderings of the human soul yearning to meet its love.

The painting depicts Fornarina, beloved of Rafael Santi, whose real name is Margherita Luti. The real name of Fornarina was established by the researcher Antonio Valeri, who discovered it in a manuscript from the Florentine library and in the list of nuns of a monastery, where the novice was designated 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 art critics of the Renaissance and historians of the artist's work, Fornarina is depicted in two famous paintings by Rafael Santi - "Fornarina" and "Lady in a Veil". 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 years. Pinacoteca Vatican, Rome.

Initially, the picture was created as an altar image of the Cathedral in Narbonne, commissioned by Cardinal Giulio Medici, Bishop of Narbonne. To the greatest extent, the contradictions of the last years of Raphael's work were reflected in the huge altar composition "The Transfiguration of Christ" - it was completed after the death of Raphael 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 made by Raphael himself. Below are the apostles trying to heal a demon-possessed boy.

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

Rafael Santi deservedly occupies a place among the greatest masters of the High Renaissance.

Raphael is an artist with a monumental influence on how art developed. Rafael Santi is deservedly considered one of the three great masters of the Italian High Renaissance.

Introduction

The author of incredibly harmonious and serene canvases, he received recognition from his contemporaries thanks to the images of Madonnas and monumental frescoes in the Vatican Palace. The biography of Rafael Santi, as well as his work, is divided into three main periods.

For 37 years of his life, the artist created some of the most beautiful and influential compositions in the history of painting. Raphael's compositions are considered ideal, his figures and faces are impeccable. In the history of art, he appears as the only artist who managed to achieve perfection.

Brief biography of Rafael Santi

Raphael was born in the Italian city of Urbino in 1483. His father was an artist, but he died when the boy was only 11 years old. After the death of his father, Rafael became an apprentice in the workshop of Perugino. In his first works, the influence of the master is felt, but by the end of his studies, the young artist began to find his own style.

In 1504, the young artist Rafael Santi moved to Florence, where he was deeply admired by the style and technique of Leonardo da Vinci. In the cultural capital, he began the creation of a series of beautiful Madonnas; there he received his first orders. In Florence, the young master met da Vinci and Michelangelo, the masters who had the strongest influence on the work of Raphael Santi. Raphael also owes Florence an acquaintance with his close friend and mentor Donato Bramante. The biography of Rafael Santi in his Florentine period is incomplete and confusing - judging by historical data, the artist did not live in Florence at that time, but often came there.

Four years spent under the influence of Florentine art helped him achieve an individual style and unique painting technique. Upon arrival in Rome, Raphael immediately becomes an artist at the Vatican court and, at the personal request of Pope Julius II, works on frescoes for the papal office (Stanza della Segnatura). The young master continued to paint several other rooms, which today are known as "Raphael's rooms" (Stanze di Raffaello). After the death of Bramante, Raphael was appointed chief architect of the Vatican and continued the construction of St. Peter's Basilica.

Creativity Raphael

The compositions created by the artist are famous for their elegance, harmony, smoothness of lines and perfection of forms, with which only Leonardo's paintings and Michelangelo's works can compete. No wonder these great masters constitute the "unattainable trinity" of the High Renaissance.

Raphael was an extremely dynamic and active person, therefore, despite his short life, the artist left behind a rich legacy, consisting of works of monumental and easel painting, graphic works and architectural achievements.

During his lifetime, Raphael was a very influential figure in culture and art, his works were considered the standard of artistic excellence, but after the untimely death of Santi, attention switched to the work of Michelangelo, and until the 18th century, Raphael's legacy was in relative oblivion.

Creativity and biography of Rafael Santi are divided into three periods, the main and most influential of which are the four years spent by the artist in Florence (1504-1508) and the rest of the master's life (Rome 1508-1520).

Florentine period

From 1504 to 1508, Raphael led a nomadic lifestyle. He never stayed in Florence for a long time, but despite this, four years of life, and especially creativity, Raphael is commonly called the Florentine period. Much more developed and dynamic, the art of Florence had a profound effect on the young artist.

The transition from the influence of the Perugian school to a more dynamic and individual style is noticeable in one of the first works of the Florentine period - "Three Graces". Rafael Santi has managed to assimilate new trends while remaining true to his individual style. Monumental painting has also changed, as evidenced by the frescoes of 1505. The wall paintings show the influence of Fra Bartolomeo.

However, the influence of da Vinci on the work of Rafael Santi is most clearly seen during this period. Raphael assimilated not only the elements of technique and composition (sfumato, pyramidal construction, contrapposto), which were innovations of Leonardo, but also borrowed some of the ideas of the master already recognized at that time. The beginning of this influence can be traced even in the painting "Three Graces" - Rafael Santi uses a more dynamic composition in it than in his earlier works.

Roman period

In 1508, Raphael came to Rome and lived there until the end of his days. Friendship with Donato Bramante, chief architect of the Vatican, provided him with a warm welcome at the court of Pope Julius II. Almost immediately after the move, Rafael began extensive work on frescoes for the Stanza della Segnatura. The compositions that adorn the walls of the papal office are still considered the ideal of monumental painting. The frescoes, among which the "School of Athens" and "The Dispute about the Communion" occupy a special place, provided Raphael with well-deserved recognition and an endless stream of orders.

In Rome, Raphael opened the largest Renaissance workshop - under the supervision of Santi, more than 50 students and assistants of the artist worked, many of whom later became outstanding painters (Giulio Romano, Andrea Sabbatini), sculptors and architects (Lorenzetto).

The Roman period is also characterized by the architectural research of Raphael Santi. For a short time he was one of the most influential architects of Rome. Unfortunately, few of the developed plans were realized due to his untimely death and subsequent changes in the architecture of the city.

Raphael Madonnas

During his rich career, Raphael created more than 30 canvases depicting Mary and the baby Jesus. The Madonnas of Raphael Santi are divided into Florentine and Roman.

The Florentine Madonnas are canvases created under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci depicting a young Mary with a baby. Often, next to the Madonna and Jesus, John the Baptist is depicted. The Florentine Madonnas are characterized by calmness and maternal charm, Raphael does not use dark tones and dramatic landscapes, so the main focus of his paintings are the beautiful, modest and loving mothers depicted on them, as well as the perfection of forms and harmony of lines.

Roman Madonnas are paintings in which, apart from the individual style and technique of Raphael, no more influence can be traced. Another difference between Roman paintings is the composition. While the Florentine Madonnas are depicted in three-quarters, the Roman ones are more often written in full growth. The main work of this series is the magnificent "Sistine Madonna", which is called "perfection" and compared to a musical symphony.

Stanza Raphael

The monumental canvases that adorn the walls of the papal palace (and now the Vatican Museum) are considered the greatest works of Raphael. It is hard to believe that the artist completed the Stanza della Segnatura in three and a half years. The frescoes, including the magnificent "Athenian School", are written in extremely detailed and high quality. Judging by the drawings and preparatory sketches, working on them was an incredibly time-consuming process, which once again testifies to the diligence and artistic talent of Raphael.

Four frescoes from the Stanza della Segnatura depict four areas of human spiritual life: philosophy, theology, poetry and justice - the compositions "Athenian school", "Dispute about the sacrament", "Parnassus" and "Wisdom, moderation and strength" ("Worldly virtues") .

Raphael was commissioned to paint two other rooms: the Stanza dell'Incendio di Borgo and the Stanza d'Eliodoro. The first contains frescoes with compositions describing the history of the papacy, and the second - the divine patronage of the church.

Rafael Santi: portraits

The portrait genre in the work of Raphael does not occupy such a prominent role as religious and even mythological or historical painting. The artist's early portraits technically lag behind the rest of his canvases, but the subsequent development of technology and the study of human forms allowed Raphael to create realistic portraits imbued with the artist's serenity and clarity.

The portrait of Pope Julius II painted by him is to this day an example to follow and an object of aspiration for young artists. The harmony and balance of the technical execution and the emotional load of the painting create a unique and deep impression, which only Rafael Santi could achieve. The photo today is not capable of what the portrait of Pope Julius II achieved in its time - the people who first saw him were frightened and cried, so perfectly Raphael managed to convey not only the face, but also the mood and character of the object of the image.

Another influential portrait performed by Raphael is "Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione", which Rubens and Rembrandt copied at one time.

Architecture

The architectural style of Raphael was subject to the quite expected influence of Bramante, which is why the short period of Raphael's tenure as the chief architect of the Vatican and one of the most influential architects of Rome is so important for maintaining the stylistic unity of buildings.

Unfortunately, few of the great master's building plans exist to this day: some of Raphael's plans were not carried out due to his death, and some of the projects already built were either demolished or moved and redone.

Raphael's hand belongs to the plan of the Vatican courtyard and the painted loggias overlooking it, as well as the round church of Sant' Eligio degli Orefici and one of the chapels in the church of St. Mary del Poppolo.

Graphic works

Painting by Rafael Santi is not the only type of fine art in which the artist has reached perfection. Most recently, one of his drawings (Head of a Young Prophet) was sold at auction for £29 million, becoming the most expensive drawing in the history of art.

To date, there are about 400 drawings belonging to the hand of Raphael. Most of them are sketches for paintings, but there are those that can easily be considered separate, independent works.

Among the graphic works of Raphael there are several compositions created in collaboration with Marcantonio Raimondi, who created many engravings based on the drawings of the great master.

Artistic heritage

Today, such a concept as the harmony of shapes and colors in painting is synonymous with the name Rafael Santi. The Renaissance acquired a unique artistic vision and almost perfect execution in the work of this remarkable master.

Raphael left an artistic and ideological legacy to posterity. It is so rich and varied that it is hard to believe, looking at how short his life was. Rafael Santi, despite the fact that his work was temporarily covered by a wave of Mannerism and then Baroque, remains one of the most influential artists in the history of world art.