Italian Renaissance Painter | Raphael Sanzio

Italian Renaissance art historian, Giorgio Vasari, reports that Raphael Sanzio was placed at a young age in the workshop of renowned Italian Renaissance painter, Pietro Perugino. Vasari’s account, however, cannot be substantiated. Due to early stylistic similarities, it seems likely though that Raphael Sanzio was at least acquainted with Perugino’s work. Vasari says that Raphael Sanzio was attracted to Florence as a young adult so that he could learn from Italian Renaissance painters Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarrati who had already achieved great fame.

Raphael Sanzio eventually traveled to Rome where he accepted a commission in 1511 to join a team of Italian Renaissance painters to decorate the private library and papal apartmentin the Vatican Palace for Pope Julius II, a great military leader and art patron. It is uncertain how he obtained such a prestigious commission, but it is believed that Raphael Sanzio may have been recommended by his cousin, Donato Bramante, famed Italian Renaissance architect. Raphael Sanzio eventually took over the decoration of all the papal apartments and made history with his meteoric rise to fame.

So revered was Italian Renaissance painter, Raphael Sanzio, that he earned the sobriquet “Prince of Painters.” He died in 1520 at the age of 37 and was buried in the Pantheon.

Brenda Harness, Art Historian

• The School of Athens by Raphael
  The School of Athens by Raphael Sanzio, Italian Renaissance painter, is a fresco painting in the Pope's private library in the Vatican Palace in Rome.
  
  
• Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ
  Raphael's biographer, Giorgio Vasari, writes "the most famous, the most beautiful and most divine" in describing Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ, his last painting.
  
  
• Raphael's Fine Art Tapestry: The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
  Raphael Sanzio designed a fine art tapestry of The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, then sent the design to a Flemish fine art tapestry weaver where the best fine art tapestry wall hangings were made.
  
  
• The Prophet Isaiah by Painter Raphael Sanzio
  When asked for his opinion by a patron about the worth of the painter Raphael's fresco of Isaiah by the patron, Michelangelo simply replied, "For that knee alone, it is worth the price."
  
  
• Raphael's Madonna of the Chair
  Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola (Sedia), also known as Madonna of the Chair, is one of the artist's most intimate Madonna paintings.
  
  
• Renaissance Rivals Raphael and Michelangelo
  Renaissance rivals Raphael vs Michelangelo had an unspoken competition which was evidenced as each paid homage to the other in subtle ways.
  
  
• Raphael Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici, Renaissance Prince
  Raphael's portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, was bought for $325 in 1968 by a savvy art New York dealer, then auctioned for $37 million in 2007.