RAFFAELLO Sanzio
Italian High Renaissance Painter, 1483-1520
Italian painter and architect. As a member of Perugino's workshop, he established his mastery by 17 and began receiving important commissions. In 1504 he moved to Florence, where he executed many of his famous Madonnas; his unity of composition and suppression of inessentials is evident in The Madonna of the Goldfinch (c. 1506). Though influenced by Leonardo da Vinci's chiaroscuro and sfumato, his figure types were his own creation, with round, gentle faces that reveal human sentiments raised to a sublime serenity. In 1508 he was summoned to Rome to decorate a suite of papal chambers in the Vatican. The frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura are probably his greatest work; the most famous, The School of Athens (1510 C 11), is a complex and magnificently ordered allegory of secular knowledge showing Greek philosophers in an architectural setting. The Madonnas he painted in Rome show him turning away from his earlier work's serenity to emphasize movement and grandeur, partly under Michelangelo's High Renaissance influence. The Sistine Madonna (1513) shows the richness of colour and new boldness of compositional invention typical of his Roman period. He became the most important portraitist in Rome, designed 10 large tapestries to hang in the Sistine Chapel, designed a church and a chapel, assumed the direction of work on St. Peter's Basilica at the death of Donato Bramante,
ID: 63816 Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints 1504-05 Tempera and gold on wood, 172,4 x 172,4 cm (main panel) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York This is the main panel and lunette from a relatively early work by Raphael, also known as the Colonna Altarpiece, painted for the convent of Sant'Antonio da Padova at Perugia. He began the work when he was barely 20 years old, just before he left for Florence in 1504, and he completed it the following year after he returned to Perugia. The influence of his teacher Perugino can be seen in the conservative composition. Nevertheless, Raphael has infused into the stiffly posed group a breadth and dignity that reflects his knowledge of the work of Fra Bartolommeo in Florence. Particularly beautiful is the way the figures fill the curved shape of the lunette. Flanking the Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist are Saints Peter, Catherine, Cecilia(?), and Paul.Artist:RAFFAELLO Sanzio Title: Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Painted in 1501-1550 , Italian - - painting : religious
