Raphael, In List Form

• his work is characterized by perfect use of color, balance of composition, and sweetness in the subject of his paintings
• apprentice to Perugino 
• young, rich, and handsome, as well as enormously talented
• trained in Umbria, but studied in Florence (where he picked up his draftsmanship and compositional skills by studying Leonardo and Michelangelo's works)
• is best known as a painter, but worked in architecture as well
• was known for being an "absorber of influences"
• studied human anatomy only to the extent that his figures were proportionately correct
• painted beautiful, calm, gentle women in a courteous manner
• had, as his first patrons, those who actually wanted either Leonardo or Michelangelo (whose time, respectively, was being monopolized by their patrons), but settled for Raphael
• idolized Leonardo and managed to get along with Michelangelo
• worked in Rome from 1508 until his death in 1520
• active in Perugia, Florence, and Rome 
• died at the height of his artistic career and his death brought the end of the Italian Renaissance 

The Life of Raphael

Italian Renaissance painter and architect Raphael was born Raffaello Sanzio on April 6, 1483, in Urbino, Italy. At the time, Urbino was a cultural center that encouraged the Arts. Raphael’s father, Giovanni Santi, was a painter for the Duke of Urbino, Federigo da Montefeltro. Giovanni taught the young Raphael basic painting techniques and exposed him to the principles of humanistic philosophy at the Duke of Urbino’s court.

In 1494, when Raphael was just 11 years old, Giovanni died. Raphael then took over managing his father’s workshop. His success in this role quickly surpassed his father’s; Raphael was soon considered one of the finest painters in town. As a teen, he was even commissioned to paint for the Church of San Nicola in the neighboring town of Castello.

In 1504, a master painter named Pietro Vannunci, otherwise known as Perugino, invited Raphael to become his apprentice in Perugia, in the Umbria region of central Italy. In Perugia, Perugino was working on frescoes at the Collegio del Cambia. The apprenticeship lasted four years and provided Raphael with the opportunity to gain both knowledge and hands-on experience. During this period, Raphael developed his own unique painting style. From 1504 to 1507, Raphael closely studied the works of his contemporaries, such as Leonardo and Michelangelo, and was able to develop an even more intricate and expressive personal style than was evident in his earlier paintings.

Living in Florence from 1504 to 1507, he began painting a series of "Madonnas," which extrapolated on Leonardo da Vinci's works. In Rome from 1509 to 1511, he painted the Stanza della Segnatura ("Room of the Signatura") frescoes located in the Palace of the Vatican. He later painted another fresco cycle for the Vatican, in the Stanza d'Eliodoro ("Room of Heliodorus"). In 1514, Pope Julius II hired Raphael as his chief architect.

On April 6, 1520, Raphael's 37th birthday, he died suddenly and unexpectedly of mysterious causes in Rome, Italy. He had been working on his largest painting on canvas, The Transfiguration (commissioned in 1517), at the time of his death. When his funeral mass was held at The Vatican, Raphael's unfinished Transfiguration was placed on his coffin stand. Raphael's body was interned at the Pantheon in Rome, Italy.

Following his death, Raphael's movement toward Mannerism influenced painting styles in Italy's advancing Baroque period. Celebrated for the balanced and harmonious compositions of his "Madonnas," portraits, frescoes, and architecture, Raphael continues to be widely regarded as the leading artistic figure of Italian High Renaissance classicism.