Raffaello Sanzio: life, style and characteristics of the works of the famous artist from Urbino, protagonist of the Italian Renaissance.
Raffaello Sanzio was born in Urbino on April 6, 1483. His father, Giovanni Santi, was a modest painter at the court of Urbino, an environment of great cosmopolitan culture. In 1491 his mother Màgia died and his father, shortly after, remarried. On August 1, 1494 his father also died.
Orphaned at the age of eleven, Raphael was entrusted to his priest uncle, Bartolomeo . Raphael had already shown his talent, since Giorgio Vasari, his contemporary, recounts that as a child he had been of great help to his father in the numerous works that Giovanni executed in the state of Urbino . In Urbino Raphael studied the works of Piero della Francesca and Luciano Laurana and began to study drawing and perspective.
The most obvious influence on his early works is that of Pietro Vannucci, Perugino , one of the greatest painters of the time who worked particularly in Perugia and Florence.
ccording to Vasari, Raphael began his apprenticeship with Perugino while his father was still alive. Raphael’s first attested work is an altarpiece for the church of San Nicola da Tolentino in Città di Castello, commissioned in 1500 and completed in 1501. Today, only a few fragments of that altarpiece remain, as it was seriously damaged in an earthquake in 1789. Over the next few years, Raphael created numerous other works for the churches of Città di Castello and Perugia.
In 1504 he moved to Florence to learn from the great painters Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo . Although he spent much of the next four years (the “Florentine period”) in Florence, Raphael probably did not live there continuously, but continued to travel and work in various cities, such as Perugia, Urbino, and perhaps even Rome. In Florence Raphael befriended local painters , especially Fra’ Bartolomeo, whose influence pushed him to abandon Perugino’s slender and graceful style for more grandiose and powerful forms.
The works of the Florentine period, up to 1507 , from the portraits (Lady with a Unicorn, Agnolo Doni, Maddalena Doni, The Pregnant Woman) to the Madonnas (Madonna Connestabile, Madonna of the Meadow, Madonna of the Goldfinch, The Beautiful Gardener) are proof of the ease with which Raphael was able to take inspiration from the various currents of the time. Towards the end of 1508 he moved to Rome , where he began to work for Pope Julius II , who commissioned a series of decorations for his rooms in the Vatican Palace. This commission marked a turning point in the painter’s career , since until then he had been considered an artist in training and had not yet received commissions of such importance and prestige.
From then on, although he also worked for other patrons, he remained mainly in the service of Julius II and his successor Leo X, becoming the most sought-after artist in Rome . In 1514, after the death of Bramante, he was appointed architect of the church of San Pietro that Julius II was having built.
Raphael’s plans for St. Peter’s were modified after his death, but for a short time they also allowed him to become the most important architect in Rome. Most of his architectural work was lost , however, because it was demolished or modified.
In 1515, Leo X entrusted him with the task of conserving and recording the ancient marbles . Portraits remained a secondary activity, especially after his move to Rome, where he was forced to dedicate almost all his time to the great Vatican projects. However, he portrayed the two popes for whom he worked, Julius II and Leo X. One of the most important commissions that Raphael received from the Pope was a series of ten tapestries with scenes from the life of St. Peter and St. Paul, intended for the Sistine Chapel. The cartoons produced were sent to Brussels to be woven in the workshop of Pier van Aelst. The first three tapestries arrived in Rome in 1519.
Death
His knowledge of classical art prompted the Pope to entrust him with the task of creating a map of the city of ancient Rome . According to Vasari, Raphael’s premature death was due to his excesses in love: after a particularly excessive night, the artist, struck by fever, did not tell the doctors what had caused his illness and was subjected to bloodletting instead of restorative treatments. Raphael died on 6 April 1520 and was buried, as he had requested, in the Pantheon in Rome.
Raphael lived in a period in which the art of drawing was going through a transitional phase and in which the silverpoint and pen, used during his youth, had been replaced by chalk. The most recurrent theme in Raphael’s work is that of the Madonna and Child, which he was able to portray countless times without ever making it monotonous. Raphael is also considered, after Donato Bramante, the most eminent Italian architect of the Renaissance period.
Works
The Marriage of the Virgin (1504)
Work inspired by “The Delivery of the Keys” by Perugino (two groups of characters, introduction of the centrally planned temple, perspective highlighted by the paving of the square) and by “The Marriage of the Virgin” by Perugino (subject, arched shape of the panel, attitudes of some figures, the open door of the temple that allows a glimpse of the background). The innovations compared to the master’s panels are : smaller panel, characters arranged according to a curve that leaves the space empty in front of the central priest. On the right is the group of dynamic male characters; on the left the group of sweet and calm girls. The horizon line is higher, giving greater monumentality to the figures. The temple has sixteen sides, less heavy and rigid, with a greater gradation of colors.
Lady with a Unicorn (1505)
The panel, depicting Saint Catherine, was attributed to Perugino before the 1935 restoration. The 1935 restoration, following an x-ray examination that revealed the original appearance of the painting, brought to light the unicorn, symbol of chastity, on the figure’s lap, and a larger landscape behind it.
The repainting may have been caused by damage suffered by the work over the years , especially in the background and the unicorn.
Portrait of Maddalena Doni (1506)
The painting’s setting clearly refers to Leonardo ‘s style , but the expressive result is antithetical. Raphael’s opulent image, before any mysterious allusive or evocative power, looms in the foreground and is made almost materially evident and serious by the ample forms and sumptuous clothing.
Madonna del prato or Madonna Belvedere (1506)
It is the most significant example of pyramidal compositions and of the language of gestures and affections. Immersed in the calm greenery of a meadow, the Virgin is in a counterposed pose and supports her Child, who takes the small cross brought to him by the kneeling Saint John. Mary’s serene gaze rests on the latter. The bond of glances, which emotionally holds the three characters together, is combined with the physical bond of the concatenation of hands.
Holy Family Canigiani (1507)
It represents Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Saint Elizabeth and Saint John. The children play, protected by the three large ones arranged in a pyramid. In the background there is a city placed obliquely, in the sky there are two groups of angels, re-emerged from the last restoration.
The Borghese Deposition
Work commissioned by Atalanta Baglioni who, in memory of her son Grifonetto, wanted her maternal grief to be reflected in that of the Virgin. The panel, placed with the cymatium and the predella in the family chapel of the Perugian church of San Francesco al Prato, remained there until 1608, when it was secretly sent to Rome to Pope Paul V. Forced to insert the episode of the Virgin’s fainting, Raphael moved from the original idea of the Lamentation of the Dead Christ to that of the Transport to the Sepulchre , placing the figures of the bearers and the mourners alongside the complementary group of pious women supporting the Madonna. The accentuation of the effort in the diverging figures of the bearers, the numerous echoes of classical movements, especially in the body of Christ and in the kneeling Mary, who turns to support the Virgin, and the enamelled colour respond to the desire to give the composition plastic prominence and statuary monumentality.
Rooms in the Papal Apartments
The Pope commissioned him to paint four rooms in the papal apartments between 1508 and 1520. To create these paintings, Raphael was assisted by many students. The rooms are : Stanza della Segnatura, Stanza di Eliodoro, Stanza dell’Incendio di Borgo and Stanza di Costantino.
Stanza della Segnatura
The allegorical subjects of the Stanza della Segnatura (completed in 1511) exalt the synthesis of ancient thought with the renovatio brought about by Christianity through the depiction of the True, the Good and the Beautiful. On the ceiling he painted in alternating rounds and rectangular sections Theology, Original Sin, Justice, the Judgement of Solomon, Philosophy, Contemplation of the Universe, Poetry, Apollo and Marsyas. The truth is embodied by philosophy, celebrated in the School of Athens : in an imposing classical building, with perpendicular arms and barrel vaults in brothels, all the most important philosophers of antiquity are brought together, placed on two levels and separated by a staircase.
In the center, around the vanishing point, we find Plato, who points to the sky, and Aristotle, who points to the earth. The whole is strongly perspective and gives a sense of balance, composure and classicism. The figure of Heraclitus (Michelangelo) was painted at a later time, inspired by the first visible parts of the Sistine Chapel vault.
The Dispute of the Sacrament (1509)
The centre of the composition is the consecrated host, raised against the sky in the monstrance above the altar and highlighted by the converging lines of perspective. The mystery of the Eucharist, a miracle par excellence, a link between heaven and earth, is contemplated by the heavenly Church and the earthly Church. The arrangement of the figures recalls the apse of a church and in this way Raphael also visually underlines the subject depicted: the triumph of the Church. It is a balanced and harmonious composition that has its fulcrum in the central axis, formed by the three Persons of the Trinity and the Host. The lower area is animated by the representatives of the earthly Church lively engaged in theological disputes. The story calms down in the upper part, occupied by the solemn exponents of the heavenly Church. At the top of the lunette is the Eternal Blessing, between two groups of angels. Lower down, inside a large halo, we find Christ with the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist. On the semicircle of clouds, seated at the sides of the three central figures, there are, on the left: Saint Peter, Adam, Saint John the Evangelist, David, Saint Stephen and Jeremiah; on the right: Judas Maccabeus, Saint Lawrence, Moses, Saint Matthew, Abraham and Saint Paul. Only a few figures from the earthly area have been identified , including, on the left of the altar: Beato Angelico, Bramante, Francesco Maria della Rovere, Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Jerome; on the right: Saint Ambrose, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Pope Innocent III and Saint Bonaventure, Sixtus IV, Dante, Savonarola .
Stanza di Eliodoro
Episodes of historical-political inspiration, celebrating divine intervention in favor of the Church, with reference to the mission of Julius II. One of these is the Liberation of St. Peter from prison: the story is divided into three distinct scenes. In the center an angel wakes the saint, on the right they both escape, on the left the soldiers wake up to chase them. The most important element is that of light : weak that of the moon and torches, dazzling that of the angel, which is added to the natural light that comes from the (real) window below. Also important are the scenes of the Expulsion of Heliodorus, the Miracle of the Mass of Bolsena, the liberation of St. Peter and four episodes from the Old Testament.
The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (1511/12)
At the bottom right, Heliodorus, desecrator of the Temple, is knocked down and trampled under the hooves of the divine messenger’s horse, while the priest Oria is absorbed in prayer in the background, in the half-light broken by the oscillating light of the candelabrum lit on the altar. On the left, Julius II, carried by the sediari, watches impassively as the event alludes to the inviolability of the Church’s possessions and its firm intention to expel its usurpers.
The scene takes place inside a grandiose building , the rhythm takes on a whirlwind pace in the convulsive succession of arches and domes, punctuated by flashes of light and masses of deep shadow. The distribution of the figures also opposes the central void to two dramatic lateral nuclei, in the foreground. The irresistible impetus of the action, in which the power of divine intervention is manifested, the violent excitement of the movements, the chiaroscuro contrasts pushed to the point of luminism effects indicate how Raphael’s interests had shifted from serene intellectual meditation to the dramatic representation of events.
Room of the Fire in the Borgo
Stories of popes who shared the name of Leo. The fire in the Borgo was a fire that ended with the simple gesture of the cross of Pope Leo IV. The painting is full of movement and compares the old early Christian basilica, a building with classical characteristics, with the sixteenth-century architecture and the three classical Roman orders, the Doric, the Ionic and the Corinthian: these are clear signs of the artist’s interest in architecture, recently appointed “architect of St. Peter’s”. A quote from Aeneas , in a man carrying an old Anchises on his shoulders, and with a young man at his side. Works of lesser pictorial result, as they reveal disorganization in such a way as to justify, with this decadence of the young artist, the beginning of those academic motifs that will distort the luxuriant beauty of the Italian Renaissance , are the paintings of the Battle of Ostia and the Coronation of Charlemagne.
The Coronation of Charlemagne (1516/17)
It depicts the coronation of the emperor in the Vatican Basilica by Pope Leo III, perhaps alluding to the concordat stipulated in Bologna in 1515 between Leo X and Francis I of France. The architecture probably refers to the state of the works on the new St. Peter’s. Several drawings by Raphael remain, but the poor quality of the story suggests that the execution was entirely the responsibility of assistants.
Room of Constantine (only designed)
Contains episodes from the life of the emperor.
Portrait of Leo X with two cardinals (1518)
It shows the pope sitting in front of the desk, covered by a red cloth, on which are placed a chamber bell and a precious illuminated manuscript, which he is observing with the help of a magnifying glass. He is flanked by two cardinals, Giulio de’ Medici (the future Pope Clement VII), and Luigi de’ Rossi. The background is very dark, the dominant colour of the scene is red, in the various shades of the clothes and the cloth.
Transfiguration (1518/20)
Begun in 1518, it was interrupted by the artist’s death and then completed by Giulio Romano and Gian Francesco Penni, the major pupils whose hand was by then largely present in all the frescoes and in the last works of the Roman period, almost as a testimony to the immense work weighing on the shoulders of the artist favoured by the papal court . In the upper part the scene is calm, muffled, harmonious and represents the transfiguration of Christ.
In the lower part the scene is different, agitated and full of contrasts, and represents the liberation of a possessed boy. There seems to be no connection between the two bands. The inspiration of the gestures, glances and expressions is clearly of Leonardo derivation.
