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See also:RAPHAEL SANZIO (1483–1520) , the See also:great See also:Italian painter, was the son of Giovanni Sanzio or Santi, a painter of some repute in the ducal See also:city of See also:Urbino, situated among the See also:Apennines on the See also:borders of See also:Tuscany and See also:Umbria.' For many years both before and after the See also:birth of See also:Raphael (6th of See also:April 1483) the city of Urbino was one of the See also:chief centres in See also:Italy of intel- ' See Pungileoni, Elogio Storico di Raffaello (Urbino, 1829) ; for a valuable See also:account of Raphael's See also:family and his See also:early See also:life, see also, Id., Vita di Giov . Santi (Urbino, 1822), and Campori, Notizie e Documenti per la Vita di Giov . Santi e di Raffaello (See also:Modena, 1870) . 2 See an interesting account of the See also:court of Urbino by See also:Delaborde, Etudes sur See also:les B . Arts . . . en Italie (See also:Paris, 1864), vol. i. p . 145 . 3 The See also:house of Giovanni Santi, where Raphael was See also:born, still exists at Urbino in the Contrada del See also:Monte, and, being the See also:property of the See also:municipality, is now safe from destruction . See the See also:Victoria See also:County See also:History, See also:Sussex, vol. i.; New See also:English i lectual and See also:artistic activity, thanks to its highly cultured rulers, See also:Dictionary; and M . A . See also:Lower, History of Sussex (See also:Lewes, 187o) . I See also:Duke Federigo II. of Montefeltro and his son Guidobaldo, who (G .
J
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T.) succeeded him in 14.82 ,2 the See also:year before Raphael was born
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Giovanni Santi was a welcome See also:guest at this See also:miniature but splendid court, and the See also:rich treasures which the See also:palace contained, See also:familiar to Raphael from his earliest years, were a very important See also:item among the various influences which formed and fostered his early love for See also:art
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It may not perhaps be purely fanciful to trace Raphael's boyish admiration of the oil-paintings of See also:Jan See also:Van See also:Eyck and Justus of See also:Ghent in the miniature-like care and delicacy with which some of his earliest See also:works, such as the " See also:Apollo and See also:Marsyas," were executed
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Though Raphael lost his See also:father at the See also:age of eleven, yet to him he certainly owed a great See also:part of that early training which enabled him to produce paintings of apparently mature beauty when he was scarcely twenty years of age
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The See also:altar-piece painted by Giovanni for the See also: Miintz in his excellent Raphael, sa See also:vie, Paris, 1881, in spite of his accepting the end of 1499 as the period of Raphael's first entering Perugino's studio, —two statements almost impossible to reconcile . Considering that Raphael was barely seventeen when these frescoes were painted, it is hardly reasonable to attribute the finest heads to his hand; nor did he at an early age master the difficulties of fresco buono . The Resurrection of See also:Christ in the Vatican and the Diotalevi Madonna in the See also:Berlin Museum are the See also:principal pictures by Perugino in parts of which the touch of Raphael appears to be visible, though any real certainty on this point is unattainable.' About 1502 Raphael began to execute See also:independent works; four pictures for churches at Citta di See also:Castello were probably the earliest of these, and appear to have been painted in the years 15o2-4 . The first is a gild-banner painted on one See also:side with the Trinity, and below, kneeling figures of S . See also:Sebastian and S . Rocco; on the See also:reverse is a Creation of See also:Eve, very like Perugino in style, but possessing more See also:grace and breadth of treatment . These are still in the church of S . Trinita.' Also 1 The See also:administration of Giovanni Santi's will occasioned many painful family disputes and even appeals to See also:law; see Pungileoni, El . Stor. di Raffaello . 'Crowe and Cavalcaselle (Life of Raphael, vol. i., See also:London, 1882) adopt the notion that Raphael went to Perugia in 1495, but the reasons with which they support this view appear insufficient . See an excellent See also:critical examination of the Sketch Book by See also:Morelli, Italian Masters in See also:German Galleries, translated by Mrs See also:Richter (London, 1882); according to Morelli, only two drawings are by Raphael . Schmarsow, " Raphael's Skizzenbuch in Venedig,'° in Preussische Jahrbiicher, xlviii. pp . 122-149 (Berlin, 1881), takes the opposite view . But Kahl, Das venezianische Skizzenbuch (See also:Leipzig, 1882), follows Morelli's See also:opinion, which has been generally adopted . Parts of Perugino's beautiful See also:triptych of the Madonna, with the archangels Raphael and See also:Michael, painted for the Certosa near See also:Pavia and now in the See also:National See also:Gallery of London, have been attributed to Raphael, but with little See also:reason . Perugino's See also:grand altar-piece at See also:Florence of the See also:Assumption of the Virgin shows that he was quite capable of See also:painting figures equal in beauty and delicacy to the St Michael of the Certosa triptych . See Frizzioni, L'Arte Italiana nella Gal . Nat. di Londra (Florence, i88o) . s For an account of processional See also:banners painted by distinguished artists, see Mariotti, Lettere pittoriche Perugine, p . 76 seq.for Citta di Castello were the See also:coronation of S . Niccolo See also:Tolentino, now destroyed, though studies for it exist at See also:Oxford and See also:Lille (Gaz. d . B . Arts, 1878, i. p . 48), and the Crucifixion, now in the See also:Dudley collection, painted for the church of S .
Domenico, and signed RAPHAEL VRBINAS P
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It is a See also:panel 8 ft.6 in. high by 5 ft
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5 in. wide, and contains See also:noble figures of the Virgin, St See also:
In Florence Raphael was kindly received, and, in spite of his youth (being barely of age), was welcomed as an equal by the See also:majority of those great artists who at that See also:time had raised Florence to a See also:pitch of artistic celebrity far above all other cities of the See also:world
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At the time of his arrival the whole of artistic Italy was being excited to See also:enthusiasm by the cartoons of the See also:battle of Anghiari and the See also:war with See also:Pisa, on which Leonardo da See also:Vinci and See also:Michelangelo were then devoting their utmost energies
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To describe the various influences under which Raphael came, and the many See also:sources, from which be drank in stores of artistic knowledge, would be to give a See also:complete history of Florentine art in the 15th See also:century.' With astonishing rapidity he shook off the mannerisms of Perugino, and put one great artist after another under contribution for some See also:special See also:power of drawing, beauty of See also:colour, or grace of composition in which each happened to excel
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Nor was it from painters only that Raphael acquired his enlarged See also: with a large circle of the chief artists of Florence, and probably See also:record of his visit to See also:Siena exists in a sketch of the See also:antique learned from him much that was afterwards useful in his practice as an architect . The transition in Raphael's style from his first or Perugian to his second or Florentine manner is well shown in the large picture of the Coronation of the Virgin painted for Maddalena degli Oddi, now in the Vatican, one of the most beautiful that he ever produced, and especially remarkable for its strong religious sentiment—in this respect a great contrast to the paintings of his last or See also:Roman manner which hang near it . The exquisite grace of the See also:angel musicians and the beauty of the faces show signs of his See also:short visit to Florence, while the See also:general formality of the composition and certain details, such as the fluttering ribands of the angels, recall peculiarities of Perugino and of See also:Pinturicchio, with whose See also:fine picture of the same subject hung close by it is interesting to compare it . Raphael's paint- See also:ing, though by far the more beautiful of the two, is yet inferior to that of Pinturicchio in the composition of the whole; an awkward See also:horizontal line divides the upper See also:group of the Coronation from that below, the apostles See also:standing round the Vir- See also:gin's See also:tomb, filled with See also:roses and lilies (See also:Dante, See also:Par. See also:xxiii . 73), while the older Perugian has skil- fully See also:united the two See also:groups by a less formal arrange- ment of the figures . The See also:predella of this master- piece of Raphael is also in the Vatican; some of its small paintings, especially that of the figures in the Coronation of the Vir- gin, are interesting as g Illustratin Raphael's use of d in (Vatican) . In the Lille museum. showing his careful study See also:models dun g his early period. raped of the rules of perspec- tive.' Several prepara- tory sketches for this picture exist: fig . 1 shows a study, now at Lille, for the two principal figures, Christ setting the See also:crown on His mother's See also:head (see fig . 2) . It is See also:drawn from two youths in the See also:ordinary See also:dress of the time; and it is interesting to compare it with his later studies from the nude, many of which are for figures which in the future picture were to be draped . It was at Florence, as Vasari says, that Raphael began serious life studies, not only from nude models but also by making careful anatomical drawings from dissected corpses and from skeletons . His first visit to Florence lasted only a few months; in 1505 he was again in Perugia painting his first fresco, the Trinity and See also:Saints for the Camaldoli monks of San Severo, now a See also:mere See also:wreck from injury and restorations .
The date MDV and the See also:signature were added later, probably in 1521
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Part of this See also:work was left incomplete by the painter, and the fresco was finished in 1521 (after his death) by his old master Perugino.' It was probably earlier than this that Raphael visited Siena and assisted Pinturicchio with sketches for his See also:Piccolomini frescoes.' The Madonna of S
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See also:Antonio was also finished in 1505, but was probably begun before the Florentine visit." A
' While at Florence he is said to have taught the See also:science of See also:perspective to his friend Fra Bartolommeo, who certainly gave his young instructor valuable lessons on composition in return
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2 The fresco of the Last Supper, dated 1505, in the See also:refectory of S
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Onofrio at Florence, is not now claimed as a work of Raphael's, in spite of a signature partly introduced by the restorer
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' Raphael probably had no hand in the actual execution of the paintings; see Schmarsow, Raphael and Pinturicchio in Siena (See also:Stuttgart, 188o), and See also:Milanesi, in his edition of Vasari, iii. p
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515 seq., appendix to life of Pinturicchio
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' This fine altar-piece, with many large figures, is now the property of the heirs of the duke of Ripalta, and is stored in the See also:basement of the National Gallery, London
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See also:marble group of the Three See also:Graces, then in the See also:cathedral library,
from which, not long afterwards, he painted the small panel of the same subject now in See also:Lord Dudley's collection
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In 15o6 Raphael was again in Urbino, where he painted for the duke another picture of St George, which was sent to See also:England as a See also:present to See also:
Towards the end of 1506 Raphael returned to Florence, and there (before 1508) produced a large number of his finest works, carefully finished, and for the most part wholly the work of his own hand
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Several of these are signed and dated, but the date is frequently very doubtful, owing to his See also:custom of using Roman numerals, introduced among the sham Arabic embroidered on the borders of dresses, so that the I.'s after the V. are not always distinguishable from the straight lines of the See also:ornament
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The following is a See also:list of some of his chief paintings of this period: the " Madonna del Gran Duca " (Pitti) ; " Madonna del Giardino," 1506 (Vienna); " See also:Holy Family with the See also:Lamb," r5o6 or 1507 (See also:Madrid) ; the " Ansidei Madonna," 15o6 or 1507 (National Gallery); the See also:Borghese "Entombment," 1507; Lord See also:Cowper's " Madonna " at Panshanger, 15o8; " La bella Giardiniera,"
' This See also:missal-like painting is about 7 in. square; it was bought in 1847 for moo guineas
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The National Gallery also possesses its cartoon, in See also:
Morris Moore
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1508 (Louvre); the " Eszterhazy Madonna," probably the same year; as well as the " Madonna del Cardellino " (Uffizi), the " Tempi Madonna " (See also:Munich), the " See also:Colonna Madonna " (Berlin), the " See also:Bridgewater Madonna " (Bridgewater House), and the " See also:
This arrangement is also used in the " Madonna del Giardino " and in the larger group, including St See also:Joseph and St See also: |