Raphael was born with the name Raffaello Sanzio in Urbino in 1483. He received early teaching in art from his father, who was a painter. According to many art historians, Raphael was later apprenticed to the artist Timoteo Viti. In 1499 the young artist Raphael went to Perugiato to become a student and assistant to the painter Perugino. Raphael imitated his master closely. In fact, their paintings were done in such similar styles that art historians have difficulty determining which were painted by Raphael.¹

In 1504 Raphael moved to Florence, where he studied the work of such painters as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, learning especially their methods of representing the contrast of light and shadow, anatomy, and dramatic action and movement. As a result of overwork and excessive partying, Raphael died in Rome on his 37th birthday, April 6, 1520.²

My two favorite paintings by Raphael are An Allegory and the murals on the walls of some rooms in Vatican. An Allegory (also called “Vision of a Knight”) portrays a chivalrous knight of the Middle Ages sleeping, with his head resting on a rock. To his left stands a beautiful maiden who portrays Virtue. She is in the garments of Athena, the Greek goddess of justice, and in her hand she holds a book and sword. She stands in a middle of a road leading to a rocky mountain with a cragged cliff at the end, on which is built a high towered castle. By this, Raphael shows that the path, which Virtue offers, is difficult to reach.³

However, to the right, is another girl in a colorful gown, wearing jewelry, and offering no more than a little flower. Her path leads through rolling hills and meadows, ending with a seaside villa. This shows that the path of Love (this is who the girl portrays) is much easier then that of Virtue.⁴

An unusual and new method which Raphael used was that he painted the mountains in the background the same color as the sky, making each farther mountain a lighter and lighter blue, and this gives the illusion of great distances and a far off horizon.⁵

In 1508 Raphael was called to Rome by Pope Julius II and was commissioned to paint frescoes in four small “stanze,” or rooms, of the Vatican Palace. The walls of the first room, called the “Stanza della Segnatura,” are decorated with scenes based on ideas of personifications of Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Justice, which all appear on the ceiling.⁶The famous fresco, The School of Athens, on the wall beneath Philosophy, portrays an open hall in which Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient philosophers are engaged in discussion. On the wall under Poetry is the mural Parnassus, the Greek god Apollo is surrounded by the Muses and many of the great Italian poets. The second chamber, the “Stanza d’Eliodoro,” Raphael painted with the aid of his many assistants, and it contains scenes representing the triumph of the Roman Catholic church over its enemies.⁷

Raphael received so many commissions at the same time that he was unable to finish many of them. As a result, he had to hire assistants who had no talent, and this resulted in many bad paintings only partly done by Raphael. But the many original paintings done by the talented artist still remain, and from these we can see why he is one of the most famous artists of the Renaissance.⁸