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BECOME AN INSTANT EXPERT ON RAPHAEL
BECOME AN INSTANT EXPERT ON RAPHAEL
His life was short but prolific – and such were his artistic skills that Picasso once said, ‘Leonardo da Vinci promises us heaven, Raphael gives it to us.’ Now, as the National Gallery has opened its long-awaited show of his works, Siân Walters reveals the things we should know about Raphael’s life and art
Raphael’s Saint John the Baptist Preaching, 1505
‘Those in possession of so many rare gifts as Raphael of Urbino are not merely men, but (if it’s permissible to say this) mortal gods’
Giorgio Vasari, painter, architect and writer, in his Life of Raphael from The Lives of the Artists, 2nd edition, 1568
Raphael, Self-portrait, c.1506. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria Palatina, Florence
1. A UNIVERSAL ARTIST
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, or Raphael, is a canonical figure in Western art.
Alongside Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he is often referred to as one of the three giants of the Italian High Renaissance.
As Vasari’s quote (above) suggests, Raphael’s talents were wide-ranging. We know him best today as a painter and draftsman, but he also made designs for tapestries, sculptures and mosaics and worked as an architect, poet and archaeologist.
Raphael was born in 1483 in Urbino, which had been one of the greatest Renaissance courts of the 15th century. Its ruler, Duke Federico da Montefeltro (d.1482), was an enlightened patron of the arts and employed famous painters such as Piero della Francesca and Giovanni Santi, Raphael’s father.
The family home can still be visited and is just a few minutes’ walk from the Ducal Palace. Raphael would have been trained by his father from a young age and his early drawings demonstrate just how proficient and talented he was, even as a boy.
Raphael is perhaps now best known for his exquisite images of the Madonna and Child (such as The Madonna of the Pinks, see point 3), which are always imbued with a great sensitivity, displaying an extraordinary observation of the tender bond between a mother and child. Sadly his own mother, Magia, died when he was just eight, a loss that the young Raphael must have felt acutely. His father died a few years later and so Raphael took over the family workshop – a situation that would require him to become an astute businessman as well as an accomplished artist.
The Crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary, Saints and Angels, also known as The Mond Crucifixion, c.1502-3
2. PERUGIA AND PERUGINO
As a young man Raphael completed several local commissions, but soon moved to Perugia where he entered the workshop of the illustrious Pietro Perugino.
This would prove to be a pivotal period in the development of Raphael’s career.
Perugino was one of the most famous painters of his time, and one of the few selected to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel. He was known for his rich colours, sweet, idealised facial types, graduated landscapes and serene compositions, all of which would become trademarks of Raphael’s early style.
The symmetrical composition of his Mond Crucifixion (above), painted for a church in Città di Castello, is borrowed from Perugino and so are some of the figures, which are copied from the Tezi and Monteripido altarpieces. Vasari said that if it were not for the signature, nobody would have believed that the work had been painted by Raphael. This is not a criticism: Perugino was much in demand and could not complete all of his commissions alone. It was in the interests of established artists to train their young pupils to imitate their own style as closely as possible.
Another influence on Raphael’s earlier career can be traced through his relationship with the artist Pintoricchio who, in 1502, was invited by the Archbishop of Siena to decorate the walls of the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. For this commission he enlisted the help of Raphael. It is a great testament to the younger artist that he should be asked to provide the cartoons or preparatory drawings for the much more experienced painter.
The Madonna of the Pinks (La Madonna dei Garofani), c.1506-7
3. FLORENCE AND INFLUENCES
In about 1504 Raphael settled in Florence.
Here he was able to study and sketch the works of great masters of the 15th century, such as Donatello, as well as those by contemporary stars, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Raphael used the opportunity to study as much as possible and make important connections in the city, and soon gained a glowing reputation whilst developing his own unique artistic language.
Works such as The Madonna of the Pinks, seen here, show his familiarity with works by Fra Bartolommeo and Leonardo da Vinci (such as the latter’s Benois Madonna), and there is a new softness or sfumato in the modelling.
He must also have seen the Mona Lisa in Leonardo’s studio as well as the famous (now lost) Leda and the Swan, after which he made a drawing. The contrapposto (or asymmetrical arrangement of the figure) in that painting may well have been in Raphael’s mind a number of years later, when he painted the dynamic, sweeping S-shaped curves in the body and draperies of St Catherine of Alexandria (see the ‘top tips’ box, below). However, his borrowings were never slavish, but instead were used as points of inspiration for his own inventive and increasingly dynamic creations.
The Madonna of the Pinks takes its title from the carnations gently offered to Christ by his mother. These symbolise a mother’s love because, according to legend, when Mary wept over her dead son, her tears fell on the ground where carnations would later grow in their place. The painting is tiny, so was ideal for private devotion. It may have been owned by one of Raphael’s female patrons, a nun from Perugia called Maddalena degli Oddi.
Study for an Angel, c.1515-16. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
4. PAPAL PATRON
In 1508 Raphael was called to Rome to work for Pope Julius II.
We are not entirely sure of the circumstances surrounding the move, although Vasari tells us that the chief architect of St Peter’s Basilica, Donato Bramante (who may have been related to Raphael), ‘persuaded the Pope to build some new apartments where Raphael would have the chance to show what he could do’.
Raphael, a highly ambitious man, was also active in promoting himself to a role at the papal court.
Pope Julius II was arguably the most important patron of the arts in early 16th-century Europe. He commissioned some of the most sublime and influential works of the period from Raphael, including the famous School of Athens, one of a series of frescoes in the papal stanze or apartments. The series is a powerful iconographical assertion of papal supremacy and power – the rooms, although private, would have been used for papal audiences and meetings, so were designed to impress.
Raphael was prolific in Rome and worked for wealthy, well-connected patrons, including the papal banker Agostino Chigi, who asked him to decorate two chapels.
One of these was Chigi’s burial chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, where Raphael was responsible for the design as well as aspects of its decoration, such as drawings for the dome mosaics, including the figure of an angel. These dramatic figures are indicative of a new grandeur and majestic strength found in his Roman works, influenced in part by his enthusiasm for antique sculpture.
Sadly, the chapel remained unfinished at the death of both artist and patron in 1520.
The Madonna and Child with the Infant Baptist (The Garvagh Madonna), 1509-10
5. DEMISE OF A GENIUS
By 1520 Raphael was managing a vast workshop with dozens of pupils and assistants, not only painters but also craftsmen and engineers. He collaborated with printmakers in order to turn his compositions into reproducible images, thus disseminating his fame more widely.
He was a brilliant businessman but also charming, affable, easy-going and popular. Most of all he was extremely versatile and, appropriately, the National Gallery exhibition will be the first-ever monographic show to concentrate on all aspects of Raphael’s brilliant but short-lived career.
His untimely death in April 1520, following a short fever, created shock waves through Rome. He was just 37 years old and one of the most famous artists in Europe.
His funeral procession could have been mistaken for that of a nobleman.
Thousands of mourners came to pay their respects and, according to the papal master of ceremonies, four cardinals carried his body. Following his own request, Raphael was buried in the Pantheon, which translates as ‘The Temple of all the Gods’.
He had died on Good Friday. The significance of both his final resting place and the date of his death was not lost on the artist’s friends and contemporaries. They would regularly describe Raphael in terms of a divine genius and a perfect artist, an idea that has continued to shape critical perception of Raphael’s work over the centuries.
St Catherine of Alexandria, c.1507
SIÂN'S TOP TIPS
Visit
The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Raphael at London’s National Gallery, which runs until 31 July. All the paintings appearing in this ‘Instant Expert’ will be on display, as well as key loans such as The Alba Madonna (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC), La Fornarina (Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Rome) and Self-Portrait with a Friend, possibly Giulio Romano (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Click here for more details.
Insider tip: When viewing the show, look out for the beautiful ‘new’ tabernacle frame surrounding Raphael’s St Catherine of Alexandria (seen above). This rare antique object came to the attention of the National Gallery’s Head of Framing, Peter Schade, in 2020, leading to its subsequent acquisition by the Gallery and Peter’s recent adaptation of the frame to fit the painting.
View
Aside from the National Gallery’s permanent collection, you can see works by Raphael in locations around the UK, from the famous cartoons in the V&A to drawings and preparatory studies in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the National Galleries of Scotland and The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Drawings from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle are regularly lent to exhibitions.
Online
Siân will be teaching a three-week online course on Raphael for the National Gallery starting on 9 May. See the gallery website for more details.
Read
Aside from the exhibition catalogue, other recommendations include Catherine Whistler’s Raphael: the Drawings (Ashmolean Museum, 2017) and Paul Joannides’ Raphael (World of Art), an authoritative introduction to the artist, which will be published later this year by Thames & Hudson.
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