Raphael: Artist of the Renaissance
Raphael was the son of Giovanni Santi, an educated man that was able to provide his young son with a remarkable life exposed to much art, many artistic geniuses, and the remarkable culture of the Umbrian court. Raphael was blessed during his childhood in terms of wealth and culture and would never have to know the life of a struggling artist nor the sense of begging for handouts or working in squalor. However, Raphael did suffer great tragedy: his mother died when he was eight years old and his father died three years later when Raphael was eleven years old. Thus, as a tender child, Raphael was no stranger to tragedy, something that no doubt instilled his life, making an imprint on him as an artist. One thing that Raphael's father did before his death that had a profound influence on the child and how he developed as an artist was by helping his son be placed within an apprenticeship with the workshop of Pietro Perugino. Perugino had a definitive impact on how Raphael constructed his paintings for his entire career. One could argue that Raphael's career had three distinct phases: the first phase of his career was the influenced largely by his father; the next phase was heavily influenced by the time he spent in Florence. The final leg of his career was influenced by 12 triumphant years in Rome.
Raphael's Time in Florence
Raphael moved to Florence in 1504 as a result of his intense desire to learn more from the greatest masterminds of Florentine Art. This was a time when Leonardo da Vinci was working at the top of his fame and Raphael was able in part to further develop his talent by mimicking some of the styles of developing human anatomy that were coined by Michelangelo and Da Vinci. When Raphael was a resident of Florence, he was able to create three magnificent items which were all notable altarpieces: the Ansidei Madonna, the Baglioni altarpiece and the Maddona del Baldacchino. These altarpieces still demonstrate the strong influence that Perugino had on the young artist: this influence is probably in part why these patrons commissioned Raphael to create the art in the first place. Consider for example, the Ansidei Madonna: this altarpiece depicts the Virgin Mary on the high throne, with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Nicholas of Bari on the right. There is an inherent sense of the pristine, placid and serene in this work, elements which recur throughout the work of Raphael. One of the more notable elements of this piece is the fact that the structural elements are not quite accurate, a deliberate detail meant to provoke greater and deeper meaning. "The internal architecture is not in fact entirely logical. The throne has no arms, and the steps are too steep to be practicable. They do, however, beautifully reflect the arches above and give the sense of a humble approach to the throne" (nationagallery.org). These altarpieces are able to demonstrate that while Raphael was still developing his own style, he was still at least being influenced by Florentine art.
One of the most remarkable pieces to emerge during Raphael's time in Florence was the notable piece, Madonna of the Goldfinch (1506). This painting demonstrates the balance and skill that was inherent in Raphael's work and how his talent was already maturing at such a young age. In this painting, "Raphael accepts the approach of the pyramidal composition, the gentle effects of the soft light and the emotional dialog between the characters, revealing the elements peculiar to the painting of Leonardo. Despite that is also plain what will be Raphael's own personal style: the extreme sweetness of the faces, particularly the Madonna's, the masterful use of colors, the realistic reproduction of the landscape and the profound intimacy between the figures" (Uffizi.org).
Raphael in Rome
Raphael's arrival in Rome was a remarkable time and in many ways it was the height of artistic fervor in Italy. When Raphael arrived in Rome it was 1508, the same year that Michelangelo began his work in the Sistine Chapel. When Raphael was 25 he was commissioned to decorate room of Pope Julius II. The Stanza are the rooms known to this day being decorated by Raphael and contain some of his most famous works, such as the School of Athens, Parnassus and the Disputation of the Sacrament. The second stanza room contained works like the Repulse of Attila, a groundbreaking example of the artist's use of light and composition (Finnan, 2014). There is a sense of movement and light in the piece, two dynamic qualities that work together with a sense of completion and movement that prior paintings didn't quite possess.
For a painter so young, Raphael developing in a rapid amount of time and was...
Here Mars is asleep and unarmed, while Venus is awake and alert. The meaning of the picture is that love conquers war, or love conquers all." (Cole, xx) the purpose of the work during the renaissance was mostly likely for a prominent individual's bedroom furniture or a piece of wainscoting. Some art connoisseurs have considered that the detailed wasps at upper right may have been a link to the popular
Renaissance Art Response The word renaissance means a complete change in modes of art, literature, music, and architecture, as well as an altered sense of morality and ethicality during a given period of time. This change stems from an expansion of thought and with that a new sense of what matters in the world. Every type of art developed and changed throughout the Renaissance period, including literature, music, and visual arts,
Renaissance Art Patrons and Their Effect on History The great works of art that hang on the walls of some of the great museums of the world are not there because the artist wished for the world to behold their particular brilliance. It is true that greats such as Michelangelo and da Vinci were brilliant in their own right, but they would not have been able to produce as they did
Art As Baxandall points out, "a fifteenth century painting is a product of a social relationship," (p. 1). That social relationship was carefully forged and affected by a confluence of interests including those that are commercial, cultural, religious, and perceptual or aesthetic in nature. The relationship between client and artist was one constrained by social convention, legal tradition, and also the expedience of broader interests. Money has played a long-underestimated role
Art Cimabue's late Byzantine painting Madonna and Child Enthroned is on the surface and in many respects similar to Giotto's early Renaissance painting Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints. In fact, only a generation or two separated these two painters. Cimabue painted his Maesta from 1280 and finished in 1285, whereas Giotto worked between 1305 and 1310 on the Ognissanti Madonna. Within this 40-year time span, great changes were taking place
Renaissance Art The objective of this study is to trace the compositional, stylistic and symbolic development of the story of the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci and what makes Leonardo's work unique. Earlier examples will be cited including those of Andrea del Castagno or Domenico Ghirlandaio. The three sources will be annotated with a 10-sentence paragraph reviewing the source. Each annotation will include full sentences in essay format that detail
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now