This is said to have incensed Michelangelo who would later accuse Raphael of plagiarism, spreading rumors that Raphael had stolen into the Sistine Chapel to have a sneak preview of Michelangelo's work. The source of the animosity was however probably no more than that of competition between two extremely talented professionals vying for the favor of the same client. This fresco, also in the Stanza della Segnatura, is on the wall opposite the fresco showing The Disputation of the Holy Sacrament.
Although called The School of Athens , the title refers to philosophers from the classical world rather than any particular school of philosophy. The gestures of the philosophers depicted in the fresco have been subject to considerable academic interpretation and debate, however it is not clear how much of their philosophy Raphael would have been familiar with.
What is important is the way in which Raphael has gathered all the most famous of the classical philosophers within a marvellous Renaissance building, the architecture of which points to Bramante's designs for the new St Peter's Basilica. Many of the philosophers are recognizable through their iconography, which would have been widely understood at the time and are drawn from busts recovered from archaeological excavations.
We see Plato said to be a portrait of Leonardo painted in homage and Aristotle in the center carrying their well-known works Timeus and Ethics respectively. Also identifiable are Pythagoras in the foreground, Euclid on the right, Zoroaster holding the heavenly sphere, Ptolemy holding the earthly sphere, and Diogenes on the stairs holding a dish. The scholar leaning over Pythagoras is said to be that of the Arab philosopher Averroes who is credited with bringing the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle to the West.
Legend has it that Raphael poked an artistic dig at his great rival Michelangelo by painting his portrait as the face of the Philosopher Heraclitus, leaning against a block of marble. Heraclitus is often called the weeping philosopher due to the sad nature of his philosophical doctrine, which falls in line with Michelangelo's reputation as a big baby. Also included in the painting is a self-portrait of Raphael wearing a black beret on the right corner of the fresco standing next to fellow-artist and friend Il Sodoma who was one of the artists whose work Raphael was ordered to paint over.
The fresco utilizes many techniques of the Renaissance artists, including the way it invites viewers to enter the space as if they are fully engulfed in the scene in an almost theatrical way.
The perspective leads us into the throng of its occupants as if we, too, were engaged in the debate or contemplation. The light from the window in the background of the piece fills the scene, enhancing its three-dimensional solidity. The high vaulted ceiling with a view of the sky gives the feeling that we are entering into the realm of super human thought and activity and increases the sense of awe of being in the company of men so instrumental in shaping our understanding of the world.
The coloring is muted to allow no one point of focus. Instead, we see the whole composition as being a world, which exists in a plane of time beyond that which we call our own demonstrating Raphael's great skill in his use of color. The narrative aspects of the four frescos are perfectly arranged to engage in dialogue with each other and conducive to the intended use of the room as a library. The School of Athens received both critical and popular attention immediately upon completion and was instrumental in elevating Raphael's public acclaim.
This vindicated Pope Julius II's decision to award him the commission, and also laid the foundation for his trust in Raphael in conferring on him the artistic responsibilities that followed. The painting shows the Madonna and child in the centre with St. Sixtus and St. Barbara kneeling on either side of them. Barbara was included in the painting as her relics were worshiped in the church. Sixtus intercedes on the viewer's behalf, which is indicated by the right hand pointing down to us as he gazes up towards the Madonna.
The two cherubs at the bottom of the painting look up at them without the reverence of the saints, or the solemnity of the Virgin, or the innocence of the baby Jesus. On the bottom left of the painting is the papal crown of Pope Sixtus.
Sixtus who built the Sistine Chapel, and after whom the chapel is named. The painting continues Raphael's incorporation of Renaissance elements with his own style in this devotional work. He used a pyramidal compositional structure that was common at the time. The curtains, which appear to be drawn back to reveal the heavenly scene, help create a harmony between the painting and the altar for which it was created.
The illusionary space in which the heavenly figures are placed enhances the celestial significance of the invocation of the blessings, meant to arouse awe when viewed by a congregation below. Raphael's masterly use of color enhances the endearing warmth in the expression of benevolence of the Virgin and piety of the saints, and the swirling drapery of St. Sixtus allows the viewer's eye to move around the ethereal stillness of the figures placed on the cushion of clouds. The only earthly contact alluded to in the picture comes from the inclusion of the Pope's crown and the balcony on which the cherubs are resting.
The piece is important for myriad reasons. It was the last of the Madonnas painted by Raphael but also carries an interesting lineage and influence in Germany. After its acquisition by Augustus III, King of Poland, for , francs, the then highest ever price paid for a painting, it was brought to Dresden. After the war, the painting was taken to the Soviet Union, and remained there until when, following the death of Stalin, it was returned to Dresden.
Its influence continues to this day. The cherubs, too, have garnered a special place in contemporary visual imagery. It is fitting to close with Giorgio Vasari who said of the Sistine Madonna, it is "a truly rare and extraordinary work. This fresco depicts the story of Galatea, daughter of the sea god Nereus, who had fallen in love with Acis, a shepherd. The story goes that Polyphemus, the Cyclops and son of Poseidon, loved Galatea, and when he caught her and her beloved Acis in embrace, he killed him in a jealous rage.
In the center, we see Galatea riding the seas on a conch-shell chariot drawn by two dolphins, trying to flee. Mythical sea creatures, nymps, and flying putti surround the heroine in this dramatic escape. Most Raphael drawings are rather precise—even initial sketches with naked outline figures are carefully drawn, and later working drawings often have a high degree of finish, with shading and sometimes highlights in white.
They lack the freedom and energy of some of Leonardo's and Michelangelo's sketches, but are nearly always aesthetically very satisfying.
He was one of the last artists to use metalpoint literally a sharp pointed piece of sliver or another metal extensively, although he also made superb use of the freer medium of red or black chalk. In his final years he was one of the first artists to use female models for preparatory drawings—male pupils "garzoni" were normally used for studies of both sexes.
Raphael made no prints himself, but entered into a collaboration with Marcantonio Raimondi to produce engravings to Raphael's designs, which created many of the most famous Italian prints of the century, and was important in the rise of the reproductive print. His interest was unusual in such a major artist; from his contemporaries only Titian, who had worked much less successfully with Raimondi, shared it.
A total of about fifty prints were made; some were copies of Raphael's paintings, but other designs were apparently created by Raphael purely to be turned into prints. Raphael made preparatory drawings, many of which survive, for Raimondi to translate into engraving. The most famous original prints to result from the collaboration were Lucretia, the Judgement of Paris and The Massacre of the Innocents of which two virtually identical versions were engraved ; prints of the paintings The Parnassus with considerable differences and Galatea were also especially well-known.
Outside Italy, reproductive prints by Raimondi and others were the main way that Raphael's art was experienced until the twentieth century. Baviero Carocci, called "Il Baviera" by Vasari, an assistant or servant who Raphael evidently trusted with his money, ended up in control of most of the copper plates after Raphael's death, and had a successful career in the new occupation of a publisher of prints.
Raphael lived in the Borgo, in rather grand style in a palace designed by Bramante. He never married, but in became engaged to Maria Bibbiena, Cardinal Medici Bibbiena's niece; he seems to have been talked into this by his friend the Cardinal, and his lack of enthusiasm seems to be shown by the marriage not taking place before she died in He is said to have had many affairs, but a permanent fixture in his life in Rome was La Fornarina, Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker fornaro named Francesco Luti from Siena who lived at Via del Governo Vecchio.
He was made a "Groom of the Chamber" of the Pope, which gave him status at court and an additional income. Vasari claims he had toyed with the ambition of becoming a Cardinal, perhaps after some encouragement from Leo, which also may account for his delaying his marriage.
According to Vasari, Raphael's premature death on Good Friday April 6, possibly his 37th birthday , was caused by a night of excessive sex with her, after which he fell into a fever and, not telling his doctors that this was its cause, was given the wrong cure, which killed him.
Whatever the cause, in his acute illness, which lasted fifteen days, Raphael was composed enough to receive the last rites, and to put his affairs in order. He dictated his will, in which he left sufficient funds for his mistress's care, entrusted to his loyal servant Baviera, and left most of his studio contents to Giulio Romano and Penni.
At his request, Raphael was buried in the Pantheon. Vasari, in his biography of Raphael, says that Raphael was also born on a Good Friday, which in fell on March This would mean that while Raphael was born and died on Good Friday, he was actually older than 37 on the Good Friday which fell on April 6. His funeral was extremely grand, attended by large crowds. The inscription in his marble sarcophagus, an elegiac distich written by Pietro Bembo, reads: "Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori.
Raphael was highly admired by his contemporaries, although his influence on artistic style in his own century was less than that of Michelangelo.
He was soon seen as the ideal model by those disliking the excesses of Mannerism: the opinion Those, like Dolce and Aretino, who held this view were usually the survivors of Renaissance Humanism, unable to follow Michelangelo as he moved on into Mannerism. Vasari himself, despite his hero remaining Michelangelo, came to see his influence as harmful in some ways, and added passages to the second edition of the Lives expressing similar views. Raphael's compositions were always admired and studied, and became the cornerstone of the training of the Academies of art.
His period of greatest influence was from the late 17th to late 19th centuries, when his perfect decorum and balance were greatly admired. He was seen as the best model for the history painting, regarded as the highest in the hierarchy of genres. Sir Joshua Reynolds in his Discourses praised his "simple, grave, and majestic dignity" and said he "stands in general foremost of the first [ie best] painters", especially for his frescoes in which he included the "Raphael Cartoons" , whereas "Michael Angelo claims the next attention.
He did not possess so many excellences as Raffaelle, but those he had were of the highest kind Nobody excelled him in that judgment, with which he united to his own observations on nature the energy of Michael Angelo, and the beauty and simplicity of the antique. To the question, therefore, which ought to hold the first rank, Raffaelle or Michael Angelo, it must be answered, that if it is to be given to him who possessed a greater combination of the higher qualities of the art than any other man, there is no doubt but Raffaelle is the first.
But if, according to Longinus, the sublime, being the highest excellence that human composition can attain to, abundantly compensates the absence of every other beauty, and atones for all other deficiencies, then Michael Angelo demands the preference. Reynolds was less enthusiastic about Raphael's panel paintings, but the slight sentimentality of these made them enormously popular in the 19th century:"We have been familiar with them from childhood onwards, through a far greater mass of reproductions than any other artist in the world has ever had In 19th century England the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood explicitly reacted against his influence and that of his admirers such as "Sir Sploshua" , seeking to return to styles before what they saw as his baneful influence.
According to John Ruskin:. The doom of the arts of Europe went forth from that chamber [the Stanza della Segnatura], and it was brought about in great part by the very excellencies of the man who had thus marked the commencement of decline.
The perfection of execution and the beauty of feature which were attained in his works, and in those of his great contemporaries, rendered finish of execution and beauty of form the chief objects of all artists; and thenceforward execution was looked for rather than thought, and beauty rather than veracity.
And as I told you, these are the two secondary causes of the decline of art; the first being the loss of moral purpose. Pray note them clearly. He was still seen by 20th century critics like Bernard Berenson as the "most famous and most loved" master of the High Renaissance, but it would seem he has since been overtaken by Michelangelo and Leonardo in this respect. From wikipedia. Report error on this page.
By the age of twenty-one, Raphael had moved to Florence, where he embraced the works of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. In Florence, his many paintings of the Madonna and Child display his characteristic human warmth, serenity, and sublimely perfect figures. Raphael's art epitomized the High Renaissance qualities of harmony and ideal beauty. As painter to the papal court, his work met with high praise, and he established himself as the most favored artist in Rome. In , when Raphael was just 11 years old, Giovanni died.
As a teen, he was even commissioned to paint for the Church of San Nicola in the neighboring town of Castello. In , a master painter named Pietro Vannunci, otherwise known as Perugino, invited Raphael to become his apprentice in Perugia, in the Umbria region of central Italy.
In Perugia, Perugino was working on frescoes at the Collegio del Cambia. The apprenticeship lasted four years and provided Raphael with the opportunity to gain both knowledge and hands-on experience. In , Raphael left his apprenticeship with Perugino and moved to Florence, where he was heavily influenced by the works of the Italian painters Fra Bartolommeo, Leonardo da Vinci , Michelangelo and Masaccio.
To Raphael, these innovative artists had achieved a whole new level of depth in their composition. By closely studying the details of their work, Raphael managed to develop an even more intricate and expressive personal style than was evident in his earlier paintings.
From through , Raphael produced a series of "Madonnas," which extrapolated on da Vinci's works.
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