Italian artist, one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, deeply admired for his tranquil Madonnas. Raphael’s whole view of nature was ideally beautiful and peaceful. His father, Giovanni, was a painter at the famous court of Federico of Montefeltro, instructing Raphael on his first fundamentals of art. He studied and painted in Umbria under the tutelage of Perugino from 1499-1504 when he moved to Florence. While in Florence, Raphael made the transition from the typical style of the Umbrian school to a more animated, informal manner of painting.
During his Florentine period, 1504-1508, he produced the famous Madonna’s, including “Marriage of the Virgin” and “La Belle Jardiniere.” In 1508 he was called to Rome by Pope Julius II and commissioned to execute four frescoes at the Vatican, at the same time that Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. He only accomplished two of the four rooms himself, providing the designs for the third and fourth rooms, due to his new assignment as chief architect of St. Peter’s Basilica in 1514. In 1512, he painted his greatest altarpiece “Sistine Madonna,” followed by ten tapestries for the Sistine chapel. He was appointed the director of all excavations of antiquities in and near Rome and he also devised the architecture and decorations of the Chigi Chapel and the decorations of the Villa Farnesina. Among his many superb portraits are “Julius II,” painted 1511-1512, and “Baldassare Castiglione” in 1516. His last major painting was the “Transfiguration” completed posthumously by Giolio Ramano, the most notable of his followers.
Raphael was known as a beautiful youth. Homosexual, he lived with two young students in Rome, to whom he left all of his money. Rome was his home for the last 12 years of his life.
He died on 4/06/1520 OS, Rome, at the age of 37.
Link to Wikipedia biography