Date of birth: March 28, 1483
Date of death: April 6, 1520
Place of birth: Urbino, Italy

Rafael (Rafael Santi)(1483-1520) - famous painter of the Renaissance, Rafael Santi- architect.

Raphael was born on March 28, 1483 in Italy in the city of Urbino in the family of the poet and artist Giovanni Santi. The future artist begins learning lessons in painting and creativity from his father.

After the death of his father at the age of 17, Raphael moved to Perugia and entered the studio of the artist P. Perugino. where he continued artistic development. Already during this period, the first works of Raphael appeared, having the general character of religious dreaminess inherent in the Urbian school.

Florentine period

After 2 years, the young man moved to Florence, where such famous Renaissance artists as Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolomeo worked. Florence itself was able to have a strong influence on the development of Raphael's artistic taste. Choosing the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolomeo as a standard to follow.

So in the images of Raphael of the Florentine period we can find the correct rendering emotional movements, and the subtlety of the tints of color that are so characteristic of the work of Leonardo da Vinci, as well as the depth of impression, the ability to arrange groups and reflect reverent degeneration, was taken from the works of Fra Bartolomeo. A natural sense of proportion allowed Raphael to take from other people's creativity only what was close and useful to him.

It was in Florence that Raphael had to study medicine and anatomy, without knowledge of which the artist of that time could not correctly reflect the human body.

The paintings “The Three Graces”, “The Dream of a Knight”, “Christ Blessing”, “St. Catherine of Alexandria” belong to the Florentine period of Raphael’s work.

The time of Raphael's residence in Florence is considered to be the time of the Madonnas. He was the only one at that time to portray Madonna as a young and tender mother. The following were written: “Madonna of the House of Tempi”, “Madonna of the House of Colonna”, “Madonna del Baldachino”, “Madonna of the Goldfinch”, “Madonna of the Greens”, “Madonna of Granduca”. The Duke of Tuscany liked the latter so much that having acquired it, he never parted with it.

Roman period

The images of the Madonna made Raphael so famous that as a result, the Pope himself invited Raphael to Rome to participate with other artists in painting the state rooms of the Vatican Palace. But Pope Julius II, appreciating Raphael’s frescoes, expelled other artists, entrusting Raphael alone to paint all the halls.

Unusual tasks placed in front of Raphael, the proximity of his idol Michelangelo, who began decorating with frescoes at this time Sistine Chapel, gave rise to a competitive spirit in Raphael, and classical architecture, most revealed at that time in Rome, gave his works a divine reflection and clarity for artistic idea.

In the Stanza della Segnatura, in 3 rooms, Raphael painted a fresco on the entire volume of each wall, but moved away from the images of saints, depicting scenes from ancient culture: The frescoes were painted: “Theology”, “Poetry”, “Justice” and “The School of Athens” their figures seem to float on the ceiling and become the center for the images on the walls.

Below the figure of Theology is the Dispute about the Holy Eucharist, this dispute takes place both in heaven (Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, apostles, prophets, martyrs are depicted) and on earth (the church fathers and growing believers are gathered around the altar) and in the middle there are mediators - the 4 Gospels brought by angels.

On the fresco “Poetry”, existing and ancient poets were placed under its personification “Parnassus”. On the fresco “Justice” above the window there are figures of strength, moderation and prudence, and on the sides the Emperor and the Pope, as the personification of justice. In The School of Athens, Raphael depicted the Greek philosophers Socrates and Heraclitus among their students, especially highlighting the images of the realist Aristotle and the idealist Plato looking into the sky.

At the same time, the artist created portraits of his contemporaries: Popes Julius II and Leo X, which were painted in such a lively manner that contemporaries were afraid to look at them. He also did not leave the image of Madonnas; this period includes: “Madonna with a Veil”, “Madonna of the House of Alba”, and the most famous “ Sistine Madonna" Raphael, while restoring the paintings of ancient temples in which he participated in excavations, introduced some motifs into his paintings.

Since 1515, Raphael was constantly at work, the Pope appointed Raphael as his chamberlain and knight of the golden spur. Raphael made friends with many representatives of high Roman society and a crowd of students always gathered around him, hanging on every word.

Raphael would have been versatile in his creativity: according to his plans, several churches, villas, and palaces were erected. He made sketches for sculptors and even sculpted himself: for example, Raphael’s hand belongs to the marble statue of a child on a dolphin, currently in the Hermitage.

After Michelangelo's death, Raphael used his extensive knowledge and continued the work begun by Michelangelo on St. Peter's Basilica.

Despite the instructions of Pope Leo X, Raphael did not change the project chosen by Michelangelo and drafted 2 colonnades around the cathedral, in which he wanted to reflect all the monumentality ancient Rome, but did not have time due to death. His work was completed later by the architect L. Bernini.

Raphael was the founder of portraiture for the next few centuries, because... For him, the person himself was important, as something unusual, which he tried to emphasize. The artist knew how to reflect both the greed of popes and the extraordinary beauty of madonnas.

April 6, 1520 Raphael dies at the age of 37 from consumption, common in those days, without completing St. Peter's Cathedral.

Achievements of Rafael Santi:

1225 – the number of works created by Raphael.
From under his brush came such works as “The Sistine Madonna”, “Carrying the Cross”, “The Triumph of Galatea”, “The Three Graces”.
He was engaged in decorating the Vatican with frescoes in the style of ancient culture: “Theology”, “Philosophy”, “Jurisprudence” and “Poetry”.

Dates from the biography of Rafael Santi:

March 28, 1483 born in Italy
1494 learning painting from the Umbrian artist P. Perugino
1504 the beginning of the Florentine period in creativity, studying with Fra Bartolomeo and Leonardo da Vinci.
1508 was called to Rome to decorate several halls of the Vatican.
1514 appointed chief overseer of the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral.
On April 6, 1520 he died without finishing the construction.

Interesting facts about Rafael Santi:

Thanks to Raphael's peaceful nature, there was always no room for quarrels and squabbles around him.
Skillfully combining generalization with specific realism, his images of divine babies are always allegorical.
He is the author of sketches called “Raphael's Bible”, sketches written on subjects of the Old and New Testaments and which were to decorate the Vatican loggias.

The idea of ​​the brightest and most sublime ideals of Renaissance humanism was most fully embodied in his work by Raphael Santi (1483–1520). A younger contemporary of Leonardo, who lived a short, extremely rich life, Raphael synthesized the achievements of his predecessors and created his own ideal of beauty, harmoniously developed person surrounded by majestic architecture or landscape. Raphael was born in Urbino, in the family of a painter, who was his first teacher. Later he studied with Timoteo della Viti and Perugino, mastering the latter's style to perfection. From Perugino, Raphael adopted that smoothness of lines, that freedom of positioning a figure in space, which became characteristic of his mature compositions. As a seventeen-year-old boy, he reveals true creative maturity, creating a series of images full of harmony and spiritual clarity.

Tender lyricism and subtle spirituality distinguish one of his early works - “Madonna Conestabile” (1502, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), an enlightened image of a young mother depicted against the backdrop of a transparent Umbrian landscape. The ability to freely arrange figures in space, to connect them with each other and with the environment is also manifested in the composition “The Betrothal of Mary” (1504, Milan, Brera Gallery). The spaciousness in the construction of the landscape, the harmony of architectural forms, the balance and integrity of all parts of the composition testify to the development of Raphael as a master High Renaissance.

Upon his arrival in Florence, Raphael easily absorbed the most important achievements of the artists of the Florentine school with its pronounced plastic beginning and wide scope of reality. The content of his art remains lyrical theme light mother's love, to which he attaches special significance. She receives more mature expression in such works as “Madonna in the Greens” (1505, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), “Madonna with the Goldfinch” (Florence, Uffizi), “The Beautiful Gardener” (1507, Paris, Louvre). Essentially, they all vary the same type of composition, composed of the figures of Mary, the infant Christ and the Baptist, forming pyramidal groups against the backdrop of a beautiful rural landscape in the spirit of compositional techniques found earlier by Leonardo. Naturalness of movements, soft plasticity of forms, smoothness of melodious lines, beauty ideal type Madonnas, clarity and purity of landscape backgrounds help to reveal the sublime poetry of the figurative structure of these compositions.

In 1508, Raphael was invited to work in Rome, at the court of Pope Julius II, a powerful, ambitious and energetic man who sought to increase the artistic treasures of his capital and attract to his service the most talented cultural figures of that time. At the beginning of the 16th century, Rome inspired hopes for the national unification of the country. The ideals of a national order created the ground for creative growth, for the embodiment of advanced aspirations in art. Here, in close proximity to the heritage of antiquity, Raphael's talent blossoms and matures, acquiring a new scope and features of calm greatness.

Raphael receives an order to paint the state rooms (the so-called stanzas) of the Vatican Palace. This work, which continued intermittently from 1509 to 1517, promoted Raphael to be one of the greatest masters of Italian monumental art, who confidently solved the problem of synthesis of Renaissance architecture and painting. Raphael's gift as a monumentalist and decorator was revealed in all its splendor when painting the Stanzi della Segnatura (printing room). On long walls This room, covered with sail vaults, contains the compositions “Disputation” and “School of Athens”, on the narrow ones - “Parnassus” and “Wisdom, Temperance and Strength”, personifying the four areas of human spiritual activity: theology, philosophy, poetry and jurisprudence. The vault, divided into four parts, is decorated with allegorical figures that form a single decorative system with wall paintings. Thus, the entire space of the room was filled with painting.

Combining images of the Christian religion and pagan mythology testified to the spread among humanists of that time of the ideas of reconciliation of the Christian religion with ancient culture and the unconditional victory of the secular principle over the church. Even in the “Disputation” (a dispute between the church fathers about communion), dedicated to the depiction of church figures, among the participants in the dispute, one can recognize the poets and artists of Italy - Dante, Fra Beato Angelico and other painters and writers. The triumph of humanistic ideas in Renaissance art and its connection with antiquity is evidenced by the composition “The School of Athens,” glorifying the mind of beauty and strong man, ancient science and philosophy. The painting is perceived as the embodiment of a dream about a bright future. From the depths of the enfilade of grandiose arched spans emerges a group of ancient thinkers, in the center of which is the majestic gray-bearded Plato and the confident, inspired Aristotle, with a hand gesture pointing to the ground, the founders of idealistic and materialistic philosophy. Below, on the left by the stairs, Pythagoras was bending over a book, surrounded by students, on the right was Euclid, and here, at the very edge, Raphael depicted himself next to the painter Sodoma. This is a young man with a gentle, attractive face. All the characters in the fresco are united by a mood of high spiritual uplift and deep thought. They form groups that are indissoluble in their integrity and harmony, where each character precisely takes its place and where the architecture itself, in its strict regularity and majesty, helps to recreate the atmosphere of a high rise of creative thought.

The fresco “The Expulsion of Eliodorus” in the Stanza d'Heliodoro stands out with intense drama. The suddenness of the miracle taking place - the expulsion of the temple robber by a heavenly horseman - is conveyed by the rapid diagonal of the main movement, the use of light effect. Among the spectators looking at the expulsion of Eliodorus, Pope Julius II is depicted. This is an allusion to Contemporary events for Raphael - the expulsion of French troops from the Papal States.

The Roman period of Raphael's work was marked by high achievements in the field of portraiture. The full-life characters of the “Mass in Bolsena” (frescoes in Stanza d'Eliodoro) acquire sharp portrait features. Raphael also turned to the portrait genre in easel painting, showing here its originality, revealing the most characteristic and significant in the model. He painted portraits of Pope Julius II (1511, Florence, Uffizi), Pope Leo X with Cardinal Ludovico dei Rossi and Giulio dei Medici (circa 1518, ibid.) and other portrait paintings. The image of the Madonna continues to occupy an important place in his art, acquiring features of great grandeur, monumentality, confidence, and strength. Such is the “Madonna della sedia” (“Madonna in the Armchair”, 1516, Florence, Pitti Gallery) with its harmonious, closed-in-a-circle composition.

At the same time, Raphael created his greatest creation, “The Sistine Madonna” (1515–1519, Dresden, Art Gallery), intended for the Church of St. Sixta in Piacenza. Unlike the earlier, lighter in mood, lyrical Madonnas, this is a majestic image, full of deep meaning. The curtains pulled apart from above to the sides reveal Mary easily walking through the clouds with a baby in her arms. Her gaze allows you to look into the world of her experiences. Seriously and sadly and anxiously, she looks somewhere into the distance, as if foreseeing the tragic fate of her son. To the left of the Madonna is Pope Sixtus, enthusiastically contemplating the miracle, to the right is Saint Barbara, reverently lowering her gaze. Below are two angels, looking up and as if returning us to the main image - the Madonna and her childishly thoughtful baby. Impeccable harmony and dynamic balance of the composition, the subtle rhythm of smooth linear outlines, naturalness and freedom of movement make up the irresistible power of this whole, beautiful image. The truth of life and the features of the ideal are combined with the spiritual purity of the complex tragic nature Sistine Madonna. Some researchers found its prototype in the features of “The Veiled Lady” (circa 1513, Florence, Pitti Gallery), but Raphael himself, in a letter to his friend Castiglione, wrote that it was based creative method lies the principle of selection and generalization of life observations: “In order to paint a beauty, I need to see many beauties, but due to the lack... beautiful women I use some idea that comes to my mind.” Thus, in reality, the artist finds features that correspond to his ideal, which rises above the random and transitory.

Raphael died at the age of thirty-seven, leaving unfinished the paintings of the Villa Farnesina, the Vatican loggias and a number of other works completed from cardboards and drawings by his students. Raphael's free, graceful, relaxed drawings put their creator among the world's largest draftsmen. His work in the field of architecture and applied arts testify to him as a multi-talented figure of the High Renaissance, who gained great fame among his contemporaries. The very name of Raphael later turned into common noun the ideal artist.

Numerous Italian students and followers of Raphael raised the teacher’s creative method to an indisputable dogma, which contributed to the spread of imitation in Italian art and foreshadowed the emerging crisis of humanism.

Raphael (actually Raffaello Santi or Sanzio, Raffaello Santi, Sanzio) (March 26 or 28, 1483, Urbino - April 6, 1520, Rome), Italian painter and architect.

Raphael, the son of the painter Giovanni Santi, spent his early years in Urbino. In 1500-1504, Raphael, according to Vasari, studied with the artist Perugino in Perugia.

From 1504, Raphael worked in Florence, where he became acquainted with the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolommeo, and studied anatomy and scientific perspective.
Moving to Florence played a huge role in Raphael's creative development. Of primary importance for the artist was familiarity with the method of the great Leonardo da Vinci.

Following Leonardo, Raphael begins to work a lot from life, studying anatomy, mechanics of movements, complex poses and angles, looking for compact, rhythmically balanced compositional formulas.
The numerous images of Madonnas he created in Florence brought the young artist all-Italian fame.
Raphael received an invitation from Pope Julius II to Rome, where he was able to become more familiar with ancient monuments and took part in archaeological excavations. Having moved to Rome, the 26-year-old master received the position of “artist of the Apostolic See” and the assignment to paint the state rooms of the Vatican Palace, from 1514 he directed the construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral, worked in the field of church and palace architecture, in 1515 he was appointed Commissioner of Antiquities, responsible for the study and protection of ancient monuments, archaeological excavations. Fulfilling the pope's order, Raphael created murals in the halls of the Vatican, glorifying the ideals of freedom and earthly happiness of man, the limitlessness of his physical and spiritual capabilities.

The painting “Madonna Conestabile” by Rafael Santi was created by the artist at the age of twenty.

In this painting, the young artist Raphael created his first remarkable embodiment of the image of the Madonna, which occupied an extremely important place in his art. The image of a young beautiful mother, generally so popular in Renaissance art, is especially close to Raphael, whose talent had a lot of softness and lyricism.

Unlike the masters of the 15th century, new qualities emerged in the paintings of the young artist Raphael Santi, when a harmonious compositional structure does not constrain the images, but, on the contrary, is perceived as a necessary condition for the feeling of naturalness and freedom that they generate.

Holy family 1507-1508. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Painting by artist Raphael Santi “The Holy Family” by Canigiani.

The customer of the work is Domenico Canigianini from Florence. In the painting “The Holy Family”, the great Renaissance painter Raphael Santi depicted the Holy Family in the classical vein of biblical history - the Virgin Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus Christ along with St. Elizabeth and the baby John the Baptist.

However, only in Rome did Raphael overcome the dryness and some stiffness of his early portraits. It was in Rome that Raphael's brilliant talent as a portrait painter reached maturity.

In Raphael's "Madonnas" of the Roman period, his idyllic mood early works is replaced by the recreation of deeper human, maternal feelings, as Mary, full of dignity and spiritual purity, appears as the intercessor of humanity in the very famous work Raphael - “Sistine Madonna”.

The painting “The Sistine Madonna” by Raphael Santi was originally created by the great painter as an altar image for the church of San Sisto (St. Sixtus) in Piacenza.

In the painting, the artist depicts the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, Pope Sixtus II and Saint Barbara. The painting “The Sistine Madonna” is one of the most famous works of world art.

How was the image of the Madonna created? Was there for him real prototype? In this regard, a number of ancient legends are associated with the Dresden painting. Researchers find similarities in the Madonna's facial features with the model of one of Raphael's female portraits - the so-called “Lady in the Veil”. But in resolving this issue, first of all, one should take into account the famous statement of Raphael himself from a letter to his friend Baldassare Castiglione that in creating the image of a perfect female beauty he is guided by a certain idea, which arises on the basis of many impressions from the beauties the artist saw in life. In other words, the basis of the creative method of the painter Raphael Santi is the selection and synthesis of observations of reality.

In the last years of his life, Raphael was so overloaded with orders that he entrusted the execution of many of them to his students and assistants (Giulio Romano, Giovanni da Udine, Perino del Vaga, Francesco Penni and others), usually limiting himself to general supervision of the works.

Raphael had a huge influence on the subsequent development of Italian and European painting, becoming, along with the masters of antiquity, the highest example of artistic perfection. The art of Raphael, which had a huge influence on European painting The 16th-19th and, partly, 20th centuries, for centuries, retained the meaning of indisputable artistic authority and example for artists and viewers.

In the last years of his creative work, based on the artist’s drawings, his students created huge cardboards on biblical themes with episodes from the life of the apostles. Based on these cardboards, Brussels masters were supposed to create monumental tapestries that were intended to decorate the Sistine Chapel in holidays.

Paintings by Rafael Santi

The painting “Angel” by Raphael Santi was created by the artist at the age of 17-18 at the very beginning of the 16th century.

This magnificent early work by the young artist is part or fragment of the Baroncha altarpiece, damaged by the 1789 earthquake. The altarpiece “Coronation of Blessed Nicholas of Tolentino, conqueror of Satan” was commissioned by Andrea Baronci for his home chapel in the church of San Agostinho in Citta de Castello. In addition to the fragment of the painting “Angel”, three more parts of the altar have been preserved: “The Most High Creator” and “ Holy Virgin Mary” in the Capodimonte Museum (Naples) and another fragment “Angel” in the Louvre (Paris).

The painting “Madonna Granduca” was painted by the artist Rafael Santi after moving to Florence.

The numerous images of Madonnas created by the young artist in Florence (“Madonna of Granduca”, “Madonna of the Goldfinch”, “Madonna of the Greens”, “Madonna with the Child Christ and John the Baptist” or “The Beautiful Gardener” and others) brought Raphael Santi all-Italian fame.

The painting “The Dream of a Knight” was painted by the artist Rafael Santi in the early years of his work.

The painting is from Borghese’s legacy, probably paired with another work by the artist, “The Three Graces.” These paintings - "The Dream of a Knight" and "The Three Graces" - are almost miniature in composition size.

The theme of “The Knight’s Dream” is a unique refraction of the ancient myth of Hercules at the crossroads between the allegorical embodiments of Valor and Pleasure. Near the young knight, depicted sleeping against the backdrop of a beautiful landscape, stand two young women. One of them, in formal attire, offers him a sword and a book, the other a branch with flowers.

In the painting “The Three Graces” the very compositional motif of three naked female figures is apparently borrowed from an antique cameo. And although there is still a lot of uncertainty in these works of the artist (“The Three Graces” and “The Dream of a Knight”), they attract with their naive charm and poetic purity. Already here some features inherent in Raphael’s talent were revealed - the poetry of images, a sense of rhythm and the soft melodiousness of lines.

Battle of St. George with the Dragon 1504-1505. Louvre Museum, Paris.

The painting “The Battle of St. George with the Dragon” by Raphael Santi was painted by the artist in Florence, after he left Perugia.

“The Battle of St. George with the Dragon” is based on a biblical story popular in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The altarpiece “Madonna of Ansidei” by Raphael Santi was painted by the artist in Florence; the young painter was not yet 25 years old.

Unicorn, a mythical animal with the body of a bull, horse or goat and one long straight horn on its forehead.

The unicorn is a symbol of purity and virginity. According to legend, only an innocent girl can tame the ferocious unicorn. The painting “Lady with a Unicorn” was painted by Raphael Santi based on a painting popular during the Renaissance and mannerism mythological plot, which many artists used in their paintings.

The painting “Lady with a Unicorn” was badly damaged in the past, but has now been partially restored.

Painting by Raphael Santi “Madonna in Greenery” or “Mary and Child and John the Baptist”.

In Florence, Raphael created the Madonna cycle, indicating the onset of a new stage in his work. Belonging to the most famous of them, “Madonna of the Greens” (Vienna, Museum), “Madonna with the Goldfinch” (Uffizi) and “Madonna of the Gardener” (Louvre) represent a kind of variants of a common motif - the image of a young beautiful mother with the child Christ and little John the Baptist against the backdrop of a landscape. These are also variations of one theme - the theme of maternal love, bright and serene.

Altarpiece painting "Madonna di Foligno" by Raphael Santi.

In the 1510s, Raphael worked a lot in the field of altar composition. A number of his works of this kind, including the Madonna di Foligno, lead us to the greatest creation of his easel painting - the Sistine Madonna. This painting was created in 1515-1519 for the Church of St. Sixtus in Piacenza and is now in the Dresden Art Gallery.

The painting "Madonna di Foligno" in its compositional structure is similar to the famous "Sistine Madonna", with the only difference that in the painting "Madonna di Foligno" there is more characters and the image of the Madonna is distinguished by a peculiar internal isolation - her gaze is occupied with her child - the infant Christ.

The painting “Madonna del Impannata” by Rafael Santi was created by the great painter almost at the same time as the famous “Sistine Madonna”.

In the painting, the artist depicts the Virgin Mary with the children Christ and John the Baptist, Saint Elizabeth and Saint Catherine. The painting “Madonna del Impannata” testifies to the further improvement of the artist’s style, to the complication of images in comparison with the soft lyrical images of his Florentine Madonnas.

The mid-1510s were the time of Raphael's best portrait work.

Castiglione, Count Baldassare (Castiglione; 1478-1526) - Italian diplomat and writer. Born near Mantua, he served at various Italian courts, was the ambassador of the Duke of Urbino in the 1500s for Henry VII of England, and from 1507 in France for King Louis XII. In 1525, already at a fairly advanced age, he was sent by the papal nuncio to Spain.

In this portrait, Raphael showed himself to be an outstanding colorist, able to sense color in its complex shades and tonal transitions. The portrait of the Lady in the Veil differs from the portrait of Baldassare Castiglione in its remarkable coloristic qualities.

Researchers of the artist Raphael Santi and historians of Renaissance painting find models of this in the features portrait of a woman Raphael's resemblance to the face of the Virgin Mary in his famous painting "The Sistine Madonna".

Joan of Aragon 1518 Louvre Museum, Paris.

The customer of the painting was Cardinal Bibbiena, writer and secretary to Pope Leo X; the painting was intended as a gift to the French king Francis I. The portrait was only begun by the artist, and it is not known for certain which of his students (Giulio Romano, Francesco Penni or Perino del Vaga) completed it.

Joanna of Aragon (? -1577) - daughter of the Neapolitan king Federigo (later deposed), wife of Ascanio, Prince Taliacosso, famous for her beauty.

The extraordinary beauty of Joan of Aragon was glorified by contemporary poets in a number of poetic dedications, the collection of which comprised an entire volume, published in Venice

The artist’s painting depicts a classic version of the biblical chapter from the Revelation of John the Theologian or the Apocalypse.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought against them, but they did not stand, and there was no longer a place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him...”

Frescoes by Raphael

The fresco by artist Raphael Santi “Adam and Eve” also has another name - “The Fall”.

The size of the fresco is 120 x 105 cm. Raphael painted the fresco “Adam and Eve” on the ceiling of the pontiff’s chambers.

The fresco by artist Raphael Santi “The School of Athens” also has another name - “Philosophical Conversations”. The size of the fresco, the length of the base is 770 cm. After moving to Rome in 1508, Raphael was entrusted with painting the pope's apartments - the so-called stanzas (that is, rooms), which include three rooms on the second floor of the Vatican Palace and the adjacent hall. The general ideological program of the fresco cycles in the stanzas, as conceived by the customers, was supposed to serve the glorification of authority catholic church and its head - the Roman high priest.

Along with allegorical and biblical images, individual frescoes depict episodes from the history of the papacy; some compositions include portrait images of Julius II and his successor Leo X.

The customer of the painting “The Triumph of Galatea” is Agostino Chigi, a banker from Siena; The fresco was painted by the artist in the banquet hall of the villa.

Raphael Santi's fresco "The Triumph of Galatea" depicts the beautiful Galatea swiftly moving through the waves on a shell drawn by dolphins, surrounded by newts and naiads.

In one of the first frescoes executed by Raphael, the Dispute, which depicts a conversation about the sacrament of the sacrament, cult motifs were most prominent. The symbol of communion itself - the host (wafer) - is installed on the altar in the center of the composition. The action takes place on two planes - on earth and in heaven. Below, on a stepped dais, the church fathers, popes, prelates, clergy, elders and youths were located on both sides of the altar.

Among other participants here you can recognize Dante, Savonarola, and the pious monk-painter Fra Beato Angelico. Above the entire mass of figures in the lower part of the fresco, like a heavenly vision, the personification of the Trinity appears: God the Father, below him, in a halo of golden rays, is Christ with the Mother of God and John the Baptist, even lower, as if marking the geometric center of the fresco, is a dove in sphere, a symbol of the holy spirit, and on the sides the apostles are seated on floating clouds. And all this huge number of figures, with such a complex compositional design, is distributed with such skill that the fresco leaves an impression of amazing clarity and beauty.

Prophet Isaiah 1511-1512. San Agostinho, Rome.

Raphael's fresco depicts the great biblical prophet of the Old Testament at the time of the revelation of the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah (9th century BC), Hebrew prophet, zealous champion of the religion of Yahweh and denouncer of idolatry. The biblical Book of the Prophet Isaiah bears his name.

One of the four great Old Testament prophets. For Christians, Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah (Immanuel; ch. 7, 9 - “...behold, the Virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son, and they will call his name Immanuel”) is of particular significance. The memory of the prophet is revered in the Orthodox Church on May 9 (May 22), in the Catholic Church on July 6.

Frescoes and latest paintings Raphael

The fresco “The Deliverance of the Apostle Peter from Prison,” which depicts the miraculous release of the Apostle Peter from prison by an angel (an allusion to the release of Pope Leo X from French captivity when he was papal legate), makes a very strong impression.

On the ceiling lamps of the papal apartments - Stanza della Segnatura, Raphael painted the frescoes “The Fall”, “The Victory of Apollo over Marsyas”, “Astronomy” and a fresco on the famous Old Testament story “The Judgment of Solomon”.
It is difficult to find in the history of art any other artistic ensemble that would give the impression of such figurative richness in terms of ideological and visual-decorative design as Raphael’s Vatican stanzas. Walls covered with multi-figure frescoes, vaulted ceilings with rich gilded decor, with fresco and mosaic inserts, floor beautiful pattern- all this could create the impression of overload, if not for the high orderliness inherent in the general plan of Rafael Santi, which brings the necessary clarity and visibility to this complex artistic complex.

Before recent years Throughout his life, Raphael paid great attention to monumental painting. One of the artist’s largest works was the painting of the Villa Farnesina, which belonged to the richest Roman banker Chigi.

In the early 10s of the 16th century, Raphael painted the fresco “The Triumph of Galatea” in the main hall of this villa, which belongs to his the best works.

Myths about Princess Psyche tell about the desire of the human soul to merge with love. For her indescribable beauty, people revered Psyche more than Aphrodite. According to one version, a jealous goddess sent her son, the deity of love Cupid, to arouse in the girl a passion for the ugliest of people, however, when he saw the beauty, the young man lost his head and forgot about his mother’s order. Having become the husband of Psyche, he did not allow her to look at him. She, burning with curiosity, lit a lamp at night and looked at her husband, not noticing a hot drop of oil falling on his skin, and Cupid disappeared. In the end, by the will of Zeus, the lovers united. Apuleius in Metamorphoses retells the myth of the romantic story of Cupid and Psyche; the wanderings of the human soul, eager to meet its love.

The painting depicts Fornarina, the lover of Rafael Santi, whose real name is Margherita Luti. Fornarina's real name was established by researcher Antonio Valeri, who discovered it in a manuscript from a Florentine library and in a list of nuns of a monastery, where the novice was identified as the widow of the artist Raphael.

Fornarina is the legendary lover and model of Raphael, whose real name is Margherita Luti. According to many Renaissance art critics and historians of the artist’s work, Fornarina is depicted in two famous paintings by Rafael Santi - “Fornarina” and “The Veiled Lady.” It is also believed that Fornarina, in all likelihood, served as a model for creating the image of the Virgin Mary in the painting “The Sistine Madonna”, as well as some others female images Raphael.

Transfiguration of Christ 1519-1520. Pinacoteca Vatican, Rome.

The painting was originally created as an altar image cathedral in Narbonne, commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, Bishop of Narbonne. The contradictions of the last years of Raphael’s work were most reflected in the huge altar composition “The Transfiguration of Christ” - it was completed after Raphael’s death by Giulio Romano.

This picture is divided into two parts. The upper part shows the actual transformation - this more harmonious part of the picture was done by Raphael himself. Below are the apostles trying to heal a possessed boy

It was Raphael Santi’s altar painting “The Transfiguration of Christ” that became an indisputable model for academic painters for centuries.
Raphael died in 1520. His premature death was unexpected and made a deep impression on his contemporaries.

Raphael Santi deservedly ranks among the greatest masters of the High Renaissance.

Painting by Rafael Santi

The Renaissance was a time of the highest artistic growth, when many wonderful painters, sculptors, and architects worked in Italy.
The work of Raphael Santi is one of those phenomena of European culture that are not only covered with world fame, but have also acquired special significance - the highest landmarks in the spiritual life of mankind. For five centuries, his art has been perceived as one of the examples of aesthetic perfection.
Raphael's genius was revealed in painting, graphics, and architecture. Raphael's works represent the most complete, vivid expression of the classical line, the classical principle in the art of the High Renaissance. Raphael created a “universal image” of a beautiful person, perfect physically and spiritually, embodying the idea of ​​the harmonious beauty of existence.

Raphael's painting reflected the style, aesthetics and worldview of the era, the era of the High Renaissance. Raphael was born to express the ideals of the Renaissance, the dream of wonderful person and a wonderful world.

Raphael (more precisely, Raffaello Santi) was born on April 6, 1483 in the city of Urbino. He received his first painting lessons from his father, Giovanni Santi. When Raphael was 11 years old, Giovanni Santi died and the boy was left an orphan (he lost the boy 3 years before the death of his father). Apparently, over the next 5-6 years he studied painting with Evangelista di Piandimeleto and Timoteo Viti, minor provincial masters.
The spiritual environment that surrounded Raphael from childhood was extremely beneficial. Raphael's father was the court artist and poet of the Duke of Urbino Federigo da Montefeltro. A master of modest talent, but an educated man, he instilled in his son a love of art.

The first works of Raphael known to us were performed around 1500 - 1502, when he was 17-19 years old. These are miniature-sized compositions “The Three Graces” and “The Knight’s Dream”. 2,3 These simple-minded, still student-timid things are marked by subtle poetry and sincerity of feeling. From the very first steps of his creativity, Raphael’s talent is revealed in all its originality, his own artistic theme is outlined

In 1502, the first Raphael Madonna appears - “Madonna Solly” 4

Gradually, Raphael developed his own style and created his first masterpieces - “The Betrothal of the Virgin Mary to Joseph” (1504), “The Coronation of Mary” (circa 1504) for the Oddi altar. 5,6

In addition to large altar paintings, he paints small paintings: “Madonna Conestabile” (1502-1504), “St. George Slaying the Dragon” (circa 1504-1505) and portraits - “Portrait of Pietro Bembo” (1504-1506) 7,8,9 . The theme of the Madonna is especially close to Raphael’s lyrical talent, and it is no coincidence that it will become one of the main ones in his art. Compositions depicting the Madonna and Child brought Raphael wide fame and popularity. The fragile, meek, dreamy Madonnas of the Umbrian period were replaced by more earthly, full-blooded images, their inner world became more complex, rich in emotional shades. Raphael created new type the image of the Madonna and Child - monumental, strict and lyrical at the same time, gave this topic unprecedented significance.

Florence

At the end of 1504 he moved to Florence. Here he meets Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bartolomeo della Porta and many other Florentine masters. Carefully studies the painting techniques of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. A drawing by Raphael from the lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci “Leda and the Swan” and a drawing from “St. Matthew" Michelangelo. “...the techniques that he saw in the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo forced him to work even harder in order to extract from them unprecedented benefits for his art and his manner.” 10

“Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn” (1505-1506, Rome, Galleria Borghese) was listed in the 18th century museum catalog as “Saint Catherine”;

in fact: the woman’s hands were folded differently, a cloak covered her shoulders, and there was a broken wheel and a palm branch - emblems of the saint’s martyrdom. During the restoration in 1935, X-rays revealed that these elements had been attributed by another hand, and when the top layer was removed, the painting appeared in its original, mundane form. " Holy Family with a Lamb" (Madrid, Prado), with the date - 1507, - an almost complete embodiment of Leonardo's studies, and, finally, "The Holy Family" (now in the Old Pinacoteca of Monaco), executed in 1507-1508 for Domenico Canigiani, son-in-law of Lorenzo Nasi . 11,12

Like the unicorn and necklace in the previous painting, the decoration in the Portrait of Maddalena Doni (1506, Florence) symbolizes chastity. characteristic image persons In “Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn” (Rome, Galleria Borghese), “Portraits of the Doni Spouses” (Florence, Pitti Gallery), “Pregnant” (Florence, Pitti Gallery) and, finally, “Mute” (Urbino, National Gallery Marche) Sanzio works on poses, gives faces a dignified, stern, calm, sometimes a little sad expression, carefully designs costumes. 13. 14

Florentine Madonnas

In Florence, Raphael created about 20 Madonnas. Although the plots are standard: the Madonna either holds the Child in her arms, or he plays next to John the Baptist, all Madonnas are individual and are distinguished by a special maternal charm (apparently early death mother left a deep mark on Raphael’s soul).

Raphael's growing fame led to an increase in orders for Madonnas; he created the “Madonna of Granduca” (1505), “Madonna of the Carnations” (circa 1506), and “Madonna under the Canopy” (1506-1508). The best works of this period include “Madonna Terranuova” (1504-1505), “Madonna with the Goldfinch” (1506), “Madonna and Child and John the Baptist (The Beautiful Gardener)” (1507-1508). 15,16

Vatican

In the second half of 1508, Raphael moved to Rome (where he would spend the rest of his life) and became the official artist of the papal court. He was commissioned to fresco the Stanza della Segnatura. For this stanza, Raphael painted frescoes reflecting four types of human intellectual activity: theology, jurisprudence, poetry and philosophy - “Disputa” (1508-1509), “Wisdom, Temperance and Strength” (1511), and the most outstanding “Parnassus” (1509 -1510) and the “School of Athens” (1510-1511). 17-20

Parnassus depicts Apollo with nine muses, surrounded by eighteen famous ancient Greek, Roman and Italian poets. “So, on the wall facing the Belvedere, where Parnassus and the spring of Helicon are, he painted on the top and slopes of the mountain a shady grove of laurel trees, in the greenery of which one can feel the trembling of the leaves, swaying under the gentlest breath of the winds, while in the air there is an endless many naked cupids, with the most charming expression on their faces, tear off laurel branches, braiding them into wreaths, scattered by them all over the hill, where everything is covered with a truly divine breath - both the beauty of the figures and the nobility of the painting itself, looking at which anyone who looks at it carefully is amazed at how a human genius could, despite all its imperfections simple paint, to ensure that, thanks to the perfection of the drawing, the pictorial image seems alive.”

“The School of Athens” is a brilliantly executed multi-figure (about 50 characters) composition, which presents ancient philosophers, many of whom Raphael gave the features of his contemporaries, for example, Plato is painted in the image of Leonardo da Vinci, Heraclitus in the image of Michelangelo, and standing at the right edge Ptolemy is very similar to the author of the fresco. “It represents the sages of the whole world, arguing with each other in every way... Among them there is Diogenes with his bowl, reclining on the steps, a figure very deliberate in its detachment and worthy of praise for its beauty and for the clothes so suitable for it... Beauty the astrologers and geometers mentioned above, who draw all sorts of figures and signs on tablets with compasses, is truly inexpressible.

In the Eliodoro stanza, “The Expulsion of Eliodorus from the Temple” (1511-1512), “Mass in Bolsena” (1512), “Attila under the Walls of Rome” (1513-1514) were created, but the most successful was the fresco “The Liberation of the Apostle Peter from Prison” (1513-1514) 21 . “The artist showed no less skill and talent in the scene where St. Peter, freed from his chains, leaves prison accompanied by an angel... And since this story is depicted by Raphael above the window, the entire wall appears darker, since the light blinds the viewer looking at the fresco. The natural light falling from the window so successfully competes with the depicted night light sources that it seems as if you really see against the background of the night darkness both the smoking flame of a torch and the radiance of an angel, conveyed so naturally and so truthfully that you would never say that this is just painting - such is the convincingness with which the artist embodied the most difficult idea. Indeed, on the armor one can discern one’s own and falling shadows, and reflections, and the smoky heat of the flame, standing out against the background of such a deep shadow that one can truly consider Raphael the teacher of all other artists, who achieved such a similarity in the depiction of the night that painting had never achieved before ."

In 1513-1516, Raphael, commissioned by the pope, was engaged in the production of cardboards with scenes from the Bible for ten tapestries, which were intended for the Sistine Chapel. The most successful cardboard is “Wonderful Catch” (in total, seven cardboards have survived to this day). 22

Roman Madonnas

In Rome, Raphael painted about ten Madonnas. The Madonna of Alba (1510), Madonna of Foligno (1512), Madonna of the Fish (1512-1514), and Madonna in the Armchair (circa 1513-1514) stand out for their majesty.

The most perfect creation of Raphael was the famous “Sistine Madonna” (1512-1513 )23 . This painting was commissioned by the Pope. The Sistine Madonna is truly symphonic. The interweaving and meeting of lines and masses of this canvas amazes with its internal rhythm and harmony. But the most phenomenal thing in this large canvas is the painter’s mysterious ability to bring all the lines, all the shapes, all the colors into such a wondrous correspondence that they serve only one, the artist’s main desire - to make us look, look tirelessly into the sad eyes of Mary.”

IN 1515-1516 years, together with his students, he created cardboards for carpets intended to decorate the Sistine Chapel on holidays.

The last work is “ Transfiguration"(1518-1520) - performed with significant participation of students and was completed by them after the death of the master. 24

Features of Raphael's creativity

What is striking about Raphael Santi’s work is, first of all, the artist’s inexhaustible creative imagination, the likes of which we do not see in such perfection in anyone else. The index of individual paintings and drawings by Raphael covers 1225 numbers; in all this mass of his works one cannot find anything superfluous, everything breathes simplicity and clarity, and here, as in a mirror, the whole world is reflected in its diversity. Even his Madonnas highest degree are different: from one artistic idea - the image of a young mother with a child - Raphael was able to extract so many perfect images in which it could manifest itself. Another distinctive feature of Raphael's work is the combination of all spiritual gifts in wonderful harmony. Raphael has nothing dominant, everything is combined in extraordinary balance, in perfect beauty. The depth and strength of the design, the effortless symmetry and completeness of the compositions, the remarkable distribution of light and shadow, the truthfulness of life and character, the beauty of color, the understanding of the naked body and drapery - everything is harmoniously combined in his work. This multifaceted and harmonious idealism of the artist of the Renaissance, having absorbed almost all movements, did not submit to them in its creative power, but created its own original, clothed it in perfect forms, merging the Christian piety of the Middle Ages and the breadth of vision of the new man with the realism and plasticity of Greco -Roman world. Of the large crowd of his disciples, few rose above mere imitation. Giulio Romano, who took a significant part in the works of Raphael and completed the Transfiguration, was best student Raphael.