Raphael, My Favorite Renaissance Painter

Italian in full RAFFAELLO SANZIO (b. April 6, 1483, Urbino, Duchy of Urbino [Italy]--d. April 6, 1520, Rome, Papal States [Italy]), master painter and architect of the Italian High Renaissance. Raphael is best known for his Madonnas and for his large figure compositions in the Vatican in Rome. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur.

[Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994]

My Favorite thing about Raphael as a painter was his ability to immitate almost every style of the period. He quickly mastered Leonardo's techniques for shadowing, and twisting and turning of the bodies. Making them appear animated. He also used the expressionism in the faces of his subjects, like Giotto and Michealangelo. He was also able to master the perspective that was so important of the period, his painting, the School of Athens reminds me somewhat of Pierro. If Raphael hadn't died at such a young age. I believe he would have surpassed both Michealangelo and Leonardo as a painter.

My Raphael Gallery

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Last updated on: 06/08/99