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Painter and Architect of Urbino, 1483 - 1520

"Raphael had risen to such heights that Leo X gave orders that he should set to work on the Great Hall on the upper floor, where are depicted the Victories of Constantine. Raphael made a start on this." I-313

These were mostly executed by his assistants to his design
The Battle of Milvian Bridge (Sala di Constantino)
The Vision of the Cross (Sala di Constantino)
"Meanwhile the Pope decided he would have some very rich tapestries made in gold and floss-silk. So Raphael drew and coloured in his own hand all the cartoons, in the exact form and size needed, and these were sent to be woven in Flanders...These [tapestries] cost seventy thousand crowns, and are still kept in the Sistine Chapel." I-313
Cartoon for The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
"For Cardinal Colonna, Raphael painted a St John on canvas." I-314



St John
"For Cardinal Giulio de'Medici, Raphael painted a panel picture of the Transfiguration of Christ...The scene shows Christ transfigured on Mount Tabor, with the eleven disciples waiting for him below. There is a young man, possessed by the devil, who has been brought so that Christ may heal him after he has come down from the mountain." I-314
The Transfiguration
  In this work "Christ reveals the Essence and Godhead of all three Persons of the Trinity, fused in him by the perfect art of Raphael. And Raphael seems to have summoned up all his powers to demonstrate the strength and genius of his art in His countenance; for having finished this, the last thing he was to do, he died without taking up the brush again."

He was thirty seven years old.

Baldesar Castiglione wrote in his epitaph 'Movisti Superum invidiam' - 'Thou didst rouse the gods to jealousy'.

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