Monday 25 October 2021

Raphael - part 1

Presumed Self-Portrait by Raphael 1504-06
tempera on panel 47.5 x 33 cm
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

For centuries Raphael has been recognised as the supreme High Renaissance painter, more versatile than Michaelangelo and more prolific than their older contemporary Leonardo. Though he died at 37, Raphael's example as a paragon of classicism dominated the academic tradition of European painting until the mid-19th century.

Raphael (Raffaello Santi) was born in Urbino where his father, Giovanni Santi, was court painter. He almost certainly began his training there and must have known works by Mantegna, Uccello, and Piero della Francesca from an early age. His earliest paintings were also greatly influenced by Purgino. From 1500 - when he became an independent master - to 1508 he worked throughout central Italy, particularly Florence, where he became a noted portraitist and painter of Madonnas.

In 1508, at the age of 25, he was called to the court of Pope Julius II to help with the redecoration of the papal apartments. In Rome he evolved as a portraitist, and became one of the greatest of all history painters.

He remained in Rome for the rest of his life and in 1514, on the death of Bramante, he was appointed architect in charge of St Peter’s.

This is part 1 of 5 parts on the works of Raphael:


1483-1520  Creation of Eve
pen and brown ink 22.5 x 18.4 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1483-1520 Cupid Bound (attributed to)
pen and brown ink with brown wash on laid paper
 8.3 x 7.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1483-1520 Saint George and the Dragon
brush and brown ink heightened with white over black chalk, incised with stylus 24.5 x 20.3 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1483-1520 Study of the right leg of a male child
pen and brown ink over black chalk and stylus underdrawing 21.1 x 12.2 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1483-1520 Two naked children mounted on boars
black stone, charcoal and traces of stylus 5.4 x 6.4 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais Domaine de Chantilly

1483-1520 Two naked children mounted on boars
black stone, charcoal and traces of stylus 5.25 x 6.7 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais Domaine de Chantilly

1483-1520 Woman, draped, kneeling
pen and brown ink, brown washes and white highlights on paper 16.4 x 11.8 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais Domaine de Chantilly

1483-1520 Young monk seen from the front
black stone 46.3 x 35.3 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais Domaine de Chantilly

1483-1529 Madonna of humility
pen and brown ink, brown washes and white highlight
© RMN-Grand Palais Domaine de Chantilly

c1490 Christ supported by Two Angels (Giovanni Santi, the artist's father)
oil on canvas 66.5 x 54.5 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary

1498-1499 Portrait of an unknown youth, possibly
a self-portrait
black chalk with white heightening on laid paper 38.1 x 26.1 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

1499-1502 Resurrection of Christ
oil on wood panel 52 x 44 cm
Museu de Arte de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil


1500-1501 Baronci Altarpiece

The Baronci Altarpiece was Raphael’s first recorded commission, it was made for Andrea Baronci's chapel in the church of Sant'Agostino in Città di Castello, near Urbino. The altarpiece was seriously damaged during an earthquake in 1789, and since 1849 fragments of the original painting have been part of different collections.


1500-1501 Angel (fragment of the Baronci Altarpiece)
oil on wood 31 x 27 cm
Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia

1501 Angel (not part of the altarpiece)
oil on panel 
Fondazione Brescia Musei, Italy

1500-1501 God the Father and the Virgin Mary (fragments of the Baronci Altarpiece)
oil on wood 112 x 75 cm
Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy

1500-1501 Angel (fragment of the Baronci Altarpiece)
oil on wood 57 x 36 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

1502-1504 Oddi Altarpiece

The Oddi Altarpiece is an altarpiece depicting the Coronation of the Virgin painted in 1502-1504 for the altar of the Oddi family chapel in the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia, Italy, now in the Vatican Pinacoteca. The altarpiece was commissioned for the Oddi family chapel in San Francesco al Prato in Perugia, was taken to Paris in 1797 (for the Musée Napoleon) and with 1815 brought back to Italy, not to Perugia but to the Vatican Pinacoteca.



1502-1503 Oddi Altarpiece: The Predella, Presentation in the Temple
tempera grassa 27 x 50 cm
Pinacoteca Vaticana

1502-1503 Oddi Altarpiece: The Predella, The Annunciation
tempera grassa on canvas 27 x 50 cm
Pinacoteca Vaticana

1502-1504 Oddi Altarpiece: The Predella, The Adoration of the Magi
tempera grassa on canvas  27 x 50 cm
Pinacoteca Vaticana

1500-04c The Solly Madonna
oil on wood 52 x 38 cm
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

c1500 Five Nude Infants in Various Poses
metal-point, traces of charcoal or black chalk on paper
23.8 x 18.9 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1500s The Miracle of St. Eusebius of Cremona
oil on poplar wood panel 25.6 x 43.9 cm
National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon, Portugal

1501-1502 St. Sebastian
oil on wood 43 x 34 cm
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy

1502-1503 St. Jerome saving Sylvanus and punishing the heretic Sabinianus
oil on panel 25.7 x 41.9 cm
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC

1502-1503 The Coronation of the Virgin, also known as the Oddi Altar-piece
tempera on wood 272 x 165 cm
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome

1502-03 The Crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary 

- Notes from The National Gallery:

One of Raphael’s earliest works, this altarpiece was commissioned by the wool merchant and banker Domenico Gavari for his burial chapel dedicated to Saint Jerome in the church of S. Domenico in Città di Castello, Umbria. Christ’s body hangs from the Cross. Two angels balance on delicate slivers of cloud on either side, catching the blood that flows from his wounds in golden chalices reminiscent of those in which wine would be served during Mass at the altar below. The sun and moon are both visible in the sky, marking the eclipse that coincided with Christ’s death. Saint Jerome and Mary Magdalene are at the foot of the Cross, gazing up at Christ’s body with reverence and pity. The Virgin, dressed in purplish black to denote mourning, stands to the left of the Cross with John the Evangelist to the right. They both look towards the viewer and wring their hands in grief.


1502-1503 The Crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary, Saints and Angels
(The Mond Crucifixion)
oil on poplar wood panel 283.3 x 157.3 cm
The National Gallery, London

1502-1504 The Conestabile Madonna
tempera on canvas transferred from wood. 17.5 x 18 cm
Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

c1502-1504 Two studies of the head of a young woman
black chalk on off-white paper 16.1 x 11.1 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

c1502-1505 Study of the Head of a young Woman
 black chalk on off-white paper 15.1 x 11.1 cm
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

c1502 Saint Anthony of Padua
oil on panel 25.6 x 16.4 cm
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London


c1502 Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis is identified by the wound in his side (the absence of the stigmata in his hands and feet is presumably the result of wear). This is one of the two outer panels from the predella of the 'Colonna altarpiece' painted by Raphael, probably c.1502, for the Franciscan nuns of Saint Anthony of Padua in Perugia. The main part of the altarpiece, together with one predella panel, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The other predella panels are in the National Gallery London and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.


c1502 Saint Francis of Assisi
oil on wood panel 25.8 x 16.8 cm
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

1503-1504 Portrait of a Man
oil on wood panel 45 x 31 cm
Galleria Borghese, Rome

c1503-1504 An Allegory ( Vision of a Knight )
oil on poplar wood panel 17.1 x 17.3 cm
The National Gallery, London

c1503-1504 Sketch for an enthroned Virgin and Child with St. Nicholas of Tolentino
pen and brown ink, black chalk and traces of stylus
 23.3 x 15.4 cm
Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany

c1503-1505 Pieta
oil on poplar panel 28.8 x 23-5 cm 
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA

c1503-1505 Portrait of the Young Cardinal Ippolito I d'Este
oil on walnut panel 54 x 39 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

c1503-1505 Saint George and the Dragon cartoon (preparatory drawing)
pen and ink over black chalk 26.3 x 21.3 cm
Uffizi Gallery, Florence

c1503-1505 Saint George and the Dragon
oil on panel 29.4 x 25.5 cm
Louvre Museum, Paris

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