Raphael: 11 works

'In 1504 the young Raphael came from Perugia to Florence, where Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo dominated artistic life.'

'Giorgio Vasari writes that Raphael painted this panel for his friend Lorenzo Nasi, a florentine merchant, on the occasion of his marriage to Sandra Canigiani.'

'His classicism exhibited calmness and grace as well as an interest in selective emphasis of details; here he subtly focused on the woman's chin and left leg.'

'In a note dating from 1530 the Venetian patrician and art lover Marcantonio Michiel mentions a portrait painted by Raphael of the poet and humanist Pietro Bembo, which he saw in Bembo's house in Padua.'

'After four years in Florence, Raphael moved to Rome in 1508, probably to execute more significant commissions under the papal reign of Julius II. The major work in America from Raphael's Roman period is The Alba Madonna.'

'In this preliminary study for his Disputafresco in the Vatican, Raphael Sanzio rendered several of the figures with extraordinary clarity and economy.'

'Realized between 1509 and 1517, the Vatican frescos are considered among Raffaello Santi's most important works.'

'In 1515 Pope Leo X commissioned Raphael to make cartoons for a series of ten tapestries to decorate the lower walls of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.'

'Below the billowing drapery, he quickly sketched Christ's legs, but he subtly modeled the torso above in a fluid, painterly fashion, achieving this effect with a brush and wash.'

'One unusual feature of the painting is the saint's blue garter on his armor–covered leg. Its inscription, HONI, begins the phrase _Honi soit qui mal y pense_ (Disgraced be he who thinks ill of it), the motto of the chivalric Order of the Garter.'

'Raphael was famed for his graceful style. which combined the study of classical sculpture and nature.'