6th April: Raphael

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), Italian painter and architect of the Renaissance died on this date in 1483.

1. We're not certain of his birth date. A lot of what we know about Raphael comes from the work of the art historian Giorgio Vasari, who says that Raphael was born on Good Friday, which was on March 28 in 1483. However, we do know that he died on April 6th, and some sources claim that was his birthdate.
2. Painting was in his blood - his father was court painter to the Duke of Urbino.
3. Evidence suggests that Raphael was a child prodigy in terms of art. His father died when he was eleven, and according to Vasari, had already, by that age, been "a great help to his father". It has been suggested he was apprenticed to the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino at the tender age of eight, although this is disputed as it seems very young to start an apprenticeship. We do know Raphael worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500 when he would have been around thirteen; and Perugino's influence on his early work is obvious. He was also described as a "Master" at about that time, meaning he was fully trained by then.
4. It was in 1500 that he got his first commission - the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello - he finished that in 1501.
5. Raphael seems to have lived a nomadic life after this, including spending time in Siena, where he worked on a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral, and Florence, where he might have studied, and visited to buy materials.
6. Around 1508, he moved to Rome, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was invited by the new Pope Julius II and immediately commissioned to fresco the Pope's private library at the Vatican Palace. He painted three rooms there before he died.
7. Michaelangelo was in Rome at the time, too. He was eight years older than Raphael, and had been in Rome for several months before he was commissioned to do anything. This may have been why the older artist hated Raphael and blamed him for conspiracies against him. Raphael, however, seemed to admire Michaelangelo's work and managed to sneak in to see the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Raphael had a tendency to take ideas and influences from other artists and reproduce them in his own style, and he did this with Michaelangelo. Michelangelo accused Raphael of plagiarism and years after Raphael's death, complained in a letter that "everything he knew about art he got from me". It probably didn't help that Raphael gathered a much higher number of pupils and assistants than was normally the case, and that he ran his workshops efficiently and was tactful in his dealings with both employers and employees, while Michaelangelo was known for having stormy relationships with both.
8. As well as paintings, Raphael was an architect, too, and was appointed as architect of Saint Peter's. However, when he died, Michaelangelo took over, and predictably, had most of Raphael's work demolished. Raphael was also appointed prefect over any antiquities found in the city or within a mile of it, so they could be recorded and preserved. He suggested to the Pope ways to stop ancient monuments from falling down. Another field Raphael dabbled in was printing. While he made no prints himself, he collaborated with Marcantonio Raimondi to have some of his designs made in to prints.
9. Raphael never married although he was engaged to Maria Bibbiena, Cardinal Medici Bibbiena's niece. After six years of engagement, she died; it seems settling down was never on Raphael's priority list and he only got engaged because the girl's uncle talked him into it. Conflicting reasons for this have been suggested. One is that he was thinking of becoming a priest; the other that he was too busy having affairs to settle for just one woman. It's known he had a mistress, Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker.
10. It's possible his affair with her actually killed him. He died aged 37 after an acute illness which Vasari suggested had been caused by a night of excessive sex with his mistress, but he was reluctant to tell his doctor this, and so the doctor gave him the wrong cure, resulting in his death. Raphael was buried in the Pantheon. Hie epitaph reads, "Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die."

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