The School Of Athens
...flesh
palpitates, the breath comes and goes, every organ lives, life pulsates everywhere."
-- Vasari
Raphael was born Raffaello Santi or Raffaello Sanzio in Urbino on April 6, 1483, and received his early training in art from his father, the painter Giovanni Santi. In 1499 he went to Perugia, in Umbria, and became a student and assistant of the painter Perugino. Raphael imitated his master closely; their paintings of this period are executed in styles so similar that art historians have found it difficult to determine which were painted by Raphael. In 1504 Raphael moved to Florence, where he studied the work of such established painters of the time as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, learning their methods of representing the play of light and shade, anatomy, and dramatic action. In 1508 Raphael was called to Rome by Pope Julius II and commissioned to execute frescoes in four small stanze, or rooms, of the Vatican Palace. The second Vatican chamber, the Stanza d'Eliodoro, painted with the aid of Raphael's assistants, contains scenes representing the triumph of the Roman Catholic church over its enemies.
After the death of Pope Julius II in 1513, and the accession of Leo X, Raphael's influence and responsibilities increased. He was made chief architect of Saint Peter's Basilica in 1514, and a year later was appointed director of all the excavations of antiquities in and near Rome. Raphael died in Rome on his 37th birthday, April 6, 1520.
School of Athens
Brief History:
Raphael painted the School of Athens from-1510 1512. He was commissioned by pope Julius II, with the recommendation of Donato Bramante, the pope's architect, to work in the Vatican. His first work the School of Athens was loved so much by the pope that he commissioned Raphael to paint the entire papal suite. In the School of Athens, philosophers and intellects from...
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