High Renaissance: Raphael (1483 – 1520) Giorgio Vasari 1st Art Historian (also painter & architect) First-hand knowledge of artists Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550; 1568 2 nd edition) 120 biographies Cimabue to Michelangelo (13 th C to 16 th C) Raphael Died at 37 (Michelangelo eight years older – lived to be 89) Stark contrast to Michelangelo in personality and character Moved toward beauty and color Painter of Madonnas and portraits – a criticism by Michelangelo Great synthesizer Absorbed styles of others Studied with Perugino Merged Leonardo and Michelangelo Beautiful and solid Lyrical and dramatic Early work Vision of the Young Knight (1502) Horizontal connection with vertical elements Quattrocento organization still The Three Graces (1502) Interlocked forms, rhythms (heads and bent arms, golden apples) Self-conscious designs – sophistication Absorbing Perugino Marriage of the Virgin Compare to Perugino’s Christ handing the keys to St. Peter Both completed in 1504 Raphael: more complex arrangement Absorbing Leonard Madonna & Child with John the Baptist (1505) La belle jardinière – The Beautiful Gardiner (1507) Tight pyramidal grouping Arranged naturally in setting Soft shading / prettified faces Raphael: precise, realistic landscape / playful interaction Maddalena Doni (1508) Portrait type – Mona Lisa Absorbing Michelangelo Entombment of Christ (1507) Christ’s body & languid arm – Pietà Twisting forms – Doni Madonna Called to Rome 1508 Related to Bramante – helped get commission Papal apartments – Stanze Stanza della Segnatura Formal audience/ receiving rooms Julius’ library Summation of High Renaissance Humanism Unity of knowledge Reconciling philosophy and science with theology Four domains of learning – personified in historical and contemporary figures Theology – Glorification of the Sacrament Justice & Law – Temporal and Spiritual Justice Art – Parnassus Philosophy – School of Athens School of Athens Sages of the world disputing / merging Plato & Aristotle Idealism vs. empiricism Arts vs. sciences Leonardo as Plato Arts on left / Sciences on right Apollo vs. Minerva Grisaille figures Set in vast Roman structure (not Greek) Bramante’s intended design of St. Peter’s Building still incomplete in painting Socrates Euclid (Bramante) Zoroaster & Ptolemy Pythagoras Diogenes Heraclitus (Michelangelo) Last figure added Stonemason’s cloths Cube as ideal form .