Transcript Document

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino
better known simply
as Raphael, was
an Italian painter and
architect of the High
Renaissance, celebrated
for the perfection and
grace of his paintings and
drawings. Together
with Michelangelo and
Leonardo da Vinci, he
forms the traditional trinity
of great masters of that
period.
Raphael was born
28 March, 1483 or 6 April,
1483 in the small but
artistically significant
Central Italian city
of Urbino in
the Marche region, where
his father Giovanni Santi
was a court painter to the
Duke. His mother Màgia
died in 1491 when
Raphael was eight .
His first documented
work was the Baronci
altarpiece for the
church of
Saint Nicholas of
Tolentino in Città di
Castello. Evangelista
da Pian di Meleto,
who had worked for
his father, was also
named in the
commission.
In the center of the
fresco, at its
architecture's
central vanishing point,
are the two undisputed
main subjects: Plato on
the left and Aristotle,
his student, on the
right.
In the foreground of
the fresco are shown
(from left to right):
Averroes and
Pythagoras,
Diogenes, Heraclitus
and Bramante as
Euclid or Archimedes.
In the background of
fresco are shown:
Alcibiades, Anisthenes,
Aeschines, Socrates,
Plotinus and Apelles.
The building is in the
shape of a Greek cross,
which some have
suggested was intended to
show a harmony
between pagan philosophy
and Christian theology.