Raphael paints the Vatican Rooms

The story

A young painter called to Rome

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) was born in Urbino in 1483. His father, Giovanni Santi, was a painter at the duke's court, and the boy learned the trade in the family workshop. Left an orphan at the age of eleven, he trained with other masters, including Perugino, and at twenty-one he was already so good that he was called to work in Florence, where he studied the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo. He painted gentle, luminous Madonnas that everyone liked.

In 1508, at the age of twenty-five, he was called to Rome by Pope Julius II. Julius II was known as “the warrior Pope” because he personally led armies, but he was also a great lover of the arts: he wanted to make Rome the most beautiful capital in the world. In the same period he had given Michelangelo the job of painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and had called the architect Bramante to design the new basilica of St Peter's.

The Stanze

The Pope asked Raphael to decorate some rooms of the Vatican Palace, where he wanted to live himself; it is said that he avoided the Borgia apartments, whose memory he disliked. These rooms are called the “Raphael Rooms” (the Stanze). The first was the Stanza della Segnatura, where papal documents were signed; it was probably the Pope's library. Raphael painted it between 1508–1509 and 1511 with four great frescoes devoted to theology, philosophy, poetry and justice.

The most famous is the “School of Athens”, which represents philosophy. In the centre are two Greek philosophers, Plato, who points to the sky, and Aristotle, who stretches his hand towards the earth. Around them, in an immense building, are dozens of figures: Pythagoras writing, Euclid drawing with a compass, Diogenes lying on the steps, Socrates in discussion. According to tradition, Raphael gave Plato the face of Leonardo da Vinci and Heraclitus, alone in the foreground, that of Michelangelo. The artist also painted himself, in a corner, looking out at us.

Raphael's secret

Raphael used perspective with great mastery: the architecture in the background really seems to open up into space. His figures are orderly, harmonious and balanced. While Michelangelo is powerful and dramatic, Raphael looks for grace, serenity and clarity. Many after him have taken him as a model of “ideal beauty”.

After the Stanza della Segnatura he made the Stanza di Eliodoro (1511–1514), with scenes of miracles and divine help, and the Stanza dell'Incendio di Borgo (1514–1517). The work was too much for one man: Raphael organised a large workshop of pupils and assistants, where each knew how to do a part, and he drew and directed. The fourth room, the Stanza di Costantino, was finished after his death by his pupils.

An artist of everything

He was not only a painter. For Pope Leo X, Julius II's successor, he designed tapestries for the Sistine Chapel and in 1514 he was appointed architect of St Peter's, after Bramante. He also worked on studying and saving the ancient Roman ruins, and wrote a letter to the Pope asking him to protect them. He painted famous portraits, such as that of Baldassare Castiglione.

He died in Rome on 6 April 1520, at only thirty-seven, after a short illness. It is said that it was Good Friday, the same day on which he had been born, but the date of his birth is uncertain. He was buried in the Pantheon, the Roman temple turned into a church, where his tomb is still visited today. His funeral was very solemn, and all Rome wept.