ART 235: Pre-Modern Art History

Investigation of the intellectual and cultural history of sixteenth century Rome and Florence in the past generation have made it possible to put Raphael in the context of his patrons and his other contemporaries. Raphael managed what was no doubt the largest workshop to date and it provided the model for many artists who followed him. This leads us to an understanding of the privileging of invention over execution that takes place increasingly in the sixteenth century. Raphael became the model for artists, beginning soon after his death and continuing after the collapse of the academic tradition in the late nineteenth century.

This essential book on Raphael traces the evolution of his career from its origins in central Italy to the prestigious patronage of Pope Julius II in Rome. Richly illustrated. . . . Strikes a judicious balance between technical expertise--history, attribution, scholarship--and a wider public's interest in how pictures are made, how highly organized workshops such as Raphael's were set up, what people have seen in Raphael in earlier eras, what they themselves should be seeking out, and seeing, in the works on display.

This book focuses on a crucial but hitherto neglected part of Raphael's oeuvre: the work he and his pupils executed in Rome during the seven years from 1513 to the artist's death in 1520.Nearly ninety works--including paintings such as Saint Cecile and Portrait of Baldassere Castiglione, as well as drawings and a tapestry--illustrate the ways in which Raphael employed a range of technical devices, many of which were highly novel and enjoyed considerable influence. Raphael's workshop methods eventually became a model for the great artistic enterprises of the seventeenth century, notably those of Rubens, Bernini, and Pietro da Cortona.

Artist, architect and draughtsman, one of the great masters and one of the most influential painters of the High Renaissance, Raphael produced a huge body of work during his short working life. His artistic development took place in Umbria, Rome and Florence, where he met Michelangelo and Leonardo, and was influenced by their dynamic and evocative images. Some of his subsequent work reflected his admiration for them. In Rome, he painted The School of Athens, a major fresco depicting the greatest thinkers and philosophers of the past and present. His beautiful style is reflected in the second part of the book in a gallery of around 300 of Raphael's major paintings and drawings, with an analysis of each in the context of his life, his technique and oeuvre. Raphael was one of the greatest artists of all time; his death in 1520 marked the end of the 16th century.