ARTH218

Raphael

(b Urbino, 1483; d Rome, 1520)

“As for the Galatea, I should consider myself a great master if it had half the merits you mention in your letter. However, I perceive in your words the love you bear me; and I add that in order to paint a fair one, I should need to see several fair ones, with the proviso that Your Lordship will be with me to select the best. But as there is a shortage both of good judges and of beautiful women, I am making use of some sort of idea which comes into my mind. Whether this idea has any artistic excellence in itself, I do not know. But I do strive to attain it.”

Raphael Sanzio, excerpt from the letter to Count Baldassare Castiglione, c. 1514

Required readings

· Murray, p. 15-19

Important names and terms

· Baldassare Castiglione

· Agostini Chigi

Study Images

· Raphael, Crucifixion, c. 1502/3

· Raphael, Marriage of the Virgin (Sposalizio), 1504

· Raphael, Madonna of the Meadow, c. 1505

· Raphael, La Belle Jardinière, c. 1507

· Raphael, Madalena Strozzi Doni, c. 1506

· Raphael, Entombment, c. 1507

· Raphael, Galatea, c. 1512, Villa Farnesina, Rome

· Raphael, La Fornarina, c. 1518-19

Additional images

· Pietro Perugino, Marriage of the Virgin, 1500-4, Cathedral of Perugia

· Raphael, Baldassare Castiglione, 1514-15