Raphael was, with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, one of the three masters of the High Renaissance. He was also the youngest and died prematurely after a life of incredible creativity and accomplishment. The son of a painter, Giovanni Santi, his actual name was Raffaello Santi of Sanzio. He was trained in Florence but spent most of his short life in Rome. There he created his major works, famous for the harmony and elegance of their design. Above all, there are the frescoes for the papal apartments in the Vatican (The Stanze), which he painted at exactly the time Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel (1508--12); among them are such masterpieces as the School of Athens and the Disputa. His oil painting, the Sistine Madonna, is justly famous. Raphael---in the Renaissance manner---was also an accomplished architect and, in his last years, architect-in-chief of St. Peter's.
020