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Raphael/Raffaello Sanzio born on April 6th, 1483 in Urbino, Italy. He spent his childhood in a painter’s workshop mixing paints, using a stylus and paintbrush from a young age. Raphael’s father, Giovanni Santi, was an artist for the Duke of Urbino, Federigo da Montefeltro.
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In 1494, at 11, Raphael’s father died. Raphael then took over managing his father’s workshop.
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It is clear from this that Raphael had already given proof of his mastery, so much so that between 1501 and 1503 he received a rather important commission—to paint the Coronation of the Virgin for the Oddi Chapel in the church of San Francesco, Perugia. The great Umbrian master Pietro Perugino was executing the frescoes in the Collegio del Cambio at Perugia between 1498 and 1500, enabling Raphael, as a member of his workshop, to acquire extensive professional knowledge.
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In 1500, a master painter named Pietro Vannunci, or Perugino, invited Raphael to become his apprentice in Perugia. The apprenticeship lasted four years.
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As a teen, in 1500, Raphael was commissioned to paint for the Church of San Nicola in the neighboring town of Castello, Italy; the first record of Raphael’s activity as a painter is found there in a document of December 10, 1500, declaring that the young painter, by then called a “master,” was commissioned to help paint an altarpiece to be completed by September 13, 1502.
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In 1504, Raphael left his apprenticeship with Perugino and moved to Florence, where he was very influenced by the works made by the Italian painters Fra Bartolommeo, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Masaccio.
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In 1507 Raphael was commissioned to paint the Deposition of Christ. In this work it is obvious that Raphael set himself deliberately to learn from Michelangelo the expressive possibilities of human anatomy. But Raphael differed from Leonardo and Michelangelo, who were both painters of dark intensity and excitement, in that he wished to develop a calmer and more-extroverted style that would serve as a popular, universally accessible form of visual communication.
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Raphael moved to Rome in 1508 to paint in the Vatican "Stanze" ("Room"), under Pope Julius II’s patronage.
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After architect Donato Bramante died in 1514, the pope hired Raphael as his chief architect. Under this appointment, Raphael created the design for a chapel in Sant’ Eligio degli Orefici. He also designed Rome’s Santa Maria del Popolo Chapel and an area within Saint Peter’s new basilica.
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Raphael died on his 37th birthday, days after contracting a fever. His funeral mass was celebrated at the Vatican, his Transfiguration was placed at the head of the bier, and his body was buried in the Pantheon in Rome.