Because of the 500th anniversary of Raphael ‘s death, in these days we all have certainly seen, read, admired the works of this excellent artist.

I am more interested in the human story of Raphael

Raphael is handsome

Giorgio Vasari describes Raphael as the person who unites many graces and rare gifts in one person, such as to be “no less excellent, than graceful”.

Being “graceful” meant many things.

It meant physical beauty (“beautiful adornment” calls it Vasari) but also “affability”, also his showing himself “agreeable and pleasant to every sort of person and in all their actions”
In short, he was nice, kind, handsome and he knows how to deal with people.

Raphael is a great lover of women and life
Vasari tells us that Raphael “is a very loving person and loves women, and is always at their service”.The portraits of his women are indeed very sensual.The “veiled” of the Palatine Gallery, is a beautiful young woman who looks at us mischievously. She supports the half-open bodice with one hand: she is a real woman, who loves and knows how to make herself loved.

Maybe love for women is also the cause of Raphael’s death. He officially dies of a severe fever. However Vasari writes (and his source is Giulio Romano, dear friend of Raphael) that the great painter “continued to divert himself beyond measure with the pleasures of love; whence it happened that, having on one occasion indulged in more than his usual excess” he… died.
He died from having loved too much… not so bad …

Raphael is lucky and intelligent
Raphael is lucky because his father Giovanni is a painter and he runs the most flourishing workshop in Urbino. The Montefeltro Dukes are his clients.
The young Raphael therefore grows up in a refined court.
In 1504 when he is 21 years old he arrives in Florence to introduce himself to the most important man of the city: Pier Soderini, chief of the Republic. He has got with him a “recommendation” letter written by Giovanna Feltria, sister of the Duke of Urbino and wife of the Duke of Senigallia.
But Raphael is above all intelligent because he chooses to come to Florence in 1504. That is when Michelangelo’s David arrives in Piazza della Signoria, when Leonardo is working on the Mona Lisa and when Michelangelo and Leonardo are competing in Palazzo Vecchio to carry out the battle of Cascina and Anghiari (“the school of the world” will be defined by Cellini).
Raphael’s intelligence is clear when he understands that in 1508 he has to go to Rome, where, under the impulse of Pope Julius II, the city is about to be transformed.
This time Raphael is recommended by the Duke of Urbino, Francesco Maria della Rovere, who, coincidentally, is a relative of Pope Jiulius (formerly Giuliano della Rovere).
Upon his arrival in Rome, the Pope’s general architect is Donato Bramante, also from Urbino! He welcomes his compatriot and protects him!
No competitors in Rome!
But above all Raphael is the right man at the right time. Basically, starting from 1514 he has no rivals in the city: Bramante is dead, Leonardo is self-confined to “studying in the Vatican” while Michelangelo is struggling with the project that takes his sleep away: the immense tomb of Julius II.

Raphael is a great manger
The commissions of new works come constantly and he, alone, can not and satisfy them all.
Raphael’s idea is to transform his workshop. He does not want helpers but he wants collaborators. He wants to organize work in a new way, focusing on human capital.
Raphael wants to cultivate the talents of his workers and especially wants that once “trained” they want to stay with him.
This way he builds a very creative working group, a team capable of solving the problems that arise during a job: everyone contributing with their respective specializations. The collaboration is so good that the various artists integrate to the point that, in the following years, the correct attribution of individual work would be very difficult.

Raphael keeps for himself the studying, the planning, the preparatory drawing but the realization is more and more left to his collaborators!
He, in an absolutely new way, conceives the works and then signs them. Maybe and I say maybe just adding a few retouching here and there.

Please just think of the many Raphael works we have, too many to be truly only his, given the brevity of his life!
Raphael died in fact at the age of 37, on Good Friday, the same day he was born on April 6th.
500 years ago.