Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino better known as Raphael, was a prestigious Italian painter and architect who lived and worked during the High Renaissance. Raphael’s work is celebrated for its clarity of form, fluid composition, and interpretation of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Alongside Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael is regarded as a member of the trinity of great Renaissance masters.

Despite his death at 37, Raphael produced a huge collection of works during his short life. Many of his works are today housed in the Vatican Palace, including his great frescos and his most famous painting, The School of Athens.

Raphael’s career is generally divided into three phases and three styles. His early years living in Umbria where he apprenticed in his father’s workshop, a period of about four years (1504–1508) spent in Florence and finally his last and triumphant twelve years in Rome, where the young artist was patronized by two Popes and their associates.