Description

By (author) Rohlmann Michael

Short /annotation:
Alongside Michelangelo and Leonardo, Raphael stands as one of the defining masters of the Italian Renaissance. This compact edition offers a vivid introduction to his genius, bringing together his celebrated paintings, frescoes, and tapestry designs—an accessible gateway into the richness and innovation of Raphael’s artistic world.

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Raphael (1483–1520) is considered the most importantartist of the Italian High Renaissance alongside Michelangelo andLeonardo. In his short lifetime he created around one hundred paintingsand numerous frescoes, including nine fresco cycles, on an unsurpassed variety of themes– from sensual female beauties, antique myths and portraits of wealthyRomans and church dignitaries to history cycles and biblical scenes. Heproduced altarpieces, as well as designing tapestries for the SistineChapel. His Sistine Madonna is one of the most frequently reproduced religious paintings of all time.

Raphael was a tireless learner, for whom there could beno standing still, no repetition of tried and tested solutions, butonly the constant forward thrust of an inexhaustible imagination. Hetransformed his central theme, the visionary experience of divine grace, into visible pictorial reality. It was his mature work in Rome,and above all the frescoes in the Vatican Palace, that secured him hisplace in art history. Admired even during his own lifetime as the most modern artist of his day, Raphael’s mastery would pave the way for Mannerism and the Baroque era.

Review quote:
“The search for powerful expressiveness is virtually unmatched in Raphael’s work.”

Biographical note:
Michael Rohlmann gained his doctorate with a thesis on the import of Early Netherlandish painting into Early Renaissance Florence. He qualified as a university lecturer with a thesis on the pictorial decoration of the Sistine Chapel. He is the author of numerous publications on Italian and French painting of the early modern period. He teaches art history at the University of Cologne and the University of Wuppertal.