Raphael Sanzio Inspired

It was once said by Josef Albers that, "Any color subtracts its own hue from the colors which it carries and therefore influences." An artist works upon people, places, and things that incite them to express themselves. It is these things that lay the foundation for a masterpiece that goes on to influence future artists. This is how the artist Raphael Sanzio came about being one of the best of his time. Raphael took methods and ideas from his surrounding colleagues and then he would combine them with his own personality to create some of the best works from his era. Raphael Sanzio's work of the Italian High Renaissance era is the result of influences and incorporation of techniques of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pietro Perugino, and Leonardo DaVinci.

Raphael Sanzio is most well remembered for his dynamic works from his time. Raphael was born in Urbino in the province of Umbria in 1483. Fortunately for him, his father, Giovani di Santi, was a painter who began developing Raphael's artistic talent from a very young age. By the year 1500 he had already been sent to Florence, Italy to practice in Perugino's workshop. His work was almost always classified under the category of placid and gracefully merged. Quickly enough Raphael was categorized well above his teacher Perugino and excelled to be much more successful throughout his short lived career. Coincidentally, Raphael moved to Florence during the same time that Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo Da Vinci were there. Working in the same atmosphere as these magnificent artists turned out to be immensely beneficial for him. He used his resources to the best of his advantage and made himself a name that would never be forgotten: Raphael Sanzio, the youngest of the three artists of the Italian High Renaissance. ("Raphael (Rafaello) Sanzio.")

Michelangleo Buonarroti was a fellow artist from the same time period and area as Raphael. This fact did not mean that the two were friends. It is actually noted that they would not even associate with one another. ("Raphael, artist.") As a coincidence, both artists were called in to do a private work for Pope Julius ll in the Vatican at the same exact time. Although their work was meant to be kept private, Raphael went with the Pope to sneak a preview of Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel. It was from this sight that inspiration out poured. Being so strongly moved and inspired by this painting in progress, Sanzio returned to his fresco and added a Michelangelic touch.

Raphael admired Michelanglo as a master even though Michelangelo never even acknowledged him as being a "true" artist. This did not stop Raphael from erasing a portion of his painting the School of Athens see figure 1 to include a portrait of Michelangelo in the foreground. In the finished piece Michelangelo can be seen leaning over a block of marble in what is almost the bottom of the center of the piece. Raphael would not have done this if he did not have the highest of admiration towards Michelangelo Buonarotti, who was one of his most commendable competitors. ("The School of Athens by Raphael Sanzio.")

Growing up, people tend to take from the way they were raised and incorporate it into the way they go about doing their everyday work. This pertained to Sanzio while he apprenticed for Pietro Perugino during his early years of working as an artist. Working under Perugino for nearly four years, Raphael was destined to pick up specific ideas and details from his works and style of art and apply them to his future paintings as an independent worker. ("Raphael, artist.") Raphael was said to have the distinguished "ability to assimilate and adapt borrowed ideas within a very personal style." ("Raphael.") This is precisely what he accomplished. He used Perugino's basis of work and gave it life with his personal touch. The most obvious Peruginesque work by Raphael is his Mond Crucifixion see figure 2.. This work is said to be tantamount in its characteristical components with that of Perugino. This was the result of taking Perugino's method of soft modeling and figuring. To make the work his own, Raphael would mix in his own personal sentiment into his work. Without this touch, Raphael's work would simply be a copy of the work by Pietro Perugino. ("Raphael.")

Not only does Raphael's artwork simulate the paintings of Perugino but, it also channels "a strong Da Vinci influence with its pyramidal composition, contour, balance, and interplay of light and dark (chiaroscuro) and sfumato (extremely fine, soft shading instead of line to delineate forms and features)." (Raphael Sanzio.") Leonardo Da Vinci's inspiration on Raphael can be most prominently seen in his well known series of Madonnas. One of the several techniques favorably utilized by Da Vinci is pyramidal composition. Pyramidal composition is a device used to pull the audiences eyes to view a painting from the top to the bottom rather than from left to right. In pyramidal compositon the objects in the painting are enclosed in what can be noted as an imaginary triangle. ("Renaissance & Baroque Art.") This technique can be easily and most obviously seen in Sanzio's Madonna of Belvedere and The Canigiani Madonna. In Madonna of Belvedere see figure 3 the Virgin Mary is the main structure of the triangle. In her hands she is holding a child at her feet and is glancing at St. John. Because of the pyramidal composition, it draws the viewers eyes to begin looking at the picture from Mary's head and work their way down to her feet where the two children are seen. Then in The Canigiani Madonna see figure 4 there are five people set into the fake pyramid. Studies from the Mood Book encyclopedia say that, "The Virgin and Elizabeth are sitting on the grass, with their children and Joseph is standing