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| Raphael Madonna of the Goldfinch (detail) ca. 1505-1506 oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Raphael Madonna of the Goldfinch ca. 1505-1506 oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Raphael Madonna of the Goldfinch (detail) ca. 1505-1506 oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Raphael La Perla di Modena 1520 oil on panel Galleria Estense, Modena |
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| Raphael Portrait of Agnolo Doni ca. 1505-1506 oil on panel Palazzo Pitti, Florence |
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| Raphael La Fornarina ca. 1518-19 oil on panel Palazzo Barberini, Rome |
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| Raphael Portrait of a Man (possibly Pietro Perugino) ca. 1504-1505 oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Raphael Madonna of the Curtain 1514 oil on panel Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
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| Raphael Pax Vobiscum ca. 1505-1506 oil on panel Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia |
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| Raphael Portrait of Maddalena Strozzi Doni ca. 1506 oil on panel Palazzo Pitti, Florence |
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| Raphael Canigiani Holy Family ca. 1505-1506 oil on panel Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
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| Raphael Canigiani Holy Family (detail) ca. 1505-1506 oil on panel Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
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| Raphael Canigiani Holy Family (detail) ca. 1505-1506 oil on panel Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
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| Raphael Portrait of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino ca. 1506 oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Raphael La Donna Velata 1516 oil on canvas Palazzo Pitti, Florence |
"For centuries Raphael has been recognised as the supreme High Renaissance artist, more versatile than Michelangelo and more prolific than their older contemporary Leonardo. Though he died at 37, Raphael's example as a paragon of classicism dominated the academic tradition of European painting until the mid-19th century.
Raphael (Raffaello Santi) was born in Urbino where his father, Giovanni Santi, was court painter. He almost certainly began his training there and must have known works by Mantegna, Uccello, and Piero della Francesca from an early age. His earliest paintings were greatly influenced by Perugino. From 1500 – when he became an independent master – to 1508 he worked throughout central Italy, particularly Florence, where he became a noted portraitist and painter of Madonnas.
In 1508, at the age of 25, he was called to the court of Pope Julius II to help with the redecoration of the papal apartments. In Rome he evolved as a portraitist, and became one of the greatest of all history painters. He remained in Rome for the rest of his life and in 1514, on the death of Bramante, he was appointed architect in charge of St. Peter's."
– from curator's notes at the National Gallery, London