Raphaels Madonnas - A Study of Artistic Style and Content - Term Paper Example

 Implored more like a royalty by his peers and students, Rafael Sanzio’s greatest works, the Madonna and Child paintings, have inspired the public and have been copied by many artists. For over 350 years after his death, his greatest works remains to be one of the richest legacies of the High Renaissance Period, an era that is characterized by huge accomplishments in the arts and sciences, displayed at the most prestigious museums in the world such as the Louvre in Paris, Uffizi in Florence, and the Metropolitan in New York to name a few. Like any artist of the Renaissance, Rafael is also a talented architect who has finished an amount of unchallenged work in the Vatican (Openheim 9). But it was his paintings of the Madonna and Child that elevated him in the echelon of the great Renaissance painters such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Concentrating on his Madonnas, this paper follows the style of Rafael, one of the world’s masterful Madonnieres, or painter of Madonnas. Revered greatly by his contemporaries, the reconstruction of antique Rome was Rafael’s life-long mission as in 1508, Pope Julius II employed him at the Vatican in Rome. From then on, he spent seven of his remaining years to serve the succeeding Pope Leo X as an architect and supervisor of projects at the Vatican. He stayed loyal to the church until his untimely death in March 26, 1520 at the exact age of 37. his death on that Good Friday left a saintly tone as it was also the exact month and day of his birth. INTRODUCTION Rafael’s Artistic Choice: “The Prince of Painters, the God of Art.” Religious themes are an apparent choice for a Christian painter such as Rafael who has been employed by the Vatican under two papal regimes. His paintings have celebrated different narratives from the virgin’s life such as her daily life portrayed in The Holy Family, Madonna of the Chair, her marriage, her divine coronation by Christ, and various many allegorical paintings. The human relationships she shared with Christ reflect Rafael’s views on ideal motherhood. Perhaps, out of longing for parental relationship, as he himself was orphaned by his mother when he was 8 years of age, and then later on by his father when he was 11 years of age. As an employee at the Vatican, most of his mature works were for the church altars and fresco walls. In terms of style, his paintings reflected strong influence from the works of Da Vinci and Michelangelo without their extremes. Never looking cathartic, the colorful characters he employed are always formidable. The puttis he painted at The Sistine Madonna in 1513 remained to be ever-popular in today’s post-modern scene. The timeless appeal of the puttis, nonchalant as they were in their poses, have broken through pop culture as seen in stickers, calendars, note pads, and other merchandise. Rafael’s Madonnas Composition and Content Illuminated. Rafael’s work show that he clearly has control and natural sense for composition. His compositional device is very Florentine as he spent the first phase of his art education in Florence under the tutelage of Pietro Perugino, an acclaimed local painter at the time. Later on, the competition between Da Vinci and Michelangelo, both Florentines in training and taste, also had a strong influence on Rafael’s style. It has been observed that whilst he was a novice, he became highly skilled in absorbing the works of the masters such as Perugino, Da Vinci and Michelangelo. In The Sistine Madonna, (1512-13), the delicate imagery is never devoid of elegance. As any of the great artists of that time, his style revives the ever-realistic textures and moldings of Greco-Roman art works but this time with more depth and precision of movements. Sometimes bleak in coloristic effects, his, his final works in canvas are shining perfection form his preparatory sketches. This Madonna and Child with Book is one example of his work wherein the sketch already contained details, backgrounds, and perspectives so that the final work can focus a lot of attention on 3-dimensional details in facial features, shadow and light, and even the details I the draperies painted. It also made a great use of negative space in order to highlight the holy infant painted at the left part of the lay out. He uses spaces and pastoral themes to add a sense of calm to his narrative paintings. Even in Coronation of the Virgin (1503-04) his majestic portrayal of the Madonna was regal and elegant but never too ostentacious. The facial expressions of common people he painted were never too severe, his rich characters always possessed a high degree of grace and beauty while maintaining a rich expression. He is a genius for setting form into motion. The “Medium Path”. From preparation drawings to final work on frescoes and canvases, Rafael is a master of perspective. The philosophical influence of Aristotle is ingrained in Raphael’s values in balancing extremes, the way to the highest path (Oberhuber 10). His personal values dictate the taste of his layouts – never too busy and the atmosphere never too climactic. Even without high emotional pitches, his full-bodied characters never diminish their power to awe. Rafael’s character was displayed by gentleness, beauty, grace, and amiability. It is these same traits combined with his genius that won him great acclaim by the clergy, which is back in those days, the greatest source of employment in the field of art. His peers often remarked that Rafael’s facial feature is one endowed with beauty and nobility, his virtues that of a saint. An ode written after his death entitled De Rafeal Pictore stated “Quid Mirum sit qua Christus Tu Luce peristi? / Naturae ille dues, tu dues artis eras.” [What wonder that you lost the light like Christ; he is the God of nature, you the one of art] Historical Context. “People in the Renaissance expected to leave something of themselves in their churches: not just prayers and offering but physical mementos and records of direct engagement with the power of God and the saints.” If Rapheal was alive today, this masterful genius from Urbino would revel in the fact that two putti in his Sistine Madonna not adorned churches and museums in the past 350 years, but is also a big part of our post-modern culture, always reproduced in products and textbooks as one of the best portrayals of cherubims. The third and the youngest in the great trinity of Renaissance painters (Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Rafael) was formerly schooled by one master, Perugino. But he has looked and adapted other artists like Fra Bartolomeo for his use of gravity and grandeur in his paintings whilst Da Vinci’s style is also ever-present in his art. Many of his sketches from Florence reflect his love for drawing as the many drawings he left behind reflect that he drew for personal enjoyment rather than as preparation for other works. CONCLUSION. Painter. Archeological scholar. Architect. Rafael’s artistic decisions all embody the true Renaissance man. As the intellectual and artistic fashion in those days was to “master everything, and yet to disguise the difficulties.” (Oberhuber, page 11) To write about Rafael Sanzio is to revere a great artist who has achieved a level of perfection in his work. Often admired for the elegance in style whilst still displaying the intimacy of his subjects, his paintings sit in the world’s biggest museums as a reminder of how much man has achieved in the realm of arts. As an architect and artist for the Vatican , he garnered international fame and wealth during his life. Where art get commissioned and treated like business, Madonnas are a palpable choice for a Christian painter such as Rafael. The colorism of Venice and the style of Florence are both present in Rafael’s paintings. His masterpieces for the altar all remained proper with muted tones with an added degree of higher contrast on his reds and blues as I’ve observed from The Madonna of the Baldacchino (1508), La Belle Jardenierre (1507-8) and The Madonna of the Granduca . A master of poise, Rafael never employed severe expressions on his characters, but his Madonnas always possess a high degree of elegance with an impact, that once encountered, virtually stays with one’ memory. References and Works cited Kemp, Martin (1997). “Behind the Picture: Art and Evidence in the Italian Renaissance”. Yale University Press, New Haven and London. Print. Oberhuber, Konrad ( 1999). “Raphael The Paintings”. Electa, Milan. Elemond Editora Associatti. Print. Paoletti, John T. and Radke, Barryll (2005). Art in Renaissance Italy. 3rd Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall. New Jersey. Print. Read More