The path of the creator. Rafael Santi "Transformation"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Renaissance - a time of intellectual dawn, a time when the whole culture took on a special shape. This flowering and rise of the spiritual level occurred thanks to the great personalities, the heroes of the era. One such person was Rafael Santi.

Biography

Raphael was born in 1483 in the town of Urbino in the family of the court painter Giovanni Santi. The father did not have such talents as Rafael, but it was he who instilled in his son a love for art. Giovanni painted temples and took the boy with him, Rafael sat and calmly looked at the frescoes, and sometimes, with the permission of his father, mixed paints.

Mother died in 1491, later father died. Raphael became an orphan at the age of 11, but thanks to his father's connections, he continued to paint with court teachers.

The beginning of creativity

At the age of seventeen he comes to the workshop of P. Perugino. Pietro, the celebrated Italian painter, was the head of a large workshop. Rafael became his most famous student. From the very beginning of his career, Rafael Santi was distinguished by his ability to combine colors, show their full depth, and build a harmonious composition. One of these early works is MadonnaConestabile , depicting the Virgin Mary and the baby Christ.

Artist maturity

With the help of Pietro Perugino, Rafael moved to a new level of skill and with the acquired skills he leaves for Florence, the capital of Italian art.

In Florence, he began to paint from nature. Raphael was lucky to work with Michelangelo, from whom he learned to convey emotions through poses and angles. Many of his works are dedicated to the Mother of God, which is why the artist began to be called the “Poet of the Image of the Madonna.”

The glory of the master reached Rome, Pope Julius II invited Raphael to this city, where the artist lived until the end of his days. Upon arrival, he received an important and honorable commission - to paint the front chambers of the Vatican Palace. In 1508, Raphael began to decorate rooms with frescoes (in Italian - "stanzas"). Each wall of the stanza is decorated with a composition, that is, there are four frescoes in the room. The "School of Athens" is considered the best of the frescoes, it is recognized as one of the best creations of the Renaissance.

Rafael Santi also became famous as an architect, after the death of Bramante he took over as architect of St. Peter's Cathedral.

Transformation. 1518-1520

The painting "Transfiguration" by Rafael Santi was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio Medici for the city's cathedral, it was impossible to refuse. Around the picture there is controversy about whether it is all painted by Raphael's hand.

There are suggestions that R. Santi did not have time to finish the picture due to the suddendeath, so only the main scene belongs to his brush: Christ and the apostles. And the plot at the bottom of the picture was made by Raphael's students Giulio Romano and Gianfrancesco Penny.

According to another version, the whole picture was painted by Raphael and only a few figures were completed by students.

It is only known that the dying creator showed his student Giulio Romano a gesture at the painting "Transfiguration", urging him to finish the work.

Painting by Raphael Santi "Transfiguration" describes the biblical story written in the gospels. Christ decided to show his true appearance, he took James, John and Peter. He went to a high mountain, where they were alone, and was transformed. His face shone like the sun, his clothes became white as light. When they came to the people, a man approached Jesus and bowed his knee and asked him to heal his demon-possessed son. Christ healed the boy and the demon came out of him.

For a long time Rafael did not know how to paint this picture. How to portray these complex subjects is a miracle. He tried to imagine himself in the place of the apostles who saw what was happening, but he could not bring himself closer to these unearthly sensations.

Painfully, he began to paint a picture. Several times I changed the position of the figures, changed the composition.

Raphael Santi "Transformation": description

The figure of Christ is admirable, how the light is transmitted, a feeling of elevation, flight is created. This is a real miracle, the apostles are blinded by what they saw.

The bottom of the picture contrasts with the top, it's twilight here, everyone is crowding, pushing. It's all humanhustle and bustle. This is all base compared to what we see in the face of Christ.

The painting is recognized as a world masterpiece. In 1797 Napoleon's troops confiscated the Transfiguration. The picture was placed in the Louvre, where artists studied it, it became an example - an ideal. Napoleon himself considered Raphael a genius, and the Transfiguration was his most ambitious work. Only in 1815 the painting was returned to the Vatican.

Due to moving, the painting was damaged. Refurbished twice.

The end of life's journey

Many creators were neither famous nor recognized during their lifetime. But Rafael Santi was not among them, the artist was revered, even called "divine". Thanks to his talents, he had powerful patrons and lived in luxury.

But the death befell the creator suddenly at the age of 37, modern researchers write that the cause was a fever. Before his death, the master left a will in which he did not forget anyone: neither relatives, nor friends, nor students … All of Rome came to say goodbye to the maestro, above the headboard they saw the last masterpiece of a genius - Rafael Santi's painting "The Transfiguration of the Lord." Raphael is buried in the Pantheon. By the way, the artist chose the tomb for himself, and his student Santi Lorenzetti erected a statue of the Virgin Mary, thus fulfilling the desire of his teacher.