Vasari's Lives of the Artists: Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian
by Giorgio Vasari
from Dover Publications
Drawings of Raphael (Master Draughtsman Series)
by Steven Longstreet
from Borden Pub Co
Raphael
by Bette Talvacchia
from Phaidon Press
This monograph explores the life and work of Raphael(Raffaello Sanzio, 1483-1520), one of the most important artists in theWestern tradition.Over two hundred of Raphael's finest paintings anddrawings are illustrated, including all of his most celebrated paintings,such as the Vatican stanze (1509-14) and the Sistine Madonna(1513-14). Its scope covers Raphael's entire career in remarkable depth,from his artistic beginnings in Urbino and Le Marche, to the earlyaltarpieces and periods of study in Florence, and finally to hisunprecedented success in Rome at the courts of Popes Julius II and Leo X. The illustrations are accompanied by an accessible, highly informative textby Bette Talvacchia, the distinguished Renaissance scholar.The authoralso explores Raphael's artistic relationships with such Renaissancemasters as Leonardo and Michelangelo.This book is the perfect introduction to Raphael for general readers andstudents.In addition, the new research presented by Talvacchia will provefascinating reading for subject specialists.
Raphael: 1483-1520 (Basic Art)
by Christof Thoenes
from Taschen
Influenced by his contemporaries Michelangelo and Leonardo, Raphael Santi (1483-1520) became, in his own right, one of the most important artists of the High Renaissance. Though Raphael painted many important works in his Florence period, including his famous Madonnas, it was his mature work in Rome that cemented his place in history, most notably the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican featuring his School of Athens and Triumph of Religion murals. This overview traces the life's work of this Renaissance master who achieved the height of greatness in only two decades of creation and whose influential work paved the way for the Mannerist and Baroque movements.
The Dragon's Trail: The Biography of Raphael's Masterpiece
by Joanna Pitman
from Touchstone
Raphael's St. George and the Dragon is the work of a genius -- an exquisitely rendered vision of heroism and innocence by one of the greatest painters of all time. Yet the painting's creation is only the beginning of its fascinating story, which spans centuries of power play and intrigue, and has made it a witness to the rise and fall of the great powers of the Western world as it seduced its owners to ever greater heights of corruption and greed.
Raphael's masterpiece was commissioned by Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, the ruler of Urbino, in 1506. Raphael was only twenty-three years old, but he had already begun to acquire a reputation as a painter who was as ruthless in his pursuit of money as he was talented. The duke sent the painting to England's King Henry VII as a thank-you for naming him a knight in the Order of the Garter.
The painting then mysteriously disappeared for one hundred years until King Charles I saw it hanging in the collection of the Earl of Pembroke and acquired it for a book of Holbein drawings. After Charles was beheaded in 1649, his collection was broken up and the painting made its way to the private gallery of the third-richest man in France, where it was ensconced in its own special room. Thirty years later, the philosopher Diderot was instructed by Catherine the Great of Russia to buy it for her vast collection at the Hermitage.
The heroic curators of the Hermitage protected St. George and the Dragon from fire, water, and the anarchists of the Russian Revolution, until Joseph Stalin sold it in 1930 to raise cash. The secret buyer was Andrew Mellon, Treasury Secretary of the United States, who in doing so blatantly violated a U.S. sanction against doing any business with Soviet Russia. Mellon eventually founded The National Gallery in Washington, D.C., where St. George and the Dragon rests to this day.
Exceptionally written and breathlessly paced, The Dragon's Trail is a microhistory that touches on the rise of the Tudors, the downfall of a Stuart, the twilight of the French aristocracy, the terrors of the Bolshevik revolution, and the depths of the Cold War -- all witnessed by one painting that inspired the best and the worst instincts in its owners.
Raphael: 16 Art Stickers (Fine Art Stickers)
by Raphael
from Dover Publications
Raphael: Rizzoli Art Classics
by Nicoletta Baldini
from Rizzoli International Publications
Often regarded as the founder of traditional European painting, Giotto revolutionized the way artists interpreted the human condition at the turn of the fourteenth century. Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo each brought Renaissance notions of humanism to unparalleled heights. Botticelli's poetic delicacy created a magical world in which allegory and idealism are reflected. Vermeer's light-infused elegies on the everyday are some of the most exquisite paintings in the history of Western art.
Each book in this series features a literary introduction and thoroughly researched essay followed by a section devoted to a detailed description of a selection of the artist's masterpieces. An extensive chronology of the artist's life and important historical events of his era as well as a compilation of remarks by famous historians, modern and old, add cultural perspective and insight into each painter's stylistic development. A visual chart with captions as to the whereabouts of every painting and a concise bibliography with suggested further reading provide invaluable research tools.
With authoritative text by leading art historians from around the globe, these lavishly illustrated editions provide fresh insights into the art and lives of the most brilliant artists in the history of painting. No matter what your knowledge of art history, this series will compel you to explore a world of art beyond the canvas.
Raphael Soyer and the Search for Modern Jewish Art
by Samantha Baskind
from The University of North Carolina Press
Artist Raphael Soyer (1899-1987), whose Russian Jewish family settled in Manhattan in 1912, was devoted to painting people in their everyday urban lives. He came to be known especially for his representations of city workers and the down-and-out, and for his portraits of himself and his friends. Although Soyer never identified himself as a "Jewish artist," Samantha Baskind, in the first full-length critical study of the artist, argues that his work was greatly influenced by his ethnicity and by the Jewish American immigrant experience.
Baskind examines the painter's art and life in the rich context of religious, cultural, political, and social conditions in the twentieth-century United States. By promoting an understanding of Soyer as a Jewish American artist, she addresses larger questions about the definition and study of modern Jewish art. Whereas previous scholars have defined Jewish art simply as art produced by people who were born Jewish, Baskind stresses the importance of an artist's cultural identity when defining ethnic art. As Baskind explains how Soyer negotiated his Jewish identity in changing ways over his lifetime, she offers new strategies for identifying and interpreting Jewish art in general. Her analysis of Soyer's work places the artist in a necessary context and provides a valuable new approach to the study of modern Jewish art.
Raphael
by Pierluigi De Vecchi
from Abbeville Press
All of Raphael's most important paintings as well as a significant number of his drawings and engravings are reproduced, principally in color, in this splendid new tribute to one of the most admired artists of the Italian Renaissance.
In this lavishly illustrated book featuring some 300 illustrations, the author takes a fresh, critical look at the life and work of Rafaello Sanzio, or, as he signed certain paintings, Raphael Urbinas--in homage to his native city of Urbino. Described as "an artist touched by grace," Raphael is considered along with Michelangelo and Leonardo to be one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance.
Raphael (1483-1520), whose birth and death were on a Good Friday, belonged to a family of merchants; aside from his training in the studio of Perugino, little is known about his earliest years. He arrived in Florence in 1504, where he studied the masters: Masaccio, Ghirlandaio, Leonardo and produced magnificent paintings of the Madonna as well as remarkable portraits; in 1508 he went to Rome, where he died a dozen years later at the height of his powers, after creating monumental works at the Vatican. At thirty years of age, he was, in the eyes of his contemporaries, a living legend. In his Lives of the Artists, Vasari wrote: " While we may term other works paintings, those of Raphael are living things, the flesh palpitates, the breath comes and goes, every organ lives, life pulsates everywhere."
In a fascinating text De Vecchi reexamines each of the major periods of Raphael's short career dispelling the myths about him that have accumulated over the centuries. He reminds us that the most "profound" element of Raphael's art was his striving to express in his work the dialectic between earthly and heavenly love, which was an important concern of his contemporaries The coverage of the text extends beyond the paintings to Raphael's significant work as an architect and designer of interiors. The reference material in the Appendix includes a chronology and a bibliography.
Other details: Approximately 300 full-color illustrations
The Princeton Raphael Symposium
At an international conference in 1983 commemorating the 500th anniversary of Raphael's birth, art conservators and historians benefited from a rare opportunity to discuss with each other new data obtained from the scientific examination and treatment of an artist's works as they were being readied for exhibitions. Each paper, presented by a conservator to an audience composed mainly of art historians, focuses on one painting or group of paintings by Raphael and discusses how such approaches as infrared reflectography and studies of color technique yield useful historical insights--for example, the range and variation of technique one can expect from the painter and the play of artistic influences on his work. As a whole, these papers constitute a step toward a history of Raphael's technique, but more importantly they suggest possibilities of collaboration between art conservators and historians. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Rafael Alonso, J. Bauch, J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, Sylvie Bguin, Marco Chiarini, Carol Christensen, Burton B. Frederiksen, Peter Klein, Raffaella Rossi Manaresi, Fabrizio Mancinelli, Priscilla Grazioli Medici, Joyce Plesters, Wolfgang Prohaska, and Hubert von Sonnenburg.
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