Raphael
was an Italian painter and architect of the
Italian High Renaissance. Raphael is best known
for his Madonnas and for his large figure compositions
in the Vatican in Rome. His work is admired
for its clarity of form and ease of composition
and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic
ideal of human grandeur.
Raphael's father was a painter, so he encouraged
Raphael to paint at an early age. He also was
trained by Timoteo Vinti, whose influence led
him to paint one of his most famous works, The
Knight's Dream. In 1499 he went to Perugia,
in Umbria, and became a student and assistant
of the painter Perugino. He followed Perugino's
style so closely that historians are often confused
as to which painting were done by which one
of them.
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