About Raphael

From zh.wikipedia.org (維基百科)

拉斐爾·桑喬（Raffaello Sanzio，1483年4月6日—1520年4月6日），義大利畫家。

拉斐爾出生於義大利西北威尼斯和佛羅倫斯之間烏姆勃利亞省的一個小鎮，他的父親就是一位畫家。拉斐爾畫作中的人物清秀，場景祥和，他可以說是文藝復興時期最偉大的一位畫家，在文藝復興「三傑」中（另兩位是李奧納多·達·文西和米開朗基羅）他的畫以「秀美」著稱。年輕時他曾在佛羅倫斯學習四年，有幸仔細觀摩了另兩位巨匠的作品，從中領悟了不少。他的著名宗教畫聖母系列將宗教的虔誠和非宗教的美貌有機地融為一體；他的畫即使是「聖喬治和龍搏鬥」的場面看起來也是平靜安詳的。他為梵蒂岡教宗居室創作的大型壁畫《雅典學派》(School of Athens)是經典之作，他將柏拉圖和亞里士多德，將基督教和異教，統統融合到一起，創造出和諧的場面。同時也創作出許多著名的肖像如：「教宗利奧十世像」。他的性情平和、文雅，和他的畫作一樣。他短短一生創作出不少作品，於1520年早逝。

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/拉斐爾

From simple.wikipedia.org (Simple English Wikipedia)
Raffaello Sanzio (or Raphael) (April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520) was a Renaissance painter and architect. He is most well known for his paintings of Madonna and his art that is in the Vatican Museum in Rome, Italy.

Perugia
Birth
Raphael was the son of Giovanni Santi (d. 1494), who was also an artist, and Magia di Battista Ciarla (d. 1491). Pietro Perugino was one of Raphael's teachers.

First Works
Rapheal's first major work was The Marriage of the Virgin which was painted in 1504. It is currently in the Brera Gallery in Milan, Italy. These were shortly followed by three more paintings: The Vision of a Knight, Three Graces, and Saint Michael.

Florence
Raphael went with another painter, Bernardino Pinturicchio, to Florence, Italy, by c. 1504. He went there because he was attracted by the work of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

The Madonnas
Whilst he was in Florence, Raphael painted many of his famous Madonna paintings. The most famous of these paintings are:

The Madonna of the Goldfinch (c. 1505), which is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
the Madonna del Prato (c. 1505), which is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, in Vienna, Austria.
the Esterházy Madonna (c. 1505–07, which is in Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary.
La Belle Jardinière (c. 1507), which is in the Louvre Museum, in Paris, France.

Rome
Raphael was called to Rome, Italy by Pope Julius II in 1508. Raphael became popular whilst he was in Rome and was known as the prince of painters. He spent the last 12 years of his life in Rome and created many of his famous paintings.

The Stanze
Some of Rapheal's most famous paitings are the frescos that are painted over the walls of Julius II's own rooms in the Vatican Palace, known as the Stanze. The Stanza della Segnatura and the Stanza d'Eliodoro were created by Raphael himself, whilst the Stanza dell'Incendio was designed by Raphael and painted by his assistants.

The Stanza della Segnatura frescos are Raphael's most famous paintings out of the Stanze. The paintings on the four walls are called the Disputa, the School of Athens, the Parnassus and the Cardinal Virtues. The Disputa and the School of Athens are the most important of these frescos.

Architecture
Raphael's first work as an architect was the funeral chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo. Pope Leo X also chose Raphael to help design Saint Peter's Basilica alongside Donato Bramante. After Bramante died, Raphael took over the designing of the basilica and changed it from a Greek to a Latin design.

The Transfiguration
Raphael's last work of art was the Transfiguration. This was an alterpiece, but Raphael died before he could complete it. It was instead finished by Giulio Romano, who was one of Raphael's assistants.

Death
Raphael died on his 37th birthday and was buried in the Pantheon in Rome, Italy. His funeral mass was celebrated at the Vatican and his Transfiguration alterpiece was put at the head of Raphael's bier.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael

2007-03-14 18:44:54 補充：
著名作品不足空位,請閱:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael#Chronology_of_main_works