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Raphael and his workshop

Follow Raphael from early altarpieces to the papal apartment and his last painting.

Raphael and his workshop

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The flower-filled tomb in the Crowning of the Virgin belongs to an early Raphael. The crowd and luminous upper group in the Transfiguration belong to his last painting. Room VIII lets you compare works from different stages of one short career. Raphael, Raffaello Sanzio of Urbino, lived from 1483 to 1520.

Church commissions and papal rooms

The Oddi Altarpiece was painted in 1502–1504. The Madonna of Foligno followed in 1511–1512, while Raphael was also working on the Vatican apartment. Each had a separate church destination. The palace walls asked for another kind of composition, with subjects extending across entire rooms rather than standing at a single altar.

The workshop continued

Raphael and his workshop decorated the papal apartment between 1508 and 1524. Those dates extend four years beyond his death. Assistants completed parts of the project, including work in the Hall of Constantine and the Room of the Fire in the Borgo. Two oil-on-wall figures in the Hall of Constantine are identified as Raphael's own work, so the room contains contributions from different stages of the project.

His final commission

Raphael painted the Transfiguration in 1516–1520 for a planned cathedral destination in Narbonne. After his death it remained in Rome. Its later journey brought it to the Vatican, where it now belongs to the same collection as the early Oddi painting.

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