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A comprehensive list of paintings by the Italian Renaissance master Raphael, with images, titles, dates, locations, techniques and dimensions. The list covers his entire artistic career, from his early works in Urbino to his frescoes in the Vatican and his altarpieces in various museums.
Learn about Raphael, one of the greatest masters of the High Renaissance, who painted murals for the Vatican and influenced many artists. Explore his 184 artworks, including self-portrait, school of athens and more.
- Italian
- Urbino, Italy
- Overview
- Early years at Urbino
- Apprenticeship at Perugia
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Raphael was one of the most talented painters of the Italian Renaissance. 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. He was also a popular architect during his lifetime.
What is Raphael famous for?
Raphael is probably most famous for his paintings, including Madonna in the Meadow (1505/06), School of Athens (c. 1508–11), Sistine Madonna (1512/13), The Transfiguration (1516–20), and Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (c. 1514–15).
What was Raphael’s family like?
Raphael was born to Giovanni Santi, a painter, and Magia di Battista Ciarla, both of whom died when Raphael was a child. Biographer Giorgio Vasari indicated that Raphael was later engaged to a niece of a friend who was a cardinal, but Raphael continuously put off the wedding.
How was Raphael educated?
Raphael was the son of Giovanni Santi and Magia di Battista Ciarla; his mother died in 1491. His father was, according to the 16th-century artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari, a painter “of no great merit.” He was, however, a man of culture who was in constant contact with the advanced artistic ideas current at the court of Urbino. He gave his son his first instruction in painting, and, before his death in 1494, when Raphael was 11, he had introduced the boy to humanistic philosophy at the court.
Urbino had become a centre of culture during the rule of Duke Federico da Montefeltro, who encouraged the arts and attracted the visits of men of outstanding talent, including Donato Bramante, Piero della Francesca, and Leon Battista Alberti, to his court. Although Raphael would be influenced by major artists in Florence and Rome, Urbino constituted the basis for all his subsequent learning. Furthermore, the cultural vitality of the city probably stimulated the exceptional precociousness of the young artist, who, even at the beginning of the 16th century, when he was scarcely 17 years old, already displayed an extraordinary talent.
The date of Raphael’s arrival in Perugia is not known, but several scholars place it in 1495. The first record of Raphael’s activity as a painter is found there in a document of December 10, 1500, declaring that the young painter, by then called a “master,” was commissioned to help paint an altarpiece to be completed by September 13, 1502. It is clear from this that Raphael had already given proof of his mastery, so much so that between 1501 and 1503 he received a rather important commission—to paint the Coronation of the Virgin for the Oddi Chapel in the church of San Francesco, Perugia. The great Umbrian master Pietro Perugino was executing the frescoes in the Collegio del Cambio at Perugia between 1498 and 1500, enabling Raphael, as a member of his workshop, to acquire extensive professional knowledge.
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In addition to this practical instruction, Perugino’s calmly exquisite style also influenced Raphael. The Giving of the Keys to St. Peter, painted in 1481–82 by Perugino for the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican palace, inspired Raphael’s first major work, The Marriage of the Virgin (1504). Perugino’s influence is seen in the emphasis on perspectives, in the graded relationships between the figures and the architecture, and in the lyrical sweetness of the figures. Nevertheless, even in this early painting, it is clear that Raphael’s sensibility was different from his teacher’s. The disposition of the figures is less rigidly related to the architecture, and the disposition of each figure in relation to the others is more informal and animated. The sweetness of the figures and the gentle relation between them surpasses anything in Perugino’s work.
Three small paintings done by Raphael shortly after The Marriage of the Virgin—Vision of a Knight, Three Graces, and St. Michael—are masterful examples of narrative painting, showing, as well as youthful freshness, a maturing ability to control the elements of his own style. Although he had learned much from Perugino, Raphael by late 1504 needed other models to work from; it is clear that his desire for knowledge was driving him to look beyond Perugia.
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Learn about Raphael, a master painter and architect of the Italian High Renaissance. Explore his famous works, such as The School of Athens, The Marriage of the Virgin, and The Transfiguration, and his influence on art history.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The School of Athens. The School of Athens is one of Raphael’s most famous paintings and one that he considered to be among his three most important works.
- Sistine Madonna. The Sistine Madonna is an oil painting on canvas of the Virgin Mary with Jesus Christ. It was painted by Raphael in roughly 1513, commissioned by Pope Julius II for the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome.
- Disputation of the Holy Sacrament. The fresco of the so-called Disputation of the Most Holy Sacrament may be found on the wall opposite the School of Athens, which corresponds to Theology.
- Transfiguration. Raphael’s last work, The Transfiguration, is a masterpiece of the Italian High Renaissance. Raphael worked on the altarpiece for the Narbonne Cathedral in France until his death in 1520, when it was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de Medici, the eventual Pope Clement VII (1523–1534).
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Learn about Raphael, one of the most influential and prolific artists of the Italian High Renaissance. Explore his life, achievements, artistic legacy, and famous paintings such as The Marriage of the Virgin and The Disputation of the Holy Sacrament.
- Italian
- Urbino
This first of the famous "Stanze" or "Raphael Rooms" to be painted, now known as the Stanza della Segnatura after its use in Vasari's time, was to make a stunning impact on Roman art, and remains generally regarded as his greatest masterpiece, containing The School of Athens, The Parnassus and the Disputa.
Explore the life and works of Raphael, the supreme High Renaissance painter who died at 37. See his portraits, Madonnas, history paintings and more at the National Gallery, London.
