RAPHAEL. A PASSIONATE LIFE

Craving pleasure as well as knowledge, Raphael Sanzio was quick torealize that his talent would only be truly appreciated in theliberal, carefree and extravagantly sensual atmosphere of Romeduring its golden age under Julius II and Leo X.

Arriving in the city in 1508 at the age of twenty-five, he wasentranced and seduced by life at the papal court and within a fewmonths had emerged as the most brilliant star in its intellectualfirmament. His art achieved a natural grace that was totallyuninhibited and free from subjection. His death, at justthirty-seven, plunged the city into the kind of despair thatfollows the passing of an esteemed and much loved prince.

In this major new biography Antonio Forcellino retraces themeteoric arc of Raphael’s career by re-examining contemporarydocuments and accounts and interpreting the artist’s workswith the eye of an expert art restorer. Raphael’s paintingsare vividly described and placed in their historical context.Forcellino analyses Raphael’s techniques for producing thelarge frescos for which he is so famous, examines his workingpractices and his organization of what was a new kind of artisticworkshop, and shows how his female portraits expressed and conveyeda new attitude to women.

This rich and nuanced account casts aside the misconceptions passedon by those critics who persistently tried to undermineRaphael’s mythical status, enabling one of the greatestartists of all time to re-emerge fully as both man and artist.