Baldassare Castiglione

A leading figure of the Italian High Renaissance, Raphael is known for his consummate expressions of the era’s Neoplatonic ideals. Effortlessly graceful and sublimely harmonious, his paintings marry serenity, beauty and clarity of form with authentic emotionality. His richly colored, perfectly balanced compositions, widely considered the pinnacle of technical achievement, have inspired rhapsodizing praise: the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky proclaimed his work “the greatest revelation of the human spirit,” while Pablo Picasso declared, “Leonardo da Vinci promises us heaven. Raphael gives it to us.”

Urbino, Italy