The Late Renaissance Artist Raphael

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in his very short life, Raphael completed a almost countless number of works of art, which were diverse and exquisite because he was able to easily draw in any style. The author points out that, in the painting called "Sistine Madonna", Raphael established a balance between the exuberant naturalism, which was heralded in the early Renaissance, and the spiritual idealism, which had been prevalent in the Dark Ages. The paper describes in detail the "Sistine Madonna" and compares it with several other Madonnas drawn by Raphael.

From the Paper:

"He used the newly developed techniques of mathematical perspective that gives the painting the illusion of real space through his intense study of nature. The composition is geometrical, as was Raphael's signature, shaped in a rhomboid, with the head of the Madonna at the apex and St. Sixtus and St. Barbara at the sides with the two cherubs at the base. The Madonna is elevated above the two saints that also form a triangle, between the three figures heads. At their feet, St. Sixtus is standing lower than where St. Barbara is kneeling, so the triangular shape falls to the left and produces a very appealing movement to the left, slowly."

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