Editing Raphael (section)

==Early life and work==
[[File:Raffaello Sanzio - Guidobaldo da Montefeltro - WGA18653.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[Guidobaldo da Montefeltro]], Duke of Urbino from 1482 to 1508, {{Circa|1507}}. ([[Uffizi Gallery]])]]
Raphael's mother Màgia died in 1491 when he was eight, followed on August 1, 1494, by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle, Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. The boy probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father".<ref>Vasari, at the start of the ''Life''. Jones & Penny:5</ref> A [[self-portrait]] drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity.<ref>[[Ashmolean Museum]] {{cite web |url=http://z.about.com/d/arthistory/1/0/W/O/raphael_colonna_01.jpg |title=Image |publisher=z.about.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202121830/http://z.about.com/d/arthistory/1/0/W/O/raphael_colonna_01.jpg |archive-date=December 2, 2007 }}</ref> His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of [[Paolo Uccello]], previously the court painter (d. 1475), and [[Luca Signorelli]], who until 1498 was based in nearby [[Città di Castello]].<ref>Jones and Penny: 4–5, 8 and 20</ref>

According to Vasari, Raphael's father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master [[Pietro Perugino]] as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother".{{efn|After a visit to [[Verrocchio]]'s workshop, Santi recorded that both Perugino and [[Leonardo da Vinci]] were present, and seems to have viewed them as being at an equivalent level in artistic skill. After Leonardo left for Milan, Santi chose Perugino from one of two available artists to teach his son.{{sfn|Salmi et al.|1969|pp=11–12}}}} The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source,<ref>Simone Fornari in 1549–50, see Gould:207</ref> and has been disputed; eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that the boy received at least some training from [[Timoteo Viti]], who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.<ref>Jones & Penny:8</ref> Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to [[Heinrich Wölfflin|Wölfflin]].<ref>contrasting him with Leonardo and Michelangelo in this respect. Wölfflin:73</ref> Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern [[art historian]]s claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes [[Craquelure|cracking]] of areas of paint in the works of both masters.<ref>Jones and Penny:17</ref> The Perugino workshop was active in both [[Perugia]] and [[Florence]], perhaps maintaining two permanent branches.<ref>Jones & Penny:2–5</ref> Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500.<ref>Ettlinger & Ettlinger:19</ref>

His first documented work was the ''[[Baronci Altarpiece]]'' for the church of Saint [[Nicholas of Tolentino]] in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino.<ref>Ettlinger & Ettlinger:20</ref> [[Evangelista da Pian di Meleto]], who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain.<ref>It was later seriously damaged during an earthquake in 1789.</ref> In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the ''[[Mond Crucifixion]]'' (about 1503) and the [[Pinacoteca di Brera|Brera]] ''[[The Marriage of the Virgin (Raphael)|Wedding of the Virgin]]'' (1504), and for Perugia, such as the ''[[Oddi altar (Raphael)|Oddi Altarpiece]]''. He very probably also visited Florence in this period.<ref>Ettlinger & Ettlinger:39, 41</ref> These are large works, some in [[fresco]], where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite [[cabinet painting]]s in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the ''[[Three Graces (Raphael)|Three Graces]]'' and ''[[St. Michael (Raphael)|St. Michael]]'', and he began to paint [[Madonna (art)|Madonnas]] and portraits.<ref>Jones and Penny:5–8</ref> In 1502 he went to [[Siena]] at the invitation of another pupil of [[Perugino]], [[Pinturicchio]], "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the [[cartoon]]s, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the [[Piccolomini Library]] in [[Siena Cathedral]].<ref>One surviving preparatory drawing appears to be mostly by Raphael; quotation from Vasari by – Jones and Penny:20</ref> He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career.<ref>Ettlinger & Ettlinger:25–27</ref>

<gallery widths="200" heights="200" perrow="4">
File:Rafael - ressureicaocristo01.jpg|The ''[[Resurrection of Christ (Raphael)|Resurrection of Christ]],'' 1499–1502 ([[São Paulo Museum of Art]])
File:CrocefissioneRaffaello.jpg|The ''[[Mond Crucifixion]]'', 1502–03, very much in the style of [[Perugino]] ([[National Gallery]])
File:PalaOddiRaffaello.jpg|The ''[[Coronation of the Virgin]]'' 1502–03 ([[Pinacoteca Vaticana]])
File:Raffaello - Spozalizio - Web Gallery of Art.jpg|The ''[[The Marriage of the Virgin (Raphael)|Wedding of the Virgin]]'', Raphael's most sophisticated altarpiece of this period ([[Pinacoteca di Brera]])
File:Lvr-george.jpg|''Saint George and the Dragon'', a small work (29 x 21&nbsp;cm) for the court of Urbino ([[Louvre]]) 
</gallery>