The History/Culture Behind 'Le Stanze di Raffaello'

Raphael (Raffaello in italian) Sanzio was one of the most talented painters of the Italian Renaissance, which spread throughout Europe from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Raphael was born in Urbino, itself a major arts mecca, and learned the craft he would become renown for through a series of apprenticeships. First to his father, who was himself employed as a painter at the ducal court of Montefeltro, and upon his death, as an apprentice to the Italian painter Perugino. 

He received his first commission as a painter independent of any apprenticeship ties in 1499, when he was but 16, to paint what he would title "The Banner Of The Holy Trinity", but the famous commission this exhibit shall explore is that of the "Stanze di Raffaello", or in english: "The Raphael Rooms" which Raphael began in 1508, and would work on laboriously until his death in 1520.

In 1508, Raphael was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the interiors of four rooms which would form the Pope's living quarters (successive Popes continued to live in 'Raphael's Rooms' until 1585). Today however, the rooms, which are on the third floor of the Pontifical Palace in Vatican City, form the public space of the papal apartments, while the Pope's actual living quarters are off limits to the public.

This is actually a blessing in that it allows more people to see this work of art which many would say rivals the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel (ironically, the work of these two great masters occured during relatively the same period, as both pieces were commissioned by Pope Julius II).

On the subject of The Sistine Chapel, it is safe to say that these two masterpieces could be classified as either religious, as the subjects/themes of these works are clearly religious in nature and even the locations themselves (in a chapel, and the Pope's residence) support a religious classification, or historical, as both murals chronicle such an important era and truly revolutionized painting (at least that of frescoes) forever. However, for the purpose of this exhibit, and for the purpose of not omitting one these two spectacular murals, one has been placed into the religious section (The Sistine Chapel) and one into the historical section (Raphael's Rooms).