Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, commonly known as Raphael, was an Italian architect and painter during the High Renaissance. Although he died at 37, Raphael created masterpieces that made an enormous impression on Italian society during and beyond his too-short life as his artworks were known to mirror the values of the High Renaissance. His works introduce his unique artistic techniques as they explore and express the ideal human grandeur. His techniques were unique as he used perspective in his paintings -- a skill that few of his contemporaries were able to achieve. During his apprenticeship to the Italian Renaissance painter Perugino, he ran a large workshop and was known for his exceptional productivity, intelligence, and imagination. Many …show more content…
Foreshortening and perspective were unique techniques that developed specifically during the High Renaissance. Raphael was one of few artists who were able to employ both techniques. Foreshortening gives a three-dimensionality by painting distant objects smaller. This causes the viewer to feel as though he/she is viewing the scene in real life, resulting in a subject-viewer connection. For example, the sole female in the center has hands that are painted in different sizes. The hand that is supposed to be closer to the viewer is painted bigger than the other. Perspective is when the edges of all objects are angled towards a single point in the painting called the vanishing point. Because eyes perceived space in this way, the viewers are immediately drawn towards this vanishing point. The perspective creates a relationship between the viewer that does not exist in two-dimensional paintings. Raphael paints a series of arches angled above the philosophers that recede toward the vanishing point. In The School of Athens, the vanishing point is directly above the central figures -- Plato and Aristotle -- who marked the start of a new period of philosophy and questioning the Church’s ideas. They created the foundation for the development of scientific research, inspiring the works of Ptolemy and Pythagoras that brought society out of the dark ages. Raphael’s work reflects an important theme of Renaissance art: an emphasis on worldly rather than religious