Italian High Renaissance Painter, 1483-1520 Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28, 1483 ?C April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop, and, despite his early death at thirty-seven, a large body of his work remains, especially in the Vatican, whose frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career, although unfinished at his death. After his early years in Rome, much of his work was designed by him and executed largely by the workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (from 1504-1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates.  Related Paintings of Raphael :. | Self-portrait | Parnassus | George Fighting the Dragon (mk05) | St Foseph-s dream | The Last Judgment. |
Related Artists:
Francesco Maria Schiaffino
Italian Rococo Era Sculptor, 1688-1763,Brother of Bernardo Schiaffino. He was the pupil and then assistant of Bernardo, who in 1721 sent him to complete his training in Rome, where he entered the workshop of Camillo Rusconi. He remained there until 1724, enriching his technique and cultural education by studying the works of Bernini, Rusconi and other sculptors. Back in Genoa, he executed such works as St Dominic (Genoa, Teatro Carlo Felice), in which Rusconi's influence is evident. The marble group of Pluto and Proserpine, sculpted for the Durazzo family and still in its original location (Genoa, Pal. Reale), is based on a bozzetto by Rusconi. In 1731 Schiaffino executed the grandiose Crucifix with Angels for King John V of Portugal (Mafra, Convent) and in 1738 began the theatrical funeral monument to Caterina Fieschi Adorno (Genoa, SS Annunziata di Portoria). The wax models of the Eight Apostles and Four Doctors of the Church that he modelled in 1739 (all untraced) were clearly inspired by the large Apostles by Rusconi and other sculptors in S Giovanni in Laterano, Rome. They were made for the stuccoist Diego Francesco Carlone so that he could, under Schiaffino's directions, execute 12 monumental statues in stucco (Genoa, S Maria Assunta in Carignano). In these latter works the classicizing authority of Rusconi's figures was transformed into a freer and more restless arrangement, the compact forms dissolving in the light, animated draperies. The statues reveal how Schiaffino had combined his knowledge of Roman sculpture with his study of Pierre Puget's Genoese works and with the style of the Piola workshop. He emulated the free rhythms of the Rococo found in the painting of Gregorio de' Ferrari, developing a decorative approach that is even more marked in the Assumption of the Virgin (1740; Varazze, S Ambrogio) and in the Rococo chapel of S Francesco da Paola (1755; Genoa, S Francesco da Paola), which he covered in polychrome marbles. His last works include the Virgin of Loreto (1762; Sestri Levante, Parish Church).
William Westall
English painter and engraver 1781-1850 was an English artist who travelled aboard HMS Investigator on her voyage to Australia. Westall was born in Hertford, England. Westall, like the other botanical artist on HMS Investigator Ferdinand Bauer, was born into an artistic family. His older half brother Richard, was a member of the Royal Academy, and assisted him in securing a place for his younger half brother at the Royal Academy in 1799. During his studies at the Royal Academy Westall's work came to the attention of Joseph Banks, who was at the time keen to find a landscape artist for Matthew Flinders' expedition aboard HMS Investigator. With the support of Banks, Westall was appointed by the Admiralty in London as landscape and topographical artist on HMS Investigator. In 1801, at the age of 19, Westall found himself aboard HMS Investigator. The subsequent voyage of discovery to Terra Australise, has in time come to be regarded as one of the notable scientific and botanical studies ever undertaken. William Westall, King George's Sound in Albany, Western AustraliaWestall began sketching the Australian coast, south of Cape Leeuwin and later on Monday 7 December 1801, King George's Sound, Western Australia, thereby becoming one of the first professional artists to draw the Australian landscape painting. Many of the sketches that Westall created were coastal profiles, to assist with the important task of mapping Australian coastline. The subsequent circumnavigation of Australia took Westall from Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia, across the Great Australian Bight to the South Australian gulf country, to Kangaroo Island, and thence to Port Jackson and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Particularly notable amongst the works created by Westall during the voyage are his accurate portraits of Aboriginal people and the watercolours of their cave paintings, the first European artist to depict the cave paintings.
James Ward
English Romantic Painter, 1769-1859 English painter and engraver. He was the most important animal painter of his generation. Many of his dynamic compositions depict horses, dogs or wild animals in agitated emotional states, the sense of movement being reinforced by vigorous brushwork and strong colours. With their sweeping landscapes and dramatic skies, his canvases epitomize Romanticism. Not content to excel merely as an animal painter, Ward also produced portraits, landscapes and genre and history paintings of varying quality.