Raffaello Sanzio of Urbino

a.k.a Raphael

In 1483 Raphael was born in Urbino. His father was a painter. He showed talent at a young age, apprenticing with master artist Perugino. He lived in Florence and was influenced by the work of contemporary artists Michelangelo and Leonardo. Pope Julius II and Pope Leo X commissioned him to paint. Julius II liked his work so much that he ordered all the by other artists removed from three of his Vatican apartments. Only Raphael was allowed to paint in these apartments, or stanza. (information from History of Art and What Great Paintings Say)

In one of the stanzas, the Stanza della Segnatura, Raphael painted the School of Athens.

The School of Athens, c. 1511. Fresco; 500 x 770 cm. Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican City. (Image from Wikipedia)

This painting is in the Stanza della Segnatura, named so because the supreme papal tribunal (or Signatura Curiae) met there. Pope Julius II wanted Raphael to paint a mixture of both Christian and Classical subjects in this room. Raphael's School of Athens illustrates several of the leading schools of ancient philosophical thought, including such well known figures as Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and Euclid. Raphael represented some of these philosophers as his contemporaries. For example, Plato is actually an idealized portrait of fellow artist and Renaissance man Leonardo daVinci. Some say including Leonardo in this painting was Raphael's way of paying tribute to one of the great thinkers of his own time. At the far right of the fresco, Raphael's own self portrait peeks out towards the viewer, the figure in the black hat. Some art historians identify the man in white (who Raphael stands behind) as being Perugino, the master with whom Raphael apprenticed. (information from Art Across Time)

I chose to include this work in my collection because I appreciate both the humanist element in this work, and also the portraits of Raphael's contemporaries. I think this is an interesting work.

Introduction to the Project

Your Own Virtual Museum:

Renaissance Wing

For this project, you will begin by creating a virtual museum- in which you are the curator. A curator is someone who manages a museum's collection. As curator of your own virtual museum, you get to choose what makes the permanent collection and what doesn't.

Renaissance Wing: For Part One of this project, you will be "building" the Renaissance Wing of your museum. So let's stick solely to Renaissance art for Part One.

You will need to begin by choosing your artists. You are not limited to Italian artists. You may choose any European artist working in the 1400's and 1500's. You need to have a minimum of 5 artists represented- maximum of 10 artists.

Working from your list of artists, choose 10 works of art to put on display in the Renaissance Wing.

For each work of art, you must have:

1. A short biography for each artist (4-5 sentences)- not cut and pasted, but in your own words. Place citations in parenthesis at the end of the paragraph.
2. A copy of the painting. sculpture, fresco, work of art. Make sure that the image is in the public domain (sites like Wikipedia will state this information when you click on the image) and OK to post on your blog. Make sure you cite the name of the website, etc. where you found the image. This conforms to the fair use policy.
3. Title, date, medium, size, and location of the original work of art
4. A short description of each work (4-5 sentences)- tell it's history, story, what inspired it, any controversy that surrounds it, etc... Place citations in parenthesis at the end of the paragraph.
5. 1 or 2 sentences on why you chose this particular piece for your exhibit

Format:

You may choose any of the following formats (or see me if you have an original idea):

• Blog- your choice of blogging website, as long as it is not blocked at school and the class can have access to it.
• Poster- neatly display the information on multiple poster boards
• Scrapbook or other book format

• Make sure that whatever format you choose, you will leave room to add other "wings" to your museum later in the semester.

See my next posting for an example of a work of art and all information needed for this project.

DUE MONDAY, MARCH 9TH!