Michelangelo and Raphael

Michelangelo 

Painter, Architect, Poet, Sculptor (1475–1564)

Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy. Born to a family in the banking business, Michelangelo became an apprentice to a painter before studying in the sculpture gardens of the powerful Medici family. What followed was a remarkable career as an artist in the Italian Renaissance, recognized in his own time for his artistic virtuosity.

His works include the "David" and "Pieta" statues and the ceiling paintings of Rome's Sistine Chapel, including the "Last Judgment."  Michelangelo lived most of his life in Rome, where he died in 1564, at age 88.

Unlike many artists, Michelangelo achieved fame and wealth during his lifetime. 

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Raphael

Painter, Architect (1483–1520)

Raphael was born on April 6, 1483, in Urbino, Italy. He became Perugino's apprentice in 1504. Living in Florence from 1504 to 1507, he began painting a series of "Madonnas." In Rome from 1509 to 1511, he painted the Stanza della Segnatura ("Room of the Signatura") frescoes located in the Palace of the Vatican.

He later painted another fresco cycle for the Vatican, in the Stanza d'Eliodoro ("Room of Heliodorus"). In 1514, Pope Julius II hired Raphael as his chief architect. Around the same time, he completed his last work in his series of the "Madonnas," an oil painting called the Sistine Madonna. Raphael died in Rome on April 6, 1520.

Following his death, Raphael's movement toward Mannerism influenced painting styles in Italy’s advancing Baroque period. Celebrated for the balanced and harmonious compositions of his "Madonnas," portraits, frescoes and architecture, Raphael continues to be widely regarded as the leading artistic figure of Italian High Renaissance classicism.

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