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When did Urbino become a city?
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What was the Urbino Renaissance?
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The Renaissance in Urbino was one of the most fundamental manifestations of the early Italian Renaissance. During the lordship of Federico da Montefeltro, from 1444 to 1482, [1] a fertile and vital artistic climate developed at the court, due to cultural exchanges with numerous centers on the peninsula and also abroad, especially the Flemish one.
The portrait of Venus of Urbino is named after from the Duchy of Urbino, through the title of Guidobaldo II as the Duke of Urbino, the owner who bought it from Titian. The clay earth of Urbino, which still supports industrial brickworks, supplied a cluster of earthenware manufactories (botteghe) making the tin-glazed pottery known as maiolica.
Urbino, town, Marche (the Marches) regione (region), central Italy. Founded by the Umbrians, an ancient people of Italy, it was subsequently occupied by the Etruscans, Celts, and Gauls and, in the 3rd century bce, by the Romans. It eventually fell under church rule in the 9th century but was ceded.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Ducal Palace (Italian: Palazzo Ducale) is a Renaissance building in the Italian city of Urbino in the Marche. [1] One of the most important monuments in Italy, it is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998.
- Overview
- Early years at Urbino
- Apprenticeship at Perugia
Raphael was one of the most talented painters of the Italian Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. He was also a popular architect during his lifetime.
What is Raphael famous for?
Raphael is probably most famous for his paintings, including Madonna in the Meadow (1505/06), School of Athens (c. 1508–11), Sistine Madonna (1512/13), The Transfiguration (1516–20), and Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (c. 1514–15).
What was Raphael’s family like?
Raphael was born to Giovanni Santi, a painter, and Magia di Battista Ciarla, both of whom died when Raphael was a child. Biographer Giorgio Vasari indicated that Raphael was later engaged to a niece of a friend who was a cardinal, but Raphael continuously put off the wedding.
How was Raphael educated?
Raphael was the son of Giovanni Santi and Magia di Battista Ciarla; his mother died in 1491. His father was, according to the 16th-century artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari, a painter “of no great merit.” He was, however, a man of culture who was in constant contact with the advanced artistic ideas current at the court of Urbino. He gave his son his first instruction in painting, and, before his death in 1494, when Raphael was 11, he had introduced the boy to humanistic philosophy at the court.
Urbino had become a centre of culture during the rule of Duke Federico da Montefeltro, who encouraged the arts and attracted the visits of men of outstanding talent, including Donato Bramante, Piero della Francesca, and Leon Battista Alberti, to his court. Although Raphael would be influenced by major artists in Florence and Rome, Urbino constituted the basis for all his subsequent learning. Furthermore, the cultural vitality of the city probably stimulated the exceptional precociousness of the young artist, who, even at the beginning of the 16th century, when he was scarcely 17 years old, already displayed an extraordinary talent.
The date of Raphael’s arrival in Perugia is not known, but several scholars place it in 1495. The first record of Raphael’s activity as a painter is found there in a document of December 10, 1500, declaring that the young painter, by then called a “master,” was commissioned to help paint an altarpiece to be completed by September 13, 1502. It is clear from this that Raphael had already given proof of his mastery, so much so that between 1501 and 1503 he received a rather important commission—to paint the Coronation of the Virgin for the Oddi Chapel in the church of San Francesco, Perugia. The great Umbrian master Pietro Perugino was executing the frescoes in the Collegio del Cambio at Perugia between 1498 and 1500, enabling Raphael, as a member of his workshop, to acquire extensive professional knowledge.
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In addition to this practical instruction, Perugino’s calmly exquisite style also influenced Raphael. The Giving of the Keys to St. Peter, painted in 1481–82 by Perugino for the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican palace, inspired Raphael’s first major work, The Marriage of the Virgin (1504). Perugino’s influence is seen in the emphasis on perspectives, in the graded relationships between the figures and the architecture, and in the lyrical sweetness of the figures. Nevertheless, even in this early painting, it is clear that Raphael’s sensibility was different from his teacher’s. The disposition of the figures is less rigidly related to the architecture, and the disposition of each figure in relation to the others is more informal and animated. The sweetness of the figures and the gentle relation between them surpasses anything in Perugino’s work.
Three small paintings done by Raphael shortly after The Marriage of the Virgin—Vision of a Knight, Three Graces, and St. Michael—are masterful examples of narrative painting, showing, as well as youthful freshness, a maturing ability to control the elements of his own style. Although he had learned much from Perugino, Raphael by late 1504 needed other models to work from; it is clear that his desire for knowledge was driving him to look beyond Perugia.
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- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mar 15, 2022 · Urbino is a walled town of about 15.000 in the Pesaro-Urbino province of Le Marche, known for its university (one of the oldest in Europe) and its architectural and artistic patrimony, which received UNESCO World Heritage status in 1998.
The Ducal Palace of Urbino is one of the highest examples of Renaissance architecture in Italy, a Unesco World Heritage site since 1998 that should definitely be seen while on a visit to the lovely Urbino in Le Marche.
