---
node: raphael
type: person
slug: raphael
title: "Raphael"
lead: "Raphael was an Italian painter and architect who, with Leonardo and Michelangelo, formed the trio of the High Renaissance."
published: 2026-07-11
updated: 2026-08-27
change: "Rewrote the opening body section so that it no longer restates the page's own lead."
previous_hash: "347eafc7b9392412fc736e2cc0b24c338edf89efadcae2ecce0c57a37d15d7e6"
requester: internal
reason: "The section repeated the lead, so the first thing under the first heading was text the reader had already read in the search result."
image_file: raphael.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raffaello_Sanzio.jpg"
image_author: "Raphael"
image_license: "Public domain"
---

## Who they were

He was born in Urbino in 1483, the son of the court painter Giovanni Santi, and grew up inside one of the most cultivated small courts in Italy. He trained in Perugino's workshop, spent four years in Florence absorbing Leonardo and Michelangelo, and was summoned to Rome at twenty-five by Julius II. There he ran the largest workshop of his day, was appointed architect of St Peter's in 1514 on Bramante's death, and took charge of the city's Roman antiquities the year after.

## What they did

He was known for the harmony and grace of his Madonnas and for his Vatican frescoes, above all The School of Athens. He became a leading artist in papal Rome before his early death at 37.

## Legacy

His balanced, idealized style became a model of classical beauty for later academic art, and he is counted among the greatest painters of the Renaissance.

**This page was corrected.** Rewrote the opening body section so that it no longer restates the page's own lead.

**Why.** The section repeated the lead, so the first thing under the first heading was text the reader had already read in the search result.

**Who asked.** The Media Division itself.