This is a documentary for people who are interested in the art of the Italian Renaissance. Raffaello Sanzio lived from 1483 to 1520. The other two big names are: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1510) and Michelangelo (1475-1564).
If you find religious art a turn-off (Madonna and Child or pictures of saints on altar-pieces) you might want to give this 90-minute film "Raphael Revealed" a miss.
In 2020 the Scuderie del Quirinale mounted an exhibition of over 200 masterpieces, many of them on loan from galleries in Europe and America, to commemorate the death of Raphael (6 April 1520). Unfortunately the exhibition ran into a very sixteenth-century sort of problem: the visitation of a plague, in this case Covid-19. However Seventh Arts was able to make this "Exhibition on Screen" doco.
In the fiercely competitive business of producing and marketing art in Renaissance Italy, Raphael needed a huge talent, a distinctive style, a determination to get each commission finished so that he could move on to the next task, considerable personal charm when it came to talking popes and other dignitaries into employing him, and an ability to organise the quite large teams who were working with him. Of his short life (only 37 years) the first half had to be a crash course in learning how to draw and paint. The last third, twelve years in Rome, were a time of phenomenal output: paintings, frescoes, designs for tapestries - along with hundreds of preparatory drawings, architectural work and intense study of the art of ancient Rome, which was being excavated at the time.
Some of what we call "works by Raphael" should be thought of as work by Raphael and his studio. The frescoes in the Papal apartments and staterooms, of which the most famous is "The School of Athens", required a whole team of artists to be working together. Applying pigment to damp plaster is a tricky business. Raphael's frescoes still look amazing - but Leonardo's attempt to "simplify" the process in his "Last Supper" has not survived well the test of time.
For the student specialising in fresco, ENEL produced in 1993 a whole book (text in English) on "Raphael in the Apartments of Julius II and Leo X" (Editor in Chief: Roberto Caravaggi, published by Electa).
"Raphael loved the girls," said Kenneth Clark in his 13-part TV series "Civilisation: A Personal View" (1969). Raphael's madonnas are beautiful young women, serene but with a slight touch of sadness. For the newcomer, it's Raphael's intimate portraiture that is likely to make the initial impact. This documentary "Raphael Revealed" is a splendid attempt to over the whole range of his achievement.
