Raphael

His contemporaries already knew Raphael as a ‘god of painting’, master of classical beauty, genius in his handling of colour and form, light and shade, in short, of all media and techniques he ventured into. Pfisterer convincingly reconstructs the connections between the life of the artist, his effective self-marketing, and idolizing representations by contemporaries and posterity. He offers readers a comprehensive view of Raphael’s multifaceted oeuvre: from the famous Madonna paintings to the great frescos at the Vatican and his work as architect, poet, antiquary and theorist. As leader of a large workshop, the all-rounder proves entrepreneurial skill: he was one of the first artists to take advantage of printed graphics to distribute his pictorial ideas and so to establish his fame around Europe.