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Young World
Raphael
V.K. SUBRAMANIAN
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Raffaello Sanzio’s (1483 A.D. – 1520 A.D.) painted almost 50 Madonnas.
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Illustration: V.K. SUBRAMANIAN
Raffaello Sanzio, otherwise known as Raphael, was one of the Triumvirate of Italian renaissance, alongwith Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo.Raphael was hardly 17 when Leonardo was 45 and Michelangelo 25, but within the span of a few years, the young prodigy became the equal of the Titans.
His artistic fame mainly rests on the 50 odd Madonnas he painted. They have been called “gems of beauty in settings of peace”.
Purity and devotion
Every Madonna of Raphael is a smbol of maternal tenderness and a tribute to the divinity of motherhood.
All the major galleries of the world possess Raphael’s Madonnas.
It is remarkable that the young profligate, who hardly lived 37 years, could bring such an aura of purity and devotion in his depiction of his Madonnas.
In the eloquent words of Will Durant, “Leonardo puzzles us, Michelangelo frightens us, Raphael gives us peace…He offers us the loveliness of life like an ambrosial drink.”
Pagan sensualism, a Hellenistic sense of beauty and Christian spirituality harmonised in the palette of Raphael and made him one of the greatest painters of his age, perhaps of all time.
This is an extract from the book The Great Ones by V.K.Subramanian, Abhinav Publications, New Delhi
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