High Renaissance in the context of "Raphael Rooms"

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.

Born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career in the city, but then spent much time in the service of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Later, he worked in Florence and Milan again, as well as briefly in Rome, all while attracting a large following of imitators and students. Upon the invitation of Francis I, he spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519. Since his death, there has not been a time when his achievements, diverse interests, personal life, and empirical thinking have failed to incite interest and admiration, making him a frequent namesake and subject in culture.

Vitruvian Man (Italian: L'uomo vitruviano) is a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1490. Inspired by the Roman architect Vitruvius, it depicts a nude man in two overlapping standing positions, inscribed within a circle and a square. Art historian Carmen C. Bambach described it as "justly ranked among the all-time iconic images of Western civilization". While not the only drawing inspired by Vitruvius, Leonardo's work uniquely combines artistic vision with scientific inquiry and is often considered an archetypal representation of the High Renaissance.

The drawing illustrates Leonardo's study of ideal human proportions, derived from Vitruvius but refined through his own observations, contemporary works, and the treatise De pictura by Leon Battista Alberti. Created in Milan, the Vitruvian Man likely passed to his student Francesco Melzi, and later to Venanzio de Pagave, who encouraged engraver Carlo Giuseppe Gerli to publish an engraving of it, spreading the image widely. It was then owned by Giuseppe Bossi, before being acquired in 1822 by the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, where it remains. Because of its fragility, the drawing is rarely displayed. It was loaned to the Louvre in 2019 for the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death.

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian: [raffaˈɛllo ˈsantsjo da urˈbiːno]; March 28 or April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael (UK: /ˈræfeɪ.əl/ RAF-ay-əl, US: /ˈræfi.əl, ˈreɪfi-, ˌrɑːfaɪˈɛl/ RAF-ee-əl, RAY-fee-, RAH-fy-EL), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

His father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the ruler of the small but highly cultured city of Urbino. He died when Raphael was eleven, and Raphael seems to have played a role in managing the family workshop from this point. He probably trained in the workshop of Pietro Perugino, and was described as a fully trained "master" by 1500. He worked in or for several cities in north Italy until in 1508 he moved to Rome at the invitation of Pope Julius II, to work on the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican. He was given a series of important commissions there and elsewhere in the city, and began to work as an architect. He was still at the height of his powers at his death in 1520.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. He was born in the Republic of Florence but was mostly active in Rome from his 30s onwards. His work was inspired by models from classical antiquity and had a lasting influence on Western art. Michelangelo's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci. Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century. He was lauded by contemporary biographers as the most accomplished artist of his era.

Michelangelo achieved fame early. Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, were sculpted before the age of 30. Although he did not consider himself a painter, Michelangelo created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall. His design of the Laurentian Library pioneered Mannerist architecture. At the age of 71, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the Western end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification, after his death.

Moses (Italian: Mosè [moˈzɛ]; c. 1513–1515) is a sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance artist Michelangelo, housed in the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. Commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II for his tomb, it depicts the biblical figure Moses with horns on his head, based on a description in chapter 34 of Exodus in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible used at that time. Some scholars believe the use of horns may often hold an antisemitic implication, while others hold that it is simply a convention based on the translation error.

Sigmund Freud's interpretations of the statue from 1916 are particularly well-known. Some interpretations of the sculpture including Freud note a demotic force, but also as a beautiful figure, with an emotional intensity as God's word is revealed. The delicacy of some of the features such as Moses' flowing hair are seen as a remarkable technical achievement, but Freud argues that Michelangelo goes beyond mere skills to provoke curiosity in the viewer, asking why Moses plays with his hair, and why he is presented with horns and flowing hair.

Pope Julius II (Latin: Iulius II; Italian: Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 1443 – 21 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death, in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope, the Battle Pope or the Fearsome Pope, it is often speculated that he had chosen his papal name not in honor of Pope Julius I but in emulation of Julius Caesar. One of the most powerful and influential popes, Julius II was a central figure of the High Renaissance and left a significant cultural and political legacy. As a result of his policies during the Italian Wars, the Papal States increased their power and centralization, and the office of the papacy continued to be crucial, diplomatically and politically, during the entirety of the 16th century in Italy and Europe.

In 1506, Julius II established the Vatican Museums and initiated the rebuilding of the St. Peter's Basilica. The same year he organized the famous Swiss Guard for his personal protection and commanded a successful campaign in Romagna against local lords. The interests of Julius II lay also in the New World, as he ratified the Treaty of Tordesillas, establishing the first bishoprics in the Americas and beginning the Catholicization of Latin America. In 1508, he commissioned the Raphael Rooms and Michelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel.

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (Latin: Basilica Sancti Petri; Italian: Basilica di San Pietro [baˈziːlika di sam ˈpjɛːtro]), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initially planned in the 15th century by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the ageing Old St. Peter's Basilica, which was built in the fourth century by Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626.

Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, and Carlo Maderno, with piazza and fittings by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Saint Peter's is one of the most renowned works of Italian Renaissance architecture and is the largest church in the world by interior measure. While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome (these equivalent titles being held by the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome), Saint Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world", and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom".

The Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was one of the founding figures of the High Renaissance, and exhibited enormous influence on subsequent artists. Only around eight major works—The Adoration of the Magi, Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, the Louvre Virgin of the Rocks, The Last Supper, the ceiling of the Sala delle Asse, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and the Mona Lisa—are universally attributed to him, and have aroused little or no controversy in the past. Ten additional works are now widely attributed to his oeuvre, though most have previously incited considerable controversy or doubt: the Annunciation, Madonna of the Carnation, The Baptism of Christ (with his teacher, Verrocchio), Ginevra de' Benci, the Benois Madonna, the Portrait of a Musician (with possible studio assistance), the Lady with an Ermine, La Belle Ferronnière, the London Virgin of the Rocks (with studio assistance), the Portrait of Isabella d'Este, and Saint John the Baptist.

Other attributions are more complicated. La Scapigliata appears to be attributed by most scholars, but some prominent specialists are silent on the issue. Salvator Mundi's attribution remains extremely controversial, and the extensive nature of the restoration may never allow a definitive resolution. The small number of surviving paintings is due in part to Leonardo's habit of disastrous experimentation with new techniques and his chronic procrastination, resulting in many incomplete works. It is thought that he created many more works that are now lost, though records and copies have survived for some.

Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it. Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century.

Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches influenced by, and reacting to, the harmonious ideals associated with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Vasari, and early Michelangelo. Where High Renaissance art emphasizes proportion, balance, and ideal beauty, Mannerism exaggerates such qualities, often resulting in compositions that are asymmetrical or unnaturally elegant. Notable for its artificial (as opposed to naturalistic) qualities, this artistic style privileges compositional tension and instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance painting. Mannerism in literature and music is notable for its highly florid style and intellectual sophistication.