Loggie di Rafaele nel Vaticano

Five years after Sebastiano finished the high altarpiece of San Giovanni Chrisostomo in Venice, Raphael (and his studio) began the frescoes in the Loggia of the Vatican. Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) was a native of Urbino (and was therefore called the Urbinese). Arriving in Rome at age at twenty-five in 1508, he had become one of the most accomplished artists the world had ever known by the time of his sudden death in 1520. Under direct commissions from Pope’s Julius II (1503-1513) and Leo X (1513-1521) Raphael was continuously involved in the design and decoration of the Vatican Palace and Museum throughout his residence in Rome while also becoming the architect responsible for the renovation of St. Peter’s and the prefect for the preservation of archaeological artifacts and inscriptions of ancient Romans.