🖌️🎨Raphael Santi (Italian: Raffaello Santi, Raffaello Sanzio; 1483-1520) - Italian painter

 Raphael's Madonnas and His Love
🖌️🎨Raphael Santi (Italian: Raffaello Santi, Raffaello Sanzio; March 28 or April 6, 1483, Urbino - April 6, 1520, Rome) - Italian painter, graphic artist and architect of the Umbrian, and later Roman school.
One of the most prominent representatives of the art of the High Renaissance or Roman classicism of the early 16th century.
During his short life, he became one of the most famous and wealthy artists in Italy.
In his works, Raphael embodied the idea of the sublime ideals of Renaissance humanism.
The most famous painting by the great Raphael Santi (1483-1520) depicts a young and very beautiful woman with huge black almond-shaped eyes. The prototype of the "Sistine Madonna" was Margherita Luti - the most powerful and desperate love of the beautiful genius.
Raphael Santi was born on April 6, 1483 in the family of the court poet and painter of the Dukes of Urbino Giovanni Santi.
The boy received his first drawing lessons from his father, but Giovanni died early. Raphael was then eleven years old. His mother died even earlier, and the boy remained in the care of his uncles - Bartolomeo and Simone Ciarla. Raphael studied for another five years under the supervision of the new court painter of the Dukes of Urbino Timoteo Viti, who passed on to him all the traditions of the Umbrian school of painting. Then in 1500 the young man moved to Perugia and began studying with one of the most famous artists of the High Renaissance, Perugino.
The early period of Raphael's work is called "Peruginian". At the age of twenty, the genius of painting painted the famous "Madonna Conestabile". And between 1503 and 1504, commissioned by the Albizzini family for the church of San Francesco in the small town of Città di Castello, the artist created the altarpiece "The Marriage of Mary", which completed the early period of his work.
The great Raphael appeared to the world, whose masterpieces the whole world has worshiped for centuries.
In 1504, the young man moved to Florence, where the entire Perugino workshop had moved a year earlier. Here he created a number of delightful paintings with "Madonnas".
Impressed by these masterpieces, in 1508 Pope Julius II (reigned 1503-1513) invited the artist to Rome to paint the ceremonial apartments in the old Vatican Palace.
Thus began a new stage in the life and work of Raphael - a stage of glory and universal admiration. This was the time of the patron popes, when the world of the Vatican Curia was dominated, on the one hand, by the greatest debauchery and mockery of everything honest and moral, and on the other - by admiration for art. To this day, the Vatican has not been able to completely cleanse itself of the stains of the atrocities committed by the patron popes under the cover of the papal tiara, and philosophers and art historians have been unable to explain why it was precisely in an era of flagrant depravity, in the very epicenter of depravity, that fine art, architecture and literature rose to unattainable heights.
After the death of the depraved old man Julius II, the papal throne was occupied by the even more depraved Leo X (reigned 1513-1521). At the same time, he was an excellent connoisseur of art and was one of the most famous patrons of poets, artists and actors in history. The Pope was especially favorably disposed towards Raphael, who had been inherited from his predecessor and who painted buildings and palaces and created wonderful pictures.
At the same time, a noble and wealthy man lived in the Eternal City - Agostino Chigi, the owner of many estates and lands, the owner of the huge Farnesino Palace in Rome. Following the traditions of the papal court, where it was customary to imitate the tastes of the pontiff in every possible way, Chigi invited Raphael to paint the walls of the central gallery of the Farnesino Palace. Soon the artist created here the magnificent frescoes "The Three Graces" and "Galatea", but for the third fresco "Cupid and Psyche" Raphael could not find a model.
One day the artist was walking in the park and admiring the picturesque landscapes of the palace park. In the shade of the trees, he suddenly noticed a girl resting. Her angelic face was so carefree and pure that Raphael was confused. They say that the artist instantly forgot all the girls, whose attention he had never been deprived of. The girl outshone them all. Enchanted by her unearthly beauty, Raphael exclaimed: "I have found my Psyche!" The painter asked the girl: who was she and where was she from? She, embarrassed, answered that she lived nearby, and her father was a baker. The girl was seventeen years old, and her name was Margarita Luti.
Raphael invited Margarita to his studio and asked her to pose for a portrait. She, a little embarrassed, answered that she had to ask permission from her father and from her fiancé, a village shepherd, whom she was soon to marry.
When they parted, Raphael gave Margarita a gold necklace and asked her to accept it as a token of gratitude for a wonderful day. The girl refused the gift. Then the artist offered her a small deal - ten kisses for an expensive necklace. The deal was made.
Inspired and happy, Raphael could hardly wait for the next morning and hurried to the baker... The girl's father, having received several gold coins from the artist, allowed his daughter to pose for the painting.

Raphael painted Margarita in the studio. The stately and handsome man with refined features and dark, curly hair could not help but please the ardent girl. The artist was over thirty, but he was still very handsome. Roman beauties admired him, noble women became his lovers, but only "little Fornarina", as the artist nicknamed the girl, made his heart tremble.
Soon Raphael ceased to be satisfied with the posing sessions. He became jealous of Margarita, did not sleep at night, drawing in his imagination pictures of the girl's meetings with her fiancé, the shepherd Tomaso. Finally, the artist could not stand it. He paid Margarita's father 3,000 gold coins and took his beloved to Rome. The girl became Raphael's lover, the mistress of his heart. The artist fulfilled all her wishes: he bought her expensive clothes and jewelry, surrounded her with luxury and wealth, assigned her numerous servants who fulfilled every wish of the young beauty. But the insidious and calculating Fornarina was interested mainly in the money of her unexpected patron. She constantly exhausted the artist, remained unsatisfied and demanded more every day. The young creature was not satisfied with affection and admiration. She demanded not only new riches, but also wanted Raphael not to leave her for a moment and to indulge in love only in her company. And the artist obediently fulfilled these whims, literally burning in the arms of his insatiable lover.
The hour came, and Agostino Chigi insistently asked the artist to finish the commissioned work in Farnesino. Understanding the situation, Chigi promised to provide the couple in love with special apartments in the palace, where Margarita could hide from her acquaintances.
The lovers were forced to return. Having learned that his bride was hiding in the palace, the shepherd Tomaso sent her a threatening letter. He cursed Margherita, showered her with furious reproaches and threatened to take revenge. Fearing that his threats were not empty words, the cunning woman called Chigi and told him about the threats of her former fiancé. Agostino, in turn, offered Margherita to become his mistress. And unexpectedly, she promised the confused Agostino everything he wanted, but on one condition: if the powerful signor imprisoned his shepherd Tomaso in a monastery. That same evening, the poor shepherd was captured, and the beautiful "Psyche" indulged in lovemaking in the company of the maddened Chigi. Soon, news of another love affair of the beautiful Fornarina became known. She dragged a very young man from Bologna, Carlo Tirabocchi, who was taking lessons from the great master, into her bed. Raphael's students considered this betrayal insulting to themselves and challenged the young man to a duel. The ill-fated Carlo was struck by a sword and soon died from loss of blood. But nothing could stop Margarita; soon she had another young lover. Raphael tried to turn a blind eye to his beloved's numerous affairs, kept silent when she came only in the morning, as if he did not know that "his little Fornarina", his beautiful Baker, had become one of the most famous courtesans in Rome. And only the silent creations of his brush knew about the torments that tormented the heart of their creator. Raphael suffered so much from the situation that sometimes he could not even get out of bed in the morning. He turned to doctors, and was diagnosed with severe exhaustion. The artist was bled, but it only made the master feel worse. The genius's exhausted heart stopped beating on April 6, 1520, his birthday.
Raphael was buried in the Pantheon, where the remains of the greatest people of Italy are buried. The artist's students blamed the unfaithful Margarita for the death of their teacher and swore to take revenge for the fact that she had broken the great man's heart with a series of countless betrayals.
The frightened Margarita fled to her father, in whose house she hid for some time. Here she once came face to face with her former fiancé Tomaso, who, thanks to her, had spent five years in a monastery. Margarita found nothing better to do than try to seduce him, and bared her lush shoulders to the shepherd. He grabbed a handful of earth, threw it in the face of his former bride and left, never to see the woman who had ruined his life again.
The inheritance left by Raphael would have been enough for the frivolous Fornarina to change her life and become a decent woman. But, having felt the taste of carnal love and carefree life, having met the most famous men of Rome, she did not want to change anything. Until the end of her days, Margherita Luti remained a courtesan. She died in a monastery, but the cause of her death is unknown.
Raphael's paintings adorn the most famous museums in the world. Moreover, thanks to them, in particular, these museums became famous. Millions of people annually freeze in admiration before the image of the "Sistine Madonna", which has long been the main treasure of the Dresden Gallery. They look with affection at the beautiful, unearthly woman, holding out to them from heaven a trusting baby ...But few people know that the earthly flesh of the woman depicted in the painting once belonged to the most voluptuous and dissolute courtesan in Italy - the one who destroyed the genius in the prime of his powers and talent.

However, there is another version of the events described in literature. Raphael fell in love with the dissolute Roman girl from the very beginning, knew her value very well, but in the immoral atmosphere of the court of the patron popes, he did not hesitate to use her as a model when painting the faces of the Mother of God. Margarita Luti had nothing to do with the early death of the artist.

Source: jenskiymir.