What is Raphael?
[[File:Sanzio 00.jpg|thumb|portrait of Raphael.|alt=]] '''Raffaello Sanzio''', usually known as '''Raphael''' (April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520) was a [[Renaissance]] [[painter]] and [[architect]]. With [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Michelangelo]], he is one of the three greatest painters of the High Renaissance. He is best known for his paintings of the [[The Madonna|Madonna]] and [[Jesus Christ|Christ Child]] and for his paintings in the [[Vatican]] in [[Rome]], [[Italy]]. == Perugia == Raphael was born in [[Urbino]], in the region of Umbria, [[Italy]]. He was the son of [[Giovanni Santi]] (d. 1494), who was also a painter, and Magia di Battista Ciarla (d. 1491). Giovanni Santi was Raphael's first teacher, but he died when Raphael was only eleven. [[File:Autoportrait perugino.jpg|thumb|Perugino was Raphael's teacher. This is his ''self-portrait''.]] At the age of 15, Raphael became an [[apprentice]] at the workshop of the painter Pietro [[Perugino]], called by that name because he was the most famous painter in the town of [[Perugia]]. Perugino was famous, not only in Umbria, but also in [[Rome]] and in [[Florence]], the home of [[Leonardo da Vinci|Leonardo]] and [[Michelangelo]]. He had been one of the artists given the important job of painting the Pope's large chapel in the [[Vatican]], the [[Sistine Chapel]]. Perugino was known to have expert ways of painting (technique), and was good at getting paintings finished on time which made him popular with his [[patron]]s. He painted some portraits of people alive in his day, but most of his pictures are of religious figures of the past. Some of his paintings are small pictures of the [[Madonna and Child]] that could be used in a family chapel for private worship. Because he was famous, Perugino also got lots of work from wealthy patrons and from churches, so he painted many very large pieces to go above the [[altar]]s in churches. To do this, he needed the help of his ''apprentices''. Raphael was able to learn a great deal from Perugino - drawing, the [[anatomy]]