Gianfrancesco Penni
Born in Florence to a family of weavers, Penni entered Raphael's workshop very early in his life, and collaborated with him on several works, including the famous Rooms of the Vatican Palace, as well as the frescoes of Villa Farnesina, both in Rome. Heinrich Wölfflin and some other writers credited him with the entire execution of the Raphael Cartoons, with Raphael only creating the initial design, though more recent writers believe Raphael did much of the work himself.
Raphael (opera)
The opera was composed in 1894 for the First Congress of Russian Artists and dedicated to the Moscow Society of Lovers of the Arts. It premiered in Italian at the Moscow Conservatory on 6 May (old calendar: 26 April), with set-design by Leonid Pasternak; Yevgeniya Mravina took the role of Fornarina, Raphael's model and mistress.