Raphael
One of his most important papal commissions was the Raphael Cartoons (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum), a series of 10 cartoons, of which seven survive, for tapestries with scenes of the lives of Saint Paul and Saint Peter, for the Sistine Chapel. The cartoons were sent to Brussels to be woven in the workshop of Pier van Aelst. It is possible that Raphael saw the finished series before his death—they were probably completed in 1520. He also designed and painted the "Loggie" at the Vatican, a long thin gallery then open to a courtyard on one side, decorated with Roman-style grottesche. He produced a number of significant altarpieces, including "The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia" and the "Sistine Madonna". His last work, on which he was working up to his death, was a large "Transfiguration", which together with "Il Spasimo" shows the direction his art was taking in his final years—more proto-Baroque than Mannerist.
Max Raphael
Max Raphael (August 27, 1889 – July 14, 1952) was a German-American art historian. He was of Jewish parentage. He was born on August 27, 1889, in Schönlanke, Prussia, Germany. Between 1924 and 1932 he taught art history to the working class at the "Volkhochschule" in Berlin. With the rise of the Nazis he moved to Paris, where he continued his writing. After the Germans occupied Paris in 1940 he was temporarily interned at Gurs internment camp and Camp des Milles. Once released he migrated, with help from the Quakers, to the United States through Barcelona and Lisbon. In New York Raphael lived in penury until he received one of the first fellowships awarded by the Bollingen Foundation. He died by suicide in New York City on July 14, 1952.