Among the great figures of the Italian Renaissance, Raphael (1483–1520) is unarguably the artist who has been most widely and consistently admired across the centuries.

He had an extraordinary and perhaps unrivaled capacity for self-reinvention—as he progressed from Umbria to Florence and Rome—and an ability to draw strength from the other great artists around him, seemingly growing in stature the more daunting the competition became.

This insightful, impeccably researched, and comprehensive volume, published to mark the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, chronicles the progress of his career in all its richness and complexity. Sumptuous production values and generous illustrations go hand in hand with its rigorous and wide-ranging scholarship.

The essays explore Raphael’s paintings and drawings, his frescoes in the Vatican Stanze, his designs for tapestries, sculptures, and prints, and his engagement with architecture, art theory, and archaeology. Detailed and authoritative catalogue entries examine many of the finest of Raphael’s individual paintings and drawings alongside prints, tapestries, and sculpture.