Raphael was one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance. Raphael painted and designed many brilliant pieces of work and the stanzas inside the Vatican. He was a master at such necessities of modern art such as depth and perspective and the use of light and shadow, and was the turning point styles of paintings like the use of Madonnas in paintings. Through his short life, Raphael would make some of the most awe-inspiring, beautiful, and influential works of art during the Italian Renaissance.
Raphael whose full name was Raphael Sanzio, (also known as Raphael Sanzi), was born on April 6th, 1483. He was born in the town of Urbino, Italy, where he would spend his childhood life until he was 11 years old. His father, Giovanni Sanzio, was a painter for the court of Federigo da Montefeltro, and as well as being a painter, he was a bit of a poet. As a young boy, Raphael learned the basics of painting and art from his father. However, he would not live with his father very long; as his mother did several years before, Raphael's father died when Raphael was 11.
After his father died, Raphael went to the town of Perugia to be an apprentice of the painter Pietro Perugino. Perugino was a well-respected artist during the Italian Renaissance. He had painted works in the Vatican, and he also created masterpieces like Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter and The Deposition. For the ten to eleven years that Raphael studied and assisted Perugino, Raphael picked the habit of shade and light, and with Perugino, Raphael learned what he is very famous for: depth and perspective. After Perugino's training, Raphael would eventually become a better artist than Perugino himself. However, even with Perugino still teaching him, Raphael still could create masterpieces. One example is the brilliant The Marriage of the Virgin. Raphael created The Marriage of the Virgin before he was even 21 years old, and he was still Perugino's apprentice.