Who Is Raphael Sanzio?

The importance of the Renaissance painter Raphael Sanzio is that his paintings went beyond the previous work of his contemporary, Michelangelo, by combining subtleties, a greater clarity of form and softer shading to create a more realistic rendering of his figures. He also infused his own sense of grace into his figures and avoided the air of tension often found in Michelangelo's depictions. Raphael's work is known and admired for his ability to visually capture the Neoplatonic and Renaissance ideal of human grandeur.
The work of Raphael, along with that of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, represents an expression of the philosophical outlook of the period of time between the late 15th and early 16th centuries known as the High Renaissance.