Piero della Francesca and Raphael
Floorplan: Level 2
Florence 1300–1450
Cologne and north-western Germany
Raphael, born in Urbino, son of the court painter Giovanni Santi, has always been famous. Until the late 19th century he was celebrated as the prime model for aspiring artists. Raphael's work as a portraitist and painter of Madonnas, as well as his charm, brought him fame.
From 1500 to 1508 Raphael was active all over central Italy, in Siena, Florence and Perugia. There, he worked alongside Perugino, who was once described as a 'divine painter' by Raphael's father. In 1508 Raphael was called to Rome, to work for Pope Julius II. Here he evolved into an artist of universal talents, as successful as an architect and designer as a painter.
As a young man, Raphael had been inspired by another central Italian painter with equally wide interests – Piero della Francesca. Piero, from the small Tuscan town of Borgo Sansepolcro, was a talented mathematician. It is thought that Raphael, Perugino and Luca Signorelli all looked to Piero's geometrical, ordered compositions that refine and perfect the natural world. Like Raphael, he worked for some of the most powerful men in Italy – noble courts, powerful merchants, popes and their entourages. His reputation, however, fell into obscurity after his death.
Today, Piero della Francesca and Raphael are two of the most admired of Renaissance Italian painters. This display juxtaposes their pictures in celebration of their separate – but complimentary – routes to pictorial harmony.
Paintings in this room
The Archangel Michael
This panel is one of three that come from the lower tier of an altarpiece made for the Duke of Milan (the other two are also in our collection). The Archangel Michael stands triumphant after his cosmic battle with the devil (Revelation 12: 16). A pair of scales, hanging on the tree stump to the l...
The Archangel Raphael with Tobias
This panel is one of three that come from the lower tier of an altarpiece made for the Duke of Milan; the other two are also in the National Gallery's collection.The Archangel Raphael is the hero of the Book of Tobit, which is part of the Roman Catholic Bible. Tobit sent his son Tobias on a long...
The Virgin and Child with an Angel
In this painting Perugino has stressed the humility of the Virgin Mary, positioning her directly in a grassy meadow as she kneels before the infant Christ, a chubby baby. He is supported by an angel who looks towards Mary, sharing in her knowledge of his divinity.This was the central panel of the...
Probably by Pietro Perugino
Christ is shown as a prisoner, a rope around his neck. He wears a crown of thorns and a purple robe, props made by his Roman captors to mock him: one of the charges against him was that he was claiming to be the 'King of the Jews'. Dressed like this, he was brought before the citizens of Jerusale...
The Virgin and Child with Saint John
Associate of Pietro Perugino
The Virgin Mary gently supports the Christ Child as he plays with her hair. He casts a curious glance at his cousin, Saint John the Baptist, who is recognisable by the fine wooden cross tucked under his arm, a symbol of Christ's crucifixion. The Virgin's fair complexion and golden hair were consi...
The Archangel Michael led an army of angels to battle against the devil and cast him down from heaven (Revelation 12: 9). Piero shows him as a beautiful, youthful soldier. He clutches the severed head of the devil, represented as a snake with pointy ears.The panel was part of a polyptych (multi-p...
The Baptism of Christ
Piero was the first artist to write a treatise on perspective – that is, creating an illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface. Here, he has painted objects in proportion, so that they appear as we see them in real life. This emphasises the depth of the landscape, but also the harmony...
An Allegory ('Vision of a Knight')
While resting in the shade of a bay tree, the young soldier Scipio has a vision of Virtue and her adversary Pleasure. Virtue promises Scipio honour, fame and glory through victory in war. Pleasure, with fragrant flowing hair, promises a life of ease and serenity.Raphael interpreted the theme not...
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Catherine of Alexandria, a fourth-century princess, was converted to Christianity and in a vision underwent a mystic marriage with Christ. When she would not give up her faith, Emperor Maxentius ordered that she be bound to a spiked wheel and tortured to death. However, a thunderbolt destroyed th...
Saint John the Baptist Preaching
This painting is the only surviving scene from the predella (base) of Raphael's altarpiece for the Ansidei chapel in S. Fiorenzo, Perugia. The main panel of the altarpiece, 'The Ansidei Madonna', is also in the National Gallery's collection. This predella panel would have been placed beneath the...
The Ansidei Madonna
This is the main panel of the altarpiece Raphael painted for the Ansidei family chapel in the Servite Church of S. Fiorenzo in Perugia in 1505.The Virgin sits in majesty on a carved wooden throne with the Christ Child on her lap. She draws his attention to a passage in the book on her knee. A str...
The Garvagh Madonna
In this little picture Raphael depicts the moment when the Christ Child takes a carnation, traditionally symbolic of divine love and the Passion (Christ's torture and crucifixion), from his cousin John the Baptist's hand. The space between the children's hands is the centre of the careful geometr...
The Madonna of the Pinks ('La Madonna dei Garofani')
In this painting, Raphael transforms the familiar subject of the Virgin and Child into something entirely new. The figures are no longer posed stiffly and formally as in paintings by earlier artists, but display all the tender emotions one might expect between a young mother and her child. The pa...
The Mond Crucifixion
This altarpiece is one of Raphael's earliest works. It was commissioned by the wool merchant and banker Domenico Gavari for his burial chapel dedicated to Saint Jerome in the church of S. Domenico in Città di Castello, Umbria.Christ's body is suspended from the Cross. Two angels balance on delica...
The Procession to Calvary
This is one of three scenes from the predella of Raphael's Colonna Altarpiece painted for the convent of S. Antonio da Padua in Perugia. The Procession to Calvary was the central scene of the predella, positioned below the main panel of the altarpiece.Christ looks to us as he carries the Cross, h...
Man on a Ladder
Luca Signorelli
This fragment of a larger painting shows an elderly man on a precarious descent down a ladder. His grip is obstructed by a pair of pincers, which he has used to extract the nails which secured Christ to the Cross. Signorelli was noted in his time for his skill at depicting the human body in a var...
The Circumcision
Following Jewish tradition, Christ was circumcised when he was eight days old (Luke 2: 21). Seated on his mother's lap, Christ reaches out to the mohel, the man who will perform the surgery, who holds a fine blade. The vibrantly coloured marble floor tiles are designed to attract the viewer's att...
The Virgin Mary holds her clothing out the way as Christ leans towards her to breastfeed, and Saint Joseph dotes upon him. By using a plain dark background and a tightly cropped close-up view, Signorelli invites us to share in this intimate moment.Signorelli was well known for his ability to pain...