During a time when Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci were the prime artists in Europe, a young man by the name of Raffaello Sanzio was starting to attract major attention with his artworks. .

             The Italian high Renaissance was marked by paintings expressing human grandeur and very humanistic values. No one better portrayed the Italian high Renaissance then Raphael Sanzio, with his painting"s clarity and ease of composition, Raphael was easily one of the greatest painters of this period. .

             Born in an artistically influenced town in Italy called Urbino, Raffaello Sanzio was first taught by his father, Giovanni Santi, how to compose works of art at a very early age. At the age of fourteen, Raphael"s father realized his son"s potential and sent him to a very talented teacher by the name of Pietro Perugino. Pietro Perugino lived from 1478 to 1520, and had a strong influence on Raphael"s early artworks. Perugino was a Umbrian painter who loved to incorporate beautiful landscapes into.

             his paintings. Raphael"s early works resembled Perugino"s so much that paintings such as the Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene were thought to be Raphael"s until the church of San Gimingniano proved that they were in fact Perugino"s. "Raphael was only 14. It is undoubtedly a Perugino calmly emotional, and pious rather than passionate. Unlike the other great painters of this time, such as Michelangelo and Da Vinci, Raphael was born with a great understanding of art and required little instruction if any. Because of Raphael"s great understanding of the arts, he quickly surpassed his teacher and ventured out on his own to the great city of Florence in 1504. .

             At the same time Raphael arrived in Florence, the other great painters of time, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci were the popular painters of the city. Because of the competitive environment of Florence, Raphael adopted many new painting techniques such as shading, anatomy, and frozen action.