Raphaels paintings of what were a composite of their best features?

Answer 1

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino—known simply as Raphael to most—was part of the Holy Trinity of the High Renaissance, along with two other guys named Leonardo and Michelangelo. An artist of extraordinary refinement and deep feeling, Raphael was trained in the Umbrian style by the master painter Perugino and became renowned for his jewel-toned artworks distinguished by the almost evanescent delicacy of his figures’ features.

He was also a draftsman of the highest order, and this summer the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford is presenting 120 works on paper by the “prince of painters” in “Raphael: The Drawings” (through September 3), revealing the technical prowess and artistic genius that propelled him to fame in his own lifetime and far beyond.

To celebrate the artist’s enduring legacy, we surveyed 10 of Raphael’s most popular paintings (determined by their presence on Google Images, the number of reproductions created, and our own aesthetic enthusiasms)—and ranked them from one to 10, in order of their degree of accomplishment.