Die Sixtinische Madonna

1508–1520 · Wirkungsort

Rome

1511

Under the spell of Michelangelo's ceiling

According to Vasari, Bramante let Raphael into the Sistine Chapel secretly, and while painting the Stanza he was clearly influenced by Michelangelo's ceiling, as in his portrait of Michelangelo himself as Heraclitus in “The School of Athens”. Michelangelo accused him of plagiarism and years later complained that “everything he knew about art he got from me”.

1513

Leo X becomes pope

The death of Julius II did not interrupt the work: his successor, the Medici Pope Leo X, became Raphael's last and even closer patron, and Raphael's friend Cardinal Bibbiena was a close friend and adviser of the new pope.

1514

Chief architect of St Peter's

After Bramante's death Raphael became chief architect of the new St Peter's and continued Bramante's construction of the Vatican Loggias, whose vaults his pupils painted.

1514

Engaged to Maria Bibbiena

Raphael became engaged to Cardinal Bibbiena's niece Maria, apparently talked into it by his friend the cardinal and without much enthusiasm: the marriage had still not taken place when she died in 1520. A permanent fixture in his Roman life was “La Fornarina”, Margherita Luti, a baker's daughter.

1515

Prefect of the antiquities of Rome

Raphael was given powers as Prefect over all antiquities unearthed in Rome or within a mile of it: finds had to be reported to him within three days, and inscriptions could not be destroyed without permission. He wrote to the pope proposing ways to halt the destruction of ancient monuments and a survey to record them all.