0 to 1492 he lived in Lorenzo de' MEDICI's house, where he was influenced by Neoplatonic thought. Between 1496 and 1501, Michelangelo worked in Rome, doing the marble Bacchus (Bargello, Florence) and the exquisitely balanced Piet (St. Peter's, Rome). He returned to Florence in 1501, where he was commissioned to do the magnificent David (Academy, Florence). Shortly after awarding the contract for the tomb, Julius commissioned the decoration of the ceiling of the SISTINE CHAPEL, which Michelangelo worked on from 1508 to 1512. The ceiling is divided into three zones, the highest showing scenes from Genesis. Below are prophets and sibyls. In the lunettes and spandrels are figures identified as ancestors of Jesus or the Virgin, which seem to suggest a vision of primordial humanity. He thought of himself primarily as a sculptor, and a feeling for the expressive potentialities of sculptural form manifests itself in all his work. Many of his designs have survived only through his drawings, which used vigorous cross-hatching. ?"The Grand-Duke's Madonna," oil painting by Raphael, 1505Raphael Santi, lived from 1483–1520, and was a major Italian Renaissance painter; b. Urbino. Raphael's work is the clearest expression of the harmony and balance of High Renaissance composition. His father, Giovanni Santi, court poet and painter to the duke of Urbino, taught him the elements of art. After his father's death, Raphael entered the workshop of PERUGINO, whose influence is seen in The Crucifixion and The Knight's Dream (both: National Gall., London). The Colonna Altarpiece (Metropolitan Mus.) marks the end of Raphael's Perugian period. The five predella scenes, including Agony in the Garden (Metropolitan Mus.) and Piet (Gardner Mus., Boston), show the influences of MICHELANGELO, MASACCIO, LEONARDO, and Fra Bartolomeo. In these scenes he achieved a freer, more able, deeper interpretation than in his earlier work. In Florence (1504–8) he produce...
