Who they were
He was born in Urbino in 1483, the son of the court painter Giovanni Santi, and grew up inside one of the most cultivated small courts in Italy. He trained in Perugino’s workshop, spent four years in Florence absorbing Leonardo and Michelangelo, and was summoned to Rome at twenty-five by Julius II. There he ran the largest workshop of his day, was appointed architect of St Peter’s in 1514 on Bramante’s death, and took charge of the city’s Roman antiquities the year after.
What they did
He was known for the harmony and grace of his Madonnas and for his Vatican frescoes, above all The School of Athens. He became a leading artist in papal Rome before his early death at 37.
Legacy
His balanced, idealized style became a model of classical beauty for later academic art, and he is counted among the greatest painters of the Renaissance.