Raphael

The son of a court painter, Raphael showed his talent early. He absorbed Leonardo's composition and Michelangelo's powerful figures, fusing them into a style of clarity, harmony and grace.

From 1508 he decorated rooms in the Vatican Palace for Pope Julius II and became the most celebrated artist in Rome. He died at thirty-seven and was buried in the Pantheon; later academies treated him as the supreme model of classical beauty.