Raphael Born in Urbino

April 6, 1483

The son of a court painter in the Montefeltro duchy was born in a modest house in the hill town of Urbino. His father died when he was eleven. He would apprentice to Perugino, learn to compose figures with impossible sweetness, and die at thirty-seven having redesigned Western painting. Urbino's cultured court and legendary library provided an intellectual environment that shaped his instinct for classical harmony.