Trial of Jesus - Christ Falls on the Way to Calvary

Raffaello Sanzio (or Santi) - more commonly known as Raphael - was born in 1483 and died, on his 37th birthday, in 1520.  A hugely talented Renaissance artist, Raphael and his works are still greatly admired today.

This painting, entitled Christ Falls on the Way to Calvary, is Raphael's oil on panel transferred to canvas.  Created c. 1516, it is now owned by the Prado Museum, in Madrid.

America's National Gallery of Art, which owns several Raphael paintings, provides the following information about him:

Raphael must have studied first with his father, a painter at the court in Urbino. After his father's death, Raphael entered the workshop of Perugino, whose graceful, open landscapes and gentle figures were widely admired. An adept student from the outset, Raphael mastered his teacher's delicate, ornamental style.

Late in 1504 Raphael moved to Florence, where he responded quickly to the innovations of Florentine painters, especially those of Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo's works must have seemed stunningly new. Softly shadowed forms recreated the appearance of reality to an extent never before achieved. Figures were convincingly integrated into their settings and related naturally to each other. In the words of Vasari, a sixteenth-century artist and biographer, Raphael "stood confounded in astonishment and admiration: the manner of Leonardo pleased him more than any other he had ever seen...."

Raphael's artistic evolution continued when he moved to Rome in 1508. There he was influenced not only by the idealized, classical art of the city's ancient past but also by the more energetic and physical style of Michelangelo, whose works he also had studied in Florence.

Click on the image for a much larger view.