1483 Raffaello Santi or Sanzio, known as Raphael, is born in Urbino, probably on 6 April. He is the son of Giovanni Santi, a painter and official poet at the court of the great patron of the arts Federico (Frederick) da Montefeltro.
1491 Death of Raphael’s mother. He is deeply affected by the event.
1494 His father dies. He had appointed Raphael’s uncle, Bartolommeo, a priest, as his guardian.
1495-1499 The young artist arrives in Perugia and supposedly becomes one of the disciples of Pietro Vannucci, known as Perugino. Many scholars date his arrival to 1495, but it could well have been later.
1501 The artist finishes the first work known to be his, the St Nicholas of Tolentino for the Baronci Altarpiece, at the Basilica of Sant’Agostino, at Città di Castello, in Umbria.
1502-1504 Paints what became known as the Oddi Altarpiece for the church of St Francis, on the commission of Maddalena degli Oddi, a member of one of the most powerful families of Perugia.
1504 Raphael may well have spent time in Siena at this time. During this period, Pinturicchio invited him to come and offer advice on the painting of the frescoes which Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini had ordered for the Biblioteca Piccolomini.
1504-1508 He spends several years in Florence, which are later known as his Florentine period. He discovers the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo, which influence him strongly. Raphael paints many pictures of the Virgin Mary, in particular The Madonna of the Goldfinch (1506), The Madonna of the Meadow (1505-1506), and The Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist (often called La Belle Jardinière, 1507-1508).
1508 He leaves for Rome where he settles permanently. Pope Julius II asks him to decorate the Stanza della Segnatura at the Vatican. It contains two major works: the School of Athens and the Disputation over the Most Holy Sacrament.
1509-1510 On the order of Cardinal Riario, Raphael completes a painting known as the Madonna of Loreto, or The Madonna of the Veil, for the Basilica of St Maria del Popolo in Rome.
c. 1510 Paints The Alba Madonna, a tondo recalling the Madonnas of his Florentine period.
1511 Raphael completes one of his first Roman portraits, that of Pope Julius II. This acclaimed work would have great compositional influence upon papal portraits of the subsequent centuries.
1512 Around this time Raphael executes the first of many important works for the wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi. This is the mythological Loggia of Galatea fresco for a room in his new villa.
Raphael also takes up architecture at this time. Over the next few years he plans, designs, and supervises the construction of a chapel for Chigi.
1513 At the request of Canon Antonio Pucci, Raphael completes an altarpiece showing St Cecilia, one of the most celebrated of his depictions of saints. In was placed in the church of San Giovanni in Bologna in 1515.
1514 He finishes the decoration of another room in the Vatican, the Stanza di Eliodoro. The artist’s popularity is now such that he receives many commissions. Most are finished by his assistants, so much work does he have. His workload increases even more when he is asked to finish St Peter’s Basilica, following the death of his mentor and friend, the architect Bramante.
1514-1515 Raphael paints the Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, probably with the help of his assistants.
1516 Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici commissions the altarpiece of The Transfiguration. He will work on it until his death, at which time it will then be finished by one of his pupils. Still working for the Pope, he completes a series of ten cartoons for tapestries for the Sistine Chapel. These are later woven by Pieter van Aelst in Brussels.
c. 1516-1517 Executes his Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena.
c. 1517 Raphael paints one of his masterpieces, the Portrait of Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi. It is perhaps his only late work done entirely without the help of his assistants.
1518-1519 Leo X entrusts Raphael with the completion of the Loggia at the Vatican, begun by Bramante under Julius II.
1520 Paints La Fornarina, inspired by the baker’s daughter with whom he is supposed to have been hopelessly in love.
Raphael dies of a fever on 6 April, his thirty-seventh birthday. As he is by then wealthy and admired, his funeral is held in the Vatican and his body buried in Rome at the Pantheon.