In 1508 Pope Julius II summoned to Rome a prodigious, but untested young artist from the town of Urbino to fresco the inside of what was intended to be his library. His name was Raffaelo Santi or Raffaelo Sanzio, but we know him as Raphael.
Over the better part of the next ten years he (and his workshop) dedicated himself to a series of frescoes in Julius’ apartments that would eventually lend his name to the very rooms he decorated – the Raphael Rooms. Spanning four separate spaces – the Sala di Constantino, the Stanza di Eliodoro, the Stanza della Segnatura, and the Stanza dell’incendio del Borgo – Raphael’s frescoes are considered the artistic pinnacle of the Italian Renaissance alongside Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, which was painted at roughly the same time.
