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Carved Wall Decorations

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Technique: Carved
Black Forest Folk Art Carved Wood Chamois Head with Real Horns, 19th Century
Located in Nuernberg, DE
A great looking hand carved original wooden Folk Art chamois head wall decoration. A great piece for a suitable ambiance in a trophy room or the office of a Hunter or Woodsman. More ...
Category

Mid-19th Century German Black Forest Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood

Antique Crucifix w. Bronze Corpus and Stunning Hand Carved Oakwood Cross
Located in Lisse, NL
Good size, finest quality and superb condition antique wall crucifix. This antique work of religious art consists of a top quality carved, oakwooden cross and a superbly hand-crafted bronze corpus of Christ with a beautiful patina. The rare wooden cross comes with superbly hand carved 'fleur de lis' symbols on all ends which makes us believe that this ecclesiastical antique in the Renaissance Style originates from France. This bronze sculpture of Christ clearly depicts Jesus just shortly after the suffering has ended and His body could no longer hold on to life. People think of different things when looking at Christ who died on the cross, but no matter what you think of most, this antique crucifix...
Category

Late 19th Century French Renaissance Revival Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Bronze

Antique Carved Oak Gothic Art Round Panel of Feeding Pelican as Symbol of Christ
Located in Lisse, NL
All hand carved, quality workmanship and symbolic wall panel in thick relief with high border. The character ascribed to the pelican in this context is nearly as fabulous as that of...
Category

Late 19th Century European Gothic Revival Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Metal

French 1850s Napoléon III Framed Architectural Panel with Allegory of the Arts
Located in Atlanta, GA
A French Napoléon III period framed architectural oil on canvas panel from the mid 19th century, with Allegory of the Arts and rinceaux motifs. Created in France at the beginning of ...
Category

Mid-19th Century French Napoleon III Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Canvas, Giltwood

Antique German Hand Carved Wooden Deer Head with Glass Eyes, ca. 1920
Located in Barntrup, DE
Antique Black Forest-style German hand-carved linden wood deer head on a carved wall plaque. An impressive antique hand-carved wall-hanging deer head made of linden wood with wooden ...
Category

1920s German Black Forest Vintage Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood, Glass

Antique Arts & Crafts Hand Carved Oak Floor Easel / Artist Display Stand ca1910
Located in Lisse, NL
Excellent condition, Arts & Crafts handmade solid oakwood picture stand. This beautiful gallery easel is another one of our recent rare finds and it...
Category

Early 20th Century European Arts and Crafts Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Brass

1910s Doctors/Veterinarian Wall Cabinet Buffalo NY Medicine Shelf
Located in Hyattsville, MD
Very early twentieth century hand-crafted hardwood wall mount cabinet. Two shelf inside, that are affixed. To shelf liners and three old aluminum flat head screws were inside for mo...
Category

1910s American Late Victorian Vintage Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Glass, Oak

Tall Abstract Wooden Wall-Mounted Sandy-White Sculpture by Christofer Kochs 2019
Located in Salzburg, AT
Contemporary abstract wooden "VERVE" wall-mounted sculpture created by circular sawing, sandy-white painted on white-stuff. Signed Christofer Kochs, 2019 Due to the exaggerated leng...
Category

2010s German Modern Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood, Paint

Arts & Crafts Coat Rack w. Majolica Glazed, Stylized Flower Tiles & Bronze Hooks
Located in Lisse, NL
Stunning design and good condition, hand crafted oakwood wall coat-rack with unique tiles. This rare and highly stylish Art Nouveau / Jugendstil coat rack is entirely original and i...
Category

Early 20th Century European Art Nouveau Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Bronze

Evelyn Ackerman Panelcarve Scorpio Bas Relief Design Wood Panel
Located in Palm Springs, CA
Redwood bas relief tile panel designed and created by Evelyn and Jerry Ackerman of Los Angeles, California. Panel measures approximately 9" by 9" by 1....
Category

1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood

Chinese Carved Wooden Gilted Panel Wall Decoration
Located in Vienna, AT
Relief made of carved and gilded wood, with applications in different materials. Some chip and repairs. Differences in shade. Wear due to age and use.
Category

1930s Chinese Vintage Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Softwood

Gilt wood Framed Triumph of the Children relief plate, "Biggs & Sons, London"
Located in Nuernberg, DE
A beautiful, vintage alabaster handmade plate, framed with glass and gilt wood. Measuring 11.75" wide, 1.63" deep and 10" high. Displayed in a period giltwood frame. Image size, 4 1/...
Category

1950s German Arts and Crafts Vintage Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Metal

Pair of Architectural Hand-Painted Wall Shelves Brackets
Located in Haddonfield, NJ
Gorgeous Pair of Acanthus Leaf Wall Shelves Hand-Carved and Hand-Painted in a Gustavian shade of gray blue. This set could certainly stand alone as a pair on a wall or functional to ...
Category

Mid-20th Century European Gustavian Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood, Paint

Victorian Mirror with Carved Dragon attr. to Gabriel Viardot ca. 1880
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Victorian Mirror with Carved Dragon attr. to Gabriel Viardot ca. 1880 A great Victorian mirror in the style of Gabriel Viardot. The mirror in the shape of a crescent moon is held by...
Category

19th Century French Victorian Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Glass, Wood

18th Century Italian Gilded Church Tablet with Faceted Diamante Stones
Located in Dublin, Dalkey
18th century Italian gilded church tablet adorned with faceted diamante stones. It reads, "Tabella dei Signori Amministratori del Santissimo Sacramento" which means, "Table of the Lo...
Category

18th Century Italian Rococo Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Crystal, Gold Leaf

The eternal wedding man by Carl Spitzweg Vintage Anri Moroder Carving
By ANRI
Located in Nuernberg, DE
This vintage ANRI Carl Spitzweg wood carving is a beautiful piece of art that captures the essence of a wedding proposal. Crafted circa 1960s, this relief carved wood figurine is a t...
Category

1960s Italian Baroque Vintage Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood

Small Size Antique Handcrafted and Carved Pine and Oak Home Wall Christ Crucifix
Located in Lisse, NL
Another finely detailed early 1900s carved crucifix and corpus of Christ. This sacred and religious work of art is a hand-carved out of pinewood Christ mounted on an oak cross and t...
Category

Early 20th Century European Arts and Crafts Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Oak, Pine

Antique Deep Set First Finish Giltwood Frames with Child Portrait Prints
Located in Big Flats, NY
An antique matching set of deep set first finish giltwood frames having foliate decoration and housing portrait prints of young children, signed and numbered, 19th century. Measures...
Category

Late 19th Century Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Metal

Unique Fine Table Altar Crucifix with Bronze Sculptures of Christ, Mary and John
Located in Lisse, NL
Large and exceptional work of religious art. If you are a collector of truly exceptional church artefacts then this early 20th century altar piece could be perfect for you. With church related antiques as one of our specialties we know that you will rarely find a better quality altar crucifix...
Category

Early 20th Century Belgian Gothic Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Brass, Bronze

After Raffaello Sanzio 1483-1520 Raphael La Madonna Della Seggiola Oil on Canvas
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A fine Italian 19th century oil painting on canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Ma...
Category

Late 19th Century Italian Baroque Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Canvas, Giltwood

19th century Chinese Window Screen Panel
Located in Chapel Hill, NC
19th century Chinese window screen panel. Carved elm. Elaborately carved featuring panels of birds, mythical creatures & other animals. Makes a wonderfu...
Category

19th Century Chinese Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Elm

Early 19th Century French School Vanitas Still Life Oil Painting on Canvas
Located in London, GB
Antique Vanitas Oil Painting, Antique Memento Mori Oil Painting, Antique Skull Oil Painting, Gothic Antique Painting, 19th Century Vanitas Still Life Oil Painting. Early 19th Century French Vanitas Oil Painting on Canvas. The Old Master Vanitas Still Life Painting depicts a skull, book and rosary. Oil on canvas, lined. Unsigned. In gold gilt period frame. Very well painted, attractive & highly decorative Vanitas skull...
Category

Early 19th Century French Gothic Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Canvas, Wood, Giltwood, Paint

Oil on Canvas "the Prohibited Reading" After Karel Ooms
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A Large Continental Oil on Canvas "The Prohibited Reading " after Karel Ooms (Belgium, 1845-1900). This beautiful executed painting depicts a historical scene of an old man and a young woman who are huddled over a bible. The pair is gazing in apparent concern or alarm, over the old man's shoulder, towards something outside of the picture. The scene is likely set in the 16th or 17th century when Protestants were prosecuted, amongst others, for reading the bible in the vernacular, a practice prohibited by the Catholic Church at the time. Signed (l/r) A. Ribas 15-12-913. Within a giltwood carved frame. circa: Probably Belgium, 1913. Karel Ooms was born in Dessel on January 27, 1845 as the youngest son of a large peasant family. At school his extraordinary talent for drawing was discovered. When he was twelve his hometown provided financial support which allowed him to study at the Antwerp Academy of fine Arts. One of his teachers at the Academy was Nicaise de Keyser, one of the key figures in the Belgian Romantic-historical school of painting and a painter of mainly history paintings and portraits. After graduating from the Academy 1865 Karel Ooms was welcomed with pomp in his home town Dessel. He painted two altarpieces for the local church Saint Nicolas, to express his gratitude to his city. Karel Ooms settled as an independent artist in Antwerp around 1871. He quickly established a reputation as a portrait painter. In addition, he received commissions for religious paintings and history paintings. He gained particular recognition with two large paintings...
Category

Early 20th Century Belgian Renaissance Revival Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Canvas, Giltwood

Oceanic Vintage Shield, Tribal Wall Art, Papua New Guinea, Late 19th Century
Located in Odense, DK
A large decorative and rare hand carved tribal war shield in traditional colors, made in Papua New Guinea in the late 19th century. Functional as beautiful ...
Category

Late 19th Century Papua New Guinean Primitive Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood, Paint

Italian Carved Wood Depiction of "The Last Supper"
Located in Los Angeles, CA
19th C. bas-relief panel which is a type of sculpture where the design in only slightly raised from the background surface, creating a shallow, low-relief effect. The relief depicts...
Category

19th Century Italian Renaissance Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood, Paint

16th Century Oil Painting of Emperor Frederic III by School of Hans Burgkmair
Located in London, GB
16th Century Oil Painting of Holy Roman Emperor Frederic III, Antique Religious Oil Painting, Antique Royal King Oil Painting, Hans Burgkmair the older. 16th Century Oil Painting on board of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederic III by circle or school of Hans Burgkmair the older (1473 - 1531). Portrait of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederic III. (1415 – 1493). Oil on wooden panel. Described top right. In later attractive European gilt frame with black & gilt inner decoration, circa 18th Century. Hans Burgkmair was a German woodcut...
Category

16th Century German Renaissance Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood, Paint

Swedish Gustavian Period 1790s Blue Painted Wall Hanging Corner Cabinet
Located in Atlanta, GA
A Swedish Gustavian period painted wood wall hanging corner cabinet from the late 18th century, with blue paint, single door and weathered appearance. Created in Sweden during the la...
Category

Late 18th Century Swedish Gustavian Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood

Spanish Alms Box / Wall Decoration with Carved Saints Detail, 18th Century
Located in Barcelona, ES
Carved wood hand painted donation / offering ALM Box, Spain, 18th century. Polychromed carved wood church collection offering donation money box as wall decoration. This alms box is made of pine wood painted in shades of blue and gray with carved saint figures onamentations decorating the top. Wall hanging collection / donation money box. Originally used to collect donations at Christian churches/chapels. Interesting to be used as key box or key cabinet or as wall decoration Rare find. Provenance: Private collection. No key avaliable. Overall Measures: Saints Box: 33 cm H x 37 cm W x 14 cm D Poor...
Category

18th Century Spanish Medieval Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood, Pine

Antique Italian Reliquary
Located in New York, NY
A 19th century Italian reliquary with silver thread double-headed eagle and foliage and floral motif on a red silk background.  Inscriptions with sev...
Category

19th Century Italian Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood

Rare Art Nouveau Era Corner Bracket / Shelf with Amphictyonis Mask / Sculpture
Located in Lisse, NL
Amazing and hand carved pine wood corner shelf, depicting Amphictyonis, the goddess of wine. The Greek god of wine Dionysos or Bacchus as he was known in Rome, probably is much be...
Category

Early 20th Century European Jugendstil Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Pine

Italian Renaissance Fruit Still Life
Located in Queens, NY
Italian Renaissance style still life of fruit with gold serving pieces displayed in front of a green drape in a gilt carved frame Condition: Good; Wear consistent with age and use
Category

Late 20th Century Renaissance Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Paint

Antique 19th Century German Grunderzeit Wall Cabinet / Small Cabinet Carved Oak
Located in Ijzendijke, NL
Magnificent and very rare Gründerzeit wall cabinet handmade from European oak. Striking German design from the 1880s made with exquisite craftsmanship. Solid oak and original oak...
Category

Late 19th Century German Neoclassical Revival Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood, Oak

Antique Giltwood Picture Frame. English 18th Century
Located in St Annes, Lancashire
Lovely Georgian giltwood picture frame Carved pine with shallow gesso and gilt Original patina Internally or sight measures 19.25 x 24 inches. 48.5 x 61 cm Free UK shipping
Category

Late 18th Century English George III Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Giltwood

19th Century Black Forest Carved Wood Fish Trophy Wall Plaque
Located in Austin, TX
Oversize and spectacular 19th century Black Forest carved wood trophy wall plaque with a large fish. Beautiful carved border with acanthus leaves. Measur...
Category

1880s French Black Forest Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood

Serge Roche Style Neoclassical Wall-Mounted Stone Plaster Console Table, France
Located in Miami, FL
Large wall mounted console table or shelf in the style of Serge Roche made in France in the 1950. Scrolled and hand carved wall brackets made out of Plaster holding the taupe color ...
Category

1950s French Neoclassical Vintage Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Sandstone

Pair of Italian Friezes 18th Century Blue Painted Gilwood Wall Decorative Panels
Located in Milano, MI
Pair of 1700s Italian Wall Decorative Panels, a pair of blue laquer vertical frieze dating back to late 18th century, with a stunning  hand-carved gilded relief  candelabra decoratio...
Category

18th Century and Earlier Italian Renaissance Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Gold Leaf

Victorian Mirror with Carved Dragon Attr. to Gabriel Viardot, ca. 1880
Located in Berghuelen, DE
A great Victorian mirror in the style of Gabriel Viardot. The mirror in the shape of a painters palette is held by a wooden winged dragon. Manufactured in France ca. 1880. Very good ...
Category

19th Century French Victorian Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Glass, Wood

Antique German Barometer with Hand-Carved Oak Leaves and Acorns, 1920s
Located in Barntrup, DE
German Black Forest style barometer with fine hand-carved oak branches, leaves, and acorns. Dimensions: height 30 cm / 11.81 in; width 24 cm / 9.44 in; depth 5 cm / 1.96 in. In good ...
Category

1920s German Black Forest Vintage Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Metal

Pair of Antique French Carved Pine Panels
Located in Bridgeport, CT
Pair of very decorative Antique French Carved Pine Panels featuring center medallions with musical instruments, sheet music and floral/foliate motifs. Framed with raised moldings and carved leafy scrolls. Likely door insets from an Armoire...
Category

19th Century French French Provincial Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Pine

Pair of English 19th Century Carved Giltwood Brackets with Foliage and Flowers
Located in Atlanta, GA
A pair of English carved giltwood brackets from the 19th century, with scrolling foliage and flowers. Created in England during the 19th centu...
Category

19th Century English Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Giltwood

Butterfly Crystals Wall Decoration
Located in Paris, FR
Wall Decoration Butterfly Crystals with frame polished stainless steel. With swordfish artwork on plexiglass with Swarovski carved crystals inserts.
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Crystal, Stainless Steel

Monumental Sculpted Door by Gilbert de Smet
By Gilbert de Smet
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Gilbert de Smet. Born in 1932 to Erembodegem in Belgium Monumental sculpted door, 1969. Carved oak and metal parts These doors were exhibited in 1969 at the Blanckenberge Casino, w...
Category

20th Century Belgian Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Metal

Mughal Indian Handcrafted Decorative Hammered Moorish Brass Tray
Located in North Hollywood, CA
Large handcrafted decorative Indian Mughal Moorish brass tray. Embossed and hammered with floral and mystique animal scenes with Arabic script etched. Large decorative hanging...
Category

19th Century Indian Moorish Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Brass

Antique Mini Neoclassical Grand Tour Style Oil Painting On Board of A Landscape
Located in Swedesboro, NJ
Dimensions: (FRAME)-H: 7 3/4in W: 9 1/8in D: 1 3/4in (PAINTING)- H: 4 1/2in W: 5 7/8in D: 1 3/4in This Miniature Antique Neoclassical Grand Tour Style Oil Painting On Board of A ...
Category

Early 20th Century German Neoclassical Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood, Paint

Italian 17th Century Oil on Canvas Head of Christ Crowned with Thorns, Mignard
By (circle of) Pierre Mignard
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A very fine Italian 17th century oval oil on canvas "Head of Christ Crowned with Thorns" Circle of Pierre Mignard (French, 1612-1695) within...
Category

17th Century French Baroque Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Canvas, Giltwood

Attributed to Giorgio Lucchesi, Oil on Canvas "Madonna & Child" After Murillo
By Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Attributed to Giorgio Lucchesi (1855-1941) A large and impressive early 20th century oil on canvas "Madonna and Child" after Bartolomé Esteban Murillo...
Category

1910s Italian Baroque Vintage Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Canvas, Giltwood

Early 19th Century European Oil on Board Portrait of a Woman with Tired Feet
Located in Chicago, IL
This charming oil on mahogany board depicts a portrait of a young woman in typical early 19th-century fashion surrounded by foliage while she sits on a rock tending to her shoe. Hous...
Category

Early 19th Century Early Victorian Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Mahogany, Paint

EARLY 19th CENTURY PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN IN UNIFORM
Located in Firenze, FI
Splendid oil portrait on canvas of a gentleman in uniform, identified as Professor Moses Bosisio, mayor of Monza, who died in 1846, as reported on a plaque on the back of the paintin...
Category

Early 19th Century Italian Empire Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Canvas, Wood

Decorative Fine Carved Wood Wall Panel
Located in Germantown, MD
Decorative Fine Carved Wood Wall Panel Measures 45" in width, 20" in height
Category

20th Century Unknown Primitive Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood

Marvelous Antique Carved Wood Locksmith Trade Sign
Located in Hopewell, NJ
A wonderful early 20th century carved mahogany locksmith trade sign in the shape of a large key. Makes an unexpected piece of wall art as a found object with tons of character.
Category

Early 20th Century American Folk Art Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Wood

Antique Salvaged Carved Wooden Architectural Wall Brackets, Corbels or Shelves
Located in Hamilton, Ontario
This matched pair of antique hand-carved walnut wall brackets were salvaged from an early Victorian house in Montreal, Canada. The brackets are unsigned, but presumed to have originated from Canada in approximately 1850 in the period Victorian style. The brackets are solid walnut in their composition and have ornate decorative carvings. These wall corbels...
Category

Mid-19th Century Canadian Early Victorian Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Walnut

Chinese Export Reverse Glass Paintings, Set of Four, circa 1825
Located in Kinderhook, NY
A set of four circa 1825 Chinese Export polychrome reverse glass paintings comprised of figural court views and battle scenes in original 'Chinese Chippendale' parcel-gilt aubergine lacquer frames and reverse backboards. A remarkable and exceptionally rare set of good size and condition. Provenance: Legendary fine English antiques...
Category

Early 19th Century Chinese Chinese Export Antique Carved Wall Decorations

Materials

Glass, Wood, Giltwood, Lacquer, Paint

After Raffaello Sanzio 1483-1520 Raphael La Madonna della Seggiola Oil on Canvas
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A Fine Italian 19th Century Oil Painting on Canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved gilt wood and gesso frame, which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola painted in 1514 and currently exhibited and part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. The bodies of the Virgin, Christ, and the boy Baptist fill the whole picture. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the painting. A retailer's label reads " Fred K/ Keer's Sons - Framers and Fine Art Dealers - 917 Broad St. Newark, N.J." - Another label from the gilder reads "Carlo Bartolini - Doratore e Verniciatori - Via Maggio 1924 - Firenze". Circa: 1890-1900. Subject: Religious painting Canvas diameter: 28 inches (71.1 cm) Frame height: 54 inches (137.2 cm) Frame width: 42 1/2 inches (108 cm) Frame depth: 5 1/2 inches (14 cm) Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian, March 28 or April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region, where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly successful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino by the Pope - Urbino formed part of the Papal States - and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was rather more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for masque-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the ruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depiction of it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. He became close to other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full humanistic education however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin. Early Life and Works His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until 1498 was based in nearby Città di Castello. According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed—eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern art historians claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500. His first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the Mond Crucifixion (about 1503) and the Brera Wedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in fresco, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintings in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael, and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil of Perugino, Pinturicchio, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career. Influence of Florence Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period...
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