House-Museum of Raphael (Casa Natale di Raffaello) description and photos - Italy: Urbino (Topic)

Rafael's house-museum (Casa Natale di Raffaello) description and photos - Italy: Urbino. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Casa Natale di Raffaello.

Photo and description

The House-Museum of Raphael in Urbino is the very house where one of the greatest masters of the Italian Renaissance, Raphael Santi, was born in 1483. In this house he spent the first few years of his life surrounded by the works of his father, Giovanni Santi, an outstanding painter and decorator. Today, the house-museum, with its charming courtyard with a well, sink and paint pestles, is one of the city's most popular attractions. Inside you can see Raphael's bedroom, on the walls of which there is a well-preserved fresco depicting the Madonna and Child - this is one of the artist's early works.

Despite the fact that now this small and very nice house in Piazzale di Roma is a museum, it looks as if people still live in it. It was built in the 14th century, and in 1460 Giovanni Santi and his family settled there. In 1873, on the initiative of Count Pompeo Gherardi di Urbino, the house was bought by the Raphael Academy in order to preserve the monument of history and art associated with the name of the great painter. The fact that Raphael was born here is reminiscent of a memorial plaque located on the facade above a simple window opening.

The ground floor is furnished with 15th century furniture. In the main hall, you can see a splendid wooden ceiling with caissons displaying paintings by Giovanni Santi. In the adjoining rooms are other paintings from the period and copies of Raphael's. And in the kitchen the interior of the Renaissance period is completely recreated. Among the works of art kept in the house is the portrait of Raphael, drawings by Bramante and a collection of world famous Urbino ceramics.

Raphael lived a short - only 37 years, but a very eventful life. Among his most famous works can be called the eye-catching Donna Velata - a portrait of a woman with a veiled face, which he painted in 1513. It is believed to be a portrait of Margarita Luti, daughter of a baker from Siena and beloved of Raphael. She is also depicted in the painting "Fornarina". Raphael's works can be seen, for example, in the Vatican, and the artist himself is buried nearby in the Roman Pantheon. Today, the young painter from Urbino, along with Michelangelo Buonarotti and Leonardo da Vinci, is considered one of the greatest geniuses of Italy.

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Topic: House-Museum of Raphael (Casa Natale di Raffaello) description and photos - Italy: Urbino.