Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian: [raffaˈɛllo ˈsantsjo da urˈbiːno]; April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael (/ˈræfeɪəl/, US /ˈræfiəl, ˌrɑːfaɪˈɛl/), 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.

Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio

The Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio (SRS) is an Italian experiential theater company founded in 1981. Its initial development was part of movement in Italian theater which did not require a background in theater but was influenced by rock, poetry, comics, television and more. By the end of the 1990s, the work done by this group had influenced a number of newer groups, winning awards for various works. The performances of this company shuns conventional coherent narrative and focuses more on visual and auditory impact, using silences, word fragments and even animals and machines as performers. The company is based in Cesena, near Bologna, Italy where it has its own theater, but it has performed in various venues in Europe and in Mexico.

History

Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio was founded by two pairs of siblings, Romeo and Claudia Castellucci, and Chiara and Paolo Guidi when all were still teenagers. In 1979, members of the future company attended a performance by Italian theater company Magazzini Criminali (Criminal Warehouse). According to them, they were prompted to dedicate themselves to theater as they, especially Romeo Castellucci, opposed the museum-like quality of the performance, which lacked movement. The group first performed their first work at an apartment in Rome in November 1980, officially founding the company the following year, in Cesena, Italy, (near Bologna) first named Gruppo Espressione and then Esplorazineo Teatro. The young company embraced the Gesamtkunstwerk aesthetic, and originally all productions were written by members.

Romeo Castellucci

Romeo Castellucci (1960 –) is an Italian theatre director, playwright, artist and designer. Since the 1980s he has been one part of the European theatrical avant-garde. He earned his diploma in set design and painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna and founded the Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. Since then, the company has released more than a dozen books and has received numerous awards and recognitions. His company is considered to be one of the most radical contemporary theatre groups in Italy and in Europe.

In 2003 he became director of the theatre section of the 37th edition of the Venice Biennale, and in 2008 he was one of two "associate artists" at the Festival d'Avignon, and created three pieces inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. The trilogy was considered by the French newspaper Le Monde to be "the best play and one of the ten most influential cultural events in the world for the decade 2000-2010".

Works