Raphael, Santi, celebrated painter, sculptor, and architect, born at Urbino, son of a painter; studied under Perugino for several years, visited Florence in 1504, and chiefly lived there till 1508, when he was called to Rome by Pope Julius II., where he spent the rest of his short life and founded a school, several of the members of which became eminent in art; he was one of the greatest of artists, and his works were numerous and varied, which included frescoes, cartoons, madonnas, portraits, easel pictures, drawings, &c., besides sculpture and architectural designs, and all within the brief period of 37 years; he had nearly finished “The Transfiguration” when he died of fever caught in the excavations of Rome; he was what might be called a learned artist, and his works were the fruits of the study of the masters that preceded him, particularly Perugino and the Florentines, and only in the end might his work be called his own; it is for this reason that modern Pre-Raphaelitism is so called, as presumed to be observant of the simple dictum of Ruskin, “Look at Nature with your own eyes, and paint only what yourselves see” (1483-1520). See Pre-Raphaelitism.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Raphael * Rapin de Thoyras