Anton Raphael Mengs

Anton Raphael Mengs (March 22, 1728 – June 29, 1779) was a German Bohemian painter, active in Rome, Madrid and Saxony, who became one of the precursors to Neoclassical painting.

Biography

Mengs was born in 1728 at Ústí nad Labem (German: Aussig) in Bohemia, the son of Ismael Mengs, a Danish painter who eventually established himself at Dresden. In 1741 Mengs's father took him from Dresden to Rome.

In 1749 he was appointed first painter to Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony, but this did not prevent him from continuing to spend much of his time in Rome. There he married Margarita Guazzi, who had sat for him as a model in 1748. He converted to Catholicism, and in 1754 he became director of the Vatican school of painting. His fresco painting of Parnassus at Villa Albani gained him a reputation as a master painter.

In 1749 Mengs accepted a commission from the Duke of Northumberland to make a copy, in oil on canvas, of Raphael's fresco The School of Athens for his London home. Executed in 1752–5, Mengs' painting is full-sized, but adapts the composition to a rectangular format, with some additional figures. It is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Mengs died in Rome in June 1779 and was buried in the Roman Church of Santi Michele e Magno.

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.

Raphael (archangel)

Raphael (Standard Hebrew רָפָאֵל, Rāfāʾēl, "It is God who heals", "God Heals", "God, Please Heal") is an archangel of Judaism and Christianity, who in the Christian tradition performs all manners of healing. Raphael is mentioned in the Book of Tobit, which is accepted as canonical by Catholics, Orthodox, and some Anglo-Catholics, and as useful for public teaching by Lutherans and Anglicans. Raphael is generally associated with the angel mentioned in the Gospel of John as stirring the water at the healing pool of Bethesda. Raphael is also an angel in Mormonism, as he is briefly mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants.

In Judaism

The angels mentioned in the Torah, the older books of the Hebrew Bible, are without names. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish of Tiberias (A.D. 230–270), asserted that all the specific names for the angels were brought back by the Jews from Babylon, and modern commentators would tend to agree.

Raphael is named in several Jewish apocryphal books.

In the Book of Enoch

Raphaël Haroche

Raphaël Haroche (born 7 November 1975), professionally known under his mononym Raphaël, is a French singer–songwriter and actor.

Personal and media life

Raphaël was born as Raphaël Haroche on 7 November 1975 in Paris, France, and was raised in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine. Through his father he is of Moroccan Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent and his mother is Argentinian. During his childhood and his adolescence, his idols were David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Téléphone, and Barbara. Raphaël played the piano and the guitar, and did not like school.

In June 2007, Raphaël placed ninth on the French Elle magazine "15 Sexiest Man" list. He has been in a relationship with actress Mélanie Thierry, who appeared in the music video for his single "Caravan". On 24 May 2008, Thierry gave birth to the couple's first child, Roman.

His uncle is Serge Haroche, 2012 Nobel Physics Prize laureate.

Musical career

In 2000, Raphaël released his first album Hôtel de l'univers (the title is a tribute to Arthur Rimbaud), but it was not until three years later that he enjoyed his first mainstream success with the song Sur la Route, a duo with famous French singer Jean-Louis Aubert, included in his second album La Réalité. With this album, he chose folk music.