“Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione” by Raphael

“Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione” by Raphael depicts Raphael’s friend, the diplomat and humanist Baldassare Castiglione, who is considered the example of the High Renaissance gentleman.

Castiglione is seated against an earth-toned background and wears a dark doublet with a trim of squirrel fur and black ribbon. On his head is a turban topped by a beret.

The lightest areas are the subject’s face, his white shirt which is billowed out in the front at his chest, and his folded hands. Castiglione is painted with a humane sensitivity characteristic of Raphael’s later portraits.

The soft contours of his clothing and rounded beard express the subtlety of the subject’s personality. The portrait was produced as a result of Raphael’s friendship with Castiglione.

They were close friends by 1504, when Castiglione made his second visit to Urbino, as Raphael was gaining recognition as an artist in the humanist circle of the city’s ducal court.

Raphael was commissioned in 1505 to paint a picture for Henry VII. Castiglione traveled to England to present the finished painting to the king.

Castiglione in Raphael’s “The School of Athens”

Castiglione is also later depicted in Raphael’s “The School of Athens.” He is pictured as Zoroaster at the far right of the fresco next to the image of Raphael himself.

Zoroaster was an ancient Iranian spiritual leader who founded what is now known as Zoroastrianism.

Raphael used Castiglione’s portrait to illustrate the teacher who challenged the traditions of the then Indo-Iranian religion and inaugurated a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Ancient Persia.

Close-up of “The School of Athens”
with images of Castiglione and Raphael (looking straight at us)

Baldassare Castiglione

Baldassare Castiglione (1478 – 1529), count of Casatico, was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier, and a Renaissance author, who is famous for his “The Book of the Courtier.”

His book dealt with questions of the etiquette and morality of the courtier and was very influential in 16th-century European court circles.

The “Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione” from 1515 by Raphael is one of the great portraits of the Renaissance, which has had an enduring influence.

The Book of the Courtier

“The Book of the Courtier” is a book of manners which dealt with issues of behavior and morals at princely and royal courts.

Written by Baldassare Castiglione beginning in 1508, and published by 1528, just before his death. An English edition was published in 1561.

In the book, the courtier is described as having a calm mind, a pleasant voice with beautiful and elegant words along with proper bearing and gestures.

At the same time, though, the courtier is expected to have a warrior spirit, to be athletic, and have good knowledge of the humanities, Classics, and fine arts.

The book is organized as a series of fictional conversations that debate the nature of nobility, humor, women, and love.

Raphael

Raphael was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance.

His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he is one of the great masters of that period.

Raphael was enormously productive, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work.

Many of his works are 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.

His career started in Umbria, then for four years he spent time in Florence absorbing the artistic Renaissance of Florence and then his last twelve years in Rome, he worked for two Popes and their associates.

Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione

Title: Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione
Artist: Raphael
Created: 1514–1515
Medium: oil on canvas
Periods: High Renaissance
Dimensions: Height: 82 cm (32.2 ″); Width: 67 cm (26.3 ″)
Museum: Musée du Louvre

Raphael

Name: Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino
Born: 1483 – Urbino, Marche, Italy
Died: 1520 (aged 37) – Rome, Italy
Movement: High Renaissance
Notable Works
- Madonna in the Meadow
- The Alba Madonna
- The School of Athens
- Small Cowper Madonna
- The Madonna of the Pinks
- Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary
- The Marriage of the Virgin
- Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione
- St Paul Preaching
- Madonna and Child by Raphael
  - The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna
  - Madonna and Child with the Book
  - Solly Madonna
  - Colonna Madonna
  - Conestabile Madonna
  - Madonna del Granduca
- Triumph of Galatea

Raffaello Sanzio – Portraits

Explore the Louvre

Paintings
- The Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci
- “Ruggiero Freeing Angelica” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
- “The Valpinçon Bather” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
- “The Turkish Bath” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
- “Grande Odalisque” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
- “Perseus and Andromeda” by Joachim Wtewael
- Self-portrait with Her Daughter, Julie by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
- “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne” by Leonardo da Vinci
- “Louis XIV of France” by Hyacinthe Rigaud
- “The Massacre at Chios” by Eugène Delacroix
- “The Battle of San Romano” by Paolo Uccello
- “Virgin of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci
- “The Death of Sardanapalus” by Eugène Delacroix
- “Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss” by Antonio Canova
- “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugène Delacroix
- “The Arcadian Shepherds” by Nicolas Poussin
- “The Lacemaker” by Johannes Vermeer
- “The Money Changer and His Wife” by Quentin Matsys
- “The Fortune Teller” by Caravaggio
- “Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione” by Raphael
- “Charles I at the Hunt” by Anthony van Dyck
- “An Old Man and his Grandson” by Domenico Ghirlandaio
- “Vulcan Presenting Venus with Arms for Aeneas” by François Boucher
- “La belle ferronnière” by Leonardo da Vinci
- Self-Portrait by Élisabeth Sophie Chéron
- The Four Seasons by Nicolas Poussin
- “The Death of Marat” by Gioacchino Giuseppe Serangeli after Jacques-Louis David
- “Oath of the Horatii” by Jacques-Louis David
- “The Coronation of Napoleon” by Jacques-Louis David
- “Portrait of the Elector John Frederic the Magnanimous of Saxony” by Lucas Cranach the Elder
- “Leonidas at Thermopylae” by Jacques-Louis David
- “Entry of Alexander into Babylon” by Charles Le Brun
- The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault
- “Moses saved from the Waters” by Nicolas Poussin
- “The Battle of Anghiari” by Peter Paul Rubens – Copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Lost Painting
- “Oedipus and the Sphinx” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
- “Diana Discovering the Pregnancy of Callisto” Attributed to Paul Brill
- “Philosopher in Meditation” by Rembrandt
- “St John the Baptist” by Leonardo da Vinci
- “Cupid and Psyche” by François Gérard
- “The Fall of Icarus” by Merry-Joseph Blondel
- “Diana Huntress” by School of Fontainebleau
- “Diana Huntress” by Bartolomeo Passerotti
- “Jewish Wedding in Morocco” by Eugène Delacroix
- “Young Painter in his Studio” by Barent Fabritius
- “Painter in his Studio” by François Boucher
- “Imaginary Gallery of Ancient Roman Art” by Giovanni Paolo Panini
- “Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome” by Giovanni Paolo Panini
- “Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa” by Antoine-Jean Gros
- Portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrees and her sister the Duchess of Villars
- “The Wedding at Cana” by Paolo Veronese
- “Portrait of Antonio de Covarrubias” by El Greco

Castiglione: Art of Being a Renaissance Man

Egyptian Antiquities
- Hunters Palette
- Akhenaton and Nefertiti
- Seated Scribe
- Fayum Mummy Portrait –
Near Eastern Antiquities
- Law Code of Hammurabi
- Gudea, Prince of Lagash
- Victory Stele of Naram-Sin
Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Collections
- The Winged Victory of Samothrace
- Venus de Milo
Sculpture
- Tomb of Philippe Pot
- “The Dying Slave” by Michelangelo
Highlights of The Louvre