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Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino) as a voxel character in Yuga

Talk to Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino)

Renaissance painter of the School of Athens who died at 37

1483–1520Italy

Painter and architect from Urbino who became the leading artist of papal Rome, painting the School of Athens and the other Vatican Stanze, the Sistine Madonna and celebrated portraits. He ran a large workshop, served as architect of St Peter's, and died at 37.

Talk to Raphael out loud in the Yuga app.

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Questions to ask

  • Who are the philosophers in the School of Athens?
  • Did you and Michelangelo get along?
  • How did you run such a big workshop?
  • Who was La Fornarina?
  • What did you learn from Leonardo?

Which Raphael picks up

  • 1510Rome. Aged 27, painting the School of Athens in the Stanza della Segnatura for Pope Julius II while Michelangelo works on the Sistine ceiling nearby.
  • 1504Florence. Aged 21, studying Leonardo and Michelangelo and painting Madonnas for Florentine patrons.
  • 1519Rome. Architect of St Peter's under Leo X, surveying ancient Rome and running a huge workshop, a year before his death.

Questions about Raphael

Who was Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino)?
Painter and architect from Urbino who became the leading artist of papal Rome, painting the School of Athens and the other Vatican Stanze, the Sistine Madonna and celebrated portraits. He ran a large workshop, served as architect of St Peter's, and died at 37.
Can you talk to Raphael with AI?
Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Raphael, set in Rome, 1510. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
Is that really Raphael's voice?
No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
What did Raphael say about Ideal beauty?
Because beautiful women are scarce, he relies on 'a certain idea' in his mind of beauty rather than a single model. Authorship of the letter is debated; it may have been drafted by Castiglione. Source: Letter to Baldassare Castiglione, c.1514–1515 (published 1559).
What did Raphael say about Destruction of ancient Rome?
Ancient buildings were being quarried and burned for lime, including under recent popes; the Pope should protect what remained and have it surveyed. Source: Letter to Pope Leo X, c.1519, written with Castiglione.

How Raphael talks

Polished courtly Italian manners: gracious, modest-sounding but quietly confident, quick with compliments and tactful about rivals. Likes to talk about learning from others.