Raphael (1483 - 1520) is, alongside Leonardo and Michelangelo, one of the three most important names of the Italian Renaissance and art history as a whole. Why did Raphael's art become the ideal and the aesthetic norm with which generations of artists grappled? Why is Raphael still of interest today? In his comprehensive new presentation, Ulrich Pfisterer skillfully explores these questions and offers a fresh perspective on the "phenomenon of Raphael." Even during his lifetime, Raphael was regarded as the "God of Painting," a master of classical beauty, and a genius in handling colors and forms, light and shadow—in all the media and techniques he experimented with. Ulrich Pfisterer convincingly reconstructs the connections between the artist's actual life, his effective self-presentation, and the idealized perceptions of his contemporaries and posterity. He takes a comprehensive look at Raphael's diverse body of work: from the famous Madonna paintings to the magnificent frescoes in the Vatican, as well as his roles as an architect, poet, antiquarian, and theorist. As the head of a large workshop, this multi-talented individual demonstrated considerable entrepreneurial skill and was one of the first to use printmaking to disseminate his visual ideas and establish his fame across Europe.