This book aims at explaining how Raphael worked and why his paintings assumed the form they did. Though today the painter of the Stanza della Segnatura and the Sistine Madonna is looked upon as an uncontroversial figure--in his own time, and subsequently, his work and the aesthetic principles on which it rested were subjects of controversy. Only in the context of a critical analysis of his work can the magnitude of Raphael's achievement be understood. /