When Charles Darwin reached the west coast of South America on his circumnavigation of the globe between 1831 und 1836, he came face to face for the first time with true savages, the natives of Tierra del Fuego. Shocked by their appearance and behaviour, he called to mind the paintings of Raphael: the comparison demonstrated for him the scope embraced by the species homo sapiens. This is the view of Raphael as the Renaissance classic, a painter who - like Polycletus and Phidias in classical antiquity - laid down once and for all what the human figure should look like. In his definition, beauty and normality are one: it was this that established Raphael's fame and at the same time provoked resistance.For the normal, repeated through the centuries, eventually becomes boring, and indeed burdensome.

Paths of access to a classic

Apprenticeship and early years as a master

Raphael in Florence

The Madonna

Painter in the Vatican

The large altarpieces

The patron: Agostino Chigi

Portraits

Epilogue: "Those fine classical buildings"

Chronology