Raphael is always third
The seemingly endless stream of articles and exhibitions comparing Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael is a bit pretentious, as if the only way we can understand Renaissance art is through a "fight" to decide "Who is the greatest of the Renaissance masters?" (The Guardian).
These days, art historians favor Leonardo and Michelangelo, who were both from Florence and the "acknowledged champions and longstanding competitors" (to quote the Times of London), whereas Raphael was the "talented upstart" from more provincial Urbino. The first two are consistently admired for their "genius": Leonardo was eclectic and secretive but never finished multiple projects, choosing to live in different cities with different patrons, while Michelangelo seems to have argued with everybody, produced most of his best work in Rome, and had a "passion for male bodies." Artistically, both expressed agita in their creations, both were gay (in private) and lived long lives (67 and 88 respectively).
Not so Raphael, who seems to have had a sunny disposition, worked well with his patrons and finished his projects on time - projects that display a sense of harmony and serenity - and he had a happy love life. But, he died young (at 37) and clearly he is not as popular these days. There is a conventional and contemporary narrative at work here and so it need not be believed.
Above is my favorite Raphael: an altarpiece called The Wedding of the Virgin (1504), originally for San Francesco, Città di Castello in Umbria, stolen by Napoleonic troops and now in Milan. A detail is shown up top. It's the architectural design I like the most, both the building and the characters.
For hundreds of years, art critics put Raphael ahead of the other two. He was, until around 1900, the most admired Renaissance painter, and there is a reason the Pre-Raphaelites were so named: because they were reacting against the elegance (and "decline") they associated with Raphael and later Mannerist and Academic painters.
Another favorite of mine is this red chalk study of The Three Graces for the Villa Farnesina in Rome (circa 1518). It has been widely remarked upon that Raphael was one of those rare artists who used actual women as models.
Finally, there was Raphael's mistress Margarita Luti, aka La Fornarina ("Baker's daughter"), who appears in the two paintings below. First is Portrait of a Young Woman (1518-1519):
It is assumed that Margarita was the model for the much more famous painting from 1512-1513 shown below, the Sistine Madonna, also called the Madonna di San Sisto. Its back story is too detailed to go into here, but it played a significant role in German and Russian art history, inspiring Goethe, Wagner, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky and many others. The cherubs ("putti") at bottom are, if anything, even more famous, because they were reproduced on consumer products.
