ABSTRACT
THE records offer us little in the way of personal touches relating to Raphael’s life; it is almost with a sense of shame that his biographer, in spite of this, attempts to describe the circumstances under which these great works came into existence. Yet there is a very gracious and thoroughly Italian chapter in the story of his life which makes amends to us by records founded on fact—that of his relations with three great Maecenases in addition to Pope Leo X—the Duke of Ferrara, King Francis I of France, and Agostino Chigi.
