G. Breschi – Abstract

The paper aims to focus on a less-known aspect of Raphael’s work: poetry writing during a brief season of his life, while he was working on the frescoes of the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Palace around the years 1517-1518. During this time Raphael wrote five sonnets, some in two editions and others incomplete, drafted on the edges of his drawings for the above-mentioned frescoes. The sonnets are analyzed from several points of view: the style, the sources, the metrics and the language. A conclusive note offers a brief critical review of Raphael as a poet.