at Bishop Nicholas' feet may symbolize the holy trinity, or the three bags of gold he is said to have thrown into the window of a poor man's home for his daughters' welfare. Young master Raphael's years in Florence exposed him to a plethora of artistic influences, first his teacher Perugino and then others, such as Donatello's sculptured marble, Masaccio's frescoes, Michelangelo's David, Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, and so much more which Raphael used to develop his fine-tuned sense of style, composition and execution as seen in the "Ansidei Madonna". Raphael achieved excellence in Ansidei Madonna through execution of every minute detail. A master at the young age of twenty-three, Raphael brought new life to well-represented subjects, through careful, methodic performance. Care is represented by what one does – and what one does not do, or more clearly: "There is a saying that a true artist is known best by what he omits." Consider the landscape behind our subjects, it is clean and serene, not overdone with unnecessary detail. When color is used, it is used decidedly and for effect, such as the jeweled robe, the chaplet of red coral. In 1508 Raphael arrived in Rome at the age of twenty-five and already a great reputation as a master of the arts, known for such works as "Madonna of the Grand Duke", "Madonna of the Goldfinch", "Ansidei Madonna" and more. Isolated characters of the Umbrian school The Virgin Mary, Saint John and Bishop Nicholas are isolated from one another, without interchange, a style common in the Umbrian school, and particularly Perugino. Commission and provenance Niccolò Ansidei commissioned Raphael to paint an altarpiece of a group of paintings titled "The Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Nicholas of Bari (The Ansidei Madonna)" for his family chapel dedicated to Saint Nicholas in the church of San Fiorenzo, Perugia. Two paintings formed the predella for Raphael's altarpiece the "Ansidei Madonna." The first, "Saint John the Baptist Preaching", was placed beneath the image of Saint John in the main altarpiece, and is now owned by the National Gallery. The panels that depicted her betrothal, positioned below the Virgin and Child, and another below Saint Nicholas of one of his miracles have not survived. There is some question about the date, or dates, of the painting. Original understanding was that the painting was begun in 1505, fitting with Raphael's style at