Giovanni Santi

Giovanni Santi (c. 1435 – 1 August 1494) was an Italian painter and decorator, father of Raphael Sanzio.

He was court painter to Duke of Urbino Federico da Montefeltro and painted several altarpieces, two now in the Berlin Museum, a Madonna in the church of San Francesco in Urbino, one at the church of Santa Croce in Fano, one in the National Gallery at London, and another in the gallery at Urbino; an Annunciation at the Brera in Milan; a resurrected Christ in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; and a Jerome in the Lateran.

[1] Federico, who died in 1482, was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga.

His poetry includes an epic in honor of one of his patrons, Federico da Montefeltro, followed by a discourse on painting.

The event commemorates a visit to Mantua, where the Duke marveled at the skill of Andrea Mantegna, he then goes on to comment that "In this splendid and gentle art/ so many have been famous in our century/ that it make others seem destitute".