Michael Collins

Writer and former parish priest Father Michael Collins talks about his illustrated biography of the artist, Raphael.

Renaissance artist Raphael Sanzio da Urbino lived only 37 years but produced more works than many of his longer-lived contemporaries. Collins examines the milieu in which Raphael lived and worked. Born 40 years after the invention of the movable printing- press, Raphael was just nine years old when Columbus discovered the New World. He died just three years after Martin Luther challenged abuses within the Catholic Church, initiating a violent period of reform. Feted by princes and popes, Raphael’s patrons showered him with lucrative commissions. Collins takes the audience to the scaffold in Florence where the young Raphael met Leonardo and Michelangelo and inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican where the artist made a magnificent set of tapestries for Leo X, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Collins served in two parishes in the Republic of Ireland before travelling to the Vatican for postgraduate studies. He has taught at The American University, John Cabot University and Duquesne University. He is author of books including Secrets and Treasures of The Vatican and Books That Changed History.