In May 2023, Traditional Building magazine launched a new drawing competition, the Raphael Award, named in honor of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbina (1483-1520), a leading painter of the Italian Renaissance who was a renowned draftsman as well. The award seeks to encourage the study of Classical and Neoclassical architecture through the practice of drawing and painting by hand. Winners were announced in November, 2023, and recognized at the Traditional Building Conference in December, 2023.
The work of the seven recipients of Traditional Building's Raphael Award represents the best in traditional drawing and painting. The annual award seeks to encourage the study of Classical and New-Classical architecture through the practice of hand drawing.
Thomas Norman Rajkovich submitted a drawing titled "Ars Recte Aedificandi" (The Art of Proper Building). In the spirit and tradition of the great view painters of Italy who specialized in urban settings, works that were collected by Grand Tour architects and patrons in the 17th and 18th centuries, Thomas Norman Rajkovich has created a hand drawing of an imaginary city. One of a series, the work, which is intended to evoke the linework of 17th-and 18th-century etchings, is pure invention, yet the richness of the Classical language allows the composition to appear at once varied and unified, familiar and new.
Jacob D. Albert submitted "Partal Palace and Garden Alhambra, Granada, Spain;" "Pazzi Chapel and Ponte Vecchio, Florence". To imprint subjects in his memory in a more indelible way than snapping a photograph, Jacob Albert makes sketches. The drawings in his collection were made during trips with fellow travelers wo were sketching. Sequestered in a tranquil courtyard adjacent to a corner of the massive medieval church of Santa Croce, the Pazzi Chapel in Florence, in Albert's ink sketch, evokes in its delicate, miniature manner the triumphal arches of ancient Rome. His ink sketch of Ponte Vecchio in Florence, where shops hang off the sides of the bridge like saddlebags, gives prominent play to the strong horizontal roofline of the Corridoio Vasariano leading from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti. And his ink sketch of the Partal Palace and garden in the Alhambra frames picturesque, paradisical views.
Read the full article and see all the winning entries here.
Thomas N. Rajkovich joined SAH in 1984. He has been a consistent supporter of SAH. He is principal of Thomas Norman Rajkovich Architect Ltd., Evanston, IL
Jacob D. Albert joined SAH in 1988, and is a Life Member. He has been a frequent attendee at the SAH Annual International conference and SAH Field Study Seminars. He is a principal of Albert, Righter & Tittmann Architects, Inc., Boston, MA.