There are many lessons to be learnt from the Italian Renaissance, for artists, scientists and philosophers. Yet one artist’s life and success might even offer instruction for today’s management consultants. And it seems like a timely lesson as he was born on - and died on this day, April 6 (1483-1520).

When the young Italian painter Raphaello Sanzio  arrived in Florence in 1504, he had to overcome the challenge of working in a city where some of the greatest artists ever known were creating their masterworks. Leonardo da Vinci, 31 years his senior; and Michelangelo, eight years older than Santi, were both producing the kinds of art no one had dared imagine a generation earlier.

How did the painter who we now know as Raphael find his own place alongside these renaissance Titans? By working hard and being nice to people, it seems.