Raphael's Death at 37: Vasari's Account of Fatal Excess and the Mystery of La Fornarina

Raphael Sanzio died on Good Friday in 1520 at age 37, with Giorgio Vasari attributing his death to excessive sexual activity that unbalanced his humors. The Renaissance painter fell ill for 15 days, received last rites, and dictated a will providing for his mistress through his servant Baviera. His studio contents were left to artists Giulio Romano and Gianfrancesco Penni. Raphael was buried in the Pantheon following a grand funeral, his sarcophagus bearing an inscription about Nature fearing conquest. Though engaged to Maria Bibbiena, niece of Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena, he showed little enthusiasm for the marriage; she died unmarried in 1520. His Roman companion was Margarita Luti, known as La Fornarina, daughter of baker Francesco Luti. Gustave Flaubert mentioned her beauty in his Dictionary of Received Ideas, while 16th-century marginalia in Vasari's Lives and an 1806 letter by Melchior Missirini describe their meeting when Raphael saw her bathing in the Tiber near his Trastevere home. Raphael's works include La Velata (1516) at Palazzo Pitti in Florence and La Fornarina (1518–1520) at Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome.