Raphael dying
On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the artist's death
According to Vasari, Raphael died on April 6, 1520, on a Good Friday, the mysterious day of the Passion of Christ, on the same day as his thirty-seventh birthday. It was a fleeting and sudden death - and therefore even more shocking - occurred according to rumours perhaps after a night of excess of love, followed by a fever mistakenly treated with bloodletting. Solemn songs and incense smoke accompanied his body in an almost pagan procession. It all happened in the Papal Rome.
As a homage to the "divinity" of such a great artist, his body was displayed in the Vatican, watched over by his last work, the Transfiguration, also receiving the tribute of Pope Leo X in person.
Today is the 500th anniversary of Raphael's death, and we are going to introduce this subject depicted by Rodolfo Morgari (1880) and preserved in the Gallery of Modern Art of Pitti Palace.
Whoever is dear to the gods dies young.
