It wasn't the sex: bloodletting fatal for Raphael, study claims

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


It wasn't the sex: bloodletting fatal for Raphael, study claims
Self-portrait of Raphael, aged approximately 23.

by Ella Ide



ROME (AFP).- A feverish Raphael suffering from "a coronavirus-like disease" died after failing to tell his doctors he had been secretly visiting lovers on freezing cold nights, leading them to wrongly prescribe bloodletting, a new study claims.

Popular myth has the Renaissance painter succumb to syphilis in 1520 after wooing one too many ladies, though experts widely agree that he died of an infection.

Laid low by a raging fever, the prolific painter, designer and architect, was tended to by "the best doctors in Rome, sent to him by the pope" who feared losing the invaluable artist, medical historian Michele Augusto Riva told AFP.

But according to Italian painter Giorgio Vasari and his 1550 masterpiece on the lives of painters, Raphael failed to tell the physicians of his "frequent night outings in the cold" to visit lovers.

"It was much, much colder in March in that period, and it's very likely he caught pneumonia," Riva said.

The doctors diagnosed a fever caused by an "excess of humours", or blood, and let his blood -- either through incisions or leeches -- which fatally weakened him.

The artist, a child prodigy and part of a trinity of Renaissance greats along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, died aged only 37.

Raphael was sent off with high honours at a grand funeral at the Vatican, and his remains rest in Rome's Pantheon. A red rose graces his grave all the year round.

'His own mistake'
"In that period, doctors were aware of the dangers of bloodletting in the treatment of infectious diseases, but were acting on misinformation," said Riva, who co-authored the study with three fellow researchers from the University of Milano Bicocca.

"A medical mistake, and his own mistake in not faithfully recounting his history, contributed to Raphael's death," he said.




The researchers had been preparing the short study, which was published this week in the Internal and Emergency Medicine journal, before COVID-19 gripped northern Italy in late February.

As practising doctors, they then had to put it on hold when they found themselves on the frontline of the crisis, caring for medical staff who had caught the virus in intensive care units.

"From what we know, Raphael died of a pulmonary illness very similar to the coronavirus we've seen now," he said.

Contemporary accounts of his death reveal the painter's disease "lasted 15 days; Raphael was composed enough to put his affairs in order, confess his sins, and receive the last rites," the study says.

It said it was an acute disease, characterised by high and continuous fever.

"A recent sexually transmitted infection -- such as gonorrhea and syphilis -- could not explain the incubation period.

"An acute manifestation of viral hepatitis could not be considered without jaundice and other signs of liver failure. No epidemics of typhus or plague were reported in the city of Rome at that time," it added.

Despite his premature death, Raphael produced a vast ouevre of seminal work, much of it at the Vatican, whose museums include several rooms filled with his frescoes.

Completed by Raphael's students after his death, they remain some of the Vatican's most popular rooms.


© Agence France-Presse










Today's News

July 19, 2020

Complaint faults museum director for hanging his in-law's El Greco

It wasn't the sex: bloodletting fatal for Raphael, study claims

Exhibition explores the modernist approach and formal experimentation of Harry Callahan and Alexander Calder

Cuomo says NYC museums won't reopen next week

As galleries reopen, two critics find rewards eclipse the angst

Perrotin New York opens a solo exhibition by New Delhi based artist Bharti Kher.

Fire damages French cathedral, arson probe launched

Greek National Opera finds post-lockdown voice

Attempted sale of fake $300,000 antique gold coin

Kunsthaus Zürich presents masterpieces of landscape painting

11th Berlin Biennale announces participants

Exhibition of works from the María Josefa Huarte Collection on view in Bilbao

Jane Walentas, who planted a carousel in Dumbo, dies at 76

Benefit Shop Foundation announces focused auction of Estelle Goodman's art

Hamptons Virtual Art Fair announces 2020 VIP exhibitors list and programming

Nick Gentry creates new series of portraits of the frontline NHS staff with vintage computer punch cards

Brandis Kemp, character actress and 'Fridays' original, dies at 76

Sweden seizes book by Jewish comedian criticising war-time collaboration

Black artists on how to change classical music

Tang Teaching Museum announces online book launch of 'Liz Collins: Energy Field'

2020 Art Quadriennale to propose a new image of Italian contemporary art

New artworks by Jenny Holzer, Mel Chin and Xaviera Simmons join ongoing citywide campaign

FOTOHOF opens an exhibition of the photographic work of Wolfgang Suschitzky

111-year-old Renault with echoes of Downton Abbey for sale with H&H Classics

What is Airbrushing and how to create art with it?

The Art of Staying Motivated All Day Long




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful