La velata

1508

Moves to Rome at the invitation of Julius II

The new pope, Julius II, invited Raphael to Rome, perhaps at the suggestion of his architect Bramante, a distant relative of the artist. Unlike Michelangelo, kept waiting for months after his summons, Raphael was immediately commissioned to fresco what was to become the pope's private library, a far larger commission than any he had had before.

1513

Leo X becomes pope

The death of Julius II did not interrupt the work: his successor, the Medici Pope Leo X, became Raphael's last and even closer patron, and Raphael's friend Cardinal Bibbiena was a close friend and adviser of the new pope.

1514

Chief architect of St Peter's

After Bramante's death Raphael became chief architect of the new St Peter's and continued Bramante's construction of the Vatican Loggias, whose vaults his pupils painted.

1514

Engaged to Maria Bibbiena

Raphael became engaged to Cardinal Bibbiena's niece Maria, apparently talked into it by his friend the cardinal and without much enthusiasm: the marriage had still not taken place when she died in 1520. A permanent fixture in his Roman life was “La Fornarina”, Margherita Luti, a baker's daughter.

1520

His last illness and a fatal bloodletting

Vasari blamed Raphael's death on debauchery, but modern researchers attribute it to a respiratory illness with high fever. A medical error proved fatal: doctors sent by the pope misdiagnosed him and tried to bring down the fever by bloodletting.

6 Απριλίου 1520

Died