Apostelkopf (Studie für die "Transfiguration")

1508–1520 · Workplace

Rome

1517

Living at the Palazzo Caprini

From 1517 until his death Raphael lived in some style in the Palazzo Caprini in Rome's Borgo, a palace designed by Bramante.

1519

Offers to move an obelisk for 90,000 ducats

According to Marino Sanuto's diary, Raphael offered to move an obelisk from the Mausoleum of Augustus to St Peter's Square for 90,000 ducats. He also planned an archaeological map of ancient Rome, but it was never made.

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.

1520

His will: the studio to Giulio Romano and Penni

In the fifteen days of his illness Raphael was composed enough to confess, receive the last rites and dictate his will: he left money for his mistress's care in the hands of his loyal servant Baviera, most of his studio to Giulio Romano and Penni, and asked to be buried in the Pantheon.

6 April 1520

Died