• Culture: Rafael's tapestries once again rival Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel 37 years later

A feverish Rafael with a " coronavirus- like illness " died without telling his doctors of his secret visits to his conquests on icy nights, a fact that led them to prescribe a blood disease wrongly, according to a new study dedicated to the teacher. of the Renaissance .

A popular myth says that the painter, whose 500th anniversary of death is celebrated this year, succumbed in 1520 , at the age of just 37 , to syphilis after courting too many women. Experts agree today that he succumbed to an infection.

The fever that overwhelmed the prolific painter and architect was treated by "the best doctors in Rome, sent by the Pope," who feared losing this invaluable artist, says medical historian Michele Augusto Riva .

According to the Italian painter Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) and his masterpiece The life of the best painters, sculptors and architects dedicated to the life of painters, Rafael did not speak to the doctors of his time about his "frequent and icy nights out "to visit her lovers.

"It was much colder in March at this time, and it is very likely that he contracted pneumonia," says Riva. Doctors diagnosed a fever caused by "excess blood" and bleed through incisions or leeches that fatally weakened the artist, child prodigy, part of the trio of Renaissance masters with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci .

Rafael was entitled to a grand funeral at his death in the Vatican . His remains rest in the Pantheon in Rome , where a red rose adorns his grave throughout the year 2020, marking the half-millennium of his disappearance.

The dangers of bleeding

"At the time, doctors were aware of the dangers of bleeding in the treatment of infectious diseases, but they were acting on the basis of false information," says Riva, who signs the study together with three other researchers from the University of Milan Bicocca . "A medical error, and his own error in not telling his story faithfully, contributed to Rafael's death," he says.

The researchers had a study prepared, which was published this week in the journal Internal and Emergency Medicine , before Covid-19 took over northern Italy in late February.

"As far as we know, Rafael died of a lung disease very similar to the coronavirus that we know today," he said. Contemporary accounts of his death reveal that the painter's illness "lasted 15 days, as Rafael was calm enough to put his affairs in order, confess his sins and receive the last sacraments," according to the study.

It was an acute illness characterized by a continuous high fever. "A recent sexually transmitted infection, such as gonorrhea and syphilis, cannot explain the incubation period." "An acute manifestation of viral hepatitis could not be considered without jaundice and other signs of liver failure. No typhus or plague epidemic was reported in the city of Rome at the time," the study states.

Despite his untimely death, Rafael produced a large number of important works, many of which are in the Vatican, whose museums include several rooms filled with his frescoes.

Completed by the students of Raphael after his death, these rooms known as the Raphael remain among the most popular museums in the Vatican .

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • art
  • Coronavirus

EducationDifferent level to repeat: 73% of those who do not pass the course in Castilla y León pass PISA, compared to 48% in Andalusia

Pandemic The X-ray of the coronavirus in Latin America: 100,000 dead and a "worrying" situation

CoronavirusMadrid suggests that "surgical" confinements be made to municipalities or areas in the event of possible outbreaks of Covid

See links of interest

  • Last News
  • English translator
  • TV programming
  • Quixote
  • Work calendar
  • Daily horoscope
  • Santander League Ranking
  • League calendar
  • TV Movies
  • Themes