Rome (AFP)

A feverish Raphael suffering from "coronavirus-like disease" died after failing to tell his doctors that he was secretly visiting his conquests on freezing nights, which led them to wrongly prescribe bloodletting, says a new study devoted to the master of the Renaissance.

A popular myth is that the painter, whose 500th anniversary is celebrated this year, died in 1520, at only 37 years old, of syphilis after courting one lady too many. Experts agree that he died from an infection.

The fever that struck down the prolific painter and architect was cured by "the best doctors in Rome, sent by the pope" who feared losing this invaluable artist, said medical historian Michele Augusto Riva to AFP.

According to the Italian painter Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) and his masterpiece "The Lives of the best painters, sculptors and architects" devoted to the life of painters, Raphael failed to speak to doctors of his time about his "frequent night outings in the cold "to visit her lovers.

"It was much colder in March at that time, and it is very likely that he had pneumonia," said Riva.

The doctors diagnosed a fever caused by an "excess of moods" or blood and therefore carried out bleeding - via incisions or leeches - which mortally weakened the artist, child prodigy belonging to the trio of masters of the Renaissance, with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

Raphael was entitled to his grandiose funeral at 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.

- Dangers of bleeding -

"At that time, doctors were aware of the dangers of bleeding in the treatment of infectious diseases, but they acted on the basis of false information," said Riva, who co-signed the study with three fellow researchers from the hospital. University of Milan Bicocca.

"A medical error, and his own error in not telling his story faithfully, contributed to the death of Raphael," he said.

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

"From what we know, Raphael died of a lung disease very similar to the coronavirus we know today," he said.

Contemporary accounts of his death reveal that the painter's illness "lasted 15 days, Raphael being calm enough to put his affairs in order, confess his sins and receive the last sacraments", according to the study. She indicates that it was an acute illness, characterized by a 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 have been envisaged without jaundice and other signs of hepatic insufficiency. No epidemic of typhus or plague was reported in the city of Rome at that time", specifies the study.

Despite his untimely death, Raphael produced a large quantity of major works, a large part of which is in the Vatican, whose museums include several rooms filled with his frescoes.

Completed by Raphael's pupils after his death, these rooms known as "Raphael's Rooms" remain among the most popular of the Vatican museums.

© 2020 AFP