A letter written by Raphael to his uncle Simone Ciarla on the 1st of July 1514 is of incalculable importance for the light it throws upon the master's private life and character. It is written by a man flushed with success, but modest withal—in the full enjoyment of all the gifts that fortune and his talent and tact have brought to him, but in no way overbearing or boastful. And through it all sounds a note of cool calculation—in money matters as well as in the weighing of matrimonial chances. He states the amount of his fortune, of his salary as architect of St. Peter's, and of the payments that are to be made to him for "work in hand." And in the same way he refers to an "advantageous match" proposed to him by Cardinal Bibbiani, to which he has already pledged himself, but should it fall to the ground, "I will fall in with your wishes"—a reference apparently to an eligible matrimonial candidate in Urbino. Nor are there chances lacking in Rome, where, indeed, he knows of a pretty girl with a dowry of 3000 gold crowns! He also mentions with no little pride that he is living in Rome in his own house.

These remarks about his matrimonial schemes take us to one of the most interesting and most disputed chapters of Raphael's life—his irregular attachment to the "Bella Fornarina," the beautiful daughter of a baker from Siena, which is referred to first by Vasari, and then, in 1665, by Fabio Chigi, and has been treated as mere invention by many modern writers. The evidence collected by Signor Rodolfo Lanciani proves, however, the truth of Vasari's story, and furthermore establishes the name and ultimate fate of the "Fornarina." According to local tradition, three houses in Rome are pointed out as the successive homes of Raphael's inamorata; and each of these houses is in close proximity to the buildings, on the decoration of which the master was successively employed. The first of these houses in the Via di Sta. Dorotea is still occupied by a bakery known as "il forno della Fornarina;" the second is in the Vicolo del Cedro near St. Egidio in Trastevere; and the third is the Palazzetto Sassi, which has a tablet let into the wall with an inscription to the effect that "Tradition says that the one who became so dear to Raphael, and whom he raised to fame, lived in this house."

It has now been ascertained from a census return made under Leo X. in 1518, that one of the houses of the Sassi family was occupied by the baker Francesco from Siena, which completely tallies with the tradition that "Margherita, donna di Raffaello," as she is described in a contemporary marginal note in a copy of the Giunta edition of Vasari in 1568, was the daughter of a baker from Siena. But even more decisive is the proof which was found in 1897 in an entry in the ledger of the Congregation of Sant'Apollonia in Trastevere, a kind of home for fallen and repentant women. This entry, which is under the date of the 18th August 1520, that is a little over four months after Raphael's death, runs as follows: "A di 18 Augusti 1520 Hoggi e stata recenta nel nro Conservatorio ma^a Margarita vedoa, figliola del quondam Francescho Luti da Siena." ("August 18, 1520.—To-day has been received into our establishment the widow Margarita, daughter of the late Francesco Luti of Siena.") The remarkable coincidence of dates and names leaves no doubt that this "widow" was the Bella Fornarina, Margherita, the daughter of the baker Francesco from Siena, and the beautiful creature who served Raphael as model for the "Donna Velata," for the "Sistine Madonna," and for one of the heads in the "St. Cecilia."

The story goes that Raphael's attachment lasted up to the time of his death, when, on the insistence of the Pope's messenger who was to bring the dying man the benediction, she was removed from the room. Vasari also relates that in his will Raphael "left her a sufficient provision wherewith she might live in decency." His long infatuation with the baker's daughter may well account for his unwillingness to enter into the bonds of matrimony even with as desirable and noble a partner as Cardinal Bernardo Divizio's niece, Maria Bibbiena, to whom he was practically engaged in 1514, and who after years of postponement is said to have died of a broken heart. Vasari's statement that Raphael's hesitation was due to the prospect of a cardinal's hat being bestowed upon him is utterly untrustworthy and contrary to all precedent and reason. It is much more likely that Raphael considered it diplomatic to humour a man in as powerful a position as Cardinal Bibbiena, and to agree to become engaged to his niece, even though his own position at the time was such that he could speak on terms of equality to cardinals, as may be gathered from this witty repartee recorded by his friend Baldassare Castiglione: Two cardinals, who examined a painting upon which he was just engaged, found fault with the redness of the complexion of St. Peter and St. Paul. "My Lords," retorted Raphael, "be not concerned; because I painted them so with full intention, since we have reason to believe that St. Peter and St. Paul are as red in Heaven as you see them here, for shame that their Church should be governed by such as you!"

But we must return to Raphael's work in the last decade of his life. He could now no longer devote himself entirely to the art of his choice, and found it utterly impossible to cope with the multitude of commissions that were showered upon him by the mighty of this earth, even though a swarm of assistants were constantly kept at work. The vain appeals of Isabella d'Este for a small painting from his hand prove the difficulty of obtaining such a favour. For Raphael was now the Pope's architect and superintendent of ceremonies, and in 1515 he was appointed inspector of antiquities in succession to Fra Giocondo of Verona. He had to paint scenery and to design medals and plans; and on one occasion he was actually called upon to paint a life-size elephant on the walls of the Vatican!

Yet, with all these absorbing occupations he found time to model several reliefs for the Chigi tomb in the Chigi Chapel of St. Maria del Popolo, notably a panel of classic design representing "Christ and the Woman of Samaria," which was cast in bronze by Lorenzotto, who also executed in marble a statue of Jonah from a model by Raphael. He furnished the architectural designs of the Villa Madama for Giulio dei Medici (afterwards Clement VII.) and several other palaces in Rome, and also for the dainty Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence, where the alternating arched and triangular pediments are for the first time introduced in secular Renaissance architecture. He furnished the engraver Marcantonio Raimondi of Bologna with designs like the famous "Judgment of Paris." He planned and began an elaborate Cosmography of Rome; and yet in the midst of all his varied labours he found leisure to scribble some ardent love sonnets on his sheets of drawings. An example of his poetic effusions is preserved at the British Museum, and its ardent tone lends colour to Vasari's assertion that Raphael was extremely susceptible to the charms of the fair sex. The palace in which he lived in princely state was built by Bramante and bought by Raphael on October 7, 1517. In very much altered form it still stands in the Piazza di Scossacavalli at the corner of the Via di Borgo Nuovo. Since the present building has been identified as Raphael's palace, his studio has been discovered, cut into two apartments, but with a beautiful wooden ceiling by Bramante left intact.

In this studio he must have painted the greatest and most deservedly popular of his altar-pieces, the "Madonna di San Sisto," and the "Transfiguration," now at the Vatican Gallery, which was on his easel when death stayed his hand. Here, too, he probably painted that masterly portrait of "Baldassare Castiglione," which is one of the priceless treasures of the Louvre, and perhaps the magnificent group of "Leo X. with Cardinals Giulio dei Medici and L. dei Rossi," now at the Pitti Palace. All the most notable men who were in Rome at that period passed through Raphael's studio, but of the portraits which he is known to have painted in Rome, comparatively few have come down to us. That of the humanist Tommaso Inghirami was until recently at the Inghirami Palace in Volterra, but has now gone across the Atlantic; one of Cardinal Bibbiena is in Madrid; and one of the Venetian humanists Navagero and Beazzano in the Doria Palace in Rome. Among the lost portraits are those of Pietro Bembo, of Giuliano dei Medici, Duke of Nemours, of Federigo Gonzaga, and of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino.

Meanwhile Raphael's pupils had been busy with the decoration of the remaining two Stanze of the Vatican after Raphael's designs. In the Stanza dell'Incendio del Borgo, which was decorated for Leo. X. between 1514–1517, Giulio Romano had painted the "Battle of Ostia" and most of the "Incendio del Borgo," though parts of the latter, which illustrates the staying of the great conflagration by Leo IV.'s prayer, are unquestionably Raphael's own. The last room, called the Hall of Constantine, was almost entirely painted after the master's death by his pupils, who also had the chief share in the execution of the fifty-two scriptural subjects in the Loggia of the Vatican, which are known as "The Bible of Raphael." Most of this work was done by Perino del Vaga, while Giovanni da Udine added the arabesques and grotesques round the panels. But all this has suffered much from exposure to the elements, and has been entirely repainted.

For Agostino Chigi's Villa Farnesina, Raphael painted the beautiful "Galatea" fresco, which may be considered the supreme expression of the spirit of the Renaissance. This merchant prince gave the master another opportunity for displaying his decorative skill, when he employed him in adorning the Chigi Chapel in St. Maria della Pace. The Sibyls and Angels of these frescoes afford the most striking instance of Michelangelo's influence upon Raphael; and it is a curious coincidence that it was just in reference to this work that Michelangelo was called upon to express his opinion as to the fairness of Raphael's charge of 500 ducats. That small jealousy was not one of Buonarroti's faults appears from the generous valuation of 900 ducats he put upon his rival's work.

In 1515–1516 Raphael designed the cartoons for the tapestries which were to complete the decoration of the Sistine Chapel. The cartoons were translated into the material by the looms of Flanders at a cost of 34,000 scudi; and these tapestries are now, after many wanderings, and after having suffered much dilapidation, housed on the upper floor of the Vatican. Seven of the cartoons, cut into strips for the exigencies of the loom, were discovered in Flanders by Rubens, and purchased on his advice by Charles I. in 1630. On the breaking up of the ill-fated king's collection, they were saved from transportation by Oliver Cromwell and are now at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The execution of these cartoons is almost entirely due to Gian Francesco Penni, and the borders of the tapestries were designed by Giovanni da Usline. About 1516 Raphael also decorated Cardinal Bibbiena's bathroom with the "Triumphs of Venus and Cupid," in Pompeian style. The frescoes are still in existence, but are not accessible to the public.In the early days of April 1520 Raphael was attacked by a fever which he had probably contracted in superintending some excavations. He made his last will on the 4th of April and died on the 6th. That he repented of his treatment of Maria Bibbiena is fairly evident from the epitaph which, by his wish, was placed upon her tomb: "We, Baldassare Turini da Pescia and Gianbattista Branconi dall'Aquila, testamentary executors and recipients of the last wishes of Raphael, have raised this memorial to his affianced wife, Maria, daughter of Antonio da Bibbiena, whom death deprived of a happy marriage." After providing for the Fornarina, so that she might "live in decency," he left his fortune of 16,000 ducats to his relatives, and his drawings and sketches to his favourite pupils Giulio Romano and Penni. He was buried in the Pantheon in close proximity to Maria Bibbiena. His epitaph was written by Cardinal Bembo, and Count Baldassare Castiglione also put his grief into the shape of a beautiful sonnet.

"The death of Raphael," says Vasari, "was bitterly deplored by all the Papal court, not only because he had formed part thereof, since he had held the office of chamberlain to the Pontiff, but also because Leo X. had esteemed him so highly, that his loss occasioned that sovereign the bitterest grief. Oh, most happy and thrice blessed spirit, of whom all are proud to speak, whose actions are celebrated with praise by all men, and the least of whose works left behind thee is admired and prized."

The plates are printed by Bemrose & Sons, Ltd., Derby and London
The text at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

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