La Fornarina

Raphael, Portrait of a Young Woman (La Fornarina) — 1518-19 - Oil on wood, 85 x 60 cm - Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520. The pearl (in Italian, margarita) adorning the sitter’s hair may allude to the name of Raphael's mistress and model—Margherita Luti. Her stray curl exemplifies the "studied carelessness" or sprezzatura celebrated in “The Book of the Courtier”, written by the artist’s friend, Baldassare Castiglione. The story of Raphael and Margarita’s love has become "the archetypal artist-model relationship of Western tradition”, yet little is known of her life. Flaubert wrote of her, in his “Dictionary of Received Ideas”, that “Fornarina was a beautiful woman. That is all you need to know.” Raphael never married, but in 1514 he became engaged to Maria Bibbiena, Cardinal Medici Bibbiena's niece. His lack of enthusiasm seems to be indicated by the marriage's not taking place before she died in 1520. Raphael is said to have had many affairs, but a permanent fixture in his life in Rome was "La Fornarina” (Margherita), the daughter of a baker (fornaro). He did take care of in his will. He also died in 1520—only in his early thirties. There has been some suggestion that Raphael and Margherita were secretly wed.