Raphael, the artist killed by too much sex?
Raphael, the artist killed by too much sex? Can you die of too much sex? That's what happened to the divinely gifted Raphael, according to his 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari. Vasari recounts in his book The Lives of the Artists that Raphael, who died aged 37 at the peak of his powers, was brought down by excessive passion. This view of health is medieval: the body is controlled by humours, health depends on a balance of humours, and Raphael's was destabilised by too much action in bed. Well, it's a theory. And yet Vasari goes into detail about Raphael's emotional life. The young, gifted, handsome and courtly artist, he claims, was so enamoured of his mistress that she had to be allowed to live with him in the Villa Farnesina in Rome (as it's now called) while he was painting its frescoes. No sex, no frescoes. The story of Raphael's sensual relationship with La Fornarina, as Vasari names her, fascinated artists down the centuries. Raphael became an ico...