Raphael Sanzio: A Brief Profile
Raphael Sanzio was born in Urbino on 6 April 1483 and died in Rome on 6 April 1520 — precisely on his thirty-seventh birthday. The son of the painter Giovanni Santi, he trained first in his father's workshop, then in Perugia under Perugino, and arrived in Florence around 1504 where he studied Leonardo and Michelangelo.
In 1508 he was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II to decorate the Vatican Stanze. The Stanza della Segnatura, completed around 1511, with the School of Athens and the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament, made him the most admired painter of his time. In the years that followed, Raphael became in effect the artistic director of the papal curia under Leo X: he coordinated the work in the Stanze, designed tapestries, oversaw ancient excavations and contributed to the design of the new St Peter's Basilica after Bramante's death in 1514.
At the time of his death, Raphael was regarded as the supreme painter of Christian civilisation — not merely the best living painter, but a figure who embodied the ideal of the humanist artist.
The Sudden Death and Its Circumstances
On 6 April 1520, Raphael died in Rome after a brief illness. Contemporary sources speak of an «acute fever» that struck and killed him within a few days. Giorgio Vasari, in the Lives (first edition 1550), narrates that death came after a period of excesses — but this version is generally considered embellished.
The illness lasted roughly fifteen days. Before dying, Raphael received last rites, settled his testamentary affairs and left a specific bequest: he designated his companion Margherita Luti — the «Fornarina» of tradition, perhaps identifiable with the young woman in the eponymous portrait — as a beneficiary, and assigned funds sufficient for her maintenance and that of his assistants.
The mourning was immediate and extraordinary. Sources document that his body was displayed in the workshop before the funeral, with the paintings he was working on placed beside the corpse — including the great Transfiguration, now in the Vatican Museums, which he had not completed. The funeral procession was attended by an enormous crowd, according to contemporary witnesses.
The Choice of the Pantheon as Burial Site
The decision to bury Raphael in the Pantheon was not self-evident. Burial in a great church was normal for eminent figures, but the Pantheon was an exceptional choice: it was the most intact ancient monument in Rome, recently converted into a church, and carried the symbolic weight of the entire classical civilisation.
The choice was facilitated by the fact that Raphael had himself purchased a chapel in the Pantheon while he was alive. According to sources, he had bought the aedicule in which his tomb still stands today, intending to have an altar dedicated to the Madonna restored there — the Madonna del Sasso (or Madonna of the Pantheon), now identified with the statue sculpted by Lorenzetto in 1524 on the commission of Cardinal Bibbiena, Raphael's friend and patron.
This advance purchase of a chapel in Rome's most venerated monument speaks volumes about Raphael's self-awareness and his positioning in the imagination of Rome's cultural elite. Raphael was not simply a craftsman serving powerful patrons: he was a prominent public figure, conscious of his own role in the history of art and civilisation.
The Tomb and the Inscription
Raphael's tomb is an ancient marble sarcophagus, set in a niche in the rotunda wall within an architectural aedicule. Above the niche is inscribed the celebrated Latin epitaph composed by Pietro Bembo, the great Venetian humanist and cardinal, a friend of Raphael:
ILLE HIC EST RAPHAEL TIMUIT QUO SOSPITE VINCI RERUM MAGNA PARENS ET MORIENTE MORI
The translation reads:
Here lies Raphael, by whom the great mother of all things [Nature] feared to be surpassed while he lived, and when he died, feared that she herself would die.
The inscription ranks among the most quoted in the history of modern Latin literature. Its concept is bold: Raphael was so close to natural perfection that Nature itself feared his supremacy. With his death, Nature risked dying alongside him.
Below the niche a later plaque gives the dates of birth and death and confirms the identification of the remains.
The Madonna del Sasso and the Votive Altar
Beside the tomb, in the aedicule, stands the Madonna del Sasso (or Madonna and Child), sculpted by Lorenzetto (Lorenzo Lotti) in 1524, four years after Raphael's death. The statue was executed on the commission of Raphael's friend and patron, Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena, who died in 1520 — the same year as Raphael.
The statue is in white marble and depicts the Virgin and Child in a post-Raphaelesque style. Lorenzetto was one of Raphael's closest assistants in the Roman workshop; Bibbiena's commissioning of the statue is an act of continuity and homage.
The aedicule as a whole — tomb, statue, inscription — is one of the rare examples in which the tradition of the humanist funerary monument merges with religious devotion and the cult of the artist.
Raphael and the Construction of the Genius Myth
Raphael's death at 37, in the full flower of his creative powers, contributed powerfully to the construction of the myth of the artist-genius who dies prematurely. This narrative structure — extraordinary talent cut short before its fulfilment — became a recurring topos in the history of Western art.
Giorgio Vasari elaborated this mythology in the Lives of the Artists: Raphael was for him the incarnation of the Renaissance ideal of the universal man, capable of excelling in painting, architecture, draughtsmanship and social relations alike. His gentleness, his ease in dealing with the powerful, his generosity towards pupils were all integral to the portrait.
The Pantheon as burial site amplified this myth: in the same structure where the Romans had once honoured all the gods, the most divine painter of the modern age now lay at rest. The parallel was explicit even for Raphael's contemporaries.
The Opening of the Tomb in 1833
In 1833, following doubts about the authenticity of the remains, the sarcophagus was opened for verification. The inspection, conducted with some solemnity, confirmed the presence of a complete skeleton, identified as Raphael's on the basis of correspondence with historical descriptions (in particular posture and certain anatomical features).
The event was documented and publicised: the «rediscovery» of Raphael's remains in 1833 was itself a significant moment in the 19th-century cult of the artist. In the following decades the Accademia di San Luca and other cultural institutions worked for the restoration and enhancement of the tomb.
The Pantheon as a Pantheon of Artists
Raphael's burial established a precedent that transformed the Pantheon into a site of artistic memorialisation. In the decades and centuries that followed, other artists or culturally prominent figures were buried or commemorated in the Pantheon:
- Baldassarre Peruzzi (1536), the Sienese architect who worked in Rome
- Giovanni da Udine (1561), Raphael's collaborator on the Vatican grotesques
- Flaminio Vacca (1605), sculptor
- Various commemorations of cardinals associated with the arts
This use of the Pantheon as a place of celebration for artists anticipated the 19th-century tradition of national pantheons — from Westminster Abbey with its English poets to the Paris Panthéon with the great men of France.
Raphael and the Pantheon after Italian Unification
With Italian unification (1861), the Pantheon acquired a new function as the secular pantheon of the nation. Raphael's tomb, present in the Pantheon for over three centuries, suddenly found itself flanked by the tombs of the Savoyard kings: Victor Emmanuel II (1878) and Umberto I (1900).
This cohabitation — the supreme artist of the Renaissance alongside the kings of the new Italy — was not without its symbolic tensions. Raphael had died in 1520 as a servant of papal courts and princes; secular modern Italy was now claiming him as its own cultural heritage.
Visiting the Tomb Today
Raphael's tomb stands on the left wall of the rotunda as you face from the main entrance, in the third niche. The Pantheon is open to the public with a paid admission ticket (since July 2023, €5). The tomb is freely visible from inside; it is not possible to approach the sarcophagus beyond the barriers.
The votive chapel is still occasionally officiated. On 6 April — the anniversary of Raphael's birth and death — it is customary for the Accademia di San Luca to lay flowers at the tomb.
Visit the Pantheon with a Private Driver
The Pantheon is fully within the limited traffic zone in Rome's historic centre. Private car access to Piazza della Rotonda is not possible.
Visit the Pantheon with a private driver: direct, comfortable arrival with no traffic or parking concerns. Service from €49. → Book your driver at myromedriver.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Raphael buried in the Pantheon and not in a church dedicated to artists? Raphael had purchased a chapel in the Pantheon while alive, intending to dedicate it to the Madonna. His sudden death transformed this space into a mausoleum. There was no «artists' church» at the time: the Pantheon was the most ambitious choice conceivable.
Who wrote the inscription on the tomb? The Latin epitaph was composed by Pietro Bembo, Venetian cardinal and humanist, one of the greatest literary figures of 16th-century Italy. Bembo and Raphael moved in the same Roman cultural circles.
What can one see at Raphael's tomb? An ancient marble sarcophagus within an architectural niche, surmounted by Bembo's inscription and Lorenzetto's Madonna del Sasso statue. A more recent plaque adds the dates of birth and death.
Is the Fornarina buried near Raphael? No. The «Fornarina» — the young woman in the portraits, traditionally identified with Margherita Luti — is not buried at the Pantheon. Her biography after Raphael's death is poorly documented.
Is it true that Raphael died on the same day he was born? Yes, according to historical sources. Raphael was born on 6 April 1483 and died on 6 April 1520 — precisely on his 37th birthday. This coincidence was noted by contemporaries and contributed to the mythical aura surrounding his figure.
Article no. 64 — TIER S — MON-04 Pantheon Type: HISTORY Words: ~2,400