La fornarina Raphael (1483-1520)

Description of Raphael Santi’s painting "Fornarina

The word "Fornarina" means "baker," and Raphael’s beloved owed it to her father’s profession. There are two versions of her legend. The first says that Raphael met her in Rome and fell madly in love. He bought her back from her father for 3,000 gold pieces and put her in a villa especially bought for her, so he visited her every time he was in Rome.

However, Fornarina was not known for her fidelity and often looked at the artist’s students and customers, which, however, did not prevent her from remaining his muse for twelve years until his death (evil tongues say that Raphael died just in her bed). After that, having received an inheritance, she led a dissolute life, but in her old age she repented and went to a convent, where the papers indicate her real name, and she herself indicated herself as Raphael’s widow.

The second version, however, says that everything said in the first is not true, that Fornarina was practically a saint, and that all her life she was faithful to Raphael, and that their love itself was tender and pure, unmarred by anything.

It is impossible to say exactly how things were in reality.

Even Fornarina can not clarify anything. It shows the girl seated under a myrtle tree. She is nude, but shyly and carefully covered by a thin transparent cloth, which may be both an indication of her character and the artist’s irony of her way of life. She has a wide bracelet with his name on her left forearm, and her hair is arranged in an elaborate hairdo.

She looks a little to the side, smiling slyly, and in this expression you can feel so much tenderness, so much filigree precision transfer that there is no doubt that Raphael, after all, loved her. Her body has a slightly yellowish hue, as if she were lit by a candle or an oil lamp.

In praising her, Raphael also praises love in general, its beauty and purity, which do not depend on who is the object of love.