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# Slow News Days?
- URL: https://thedailyeudemon.com/1426/
- Published: 2005-06-19T21:40:39.000Z
- Updated: 2005-06-19T21:40:39.000Z
- Author: Eric Scheske
- Tags: Culture, #wpChunk

Reuters devotes a substantial amount of print (three Internet pages) this weekend to a story about Raphael's alleged affair with a baker's daughter. [Link](http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=lifeAndLeisureNews&storyID=2005-06-17T120916Z%5F01%5FL20372736%5FRTRIDST%5F0%5FLIFESTYLE-ARTS-RAPHAEL-DC.XML&ref=thedailyeudemon.com). Excerpt from the introductory paragraphs:

> The tiny pearl brooch seems an innocuous detail in Raphael's enigmatic "Fornarina" portrait, but for one group of historians it unlocks a scandalous love affair kept secret for centuries.

> According to new research published in May, the pearl, pinned onto an elaborate turban, is part of a web of allusions to the Renaissance artist's clandestine marriage to the beautiful sitter, a baker's daughter -- despite a very public engagement to the niece of a powerful Vatican cardinal.

> Officially, Raphael died a bachelor at 37.

> "It was an impossible love affair," says Maurizio Bernardelli Curuz, editor of specialist journal Stile, who led a year of research into Raphael's romantic riddle.

> "It is hard to overstate Raphael's status in Rome -- he was a superstar. The distance separating them was like that which today would separate George Clooney and his cleaner."

> The pearl, also included in the "Velata" portrait, suggests the sitter's name was Margherita -- the Latin word for pearl -- and not Maria Bibbiena, the artist's intended bride.

Hollywood apparently isn't providing enough sex scandal material these days.