Rome, from the Vatican. Raffaelle, Accompanied by La Fornarina, Preparing his Pictures for the Decoration of the Loggia

In 1520 Raphael died in Rome, 37 years old, on Good Friday. Three hundred years later, in 1820, Turner marked the anniversary with this enormous canvas, the first big painting he finished after his own first trip to Italy. He imagines Raphael standing in the open loggia of the Vatican, laying out his pictures for the decoration of its walls, with the woman known as La Fornarina, said to be his love, beside him. Rome spreads out behind them in golden light, and among the works propped up is Raphael's famous round Madonna, the Madonna della seggiola, leaning against the balustrade. It is really Turner measuring himself against the greatest name in the tradition. The architecture is not quite the true Vatican. He rebuilt it to fit everything he wanted to show.