Focus on Raphael and La Fornarina and explain the Ingres and Raphael.
In 1813, at the time of the painting, Ingres married Madeleine Chapelle, which may have led him to focus on Raphael's relationships with women. In Le Roman d'amour de M. Inges, by Henry Lapauze, Ingres's and Raphael's relationships and encounters with women are contrasted and analyzed. Raphael was engaged to Cardinal Medici Bibbiena's niece, but was considered an adulterer as he was sleeping with a commoner. Ingres had only three romantic relationships and although he was known to be surrounded by women, he was not a debauchee, but reputed to be chivalrous gentleman. In a letter to a woman, Ingres wrote: "I will live and die the servant of women." Raphael was 37 when he is said to have died of debauchery, the Fornarina supposedly his fatal vice. As Marie Lathers has written, this vision of Raphael's death was reinforced by Balzac: "When Balzac rewrote Raphael's d'Urbino story, he had his protagonist die in a lustful embrace, his death rattle obscuring the words of desire that his larynx would produce." Depictions of La Fornarina were often credited to Giulio Romano, Raphael's student, in order to disassociate Raphael from dishonorable artworks, such as paintings of his mistress. By contrast, Ingres died at the age of 86 from a bilateral pneumonia, supposedly after being exposed to cold wind in efforts to help his wife. These differences shape perceptions of the relation between the painters and their desires.
Raphael La Fornarina Giulio Romano