Art sleuth uncovers clue to secret Raphael marriage: "For centuries it has been thought that the woman, Margherita Luti, a baker's daughter from Siena, was the artist's mistress... However, a new study by an Italian art historian, Maurizio Bernardelli Curuz, suggests that Raphael and Luti had already married in a clandestine ceremony, and that - fearful of a scandal - the artist took the secret to his grave.
Officially, he died a bachelor at the age of 37. 'It was an impossible love affair,' said Mr Bernardelli Curuz. '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.'"
