The Room Where Keats Is Dying

The Room Where Keats Is Dying

Rome, February 3, 1821He arrived last September from England already pale, already carrying the news of himself in the color of his face. The rooms on the Spanish Steps are small. The English physician Joseph Severn has been with him through the worst of it. I am not...
The City Mourned an Artist

The City Mourned an Artist

Rome, April 7, 1520Raphael Sanzio died yesterday. Thirty-seven years old, on his birthday, of a fever. Rome has gone into a mourning I have not seen extended to an artist before and do not expect to see again in my lifetime, which is a more complicated statement than...