Raphael's Tomb

Raphael asked to be buried in the Pantheon — he loved the building and wanted to be laid to rest inside a work of architectural perfection. The tomb is a Roman sarcophagus in a niche below a Madonna del Sasso by Lorenzetto. The epitaph, by Cardinal Bembo, translates: 'Here lies Raphael, by whom nature herself feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die.' He was 37.