Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio Da Urbino), Madonna and Child, Ca

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino), Madonna and Child, ca. 1500 Oil on panel, 33.5 x 22.5 in. (85 x 57 cm.) New York Private Collection The Discovery of an Alternate Preparatory Version of Raphael’s Madonna del Granduca:

The present Madonna and Child, discovered in 2018 in a New York private collection, has been dated by stylistic and physical analysis to circa 1500, as a work of Raphael. The painting is identical to the version in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, with the exception of physionomic changes to the faces of the two figures (Figs. 1, 2). This investigation presents evidence that the Madonna del Granduca, housed in the Palazzo Pitti, discovered in 1799 and dated to Raphael circa 1505, is a possible later variant of the New York Madonna and Child, with the imposition of slightly differing facial features.

The Madonnas of Raphael are typically small, on poplar, and painted on a glue-sized primer. Altarpieces are large panels supplied by the woodcarver, primed with gesso. The New York Madonna and Child is painted on a wood panel, originally the center panel of a triptych with doors. The large panel, almost an inch thick, is of a dense hardwood, presumably supplied, as per the practice, by the legnaiolo, builder of the tavola (altar), for whom the painter is a subcontractor. Forensic study (x-rays) shows that the panel was enlarged to fit the door frame. The ground layer for the painting is the prepared gesso of the altar. Iron spikes secured the panel to the door frame; their indelicate removal created large voids in the wood.

The New York Madonna presents a young, iconic Madonna’s face in the style descended from Giotto that generally characterize images of the Virgin in the early Renaissance. The Madonna del Granduca of 1505 shows faces of different physiognomy, with more expressive features that appear years older. Raphael’s technique is more developed, conveying discernible expressions. The clear focus of the eyes is a departure from the late-Gothic/early Renaissance style of Giotto. It is reasonable to conclude that the Madonna del Granduca was copied from the New York Madonna, rather than the other way around. That the copy is accurate to the brushstroke implies that the copyist accessed the original and had the opportunity to copy the faces as well, but instead painted different, more mature faces This hypothetical sequence of events is a plausible account:

Raphael arrives in Florence and meets Leonardo. Upon observing Leonardo making the Mona Lisa by copying another painting, he paints a Leonardo face on a copy he makes of an old altarpiece composition.

The New York Madonna, at 33.5 inches high and 22.5 inches wide, is larger than Raphael’s other early Madonnas. It is painted over a uniform black background on a 7/8-inch-thick panel of very hard, dense (0.7sg), deep red/brown, heavily worm-tunneled wood, bearing encrusted remnants of hand-wrought spikes that assemble the two parts of the panel. The surface is uniformly patterned with the dense stratified craquelure typical of fifteenth-century panels. The paint surface bears minor in-painted restorations likely made in the nineteenth century. The entire panel has been covered by a tinted varnish layer, craquelure-free, likely applied during a restoration in the nineteenth century. The entire mantle of the Madonna was overpainted with opaque blue pigment layers (note that the Madonna del Granduca has also been likewise overpainted). This overpainted tinted glaze has introduced modern pigments that have been detected above the paint layer (Fig. 7). X-rays of both panels show that the paint layer of the mantle clearly defined in the Pitti Granduca was completely removed in the New York Madonna before its repainting.

The edges of the panel and X-rays reveal rows of fasteners of different periods ranging from heavily encrusted heads of three-inch wrought-iron spikes that join the two parts of the panel, to nineteenth century machined wood screws that later reinforced them. Six large triangular wedges were torn away from the edges where spikes nailed the panel directly to the door frame for the pair of altar doors and were violently removed (Fig. 9).

Reports by a forensic laboratory 1) affirm the dating of the panel, paint, and varnish layers; 2) reveal a recent (nineteenth century) restoration; 3) detect the presence of modern pigments in the varnish layer; 4) note the absence of sketches or pentimenti; and 5) note the repainting of the mantle, with the removal of the original pigment layer. X-rays reveal no trace of a transferred drawing, nor pentimenti (Fig. 6).

There is no known work of which this painting could be a copy. An X-ray of the Madonna del Granduca reveals a sketch of the same kind as seen in the X-ray of the present Madonna (Fig. 4). From the above evidence it is reasonable to conclude that the New York Madonna is an original work dating to circa 1500, most likely the work of the Master of the Madonna del Granduca, presumably Raphael. The New York Madonna may have rested for centuries behind the closed doors of a private altar. The Madonna del Granduca, now in Palazzo Pitti, Florence, is a 1505 variant of the New York Madonna, with a new interpretation of both faces. Figure Legend

1. Raphael, Madonna and Child, oil on panel, ca. 1500, 33.5 x 22.5 in. (85 x 57 cm.), New York Private Collection

2. Raphael, Madonna del Granduca, oil on panel, ca. 1505-07, 33.2 x 22 in. (84.4 x 55.9 cm.), Palazzo Pitti, Florence

3. Superimposition of the New York Madonna and Child and the Madonna del Granduca

4. X-Ray, Madonna del Granduca, ca. 1505-1507, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

5. UV image, Madonna and Child, ca. 1500, New York Private Collection

6. X-Ray, Madonna and Child, ca. 1500, New York Private Collection

7. Cross-sections of pigment from Madonna and Child, ca. 1500, New York Private Collection

8. Verso of Madonna and Child, ca. 1500, New York Private Collection

9. Attachment of panel to door frame, Madonna and Child, ca. 1500, New York Private Collection

10. Detail comparisons of the Madonna del Granduca and Madonna and Child

11. Detail comparisons of the Madonna del Granduca and Madonna and Child

12. Detail comparisons of the Madonna del Granduca and Madonna and Child

13. Detail comparisons of the Madonna del Granduca and Madonna and Child

14. Detail comparisons of the Madonna del Granduca and Madonna and Child

15. Detail comparisons of the Madonna del Granduca and Madonna and Child

16. Detail comparisons of the Madonna del Granduca and Madonna and Child

17. Detail comparisons of the Madonna del Granduca and Madonna and Child

18. Detail comparisons of the Madonna del Granduca and Madonna and Child Fig. 1

Raphael, Madonna and Child Oil on panel, ca. 1500 22.5 x 33.5 in. (85 x 57 cm.) New York Private Collection Fig. 2

Raphael, Madonna del Granduca Oil on panel, ca. 1505-07 33.2 x 22 in. (84.4 x 55.9 cm.) Palazzo Pitti, Florence Madonnas by Raphael in Chronological Order

St. Sebastian 1501-1502 45,1 x 36,5 cm. The Small Cowper Madonna ca. 1505 59,5 x 44 cm.

New York Madonna and Child ca. 1500, 85 x 57 cm. Madonna of the Goldfinch 1505-1506 107 x 77 cm.

Madonna with Child and Saints ca. 1502 34 x 29 cm. Madonna of the Meadow 1505-1506 113 x 88,5 cm.

Madonna Solly ca. 1502 52 x 38 cm. Holy Family (Madonna with the Beardless Joseph) 1505-1507 72,5 x 56,5 cm.

Madonna and Child with the Book 1502-1503 55,2 x 40 cm. The Madonna of the Pinks ('La Madonna dei Garofani') 1506-1507 27,9 x 22,4 cm.

Diotalevi Madonna ca. 1503 69 x 50 cm. Orleans Madonna ca. 1507 29 x 21 cm.

The Madonna Connestabile 1504 17,5 x 8 cm. The Bridgewater Madonna ca. 1507 81 x 55 cm.

Madonna del Granduca 1505-1507 84,4 x 55,9 cm La Madonna de Bogota (Madonna with the Child) 1507 Dims. unknown

Fig. 3

The New York Madonna and Child (left); Madonna del Granduca (right). Center image is a superimposition of the two paintings at 50% opacity.

Fig. 4

X-ray of the Madonna del Granduca

Fig. 5

UV Image of the New York Madonna and Child

Fig. 6

X-ray of the New York Madonna and Child

Fig. 7a Fig. 7b

Cross-section of the sample [1] from the New York Madonna’s blue robe

Layers described from the bottom up:

1. The off-white ground layer containing lead white with black and red and sparse yellow particles 2. Dark blue paint layer containing fine blue and larger black particles 3. Lighter blue paint layer containing fine blue particles, with the occasional larger yellow particle 4. A transparent material, presumably an organic varnish

Fig. 8

Verso of Madonna and Child New York Private Collection Fig. 9

Attachment of panel to door frame, Madonna and Child, ca. 1500 New York Private Collection Fig. 10a Fig. 10b