Madonna della sedia (after Raphael)
after Raphael (Urbino 1483 – Rome 1520)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1800 - 1899
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
203 mm (8 in) (diameter)
Order this imageCollection
Speke Hall, Merseyside
NT 1196042
Caption
The original Madonna della sedia by Raphael is a circular painting, or tondo, painted in Rome around 1513/14. It has universal appeal and is one of the most copied works of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The National Trust have at least 15 copies, in various media, in their care, alone. Raphael’s picture, once in the Uffizi, seized during the Napoleonic Wars and in Paris between 1799-1815, is now in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence. As legend has it, it was painted on the bottom of a barrel and has gained its title because the Virgin sits in a chair. She is shown as a contemporary Italian woman, wearing a gypsy scarf and green embroidered shawl over her blue dress, tenderly embracing the Christ Child, dressed in yellow, and looking directly at us whilst John the Baptist stands behind.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, Madonna della sedia (after Raphael) after Raphael (Urbino 1483 – Rome 1520), 19th century. A three-quarter figure of the Virgin, seated to the right and holding the infant his head tucked under her chin, St John the Baptist as a youth to the right. Inventory card states plaster/stone as material (medium to be checked out). In frame FR/002
Provenance
Miss Adelaide Watt (1857-1921); Trustees of the late Miss Adelaide Watt, 1921-1942; Liverpool Museum / NMGM / NML, 1943-2010; National Trust from 2010
Marks and inscriptions
WALKER ART GALLERY....INVENTORY NO.7099... (written on printed label and stencilled on reverse)
Makers and roles
after Raphael (Urbino 1483 – Rome 1520), artist