Madonna della sedia (after Raphael)
Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato (Sassoferrato 1609 - Rome 1685)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1630 - 1669
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
635 x 508 mm (25 X 20 in)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 872080
Caption
The original painting of the 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 painted copies, in various media, in their care, alone. This relatively early copy is in reverse and probably after an engraving. The original, 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 canvas, Madonna della sedia (after Raphael) by Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato (Sassoferrato 1609 - Rome 1685), after Raphael (Urbino 1483 – Rome 1520), mid 17th century. A reversed image, probably after an engraving of the original painting by Raphael in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence.
Provenance
Accepted by HM Treasury in part payment of death-duties from the executors of Edmund Robert Parker, 4th Earl of Morley (1877-1951) and transferred to the National Trust in 1957
Makers and roles
Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato (Sassoferrato 1609 - Rome 1685), artist after Raphael (Urbino 1483 – Rome 1520), artist