Raphael’s Madonna

Madonna of the Pinks, 1506-07
Raphael, 1483-1520
The National Gallery, London

When we were in London in summer of 2003, we spent a day at the National Gallery. One of the paintings that attracted our attention was Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks. The Madonna was prominently displayed since the Gallery was running a campaign to buy it. There was a sign next to the painting saying that it was owned by the Duke of Northumberland who had loaned it to the National Gallery; but after his death, his estate was planning on selling the painting overseas. The Gallery was trying to raise enough money to buy the Raphael from the Duke's estate and keep it in Great Britain. National Gallery did manage to raise £22 million and acquired the painting in early 2004.

Although a small panel (29 X 23 cm), it is, in any event, a lovely painting. Raphael’s work shows the youthful Virgin delighting in playing with her infant son, who is seated on a cushion in her lap. The child’s attention has been caught – his animated wriggling momentarily arrested – by the delicate flowers she holds, the pinks by which the painting became known. This remarkable painting was probably painted around 1506-7, at a timewhen Raphael was most influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, whose works he encountered in Florence. The composition is based on Leonardo’s Benois Madonna, painted about thirty years earlier. Raphael transforms this familiar subject into something entirely new. The mother and son are no longer posed stiffly and formally as in paintings by earlier artists, but now display all the tender emotions one might expect between a young mother and her child.