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Drawn with gray chalk lines and smudges against dark tan paper, a woman sits facing to our left on a low wall, with two toddler-aged babies at her feet, filling this vertical drawing. Their bodies are outlined with smoke-gray lines and filled in with paler gray areas, giving the drawing an almost ghostly look against the dark paper. Both children have short hair and rounded, pudgy bodies. The woman has a subtly rounded figure, a straight nose, and smooth cheeks; her bow lips are closed. Her wavy hair is loosely pulled back and tied at the nape of her neck. Her dress, with a scooped neckline, is cinched at the waist before flaring into a voluminous skirt. She smiles down at the nude baby who stands to our left, looking up at her and leaning against her knees with his weight mostly on his right foot. Her left hand holds his left arm, which reaches across her lap toward a book she presses against her side with her left forearm. His right hand touches her left knee, nearest us, and her right hand passes behind him to caress his shoulders. The second child kneels in a crouch near the woman’s legs, to our right. Leaning on a slender staff like a walking stick, he wears a garland of leaves in his hair and looks up toward the other boy. Chalk strokes and white highlights around his torso suggest he is wrapped in drapery. Some details are difficult to make out because some of the charcoal-gray lines are loosely sketched and retraced. The corners and edges of the paper are chipped, revealing an underlying surface to which it is attached, and there are crease lines that suggest that the paper was likely folded in the past.

Raphael

The Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, c. 1507

Not on View

Medium

black chalk with traces of white chalk, outlines pricked for transfer; laid down

Dimensions

Overall (approximate): 93.8 x 67 cm (36 15/16 x 26 3/8 in.)

framed: 138.8 x 112.4 x 12.1 cm (54 5/8 x 44 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds from The Armand Hammer Foundation

Accession Number

1986.33.1

Artists / Makers

Raphael (artist) Marchigian, 1483 - 1520

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Thomas Coke, first earl of Leicester, c. 1713 - 1718; by descent to the Viscount Coke (Holkham Hall); purchased 1986 by NGA with funds from The Armand Hammer Foundation.

Associated Names

Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Coke's Chattels Fund, Thomas, Trustees of the Hon.

Exhibition History

1930: Italian Drawings Exhibited an the Royal Academy, Burlington House, London, 1930, no. 125, repro.

1948: Old Master Drawings from the Collection of the Early of Leicester, Holkham Hall, London, 1948, no. 26, pl. 1, p. 5.

1987: Master Drawings from the Armand Hammer Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1987, no. 6, repro.

2006: Raffaello: Da Firenze a Roma, Galleria Borghese, Rome, 2006, no. 35, repro.

2020: Raphael and His Circle: Prints and Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2020, no cat.

Bibliography

1773: Brettingham, Matthew. The Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Holkham in Norfolk... London, 1773: 17.

1860: Passavant, Johann-David. Raphael d'Urbin et son père Giovanni Santi. Paris, 1860: 69.

1870: Robinson, John Charles. A Critical Account of the Drawings by Michel Angelo and Raffaello in the University Galleries, Oxford. Oxford, 1870: 173.

1876: Ruland, C. The Works of Raphael Santi da Urbino as Represented in the Raphael Collection in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. London, 1876: XIX.14.

1922: Fischel, Oskar. Raphaels Zeichnungen. Berlin, 1922: 141 and 146, pl. 123, 124, 125.

1926: The Vasari Society. Second Series, Part VII. London, 1926: no. 7 and plate 7.

1971: Dussler, Luitpold. Raphael: a Critical Catalogue of His Pictures, Wall-Paintings, and Tapestries. London, 1971: 22.

1983: Johannides, Paul. The Drawings of Raphael. Berkeley, 1983: 123.

1983: Knab, Ekhart, Erwin Mitsch, and Konrad Oberhuber. Raphael, Die Zeichnungen. Stuttgart, 1983: no. 186.

1983: Raphael dans les collections françises. Grand Palais, Paris, 1983 - 1984, under nos. 57 and 6.

1986: Ames-Lewis, Francis. The Draftsman Raphael. New Haven, 1986: 66.

1991: Russell, Frances. "Drawings from Holkham" Christie's International Magazine 6 (June 1991): 4.

1996: Meyer zur Cappellen, Jürg. Raphael in Florence. London, 1996: 200.

1999: Bambach, Carmen C. Drawing and Painting in the Italian Renaissance Workshop: Theory and Practice, 1300 - 1600. Cambridge, 1999: 63, 66, 76, fig. 58.

2000: Pincus, Debra. "How the Painters Used Drawings." Washington Times. January 23, 2000: 8-9.

2006: Coliva, Anna et al. Raffaello: da Firenze a Roma. Exh. cat. Galleria Borghese, Milan, 2006: 151-152, no. 35.

2006: Mottin, Bruno. "Un exmple d'étude de laboratoire: La Belle Jardinière." Musée des Arts et Métiers, La Revue (Special issue: "Les peintres et la technique, Regards croisés") (2006): 20, 22, 23, repro. p. 20.

2013: Jacoby, Joachim W., and Sonnabend, Martin. Raphael: Drawings. Exh. cat. Städel Museum, Munich, 2012: 104-106, fig. 52.

2015: Jacoby, Joachim, ed. Raffael als Zeichner: die Beiträge des Frankfurter Kolloquiums = Raphael as draughtsman. Essays by Kimberly Schenck and Carmen C. Bambach. Frankfurt am Main, 2015: 55-59, fig. 9; 61-82, fig 1.