The Alba Madonna
c. 1510
Medium
oil on panel transferred to canvas
Dimensions
overall (diameter): 94.5 cm (37 3/16 in.) framed (diameter x depth): 140.34 × 15.88 cm (55 1/4 × 6 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CIS-R
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Accession Number
1937.1.24
Art Historical Context
Behold *The Alba Madonna*, a tondo—a circular painting—crafted by the High Renaissance genius Raphael around 1510. This oil on panel, later transferred to canvas for preservation, measures nearly 94.5 cm in diameter, making it an intimate yet monumental work suited for private devotional spaces in Renaissance homes. Raphael, at the height of his Roman period, exemplifies the era's pursuit of ideal beauty, harmony, and humanism, blending classical proportions with profound emotional tenderness. The painting's circular format draws the eye into a perfectly balanced pyramidal composition, a hall...
About the Artist
Raphael · 1483–1520
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known simply as Raphael, was born on March 28 or April 6, 1483, in the cultured Duchy of Urbino to the court painter and poet Giovanni Santi and his wife Màgia Ciarla. Orphaned young—his mother died when he was eight and his father when he was eleven—Raphael was raised in Urbino's refined court under the guardianship of his paternal uncle Bartolomeo. He received his ear...