The Small Cowper Madonna
c. 1505
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 59.5 x 44 cm (23 7/16 x 17 5/16 in.) framed: 86.2 x 71.4 x 8.3 cm (33 15/16 x 28 1/8 x 3 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CIS-R
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Widener Collection
Accession Number
1942.9.57
Art Historical Context
*The Small Cowper Madonna*, painted by the Renaissance master Raphael around 1505, is a tender oil-on-panel depiction of the Virgin Mary cradling the Christ Child, measuring a intimate 59.5 x 44 cm. Created during Raphael's early Florentine period, this work captures the High Renaissance ideal of harmonious beauty and serene spirituality. Raphael, then just in his twenties, drew inspiration from masters like Leonardo da Vinci, in the soft, sfumato-like modeling of faces and drapery that lends a luminous, ethereal glow to the figures. The painting's modest scale made it perfect for private dev...
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...