A woman and nude child, both with pale skin, sit in front of a deep landscape in this vertical painting. Shown from about the knees up, the woman’s body is angled slightly to our right, and she supports the baby under his bottom with her left hand, on our right. She wears a long-sleeved, crimson-red dress with a sheer, nearly translucent fabric around her shoulders. Fern-green drapery, nearly matching the color of the grassy landscape, is gathered behind her hips, and a deep lapis-blue cloth lies across her lap. Her blond hair is pulled back. She has a straight nose, rosy cheeks, and her pink lips are closed. Her head tilts to our left, and she gazes down and to our right with brown eyes. Her right hand, on our left, rests in her lap, and she holds the baby with her other hand. The blond baby half sits, half stands on the woman’s lap so one foot rests on the hand in the woman’s lap. He reaches his arms around her neck and turns to look over his left shoulder, also gazing down and to our right. Thin, gold halos above their heads are barely visible against the pale blue sky. An expanse of green grass extends behind the pair leading to a cluster of trees to our left and buildings on a distant hill to our right. Hazy blue hills line the horizon in the distance below a blue, nearly cloudless sky.

The Small Cowper Madonna

Raphael

A woman and nude child, both with pale skin, sit in front of a deep landscape in this vertical painting. Shown from about the knees up, the woman’s body is angled slightly to our right, and she supports the baby under his bottom with her left hand, on our right. She wears a long-sleeved, crimson-red dress with a sheer, nearly translucent fabric around her shoulders. Fern-green drapery, nearly matching the color of the grassy landscape, is gathered behind her hips, and a deep lapis-blue cloth lies across her lap. Her blond hair is pulled back. She has a straight nose, rosy cheeks, and her pink lips are closed. Her head tilts to our left, and she gazes down and to our right with brown eyes. Her right hand, on our left, rests in her lap, and she holds the baby with her other hand. The blond baby half sits, half stands on the woman’s lap so one foot rests on the hand in the woman’s lap. He reaches his arms around her neck and turns to look over his left shoulder, also gazing down and to our right. Thin, gold halos above their heads are barely visible against the pale blue sky. An expanse of green grass extends behind the pair leading to a cluster of trees to our left and buildings on a distant hill to our right. Hazy blue hills line the horizon in the distance below a blue, nearly cloudless sky.

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Raphael
Date
c. 1505
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 59.5 × 44 cm (23 7/16 × 17 5/16 in.) framed: 86.2 × 71.44 × 13.34 cm (33 15/16 × 28 1/8 × 5 1/4 in.)
Department
CIS-R
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Widener Collection

Art Genome Taxonomy

7 tags

Subject Matter

  • Madonna and Child Both · 99%

    The title and catalog description identify the subject as the Madonna and Child, and the image visibly shows a woman holding a nude child in an intimate embrace.

  • Deities and Holy Figures Both · 98%

    Thin gold halos are visible above both heads, and the catalog identifies the work as The Small Cowper Madonna, supporting its sacred subject.

  • Landscapes Visual · 99%

    Grass, trees, water, distant hills, and buildings form a substantial receding landscape behind the foreground figures.

Styles and Movements

  • Renaissance Art Interpretive · 94%

    Raphael’s authorship and the circa-1505 date place the work within a Renaissance context, although the supplied catalog does not provide an explicit style designation.

Medium and Techniques

  • Painting Metadata · 100%

    The catalog classifies the work as a painting.

  • Oil on Panel Metadata · 100%

    The catalog explicitly records the medium as oil on panel.

Time Periods

  • 16th Century Art Metadata · 99%

    The catalog dates the work to circa 1505, placing it in the sixteenth century.

Source & rights

Raphael. The Small Cowper Madonna. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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