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A woman holds and looks toward a nude, young child, who sits on her lap and looks out at us, smiling, in this vertical painting. They both have pale skin and thin, gold halos floating above their heads. The clear sky behind them deepens from teal blue along the top edge to ice blue behind their shoulders. To our right, the woman is shown from the lap up with her body angled to our left, toward the child she holds. She looks down at the child almost in profile with dark eyes under faint brows. She has a long, straight nose, smooth cheeks, and her petal-pink lips are closed. Her blond hair is braided and twisted back from her face under a sheer, gold-trimmed, white veil, that flutters as if in a breeze. Her rose-pink dress has a wide neckline and the elbow-length sleeve we can see falls loosely over a tighter, spring-green sleeve. The neckline is trimmed with gold decorations and an inscription: “MDVIII.R.V.PIN.” A peacock-blue robe drapes over the shoulder farther from us and across her lap. That arm wraps around the child’s back, and she holds her other hand to her chest, near where the child grips the neckline of her dress. The child sits on a white pillow with one leg flung across the woman’s lap and the other, closer to us, dangling between her knees. Slightly slouched, his body is angled to our right, toward the woman, but he looks over his shoulder at us with dark eyes. He has faint eyebrows, a delicate nose, a dimpled chin, flushed cheeks, and his pale pink lips curl into a smile. He has wispy blond hair and pudgy, toddler-like cheeks and body. His other hand rests on the pillow between his legs. A band of gauzy, sheer fabric decorated with gold stripes wraps around one shoulder and around his upper chest.

The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna

Raphael

A woman holds and looks toward a nude, young child, who sits on her lap and looks out at us, smiling, in this vertical painting. They both have pale skin and thin, gold halos floating above their heads. The clear sky behind them deepens from teal blue along the top edge to ice blue behind their shoulders. To our right, the woman is shown from the lap up with her body angled to our left, toward the child she holds. She looks down at the child almost in profile with dark eyes under faint brows. She has a long, straight nose, smooth cheeks, and her petal-pink lips are closed. Her blond hair is braided and twisted back from her face under a sheer, gold-trimmed, white veil, that flutters as if in a breeze. Her rose-pink dress has a wide neckline and the elbow-length sleeve we can see falls loosely over a tighter, spring-green sleeve. The neckline is trimmed with gold decorations and an inscription: “MDVIII.R.V.PIN.” A peacock-blue robe drapes over the shoulder farther from us and across her lap. That arm wraps around the child’s back, and she holds her other hand to her chest, near where the child grips the neckline of her dress. The child sits on a white pillow with one leg flung across the woman’s lap and the other, closer to us, dangling between her knees. Slightly slouched, his body is angled to our right, toward the woman, but he looks over his shoulder at us with dark eyes. He has faint eyebrows, a delicate nose, a dimpled chin, flushed cheeks, and his pale pink lips curl into a smile. He has wispy blond hair and pudgy, toddler-like cheeks and body. His other hand rests on the pillow between his legs. A band of gauzy, sheer fabric decorated with gold stripes wraps around one shoulder and around his upper chest.

Details
Palette

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Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 80.7 × 57.5 cm (31 3/4 × 22 5/8 in.) framed: 118.43 × 97.16 × 21.59 cm (46 5/8 × 38 1/4 × 8 1/2 in.)
Department
CIS-R
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Art Genome Taxonomy

9 tags

Subject Matter

  • Madonna and Child Both · 99%

    The canonical title identifies a Madonna and Child, and the image clearly shows a woman holding a young child with a faint halo above each head.

  • Nude Both · 99%

    The catalog describes the child as nude, and the image shows his torso and legs largely uncovered, apart from a narrow gauzy band around the upper chest.

  • Eye Contact Visual · 98%

    The child turns his face outward and looks directly toward the viewer.

Styles and Movements

  • Renaissance Art Interpretive · 90%

    The 1508 date and Raphael attribution place the work within Renaissance art; the supplied catalog does not provide a formal style field.

Visual Qualities

  • Bright and Vivid Colors Visual · 90%

    The painting uses vivid teal and blue grounds alongside rose-pink, green, white, flesh, and gold accents.

  • Highly Detailed Visual · 94%

    The image presents carefully rendered braids, veil, facial features, flesh, drapery, gold ornament, pillows, and fine surface details.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil on Panel Metadata · 100%

    The National Gallery of Art identifies the medium as oil on panel.

  • Painting Metadata · 100%

    The canonical classification identifies the work as a painting.

Time Periods

  • 16th Century Art Metadata · 100%

    The catalog date is 1508, placing the work in the sixteenth century.

Source & rights

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

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

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