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Study for the Kneeling Infant St John in 'The Alba Madonna'

Study for the Kneeling Infant St John in 'The Alba Madonna'

Rafaël (Raffaello Sanzio) (in circa 1509-1511)

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Specifications

Title Study for the Kneeling Infant St John in 'The Alba Madonna'
Material and technique Metalpoint on white prepared paper
Object type
Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location This object is in storage
Dimensions Height 115 mm
Width 104 mm
Artists Draughtsman: Rafaël (Raffaello Sanzio)
Accession number I 110 (PK)
Credits Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date 1940
Creation date in circa 1509-1511
Watermark none (vV, 3P)
Inscriptions '19' (top center, pen and brown ink), '75' (top right, pen and brown ink)
Collector Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark F.W. Koenigs (L1023a)
Provenance Cavaliere Benvenuti, Florence; Grandduke of Tuscany; Emperor Karl of Austria; Julius Licht, Berlin/Vienna; Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1926 (attributed to Raphael); D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Exhibitions Amsterdam 1934, no. 632; Groningen 1949, no. 41; Rotterdam 1952, no. 92; Paris-Rotterdam-Haarlem 1962, no. 61; Rotterdam 1997-98; London 2004, no. 95; Haarlem 2012, no. 20; Rotterdam (Rondom Fra B.) 2016
Internal exhibitions Rondom Raphaël (1997)
Tekeningen uit eigen bezit, 1400-1800 (1952)
Italiaanse tekeningen in Nederlands bezit (1962)
De Collectie Twee - wissel IV, Prenten & Tekeningen (2009)
Rondom Fra Bartolommeo (2016)
External exhibitions Rafaël en zijn school (2012)
Research Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature Passavant 1860, p. 428, no. 160; Ruland 1876, pp. 68, XXV, 10; Fischel 1912, pp. 295,299, fig. 7; Amsterdam 1934, no. 632, ill.; Juynboll 1938, p. 20; Fischel 1939, p. 187, fig. IIIc; Fischel 1941, p. 367, no. 355; Groningen 1949, no. 41; Haverkamp Begemann 1952, no. 92; Haverkamp Begemann 1957, no. 39, ill.; Paris-Rotterdam-Haarlem 1962, no. 61, pl. 46; Jaffé 1962, p. 233; Forlani Tempesti 1969, no. 131; Oppé 1970, p. 80, fig. 142; Dussler 1971, p. 35; Wasserman 1978, pp. 58-60, fig. 22; Washington 1982-83, p. 173, fig. 17; Knab/Mitsch/Oberhuber 1983, p. 592, no. 387, ill.; Joannides 1983, p. 203, no. 279; London 1983, p. 143; Elen 1993, p. 207; Paris 1983-1984, p. 290; Elen 1995, onder no. 47; London 2004, no. 95, ill; Haarlem 2012, no. 20, ill.
Material
Object
Technique
Prepare > Prepared > Shaping techniques > General technique > Technique > Material and technique
Prepare > Prepared > Shaping techniques > General technique > Technique > Material and technique
Place of manufacture Rome > Italy > Southern Europe > Europe
Geographical origin Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Albert Elen

Raphael, 'The Alba Madonna', c.1510, oil on panel transferred to canvas, diameter 94.5 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Photo National Gallery of Art, Washington

This small drawing is universally accepted as an autograph work by Raphael. It has been attributed to him since it was first published by Passavant in 1860. It is the smallest of three surviving preliminary studies for Raphael’s famous tondo The Alba Madonna, now in Washington (fig.).[1] The painting shows the Virgin seated on the ground, leaning against the stump of a tree, set in a landscape, her gaze fixed on the cross held aloft by the naked Christ Child sitting in her lap. The infant St John the Baptist kneels before them. In the folds of his camel-hair drape he holds freshly plucked flowers. In his left hand he grasps a simple wooden cross, which is indicated summarily with a line in the drawing. In this preliminary study Raphael concentrated on the figure of the kneeling Baptist; the Virgin can only be identified by the outline of the reserve for her right knee. In the painting she touches John’s shoulder with her right hand, while the Christ Child in her lap grasps the cross with his outstretched right hand, symbolically accepting his eventual fate – the Passion. In both the drawing and the painting, John gazes up at the hand of the serious-faced Christ Child.

In Lille there is a large sheet, drawn on both sides, with a red chalk study of the whole composition on the recto and a study of the seated Virgin alone on the verso.[2] The composition study shows John, squatting on his haunches, with a lamb on his lap that he appears to be offering to the Christ Child with outstretched hands. The Christ Child’s right arm is drawn in the final position in pen and brown ink, but the cross is missing. The Rotterdam figure study is closer to the painting, which means that it must have been made later than the composition drawing in Lille. It does, though, vary from the painting in details, such as the position of John’s right hand, which in the drawing clasps the edge of his drape but is partly hidden behind the Christ Child’s right leg in the painting.

Interestingly, Raphael did not execute this drawing in the same technique (red chalk) as the composition study and the detail study in Lille, but instead used metalpoint, which by this date was rather old-fashioned. The paper was prepared first with moistened bonemeal applied with a brush. There are several known drawings by Raphael in this technique. The numbers ‘19’ and ‘75’ in the top centre and top right suggest that this is a sheet from a lost drawing book, like the so-called carnet rose.[3] There are eight loose sheets from this held in other museums, with similar measurements and numbering, all drawn with metalpoint on a pink ground.[4] The Rotterdam sheet is slightly smaller, however, and the ground is white, not pink, so it is uncertain whether it ever belonged to that small drawing book or to a similar one.

Footnotes

[1] National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, inv. 1937.1.24; London 2004, no. 93, ill. The painting may have been commissioned by Pope Julius II. It was said to have been stolen from the sacristy of St Peter’s Basilica during the Sacco di Roma (Plundering of Rome) in 1527.

[2] Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. PL 456 (recto), 457 (verso); London 2004, no. 94, ill.

[3] Fischel (1939). His hypothesis is doubted by Pouncey/Gere (1962), who saw no convincing material evidence for it.

[4] Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. CMA 1978.37; Lille, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. PL 436-38, 454/55, 479, 484; London, British Museum, inv. Pp, 1.72, 1866,0714.79; Elen 1995, no. 47, fig. 24; London 2004, nos. 92, 96, 97.

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Rafaël (Raffaello Sanzio)

Urbino 1483 - Rome 1520

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