Italian School After Raphael "the Virgin With The Diadem" Oil On Canvas 17th Century

Italian School after Raphael "The Virgin with the Diadem, the Infant Jesus and Saint John the Baptist" Oil on Canvas, 17th Century. Our version of The Virgin with the Blue Diadem, or Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John, or The Virgin with the Veil (in Italian: Madonna del diadema blu), is a copy of a religious painting by Raphael executed in collaboration with Giovan Francesco Penni. The painting is kept at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The original painting of The Virgin with the Blue Diadem was purchased in 1742 by King Louis XV from the Prince of Carignan. In the Louvre Museum version, Mary and the Infant Jesus, in the presence of the infant Saint John the Baptist, are depicted against a backdrop of ancient ruins (arches, pilasters) and a misty city. The Virgin and the infant Saint John, kneeling in the foreground, are placed before a low wall. They gaze upon the Infant Jesus, lying asleep on a cloth, his right arm raised and his hand resting on his head. The Virgin, wearing a blue diadem, lifts a corner of the veil covering the Child's face with her right hand. To her left, the infant Saint John, his hands clasped, is held by the shoulder by the Virgin's other hand; his staff with a cross is held vertically by her arm. In our version, the composition has been modified; the three figures are depicted in an interior inspired by the Italian Renaissance. In the background, a three-bay loggia opens onto a mountain landscape, and to the left, onto a castle or fortified citadel, crowned with towers, typical of Italian Renaissance cities. While the Virgin retains the same pose, the poses of the Infant Jesus and Saint John the Baptist are slightly altered from the original. The work revisits the theme of sleep, which foreshadows the Passion, to which the cross of Saint John alludes. The Virgin's gesture of lifting the veil (the same as that of the Madonna of Loreto) serves as an illusionistic substitute for the Shroud of Turin, a particularly venerated relic. Some lifting, restoration, and losses. Canvas dimensions: 74 x 92.5 cm. Framed dimensions: 84 x 103 cm.