Miniature after Raphael's Madonna della Sedia, from the Dolls' House of Petronella Dunois

Miniature after Raphael's Madonna della Sedia, from the Dolls' House of Petronella Dunois


Details

Artist
Anonymous
Year
1875
Medium
gouache
Type
painting
Dimensions
7.9 × 6.6 cm

The story

Raphael's Madonna della Sedia, the round painting in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence of Mary holding the Child close, was one of the most copied pictures of the 19th century. This copy is under eight centimetres high, painted in gouache in an oval gilt frame topped with a bow. The Rijksmuseum dates it to the second half of the 1800s, nearly two centuries after Petronella Dunois furnished her dolls' house, so it was added while the house was still passing down her family. The young John the Baptist is at the right, hands joined in prayer, as in Raphael's picture.

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