The Holy Family

Raphael made this near the end of his short life, around 1518, when his Rome workshop was so busy that he handed much of the actual painting to his gifted pupil Giulio Romano while keeping the design his own. It shows the Virgin and the infant Christ with the young John the Baptist, Saint Anne behind them, and Joseph leaning in from the shadows on the left. The nickname came later. When it reached the Spanish royal collection, King Philip IV is said to have called it the pearl of all his pictures, and the name La Perla stuck. Raphael died in 1520, only about 37 years old, and works like this one, designed by him and finished with his pupils, are among the last things to leave his hand.