Virgin and Child with Young Saint John the Baptist

Raphael painted the original in Rome around 1513 or 1514, a round picture about 71 centimetres across, in which the Virgin sits on a low chair holding the Child tight against her while the young John the Baptist looks on from the side. It is known as the Madonna della Seggiola, the Madonna of the Chair, and it hangs in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. In the 19th century it became one of the most copied paintings in Europe, and this tondo, slightly larger at about 74 centimetres, is one of those copies. The painter is not known and neither is the date. Its accession number begins with 76, which means it entered the collection in 1876, the year the Museum of Fine Arts opened its first building on Copley Square in Boston.