Madonna of the Goldfinch

An old and exquisite cabinet-sized copy of Raphael’s Madonna del Cardellino. The original was painted in or before 1506 as a wedding gift for his friend Lorenzo Nasi (according to Vasari’s Lives of the Artists). The painting entered the Medici collection sometime before 1646, and remains in the Uffizi. Compositionally similar is Raphael’s Madonna del Prato in Vienna, and both are generally agreed to be indebted to da Vinci’s cartoon of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist (sometimes called the Burlington House Cartoon).

The present copy is certainly old. While a chemical analysis of the paint or wood panel has not been undertaken, the material composition of the panel and patterns of wear and ageing suggest a date in the later 17th or earlier 18th century, thus predating the proliferation of after Raphaels that emerge with the popularization of the Grand Tour in the late 18th and 19th century. The frame is likewise probably contemporary with the painting, and in the manner of Venetian pastiglia frames of the 16th century.

The original painting underwent a ten-year restoration project, completed in 2008, restoring the resplendent bright colours as they would have appeared in Raphael’s lifetime. Inspection of pre-restoration photos shows a colour palate much closer to the copy offered here.