The Alba Madonna

c. 1510

Raphael

Artist, Marchigian, 1483 - 1520

A woman and two children, all with pale skin and flushed cheeks, sit together in a landscape in this round painting. The woman takes up most of the composition as she sits with her right leg, to our left, tucked under her body. Her other leg, on our right, is bent so the foot rests on the ground, and that knee angles up and out to the side. She wears a rose-pink dress under a topaz-blue robe, and a finger between the pages of a closed book holds her place. Her brown hair is twisted away from her face. She has delicate features and her pink lips are closed. She looks and leans to our left around a nude young boy who half-sits and half-stands against her bent leg. The boy has blond hair and pudgy, toddler-like cheeks and body. The boy reaches his right hand, on our left, to grasp the tall, thin cross held by the second young boy, who sits on the ground next to the pair. This second boy has darker brown hair and wears a garment resembling animal fur. The boy kneels facing the woman and looks up at her and the blond boy. The trio sits on a flat, grassy area in front of a body of water painted light turquoise. Mountains in the deep distance are pale azure blue beneath a nearly clear blue sky.

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Renaissance artist Raphael was famous in his own time. It is easy to understand why. His images are vibrant, emotional, and flawless in execution. In this round-format religious painting, called a tondo, Mary and a young John the Baptist lean in toward Jesus. Their gazes fall on the child as he receives the burden of the cross on which he will be crucified to pay for the wrongs of others. The intense moment is softened by the lush green landscape and the pale pinks and blues of Mary’s draped garment. Seated on the bare ground, the humble Madonna accepts her son’s fate.

The Alba Madonna (English)
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel transferred to canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (diameter): 94.5 cm (37 3/16 in.)
    framed (diameter x depth): 140.34 × 15.88 cm (55 1/4 × 6 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.24

More About this Artwork

A woman and two children, all with pale skin and flushed cheeks, sit together in a landscape in this round painting. The woman takes up most of the composition as she sits with her right leg, to our left, tucked under her body. Her other leg, on our right, is bent so the foot rests on the ground, and that knee angles up and out to the side. She wears a rose-pink dress under a topaz-blue robe, and a finger between the pages of a closed book holds her place. Her brown hair is twisted away from her face. She has delicate features and her pink lips are closed. She looks and leans to our left around a nude young boy who half-sits and half-stands against her bent leg. The boy has blond hair and pudgy, toddler-like cheeks and body. The boy reaches his right hand, on our left, to grasp the tall, thin cross held by the second young boy, who sits on the ground next to the pair. This second boy has darker brown hair and wears a garment resembling animal fur. The boy kneels facing the woman and looks up at her and the blond boy. The trio sits on a flat, grassy area in front of a body of water painted light turquoise. Mountains in the deep distance are pale azure blue beneath a nearly clear blue sky.

Video:  Michelangelo, Raphael, and the Genius Paradox

Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art presented by Cammy Brothers (2022)

Video:  Raphael's "Alba Madonna" (ASL)

This video provides an ASL description of Raphael's painting, Alba Madonna.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Paolo Giovio, appointed to the Bishopric of Nocera by Clement VII in 1528; possibly from him to Chiesa di Monte Oliveto, Nocera de'Pagani; sold 1686 to Gasparo de Haro y Guzman, Conde-Duque de Olivares, Marqués del Carpio and Viceroy of Naples [d. 1687]; by inheritance to his daughter, Catalina Méndez de Haro y Guzmán, later Duquesa de Alba; by inheritance to the Duques de Alba; by inheritance to María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva y Alvarez de Toledo, Duquesa de Alba [d. 1802], Sanlúcar, near Seville;[1] sold by her heirs to Count Edmund de Bourke, Danish Ambassador to Spain; sold 1820 to William G. Coesvelt, London;[2] sold 1836 to (M. Labensky) for Czar Nicholas I of Russia [1796-1855], Saint Petersburg; Imperial Hermitage Gallery, Saint Petersburg;[3] purchased April 1931 through (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London; and M. Knoedler & Co., New York) by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 5 June 1931 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] See A. Barcia, Catalogo de la collecion de pinturas del Excmo. Sr. Duque de Berwick y de Alba, 1911: 260.
[2] Recorded in Mrs. Anna Jameson, Collection of Pictures of W. G. Coesvelt, Esq., London, 1836: VII, 24.
[3] According to E. Bruiningk and A. Somoff, Ermitage Imperial, Catalogue de la galerie des tableaux, Saint Petersburg, 1891: 1:137.
[4] Mellon/Mellon Trust purchase date and/or date deeded to Mellon Trust is according to Mellon collection files in NGA curatorial records and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1979

  • Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 113, repro.

1983

  • Raphael and America, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983, no. 92, repro.

2004

  • Raphael: From Urbino to Rome, National Gallery, London, 2004-2005, no. 93, as The Virgin and Child with Saint John (The Alba Madonna), repro.

  • Masterpieces from the World's Museums in the Hermitage: Raphael's Madonna with Christ and St. John the Baptist (The Madonna Alba) from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2004, no cat.

2020

  • Raphael 1520-1483, Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2020, no. IX.15.

2022

  • Raphael, The National Gallery, London, 2022, no. 39, repro.

Bibliography

1909

  • Wrangell, Baron Nicolas. Les Chefs-d'Oeuvre de la Galérie de Tableaux de l'Hermitage Impérial à St-Pétersbourg. London, 1909: repro. 11.

1929

  • "Um die Gaeta Madonna." Kunstauktion 3, no. 34 (29 August 1929):6.

  • Meissner, Carl. "Raphaels Madonna di Gaeta und Madonna Alba." Kunstauktion 3, no 30 (28 July 1929): 9, repro.

1935

  • Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 79, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 79, repro.).

1937

  • Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: repro. frontispiece

  • Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 82.

  • "Trends: Art." American Architect and Architecture. 150 (March 1937): 4, repro.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 162, no. 24, pl. VIII.

  • Richter, George Martin. "The New National Gallery in Washington." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 78 (June 1941): 178.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 174.

1944

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 48, color repro.

1946

  • Favorite Paintings from the National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C.. New York, 1946: 11-14, color repro.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 29, repro.

1951

  • Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 58-59, repro.

1956

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 20, color repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 26.

1960

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 25.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Later Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Six in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 42, color repro. on cover.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 134, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 107.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:130, color repro.

  • Walton, William. "Parnassus on Potomac." Art News 65 (March 1966): 38, repro. 39.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 95, repro.

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 12, 43, 45, color repro.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:355.

1973

  • Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 22, 24 repro., 152-153, 156.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 280, repro.

1978

  • Wasserman, Jack. "The Genesis of Raphael's Alba Madonna." Studies in the History of Art vol. 8 (1978):35-61, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:386-389; 2:pl. 277.

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 35, pl. 19.

  • Thomas, Denis. The Face of Christ. London, 1979: 78, repro.

  • Williams, Robert C. "The Quiet Trade: Russian Art and American Money." The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 3 (Winter 1979): 162-163, repro.

1982

  • Alsop, Joseph. The Rare Art Traditions: The History of Art Collecting and Its Linked Phenomena Wherever These Have Appeared. Bollingen series 35, no. 27. New York, 1982: 452.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 178, no. 199, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 325, repro.

1986

  • Christensen, Carol. "Examination and Treatment of Paintings by Raphael at the National Gallery of Art." Studies in the History of Art 17 (1986):47-48, 52-54, repro.

1988

  • Wheeler, Marion, ed. His Face--Images of Christ in Art: Selections from the King James Version of the Bible. New York, 1988: 126, no. 16, color repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 20, 23, 91, 143, 170, color repro.

  • Morandotti, Alessandro. "La fortuna collezionistica della pittura gotica e rinascimentale fra Ottocento e Novecento." In Mauro Natale, ed. Pittura italiana dal '300 al '500. Milan, 1991: 39.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 30, repro.

1994

  • Costamagna, Philippe. Pontormo. Milan, 1994: 193.

1995

  • Honour, Hugh and John Fleming. A World History of Art. 7th ed. New York, 2005: 469, 470, color fig. 11.17.

1996

  • Wallis, Stephen. "Sketchbook: Knoedler Turns 150." Art & Antiques 19, no. 10 (November 1996): 18.

  • Landi, Ann. "150 Years of Helping Shape a Nation's Taste." New York Times (December 1, 1996): 46.

1997

  • Shaw-Eagle, Joanna. "Christ's Birth Gave Birth to Astounding Images: Gallery Glitters with holy Masterpieces." Washington Times (December 21, 1997): D1, D5, repro.

1998

  • Buck, Stephanie and Peter Hohenstatt. Raffeallo Santi, known as Raphael, 1483-1520. Konemann, 1998: 76-77, repro. no. 97.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 80-81, no. 56, color repro.

2006

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Only in America: One Hundred Paintings in American Museums Unmatched in European Collections. Milan, 2006: 17.

2009

  • Odom, Anne, and Wendy R. Salmond, eds. Treasures into Tractors: The Selling of Russia's Cultural Heritage, 1918-1938. Washington, 2009: 91, 106 n. 8, 131, 135 n. 6, 202.

2011

  • Kustodieva, Tat'jana. Museo Statale Ermitage: La pittura italiana dal XIII al XVI secolo. Milan, 2011: 18.

2013

  • Harris, Neil. Capital Culture: J. Carter Brown, the National Gallery of Art, and the Reinvention of the Museum Experience. Chicago and London, 2013: 44, 459-460.

  • Hodge, Susie. Raphael: His Life and Works in 500 Images. Wigston, Leicestershire, 2013: 164, color fig.

  • Acres, Alfred. _ Renaissance Invention and the Haunted Infancy_. London and Turnhout, 2013: 59, fig. 24.

  • Semyonova, Natalya, and Nicolas V. Iljine, eds. Selling Russia's Treasures: The Soviet Trade in Nationalized Art 1917-1938. New York and London, 2013: 138, 139, 170, 202, repro.

2014

  • Mims, Bryan. "Asheville's Fortress of Art." Our State Down Home in North Carolina (1 October 2014): 40-42, 44, repro.

2016

  • Jaques, Susan. The Empress of Art: Catherine the Great and the Transformation of Russia. New York, 2016: 395, 398.

  • Warner-Johnson, Tim, and Jeremy Howard, eds. Colnaghi: Past, Present and Future: An Anthology. London, 2016: 4-5, color fig. 6.

2020

  • Cavazzini, Patrizia. "Raphael 1520-1483." Exhibition review. Burlington 162, no. 1,412 (November 2020): 984, 985, color fig. 9.

2023

  • Pergam, Elizabeth A. "Collecting the United States: William F. Davidson and the westward expansion of M. Knoedler & Co." Colnaghi Studies Journal 12 (March 2023): 114, fig. 1, 117.

  • Kondziella, Martha. Sodoma: Die Tafel- und Leinwanbilder. Merzhausen, 2023: 199-200.

Wikidata ID

Q254923

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