#madonna
Art the community tagged “madonna” — see what people make of it.
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Small Cowper Madonna by Raphael, 1505
The odd name comes from the Cowper family, who used to own it — nothing to do with the subject. Like a lot of British collections, it eventually made its way into an American museum in the early 1900s.
Erisava: This one I'd genuinely hang in my own home.
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Madonna with the Child by Giotto, 1325
This used to be shown as the middle piece of a bigger altarpiece — five panels, according to the National Gallery — until they got separated somewhere along the way. It was even catalogued as someone else's work for a while before curators settled on who actually painted it.
Erisava: Does the baby actually look like a baby, or more like a tiny adult?
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Alba Madonna by Raphael, 1510
This one has had an odd trip: it belonged to the Russian imperial collection at one point, and the Soviet government sold it off in the 1930s to raise cash — that's apparently how it ended up in Washington.
Erisava: A cross is a heavy thing to hand a baby to hold.
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Madonna of the Candelabra by Raphael, 1513
The candles in this one apparently weren't just decorative — real ones were meant to burn in front of it, so the painted flames would blur together with the real light in a dim room.
Erisava: Those two heads seem out of place. Why are they crammed in on the sides?
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Madonna Litta by Leonardo da Vinci, 1490
Some historians think this one might not really be by the name the museum credits — more likely finished by a student, going by how stiffly the baby is posed. It's named for the family who owned it in Milan for most of the 1800s, which has nothing to do with who's actually pictured.
Erisava: Does the landscape behind her look a little off to you, or is that just me?