The painting is about youth Virgin Mary playing with the Christ child and handling him carnations. Both the Virgin and Child seated in a bedchamber with a view of a sunny landscape seen through a window. The child’s attention has been caught by the delicate flowers she holds, the pinks, which are symbolic of love and betrothal. Virgin Mary is dressed in a grey and yellow dress with a blue skirt and a small white veil, and Jesus sits naked on a white pillow on her lap. A window in the top right corner shows some tumbledown building, and behind the Virgin Mary is a curtain in a dull green color.
The Madonna of the Pinks is an early devotional painting by Italian master Raphael. It was painted in oils on fruitwood. Raphael Sanzio was a painter and architect. Raphael painted the picture shortly before leaving Florence for Rome.
The painting was bought from the Duke of Northumberland in 2004 by London's National Gallery in order to keep the painting from being sent to Getty’s collection.
The Madonna of the Pinks was first deemed an original Raphael in Longhena's 1829 book about the artist. The painting was purchased in 1853 by the 4th Duke of Northumberland for Alnwick Castle. In 1991, National Gallery curator Nicholas Penny examined the picture and hailed it as a rediscovered masterpiece in an article published in Burlington Magazine the same year. Now hanging in National Gallery and considered one of the UK's national treasures.
Madonna of the Pinks by Raphael
