This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Holy Families & Madonna and Child

Holy Families & Madonna and Child

AFTER RAPHAEL (URBINO 1483-ROME 1520)

The Virgin and Child with St Elizabeth and the Infant Baptist

c.1853-76

Albumen print | 24.1 x 19.1 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 851098

A photograph of a drawing by Raphael (c.1507) now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle (RCIN 912738). The drawing connects with a sheet attributed to Raphael currently in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no.3949). The two drawings show similarity in composition with ‘The Canigiani Holy Family’, a painting by Raphael now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. no.WA 476). It has been suggested that the two drawings may be either preparatory studies for a – lost or never executed - composition, or independent developments from ‘The Canigiani Holy Family’. A photograph of the 'Canigiani Holy Family’ can be found at RCIN 850756.

Showing the full-length seated Virgin supporting the standing Christ Child who leans backwards, with the crouched St Elizabeth supporting the Infant Christ on the left; in a landscape.
  • Creator(s)

    After Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (artist)

  • 24.1 x 19.1 cm (sheet of paper)

  • Acquired for the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)

  • Subject(s)
    • Religion & Theology
      • Religions and faiths
        • Christianity
          • Devotional Images of Christ
            • Virgin & Child
          • Life of Christ
            • Infancy of Christ
              • Christ Child
  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    no. 0790 (P&W : Popham, A.E. & Wilde, J., 1949. The Italian Drawings of the XV and XVI Centuries in the Collection of His Majesty The King at Windsor Castle, London)