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

FRIEDRICH WAGNER (1803-76)

The Virgin and Sleeping Child with the Infant Baptist [‘Madonna del Velo’]

c.1823-1866

Etching and engraving | 47.3 x 37.1 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 850788

An engraving after a painting catalogued by Ruland (1876) as being then in the possession of M.I.I. Wuyts, Antwerp.

The painting is one of a number reproducing a composition traditionally known as the Madonna del Velo, the original version of which (currently untraced) is thought to have been painted by Raphael’s workshop after a design by the master dating c.1510-12 (see Bibliographic References).

Showing the Christ Child sleeping on the left; the Virgin looks at Him while lifting the veil over His head with her right hand and supporting the Infant Baptist with her left, who points at the Child; in a landscape.
  • Creator(s)

    Friedrich Wagner (1803-76) (engraver)

    After a work by the school of Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (artist)

    After a work copying Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (artist)

  • 47.3 x 37.1 cm (sheet of paper)

    34.6 x 28.3 cm (image)

    44.8 x 33.5 cm (platemark)

  • Added to the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)

  • Subject(s)
    • Religion & Theology
      • Religions and faiths
        • Christianity
          • Devotional Images of Christ
            • Virgin & Child
    • Science, Medicine and Technology
      • Industries, Crafts and Trades
        • Clothing
          • Headgear
            • Veils
    Object type(s)
      • visual works
        • prints
  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    Capellen 2005 : Capellen, JM, 2005. Raphael : the paintings. Volume 2, The Roman Religious Paintings ca.1508-1520 pp. 278-279, no. A17

    Other number(s)

    Ruland p.64 A.XVIII.4