The Virgin and Child with Angels and Saints [‘The Madonna di Foligno’]

A print after the so-called ‘Madonna di Foligno’, an arch-topped painting by Raphael (c.1512) now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City (inv. no.329). Lettered with the title and production details.

According to the lettering on the print, the painting was originally housed in the church of S. Maria in Aracoeli in Rome, and was relocated to the Monastery of Sant’ Anna in Foligno by Anna Conti, the niece of Sigismondo dei Conti and abbess of the said monastery, in 1565. The legend also indicates that the painting was in the Musée Napoleon in Paris when the print was made. Ruland (1876) catalogued the painting as being then already in the Pinacoteca Vaticana.

Showing the Virgin sitting on clouds and supporting the Christ Child, surrounded by angels, while being worshipped by St John the Baptist and St Francis (lower left), and St Jerome and the donor Sigismondo dei Conti (lower right), who kneels down with clasped hands; an angel holding a blank tablet stands at lower centre; in a landscape.