The Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist

An etching reproducing, in reverse, a red chalk study by Raphael (c.1505) now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no.64.47, Rogers Fund, 1984). As lettered on the sheet, the drawing was at the time of this print in the Cabinet of Mr. Rogers and according to Ruland (1876) it then moved to the collection of Mr Birchall. Published in B. Picart, Impostures Innocentes, Amsterdam, 1734, plate 5.

The composition corresponds largely to Raphael’s so-called ‘Madonna of the Meadow’ (1505-1506), a painting now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no.GG175), for which the drawing is in fact thought to be a preparatory study. See RCIN 850706 for a print reproducing the painting.

Showing the full length seated Virgin supporting the standing Christ Child who reaches for the cross-staff held by the Infant Baptist, who kneels down before Him.