The Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist

A photograph of a drawing formerly attributed to Raphael, catalogued by Ruland (1876) as being then in the collection of the 'Academy at Milan'. The drawing is currently untraced. The drawing is almost identical to a sheet now in the British Museum, London (inv. no.1895-9-15-626), and closely resembles another sheet also in the British Museum (inv. no.Ff. I-38). A third similar drawing, without the Infant Baptist, is in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence (inv. no.498E). All of these drawings are presumed to be copies after a lost original study by Raphael. The photograph shows the full-length Virgin, seated almost in profile to left, holding the naked Christ Child on her lap, with the Infant Baptist standing at left.