La Belle Jardinière – Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist

Raffaello SANTI, known as Raphael

Neither the identity of the sponsor nor the circumstances under which La Belle Jardinière entered the Royal Collection are known. After the Virgin of the Belvedere (Vienna) and the Virgin with the goldfinch (Florence), from 1505 - 1506, La Belle Jardinière, dated 1507 or 1508, closes, at the end of Raphael's Florentine stay, his research on the motif of the Virgin with Child with St. John inscribed in a dynamic and pyramidal composition in the foreground of a landscape.

La Belle Jardinière - Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist / Raffaello SANTI, known as Raphael
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) / Franck Raux