The Holy Family

The Morgan's painting reproduces a famous composition by Raphael
(1483–1520), which was probably commissioned by Pope Julius II (reigned
1503–13) and given to the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. Long
considered lost, Raphael's original painting, also known as the Madonna of Loreto,
likely is the one now in the Musée Condé, Chantilly. One of the
numerous copies, now in Nijni Taghil, bears the date 1509, and thus
possibly supplies a terminus ante quem for Raphael's original.

The composition represents the Virgin raising a transparent veil from
the infant Christ, just wakened from sleep. The child reaches to play
with the veil, an allusion to Christ's burial shroud and early death.
The earliest published mention of Raphael's original is made by Giorgio
Vasari, the celebrated sixteenth-century biographer of the Italian
masters. In the 1550 edition of his Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects,
he writes that Raphael painted a portrait of Pope Julius II in the same
year that he also painted a very beautiful Madonna, noting that both
works were preserved in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo. "In the
last named picture," Vasari observes, "which represents the Nativity of
Christ, the Virgin is covering with a veil the divine Child, the
expression of whose countenance is of such wonderful beauty and his
whole person so clearly demonstrates the divinity of his origin that all
must perceive him to be truly the Son of God."

The above-mentioned portrait of Pope Julius II is probably the painting
now in the National Gallery, London. It has been suggested that Pope
Julius II, much distressed after his return from Bologna in 1511,
donated both the Raphael portrait and Holy Family to the church
of Santa Maria del Popolo, which the pope's family had patronized for
several generations. Both paintings were shown to the general public
only on religious feast days, when the Holy Family was displayed on one of the church's pillars.

In the Morgan version, as compared to the Chantilly original, the
Virgin's brooch has gained a pendant pearl and the drapery on the bed
falls in more folds. The high quality and refined detail of the Morgan
version distinguish it from most of the other extant examples of this
composition. In all likelihood it was made by one of Raphael's pupils
during the master's lifetime or shortly after his death.