Small Cowper Madonna

A red-haired Madonna in a bright red dress holds her child, who hugs her neck and glances back at us with a coy smile. Behind them, a clear day and a church where the Dukes of Urbino lie buried.

The story behind the painting

The Small Cowper Madonna was painted by Raphael around 1504 to 1505; Wikidata gives 1505. No source confirms who it was for. Since it was made in Urbino, ruled by Raphael's main patrons of those years, it was probably a private commission. The reddish hair of both mother and child might allude to Maria della Rovere, daughter of Giovanna della Rovere; her grandmother Battista Sforza was a famous redhead painted by Piero della Francesca. The church on the right is widely thought to be San Bernardino, where the Dukes of Urbino, Raphael's birthplace, were buried, and it has been suggested the painting was made for devotion and legitimation.

What to look for

The Madonna sits at the centre on a wooden bench, fair-skinned and blonde in a bright red dress. A dark drapery lies across her lap, and her right hand rests on it delicately. A sheer translucent ribbon flows across the top of her dress and behind her head, and the faintest golden halo surrounds her. In her left arm she holds the Child, who embraces her with one arm around her back and the other around her neck, looking back over his shoulder. Behind them, on a bright day, two small figures walk toward a reflective pond, and a large church stands at the end of a long path.

Meaning and intent

The painting places the most intimate of subjects, a mother and her child, in a calm Italian countryside, as if the holy were part of an ordinary morning. Yet its details may carry family meaning: the red hair and the burial church of the dukes could tie the image to the ruling house of Urbino, a hypothesis the source presents with caution. Both figures closely resemble the Madonna and Child of the so-called Lee version of The Holy Family with a Lamb, published in 1934 in The Burlington Magazine, which also shows the family mausoleum. The panel measures about 60 by 44 cm, according to Wikidata.

Legacy

Around 1780 the painting was acquired by George Clavering-Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper, whose name it still carries. It passed down through six generations of Cowpers before going to Duveen Brothers in 1913, and in 1914 to Peter A. B. Widener, who showed it at Lynnewood Hall. His son Joseph E. Widener gave it, with the rest of the collection, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1942. In 2015 it was lent to the Worcester Art Museum to hang beside the Northbrook Madonna, once given to Raphael; the museum later suggested that work may be by his friend Domenico Alfani.