VIENNA.- An intriguing painting of the Madonna and Child is to be offered in Dorotheum’s Old Master Paintings sale in Vienna on 22nd October 2019. It has never been on the market before and its provenance is impeccable. Its style and subject, its composition and its technical prowess place it very near the centre of the body of religious works produced by the great master of the Renaissance, Raphael.

The Madonna and Child (estimate €300,000-400,000) has undergone scientific and scholarly investigation to try to establish its author. Technical studies have revealed under-drawing and preparatory work for the composition very similar to that found in works by Raphael. Images from the infrared reflectogram clearly show under-drawing on the prepared surface of the panel executed with a confidence of draftsmanship and a refinement of technique which can be compared to Raphael’s earliest style of drawing.

Technical examination and the picture´s remarkable resemblance to the work produced by the young Raphael while he was in Umbria (c.1497-1503/4), suggest that his authorship should be taken into consideration. The painting can tentatively be attributed, at the very least, to a close associate of the artist.

This work bears remarkable similarities to other paintings of the Madonna and Child, notably the “Northbrook Madonna” in the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, which has been compared to Raphael´s “Cowper Madonna” from the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The present work may well provide the missing connection between the two paintings.

This painting was discovered in a distinguished private European collection which once belonged to the celebrated Duchess of Castiglione Colonna (1836-1879). She was herself a notable sculptor and painter who worked under her own name, Adele d’Affry or under the pseudonym “Marcello”. The present painting of the Madonna and Child can be recognised in a picture she painted of an elegant interior of her own home.

Prior to the auction in Vienna, the extraordinary painting will be on view at the Dorotheum representative offices in London and Brussels.