Now through September 27th
The Small Cowper Madonna by Raphael, one of the greatest Renaissance paintings in America, has come to Worcester from the National Gallery of Art in Washington for a special, focused installation. Painted at the moment when Raphael made the transition from Urbino to Florence, this work stands at the beginning of the highly influential Madonnas which secured his reputation. Raphael’s work is paired with Worcester’s Northbrook Madonna, a work that came into the collection in 1940 with an attribution to Raphael that has long been discarded, but without clear consensus on what relationship the work bears to Raphael and his studio. This two-painting installation, which also addresses the underdrawing of the two pictures, explores Raphael’s masterful interpretation and the spread of his early style among followers in Central Italy.