Madonna of the Pinks

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The Madonna of the Pinks

Raphael, c. 1506–1507

oil on fruitwood

28.8 × 22.8 cm

National Gallery, London

The Madonna of the Pinks (circa 1506-1507, Italian: La Madonna dei garofani) is an early devotional painting by Raphael. It is painted in oils on fruitwood and now hangs in the National Gallery, London.

The painting depicts a youthful Virgin Mary playing with the Christ child and handing him carnations. These flowers, known in Greek as dianthus (‘flower of God’), are a premonition of Christ’s Passion – according to Christian legend, the flower first appeared when the Virgin wept at the Crucifixion. The event takes place in a dimly-lit domestic setting influenced by Netherlandish art. The compositions is based closely on the Benois Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci, although the colour scheme of blues and greens that link the Virgin with the landscape is Raphael's own. Through the arched window is a landscape with a ruined building, symbolising the collapse of the pagan world at the birth of Christ.

The subject matter and size of the painting, little larger than a Book of Hours, suggest that it may have been intended as a portable aid to prayer. The identity of its original patron is unknown, although an inventory from the 1850s suggests that it was commissioned for Maddalena degli Oddi, a member of a prominent Perugian family, after she had taken holy orders.

Only in 1991 was the painting identified as a genuine Raphael, by the Renaissance scholar Nicholas Penny. Although Raphael scholars were aware of the existence of the work, which had hung in Alnwick Castle since 1853, they considered it merely the best of several copies of a lost original. After a huge public appeal the Madonna of the Pinks was bought in 2004 by the National Gallery from the Duke of Northumberland for £22 million, with contributions from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Art Collections Fund. To justify the vast expenditure it went on a nationwide tour to Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Barnard Castle.