72 Virgins: Unveiling Raphael’s “Madonna of the Pinks”

THE MADONNA OF THE PINKS is one of Raphael’s most intriguing and elusive compositions. For more than two centuries art historians have searched in vain for the lost original. Every few decades its rediscovery is announed, often with great fanfare: whether... More

THE MADONNA OF THE PINKS is one of Raphael’s most intriguing and elusive compositions. For more than two centuries art historians have searched in vain for the lost original. Every few decades its rediscovery is announed, often with great fanfare: whether in the collection of an Italian count, a French industrialist, a Russian nobleman, or, more recently, in that of an English duke. Yet in every case the purported original has failed to withstand critical scrutiny. In relation to the latest “rediscovery,” announced by Nicholas Penny in 1993, the renowned art critic Brian Sewell remarked: “It is so exciting to have identified an important early Raphael! All those involved in this discovery and identification are sort of preening themselves with the excitement of it.… If you have enough really eminent people going along with it, happy to be deluded, it’s much more difficult to knock it off its perch. But eventually, it will tumble from its perch, because people who are not involved Less