“There are numerous old copies of this pleasing depiction of the Virgin, yet I have been unable to discover the original,” wrote the art historian Johann David Passavant nearly two centuries ago in reference to one of Raphael’s most intriguing and elusive...
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“There are numerous old copies of this pleasing depiction of the Virgin, yet I have been unable to discover the original,” wrote the art historian Johann David Passavant nearly two centuries ago in reference to one of Raphael’s most intriguing and elusive artworks, THE MADONNA OF THE PINKS. Every few decades since then claims have been made – often by leading art historians of the day – that the long-lost original had at last been discovered: whether in the collection of a French industrialist, of a Russian count, or, more recently, in that of an English duke. In relation to this latest “rediscovery” the renowned art critic Brian Sewell once remarked: It’s 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
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