Raphael Madonna a Dude
Raphael, Madonna and Child with Book , about 1502-1503. Norton Simon Museum Twenty years ago the Norton Simon Museum lent its Raphael Madonna and Child with Book to the Metropolitan Museum for "Raphael at the Metropolitan: The Colonna Madonna," a focus show built around the Met's large but massively restored altarpiece. That was an unusual move for the Simon, which rarely lends its works. Now the Met is doing a vastly more ambitious exhibition, "Raphael: Sublime Poetry" (in New York through June 28, 2026). This time the Simon painting is absent. That's really too bad because the Met show (and its catalog) includes three drawings enhancing understanding of the Simon Madonna . One sheet, from Lille, has two studies of the Virgin's hand and book, establishing its connection to the Pasadena painting. While the Lille head looks feminine, the manspreading stance does not. It's a reminder that Renaissance figure models were almost always male studio assist...
