This stunning painting is titled 'Small Cowper Madonna' because it was the smaller of the two Raphael Madonna paintings owned by the English collector, Lord Cowper; Raphael painted it at the approximate age of twenty-two. Stylistically it bears the strong influence of his Umbrian master, Perugino, and also that of his Florentine rivals, Leonardo [the sweeping landscape] and Michelangelo. The domed building in the right background is thought to be the Franciscan convent of San Bernardino near Raphael's native city of Urbino. The original is: c.1505, oil on wood, 59.5 x 44 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
