A copy of Raphael’s *La Bella Giardiniera*

The painting held in the storerooms of the Château d’Aulteribe is a copy of Raphael’s famous *Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist*, known as *La Belle Jardinière* (Paris, Musée du Louvre). It is of a very high standard compared with other copies held in public collections, such as the one at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon. According to the archives held at the château, it was probably René de Pierre, who made frequent trips to Italy, who acquired it.

The thick layers of varnish on Aulteribe’s work prevent the true quality of the colours from being appreciated, but comparisons between the original painting and its copy reveal the extreme accuracy of the drawing. The only noticeable variations are in the Virgin’s face, which is more graceful in the copy: a faint smile is visible, and the nose is less straight.

The ‘Beautiful Gardener’ was painted whilst Raphael was in Florence, working on a very large number of Madonnas and Childs: The Grand Duke’s Madonna (Florence, Palazzo Pitti), The Madonna of the Meadow (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), The Beautiful Gardener (Paris, Louvre), and The Madonna of the Goldfinch (Florence, Uffizi). Raphael drew his inspiration primarily from the Bruges Madonna, sculpted by Michelangelo and now housed in Bruges Cathedral, which he had seen before it left Florence to be sent to the Netherlands. This Virgin is depicted almost in full face, in a majestic pose, her head tilted slightly towards the Child, who is balancing himself by leaning between her thighs.

In his painted Madonnas, Raphael adopts and modifies Michelangelo’s composition: the Virgin’s legs are turned to the right, supporting the body of the infant Jesus; the Child is turned to the left, towards the infant Saint John the Baptist. The three figures thus form a pyramidal arrangement, centred within the composition and integrated by the subtle light of a landscape, of which we can glimpse the misty plains.

These three figures, linked together in a movement that is both coherent and natural, echo Leonardo’s experiments, notably with Saint Anne, as does the landscape immersed in the misty air of the background. The coherence of the scene is all the more remarkable given that Raphael lends the Virgin an imperceptibly ambivalent expression, at once attentive and solemn. She does not smile at her child, whom she knows is destined for sacrifice.

In this sense, the alterations made to the Virgin’s face in Aulteribe’s copy show that the artist, whilst otherwise faithfully copying the painting, failed to grasp the subtlety of the message conveyed by Raphael.

Dominique Cordelier (ed.), Raphael, his studio, his copyists, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1992. K. Oberhuber, Raphael, Paris, Éditions du Regard, 1999.

Pierluigi de Vecchi, Raphael, Paris, Citadelles & Mazenod, 2002.