A New Rafael Painting Found

A delicate portrait of a woman that for decades was regarded as a 17th Century copy of the famous virgin that appears in the painting The Holy Family, also known as The Pearl ¿ attributed to Raphael and exhibited at the Museo del Prado ¿ has turned out to be an original sketch for the painting, created by the genius of Urbino just before he died. The small work ¿ 35 cm by 30 cm ¿ and its magnificent 16th Century frame were kept for years in a storage space that belongs to the Estense Gallery, the great museum of fine arts in the Italian city of Modena. State-of-the-art technology has now apparently confirmed that Raphael was the creator of this porcelain-like face. The tests performed at the Florentine laboratory Art-Test (ultraviolet and infrared rays, and high-definition x-rays) have allowed researchers to reach an "ample and precise analysis of the work," according to Luciano Marras, one of the two owners of the laboratory. According to the interim arts superintendent for Modena, Mario Scalini, the portrait represents a fragment of a first version of the Madonna of the Pearl that Raphael painted between 1518 and 1520, the year of his death. Scalini has stated to the Il Corriere Della Sera periodical that the work will be exhibited in Modena on May 27, and that then he will travel to Madrid to request from The Museo del Prado the loan of The Madonna of the Pearl to the city of Modena so that the two works can be exhibited together.