05/05/2023
La Madonna del Baldacchino
is a c.1506-1508 oil on canvas holy conversation-style painting by Raffaello.
In Pescia Cathedral by the mid 16th century, Raffaello’s work was acquired by prince Ferdinando de' Medici in 1697. He had it restored and completed by the brothers Niccolò and Agostino Cassana. Ferdinando wished Raffaello’s work to act as a pendant to another work in his collection, Fra' Bartolomeo's Christ Among the Doctors, and so had a strip added to the top of Raphael's work to make it the same height as the other painting. Raffarllo’s work was taken to Paris in 1799 and only returned to Florence in 1813.