The Madonna with a Veil" by Raphael Santi. Original. Copies. Imitations

The article is devoted to the history of the existence and technique of the original, copies and imitations of the Madonna with the Raphael Madonna del velo, one of the most popular objects of copying in the European pictorial culture of the 16th - 17th centuries. The history of the original Raphael is closely connected with the medieval icon of Madonna del Popolo, revered as the handmade work of the apostle Luke and the lifetime portrait of the Mother of God. The glory of the medieval original in the eyes of contemporaries was projected onto the picture of Raphael, giving it the status of an actual interpretation of the ancient shrine. This explains the special interest in its copying. During the 16th century, the original Raphael, now stored in the Conde Museum in Chantilly, France, was updated, radically changing the plot of the work. In the XVII century, imitations of Raphael's paintings were often distributed, often created by large masters. The article deals with the methods of copying, typical for artistic practice of the 16th century. As a rule, the painting, which came out of the walls of the workshops of famous artists, was the product of the collective work of the master - the owner of the workshop, apprentices and pupils. The finished composite composition created by the master was previously performed in the form of a cardboard-priporokh, the so-called spolvero, with which it was transferred to a picturesque base. The cardboards were carefully preserved, donated and handed down by inheritance. Traces of spolvero are found in the original Madonna del velo. Currently in the scientific literature there are references to more than one hundred copies of the Madonna with a veil. Some of them are considered works of the 16th century. The most famous copies are kept in the Louvre, the Center of P. Getty, the collection of D.P. Morgan and Del Drago. The Louvre copy of the painting is considered the closest to the original. In all of these works, the drawing of the part of the composition related to the initial version of the original is relatively accurately reproduced. The figure of Josef, which appeared later, is reproduced in different versions with significant variation in the position and proportions of the head and hand drawing. It can be assumed that the compositions of early copies were created either directly from Rafael's cardboard. Or usеd copies from it. The figure of Josef may have been directly copied from the original or created from cardboard, in which the drowing was of simplified schematic nature. Two-figured copy of the painting, displaced from panel to canvas by one of the Russian school of restoration A.F. Mitrokhin in 1827, kept in the Urals in the Art Museum of Yeraterinburg

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