Follower of Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael

Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks is one of the artist’s most famous compositions, known from numerous 16th and 17th century copies. The version formerly in the Camuccini collection in Rome and later in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland (today National Gallery, London, NG6596), has recently been identified as the original work by Raphael. Alongside the Northumberland painting, the present work from Conte Luigi Spada’s collection has traditionally been understood to be amongst the finest surviving examples. In the early 20th century, Adolfo Venturi, Gustav Gluck, Wilhelm Suida, Antonio Morassi and Antonio Porcella all considered the present work to be by the hand of Raphael himself (written communication, cited in R. De Grada, op. cit., p. 8).