Alba Madonna

The Alba Madonna is a tondo, a circular painting, in oil on wood later transferred to canvas, by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael, created around 1510. It depicts Mary, the infant Jesus and John the Baptist set in a typical Italian countryside. After a century and a half in Italy the painting entered the collection of the Dukes of Alba in Spain, from whom it takes its name, until it was sold in 1836 to Nicholas I of Russia and became a highlight of the Imperial Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. It was sold clandestinely by the government of the Soviet Union to the American collector Andrew W. Mellon in 1931, and has been held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., since 1937. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/