Mezzotint Art print shows edge & corner wear, a few creases, with minor spotting, stains and fading on the borders. The Title page is on thinner paper and shows small tears along the edges and some wear.
From the Title Page:
RAPHAEL SANZIO
[1483-1520] UMBRIAN SCHOOL
MADONNA IN THE MEADOW
(VIENNA GALLERY)
This famous picture was painted by Raphael, at the order of Taddeo Taddei, in the year 1506, about the time when he painted the better known donna del Cardellino, now in the Uflizi at Florence. In both pictures, but especially in this one, Raphael shows himself to be under the influence of Leonardo. Numerous pen-and-ink and other sketches, made for both pictures about the same time, have 'been identified in different collectiohs. They show how his mind played about a subject, and how the treatment ultimately adopted grew and took shape within him. Some of these studies are the hastiest outlines, and, as we look from one to another, it seems as if the group moved before us, the children especially changing their places and their attitudes, and the mother moving her foot.Most of the studies in question are in the Albertina Collection at Venice, in the Duke of Devonshire's Collection at Chatsworth, or among the drawings at Oxford, and are accessible in Messrs. Braun's photographs (Nos. l 7, l 56, l 57, 161 etc.). Crowe and Cavalcaselle state that there existed in the Rogers Collection a small cartoon in red chalk, from which the picture was finally painted, a beautiful example of Raphael's most finished work." Raphael painted these pictures in what were, perhaps, his happiest days, when his powers were rapidly developing in the fine artistic air of Florence, and before he had plunged into the soul-destroying turmoil of Rome.The landscape background here is still pure Umbrian, such as Perugino loved, a kind of landscape which Memling and other Netherlands painters had first evolved. But the figures are far beyond anything that mere Umbrian painters had yet attained to create. They are sprung from the fair fancy of the impressionable artist, living in contact with all that was best in the life of the Florence of Michelangelo and the great Leonardo da Vinci. Before many years had passed the artistic ideal was destined, even in the mind of Raphael himself, to undergo a great change. was about to forsake the dream world in which this Virgin and these children lived for the actual world of every day. lt was about to exchange visions for flesh-and-blood realities.We may well rejoice that before that change took place, the old ideal was so sweetly and enduringly enshrined by the young Raphael, for the joy of many future generations and the comfort of countless quiet souls, to whom these sweet Madonna pictures are a never-failing source of pure and elevated delight.Such works could only be produced then and there. The time and the place for their forthcoming exists no more and will not return.