Raphael and the Fornarina

This composition, the first of six versions, articulates Ingres’s conception of the art of painting. For him, the oeuvre of the Renaissance artist Raphael was the pinnacle of artistic achievement. Here Ingres draws on Raphael’s relationship with the woman known as “La Fornarina” (the Little Baker), which, according to the biographer Giorgio Vasari, led to the young artist’s death from an excess of lovemaking. Raphael has just sketched the famous portrait of her, and his beloved subject sits on his knee. But Raphael has eyes only for his own creation, which, like Ingres’s representation of its model, meets the viewer’s gaze. This triangle of glances is complicated by the presence of the Virgin in Raphael’s Madonna of the Chair, seen against the back wall, where she resembles the artist’s lover.

Raphael Raffaello's La Fornarina - Canvas – Batakta

La Fornarina: A Beautiful Woman, the Myth of the Artist and the Muse — Apollon Undergraduate Journal

Portrait of La Fornarina after Sebastian Del Piombo — KLISMOS Gallery

Love with Raphael & La Fornarina » The Muse Life

Raphael and Fornarina

Raphael's La Fornarina (1518-20), EPPH

Pablo Picasso, Raphaël et la fornarina XVIII (1973), Available for Sale

La Fornarina, Portrait of a Young Woman Tapestry by Raphael - Fine Art America

Raphael And La Fornarina By Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Reproduction from Cutler Miles

Raphael and the Fornarina - CACompany

La Fornarina and the Cat

Pablo Picasso, Raphaël et la Fornarina IV: avec le Pape tirant le rideau ( Raphael and the Fornarina IV: with the Pope Pulling Back the Curtain), plate 299 from 347 Series (Bl. 1779, Ba. 1796) (1968)

Italy's Most Mysterious Paintings: Raphael's La Fornarina - Walks of Italy