Raphael Madonna & Child Christmas Card

This Christmas add a touch of elegance with one of the most frequently discussed and best-loved paintings of the Renaissances, Raphael's The Madonna di Foligno Christmas Cards. More images and cards found in ChristMuseum here. Raphael's Altar of Heaven - the Madonna di Foligno The painting was executed for Sigismondo de' Conti, chamberlain to Pope Julius II, in 1511. It was placed on a high altar of the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli on Capitoline Hill (Italian: Campidoglio) in Rome, where Sigismondo was buried in 1512. It was moved by Anna Conti, a descendent of Sigismondi Conti, to the monastery of St. Anne in Foligno in 1565 and remained there for more than two centuries, hence the name. In 1799 it was carried to Paris, France by Napoleon. There, in 1802, the painting was transferred from panel to canvas by Hacquin and restored by Roser of Heidelberg. The process to transfer a painting from wood panel to canvas was so rare that special note was made by the restorer: "Rapporto dei cittadini Guijon Vincent Tannay e Berthollet sul ristauro dei quadri di Raffaello conosciuto sotto il nome di Madonna di Foligno." In 1815, after the Battle of Waterloo, it was returned to Italy, where it was placed in the room with the Transfiguration in the Pinacoteca Vaticana of the Vatican Museum in the Vatican City.