Raphael Sanzio: The Little Cowper Madonna, 1505 (Magna Opera Replica™)

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Magna Opera Replica™

The museum emotion of an original masterpiece, to be experienced in your home in every detail: material surface, artisanal finishing and hand-crafted Renaissance frame.

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The work is currently in production and will be available soon.
The image shown is a digital preview. The physical version will be updated as soon as it is completed and photographed.
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🖼️ Description of the work

The Small Cowper Madonna is one of Raphael's most emblematic early masterpieces, painted around 1505 during his stay in Florence. The work depicts the Virgin Mary seated with the Child Jesus on her lap, in a serene and luminous hilly landscape that recalls the sweet Umbrian lands of his childhood.

The affectionate and spontaneous interaction between mother and son - with the Child abandoning himself to his mother's embrace - conveys a profound tenderness, while Mary's absorbed gaze and the delicate gesture with which she supports her son's foot reveal that thoughtful and composed grace that is a distinctive feature of Raphael's painting.

The composition, built according to a perfectly balanced pyramid scheme, combines solidity and naturalness, while the diffused light models the forms with sweetness, without dramatic contrasts. The bright but calibrated colors - the warm red of the dress, the deep blue of the cloak, the pale green of the drape - contribute to creating an atmosphere of harmony and contemplation.

Behind the figures, an idyllic landscape opens towards a distant horizon, where a church identified as San Bernardino di Urbino, the mausoleum of Raphael's family, can be glimpsed. This detail, together with the spatial depth of the setting, roots the sacredness of the scene in everyday and emotional reality.

A product of the assimilation of the influences of Perugino and Leonardo, the Small Cowper Madonna represents a turning point in the maturation of Raphael's style. The Umbrian sweetness merges with Leonardo's new sensitivity for chiaroscuro and psychological introspection, giving life to a personal language of extraordinary delicacy.

Today preserved at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, this panel is considered one of the highest examples of the Renaissance ideal of beauty and grace. Its perfectly balanced composition, the silent affection of the gestures and the calm and luminous atmosphere make it an eternal icon of divine motherhood and of art as a vehicle of balance and spirituality.

🛠️ Technique: Magna Opera Replica™

This 1:1 scale material museum replica is the result of an exclusive process that combines cutting-edge printing technologies and manual finishing.

A proprietary technology recreates the surface of the original painting, faithfully restoring the pictorial material and the gestures of Raphael's brush strokes.

The finishes are handmade with professional restoration materials and using traditional techniques by craftsmen expert in the knowledge of gilding and carpentry handed down from generation to generation over the centuries .

Every detail is designed to evoke the deep emotion one feels in front of the original, recreating the visual and material experience of the work in its most authentic form.

🖌️ The Renaissance style frame
The frame, entirely hand-made, faithfully reproduces the style of the 16th century Sienese boxes , among the most elegant forms of the Italian Renaissance tradition.

In raw wood with reinforced corners, it is prepared with 4 coats of chalk and 3 coats of natural bole, on which the gold leaf is applied in gouache, spread manually. The gilding is burnished with agate stone, patinated with tempera and finished with wax and shellac.

Each side and each corner is enriched with hand-painted decorative friezes , giving the whole a handcrafted character that makes each frame a unique work of art.

🪵 Support Description

The support of this work is a wooden board made by expert Italian craftsmen specialized in the production of pictorial bases for fine arts, according to traditional methods inspired by the Renaissance school.

Solid lime wood is used or, more frequently, high-quality multilayer poplar , a light and stable material, ideal for ensuring the flatness of the support even on large formats. Poplar was widely used by Raphael himself, and represents a philological choice consistent with his era.

Each board is perfectly edged, hand sanded on all sides and free from imperfections , so that it is elegant even in profile.
The preparation follows the traditional method based on natural rabbit glue applied hot, which penetrates the wood protecting it and ensuring the adhesion of the subsequent layers.

This is followed by up to 10 coats of white chalk , applied manually with a brush and spatula , in alternation, to obtain a compact, smooth but at the same time material surface, ideal for giving the same physical intensity to the touch as the ancient painted panels.

Each layer is left to dry naturally before the next application, in a process that requires patience, experience and slow timing, exactly as it happened in the workshops of the Renaissance.

The result is a noble and durable support, which combines aesthetics, tradition and technical stability, offering a precious and authentic basis for the artistic replica.

📚 Raphael

Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520) is one of the greatest masters of the Italian Renaissance, universally celebrated for the harmony, grace and formal perfection of his works.
With extraordinary visual and intellectual sensitivity, he was able to blend the expressive sweetness of Leonardo and the plastic power of Michelangelo in a unique, balanced and timeless style.

His painting supremely embodies the Renaissance ideal of beauty : a beauty founded on proportion, light, balance and spirituality.
At a time when the concept of beauty was being discussed by philosophers, architects and men of letters in Florence and Rome, Raphael was able to give visible form to that ideal , elevating it to a universal model.

From portraits to Madonnas, from Vatican frescoes to altarpieces, each of his creations reflects this principle: beauty as a manifestation of inner harmony and as a reflection of the divine order .

Considered since the sixteenth century a perfect and unattainable example , Raphael has remained for centuries the absolute measure of "ideal beauty" in painting. No artist, before or after, has managed to equal his grace, balance and depth, making him the unsurpassed model for generations of artists.

🔢 Limited Edition and Size

This work has a limited edition of 999 copies and each is hand-finished , making each replica a unique piece.
Each copy is numbered and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity .

The dimensions without frame are 43.6 × 59.5 cm ( 17.2 × 23.4 in )
The dimensions with frame are 68.1 × 84 cm ( 26.8 × 33.1 in )

💎 Affordable cultural luxury

MAGNA OPERA was born with a clear objective: to make accessible priceless masterpieces , kept in museums or sold at auctions for millions of euros. Thanks to a unique technology and extreme craftsmanship, each replica offers an authentic visual and artistic experience.

A new concept of accessible cultural luxury , where craftsmanship and innovation meet in every detail to evoke the profound emotion felt in front of the original, recreating the visual and material experience of the work in its most authentic form.

🔒 Rights and trademark

Magna Opera Replica™ is a trademark. All rights reserved.

🔗 Discover Raphael's other works in our dedicated collection .

📖 Do you want to know the history and secrets of this work? Read the article dedicated to The Little Madonna Cowper .