This painting was purchased from Flor & Findel, picture dealers in Florence Italy, by Henry Sarjeant's widow Ellen and her new husband John Armstrong Neame on one of their European trips. It was purchased for the Sarjeant collection.
The verso of the canvas has the date 26 March 1914 inscribed in pencil, the same date the Neames wrote back to Whanganui stating that they had visited the studio of Raffaello Romanelli to look at purchasing a marble copy of The Wrestlers.
This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's (full name Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520) 'Madonna della Seggiola', painted in 1514 and currently exhibited as part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. 'Madonna della Sedia', also known as 'La Madonna della Seggiola' can be translated as 'Madonna of the Chair'.
The circular canvas depicts a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved gilt wood and gesso frame which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the original painting.
The name of the artist who painted this copy is unknown. There were a number of copies of this painting produced over the years and many are in public and private collections. This is a particularly fine example.
- Jennifer Taylor Moore, Curator of Collections, Sarjeant Gallery