Madonna of the Baldacchino

The Madonna of the Baldacchino (begun c. 1507) at the Pitti Palace was left unfinished when Raphael departed for Rome in 1508, the background added by later hands. Commissioned for the Dei family chapel in Santo Spirito, the large altarpiece — the most ambitious Raphael had yet attempted — shows him extending the sacra conversazione into a grand architectural setting with an enthroned Madonna beneath a canopy. The unfinished state of the work provides unique insight into Raphael's working method and the degree to which the architectural and landscape backgrounds were added after the main figures were established. The painting's truncated history makes it one of the most poignant documents of Raphael's transition from Florence to the greater ambitions that Rome would demand.

The ambitious architectural framework and monumental figure scale show Raphael moving beyond his earlier, more intimate Madonnas toward the grandeur of his coming Roman works, though passages remain unfinished.