Rafael of Urbino Urbino 1483 - 1520 Rome, succession Two reading putti Florentine master Late 16th / early 17th century Oil on canvas, relined 111 x 87 cm (with frame 125 x 101 cm) The oil painting shows a particularly lovely subject with reading putti. Two naked boys with white wings are bent over a notation strip, which they hold with their left hands. The varied pose of the putti is particularly noteworthy: While the left boy is depicted in a dynamic lunge, boldly resting his arm against his body positioned in an S-swing, the other boy has placed his right hand on the other's right shoulder in an intimate gesture and is bending forward.This is a high-quality repetition of a picture detail after Raphael, namely from the so-called Madonna del Baldacchino, which the famous artist made c. 1506-08 as the first major commission for the Capella Dei in Santo Spirito in Florence. The pair of angels positioned there in the foreground was singled out here as the main subject. While there are other copies of this detail, this painting is convincing for its extremely fine execution, especially in the shading and the depiction of the locks of hair, and the inventiveness of the artist, who probably inscribed this pictorial theme in a new context a hundred years later. Particularly noteworthy is the scene with curtain motif typical of Italian Renaissance art, which is often combined with the depiction of angels, as well as the view of a city veduta or ruined landscape in the background. Interesting is also the violin draped on the floor, of which only the neck with fingerboard and part of the bow are visible. Therefore, an opened, slightly crumpled music book can be seen. It is thus given the appearance that the putti have just torn out a sheet of it, which they are now trying to decipher in depth. The very precise execution of the pair of angels suggests that the artist saw the Madonna del Baldacchino with his own eyes and worked with the object on site, which allowed him to achieve a high level of detail.