GALLERIA BORGHESE, Raphael-Deposition Of Christ_Room 9

The Deposition is not the only name by which you can find this work by Raphael Sanzio referred to. It is sometimes cited as the Entombment or, much more often, as the Baglioni Altarpiece.

The sad story of this work is linked to its patron, the noblewoman Atalanta Baglioni, who commissioned Raphael, then an emerging artist, to paint an altarpiece for her family's chapel, the Church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia.

 You should know that the woman, who had been widowed for years, had a son named Federico, nicknamed Grifonetto, in memory of his father Grifone. The young man, unfortunately, had the ill-fated idea of taking part in an internal conspiracy within his household, as a result of which he was killed at the age of only 20.

The work, for Atalanta Baglioni, was intended as a tribute to her lost son, perhaps a representation of her immense grief as a mother, skillfully expressed by Raphael in the suffering features of Mary, portrayed in the background on the right, bereft, her face marked by torment....