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==Painting==
In this painting, as in most of the Madonnas of his [[Florence|Florentine]] period, Raphael arranged the three figures - [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary]], [[Jesus|Christ]] and the young [[John the Baptist]] - to fit into a geometrical design. Though the positions of the three bodies are natural, together they form an almost regular triangle. The Madonna is shown young and beautiful, as with Raphael's various other Madonnas.<ref name="Cuzin, Jean Pierre 1985">Cuzin, Jean Pierre. ''Raphael : His Life and Works''. Secaucus, N.J.: Chartwell Books, 1985.</ref> She is also clothed in red and blue, also typical, for red signifies the
The Madonna was a wedding gift from Raphael to his friend Lorenzo Nasi. On November 17, 1548 Nasi's house was destroyed by a landslide and the painting broke into seventeen pieces. It was immediately taken to be salvaged, and was hastily put back together, though the seams were quite visible. In 2002, George Bonsanti of the Precious Stones organization gave the task of restoration to Patrizia Riitano. During the six-year process that followed, her team worked to remove the years of grime that had degraded the painting's color, and to fix the damage done by the landslide long ago. Before beginning the project, they studied the work as closely as possible, utilizing resources such as X-rays, CAT scans, reflective infra-red photography, and lasers. Riitano closely studied the past quick fix layers that had been applied and removed them until the original by Raphael finally shone through. The restoration was completed in 2008, and the painting was put on display in the Uffizi.<ref>Popham, Peter. “Return of the Fallen Madonna". ''Independent'' (October 29, 2008): 2.</ref>
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