Explore the Versions of this artwork.
Ingres painted four additional versions in 1825, 1830, 1840, and 1860. Ingres explained his reason for once again repeating the subject in 1860: "I am taking up again the picture of Raphael and La Fornarina, my last edition of this subject, which will, I hope, cause the others to be forgotten." This final version remained unfinished at his death in 1867. Ingres also produced one signed drawing of the subject. Rosalind Krauss disputes the theory that Ingres created various versions of his artwork for 'the pursuit of perfection', but says that:Through this movement of repeatability its 'perfection' has been breeched in advance. Because – and this was precisely Ingres' practice if not his 'intention' – each repetition is always a recontextualization of the model – a change in scale, medium, site. Each repetition thus as well involves a change in meaning. This is a change to which the model itself has always, and in advance, been open. The model's 'truth', its absolute ness, its indivisible self-presence, has never, theoretically, been possible.
Raphael La Fornarina