Focus on this artwork and explain the Provenance.
The provenances of the various versions of this painting are constructed based on documents, analysis of the paintings and preliminary sketches. For over two centuries the prime version of the painting remained together with the Madonna of Loreto, first at Santa Maria del Popolo until 1591, then in private collections; then for a time in the early 19th century its location was unknown.
Until 1970 it was commonly believed that the London version of the painting was a studio copy of a Raphael original, which was believed to be the version in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. In 1969 Konrad Oberhuber of the National Gallery of Art in Washington asked the National Gallery to take x-ray photographs of their version.  These revealed that the background of the painting behind the chair had been entirely repainted, concealing an inventory number from the Borghese collection and the green textile hanging now visible after the overpaint was removed in 1970.  Small paint samples removed during this cleaning showed that there had been an even earlier hanging with a coloured pattern.  The National Gallery's Cecil Gould published the results of the research in 1970, asserting that Raphael's original had been rediscovered, an attribution that is now generally accepted. However, the attribution was challenged in 1996 by James Beck in an article in  Artibus et Historiae.
Santa Maria del Popolo Florence Provenance Borghese collection Artibus et Historiae National Gallery of Art Raphael James Beck Madonna of Loreto Uffizi Cecil Gould provenance Uffizi Gallery National Gallery prime version x-ray