This picture is based on a nineteenth-century legend about the life of Raphael. According to the story the artist sketched his famous painting Madonna della Sedia on the base of a wine barrel, thereby immortalising both the young mother who served as model together with the tree from which the barrel was made. Raphael's entranced audience includes elegantly dressed courtiers and a barefoot cooper. Wittmer is perhaps suggesting that everyone, regardless of class or education, agrees on what makes great art eternally beautiful.

Cat. 133