[3] By the later part of the 16th century,[3] it had been in the Chateauneuf Collection, Paris[4] and descended to his heir, the Marquis de la Vallière.

[3][4][5][7] The last Raphael painting to enter the French Royal Collection, it was acquired from the Prince of Carignan in 1742[1][7] dispersed to Louis XV in 1743.

[1] The painting is similar to the Madonna of Loreto (Musée Condé, Chantilly), featuring the symbolic lifting of the veil.

[8] Here the Virgin lifts the veil over the sleeping Child, who is turned toward the audience, with her other arm around the young John the Baptist, who has a reed across his shoulder.

[6] While the paintings has some similarity to the Madonna of Loreto, Raphael make a more dramatic statement, such as through the use of ruins[6] of the Sacchetti Villa and vineyard, near the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.