guidebooks single it out in the collection, variously describing it as the "most famous", the "top", the "showpiece", and "the collection's highlight". From 26 May to 26 August 2012, the Dresden gallery celebrated the 500th anniversary of the painting. Putti A prominent element within the painting, the winged angels beneath Mary are famous in their own right. The angels of this nature are known as putti, and are commonly conflated with cherubim. As early as 1913 Gustav Kobbé declared that "no cherub or group of cherubs is so famous as the two that lean on the altar top indicated at the very bottom of the picture." Heavily marketed, they have been featured in stamps, postcards, T-shirts, socks, and wrapping paper. These putti have inspired legends of their own. According to a 1912 article in Fra Magazine, when Raphael was painting the Madonna the children of his model would come in to watch. Struck by their posture as they did, the story goes, he added them to the painting exactly as he saw them. Another story, recounted in 1912 in St. Nicholas Magazine, says that Raphael was inspired by two children he encountered on the street when he saw them "looking wistfully into the window of a baker's shop." See also List of paintings by Raphael Notes References Complete digitalized version available at Die Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (SLUB) Grossman, Vasily, "The Sistine Madonna," in The Road, Chandler, Robert, ed., New York Review Books, 2010. Gruyer, F.A., Les Vierges de Raphaël, Paris 1869, in Singleton, Esther, Great Pictures, as Seen and Described by Famous Writers, New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1899, English translation Koja, Stephen, ed., Raphael and the Madonna, Munich, Germany: Hirmer Publishers, 2021. Mombert, Jacob Isador, Raphael's Sistine Madonna, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1895. External links Webpage of Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden Raphael, Sistine Madonna, ColourLex.com Paintings of the Madonna and Child by Raphael 1514 paintings Collections of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Angels in art Paintings of Saint Barbara