belonged to the Spanish House of Alba, whose name it bears. It was sold by the heirs of María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba to the diplomat Edmund Bourke (1761–1821), then Danish Ambassador to Spain and later in France and England; and he sold the painting to William Gordon Coesvelt in London in 1820. In 1836 Coesvelt sold the painting to Nicholas I of Russia, who made it one of the highlights of the Imperial Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Almost a century later, in 1931, the government of the Soviet Union clandestinely sold it to Andrew W. Mellon, for 2.5 million rubles (about US$1.1 million). Mellon donated his collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. on its foundation in 1937. During its time in the Hermitage, the painting would be transferred from a circular panel to a square canvas during the early nineteenth century. Through analysis of the painting, it was determined that the original panel was severely splitting down the center and on the right side. The canvas pattern is visible in the painting and the landscape on the far right was damaged in the transfer process. During World War II the Alba Madonna was part of a group of over 100 pieces of art belonging to the National Gallery of Art that were transported by train to Asheville, North Carolina where they were stored in the unfinished music room of the Vanderbilt mansion, Biltmore House. Done with the utmost secrecy, heavy steel doors were installed and bars were put in the windows of the barren music room. In 1944 after it became clear that the war would soon be over the paintings were moved back to the National Gallery of Art. See also List of paintings by Raphael Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings List of original Hermitage paintings in the National Gallery of Art References External links Provenance of the painting smARThistory: Raphael's Alba Madonna Paintings of the Madonna and Child by Raphael 1510 paintings Collections of the National Gallery of Art Nude art Paintings depicting John the Baptist