the cloths of the desert as described in the Bible, "camel's hair and with a girdle of skin about his loins". Comparison to paintings from Raphael's Florentine period Raphael's Madonnas from his early Roman years had evolved from those of his Umbrian and Florentine periods, and are more informal in dress and pose. At the same time, the composition is more complex. The colours are cooler, jewel-toned, an experiment with the dominant colours of the School of Athens, and bright, as if on porcelain. The painting contrasts significantly with the Ansidei Madonna (1505) of Raphael's earlier Florentine period, influenced by the strict expression of divinity of the Umbrian School. Here the Virgin is a more human mother, with divinity only expressed through the halo. The Christ Child and Saint John are both children. The painting is more reflective of natural circumstances. And yet, there is a severity to this Madonna which will ease into a greater naturalness, such as in the Alba Madonna slightly later into the artist's Roman period. In further contrast to the paintings of his Florentine period, the Madonnas of his Roman period are stronger and more imposing. This is due in part to the difference between the gaunt woman of Umbria and the beautiful women of Trastevere and Campagna, and also by Raphael's pursuit of the ideal. He instructed his students that "we must not represent things as they are, but as they should be". A strong influence in Raphael's growth as an artist in Rome was Michelangelo. Aspects of the composition of the Garvagh Madonna are also similar to the Madonna Litta ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, such as the portrait-format painting of figures in front of two windows overlooking the countryside, as well as the style of the Virgin's clothing. The 19th-century art historian Ralph Nicholson Wornum wrote that Raphael, in the Garvagh Madonna and in other works of his Roman period, had "exhibited a nearer approximation to perfection than any other painter". Other paintings by Raphael of the Virgin and Child with Saint John There are several paintings by Raphael with the same trio: Ansidei Madonna (1505), National Gallery, London; depicts an adult John the Baptist with an infant Christ La belle jardinière (1507), Louvre, Paris Madonna with the Blue Diadem (c. 1510–1512), Louvre, Paris; with Gianfrancesco Penni Alba Madonna (1511), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Madonna della Seggiola (c. 1513–1514), Palazzo