 In the 16th century the painting was owned by the Aldobrandini family who owned apartments in the Villa Borghese in Rome.Raphael painted a number of Madonnas that passed into the Aldobrandini family; Virgin and Child with Saint John may have been in the collection of Lucrezia d’Este (d. 1598), inventoried in 1592, that came to the Aldobrandinis.The National Gallery's painting is most likely identical to the painting in Jacomo Manilli's Villa Borghese guidebook in 1650 titled ‘Vergine, con Christo, e San Giouannino, ... di Raffaelle’ (‘Virgin with Christ, and Saint John, … by Raphael’).