Raphael sketch revealed

Using the latest infra-red technology, art experts have discovered the work of the Renaissance master Raphael beneath an oil painting.

In the 1990s it was suggested that the Madonna with baby and San Giovannino, in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, should be attributed in part to Raphael.

It was previously attributed to a pupil of his, but had unusual similarities with a Raphael sketch at the Ashmolean museum in Oxford.

A new infra-red viewing technique has now shown that underneath the Borghese gallery painting are the outlines of a picture virtually identical to the Ashmolean sketch. Claudio Strinati, the head of the Rome Museum Association, said: "This is an extremely important discovery."