The painting is on display at Rome’s Palazzo Barberini National Art Gallery, where it had been housed before the loan.
In exchange, the British gallery loaned its Italian counterpart Handis Holbein’s The Lady with the Squirrel.
Portrait of a Young Woman was part of a belated landmark show devoted to the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, which occurred on Good Friday in 1520.
It was painted between 1518 and 1519, and is thought to depict the baker Margherita Luti, Raphael’s Roman lover who refused to marry him.
It has also been argued that the portrait is not a woman who was known to Raphael, but rather a portrayal of a courtesan in the belle donne theme.
Some art historians theorise that the painting is of a witch, due to the symbols surrounding the young woman.
