UNIT 2
Sistine Madonna
Raphael (Raphael Sanzio da Urbino) was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Any of Raphael's works is the clearest expression of the exquisite harmony and balance of High Renaissance composition.
He is a famous painter of the Madonnas and of the little pictures of the Florentine period underwent the most surprising transformation, becoming all at once a most productive decorative painter on a vast scale. No other painter could sensibly express the most delicate nuances by the pure language of forms. For the representation of ideas Raphael made use only of real and historical persons, philosophy being represented by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus.
The Sistine Madonna was painted in 1512–1514. The canvas with the Virgin, Child and Saints Sixtus and Barbara, is characterized by an imaginary space created by the figures themselves. The figures stand on a bed of clouds, framed by heavy curtains which open to either side. The Virgin actually appears to descend from a heavenly space, through the picture plane, out into the real space in which the painting is hung. This is seen by the active focal point in Madonna's knee. The gesture of St. Sixtus and the glance of St. Barbara seem to be directed toward the faithful, whom we imagine beyond the balustrade at the bottom of the painting. The Papal tiara, which rests on top of this balustrade, act as a bridge between the real and pictorial space.
Here the artist directly attempts the expression of the supernatural. This picture is the most beautiful devotional picture in existence. The impression is obtained not only by the idealism of its form, but by the vision-like representation of space, by the scheme of clouds on which the Virgin is upheld, and the solemnity of the drapery. An almost forbidding mystery fills this majestic canvas, truly unequalled in Raphael's work.
The painting was probably intended to decorate the tomb of Pope Julius II. The two putty at the foot of the painting and the figure of St. Barbara have often been reproduced in popular culture, such as Christmas cards.
In all Madonna’s compositions created by Raphael the movements and groupings are held with such ingenuity and naturalness that the spectator can hardly ever be aware of the careful planning, the precise calculations of even each brushstroke. In the force of sentiment and in the ease and harmony of the compositions Raphael’s works have hardly equal, though Raphael’s figures are true to life and reveal a complete command of the human form.