Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) and The Sistine Madonna (1514-15) (265 cm high x 196cm)
This week for my reflection I am leaving my comfort zone of the Romantic Period to examine a work by one of the greatest of the renaissance painters – Raffaello Sanzio otherwise known as Raphael who lived from 1483 to 1520 – rather coincidentally he was born on 6 April (in Urbino) and died on 6 April (in Rome).
This picture I have chosen is known correctly as The Madonna Standing on Clouds with SS. Sixtus and Barbara but is also known as La Madonna di San Sixtus and generally referred to as The Sistine Madonna. It was commissioned by Pope Julius II for the abbey church of the Benedictine convent dedicated to St. Sixtus and is one of the greatest of Raphael’s later works.
The composition of this painting is that of a triangle in the foreground formed by the heads of the three main characters, with distance only being suggested by the building just discernible on the right of the painting behind Barbara. The palette is limited being mostly blue for the Virgin’s and Barbara’s dresses and the curtains, and white and gold the traditional colours for a pope.
The painting is possibly the result of a dream and shows the Virgin Mary located at a position between heaven and earth supported by clouds (meaning that she is upheld by God). She is accompanied on her right by St. Sixtus I, a Roman who lived around the turn of the first century and whose papacy lasted about ten years.[i] On her left she is accompanied by Saint Barbara, patron saint of artillerymen.[ii] The usual position of the putti has in this picture been reversed with Raphael locating them grounded at the foot of the painting in the central foreground.
Examining the painting in more detail, it was designed to be placed above the high altar in the Abbey which supposedly contained the relics of both Sixtus I and Barbara; this could explain why Raphael placed them both in a position suggesting the spiritual world.
The faces of both the Madonna and Jesus look troubled – the reason for this being a source of controversy for many years. The most plausible explanation for this was produced by A. Prager who is quoted as follows on the Safran Arts website:
As recent research by A. Prager has shown, the key to the mystery (of the troubled expressions) lies in the position in which the altarpiece originally stood. Taking again the intriguing question of what the Pope is pointing at and what the Mother and Child are looking at, the answer is as astonishing as it is persuasive. It has long been forgotten that, as in many churches, opposite the altarpiece in S. Sisto and above the rood screen at the far end of the chancel there stood a crucifix. The expressions of horror on the faces of Mother and Child are thus their reaction to the sight of death.
It is interesting to note that, long before this successful interpretation, it was a writer, and not an art historian, who came closest to understanding the mystery: R. A. Schröder saw the “deepest horror” written in the face of the child, “before which even Death itself is frightened to death”.[iii]
It is intriguing to note that Raphael has given Pope Sixtus I five fingers as well as a thumb. The pointing finger is of considerable importance inasmuch as it is indicating the future destiny of the future Christ – perhaps in adding this finger as an extra finger he is suggesting the role beyond the human one within the physical world – in other words he is using this feature to emphasise the Divinity of Jesus. As the picture is no longer in the position for which it was commissioned, it is possible that the figure was designed to point to something within the church, for example to the crucifix to which reference has already been made. The Pope has left his mitre on the ground, perhaps suggesting that he is leaving the signifier of his office back in the physical world.
The faces within the clouds maybe represent all those who have passed beyond the half opened veil. The use of the veil in this way suggests that there is a spiritual world beyond, the world which the putti seem to be so seriously considering. There is therefore much to contemplate in this devotional picture; there is an immediacy of the three pyramidal figures in the foreground and there is the suggestion of transcendence in the array of faces in the clouds and in the idea of glimpsing the whole scene through a veil which has been temporarily drawn back. This painting can have a profound effect on those who view it but I will leave the final comment with the English essayist Henry Crabb Robinson who was contemporary with many of the artists and philosophers in whom I have taken a particular interest: it was after listening to a lecture from Schelling (German Philosopher renowned for his work on the Philosophy of Art) which included the subject of Raphael that Robinson visited the Dresden Gallery and on viewing the Sistine Madonna wrote:
Of all the Paintings I have ever seen none equals the Painting by Raphael representing the virgin with Jesus in her Arms. two side figures and below two Angels looking upwards – The latter particularly had on their countenances such an expression of devotion and love[…][iv].
————————————————————————
[i] http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=917 The inclusion of this saint was a requirement of the commission.
[ii] Barbara was reputed to be a virgin-martyr who may have lived in the second century CE. Legend has it that she converted to Christianity and decided to live in her father’s bath house. Whilst he was away she asked the workman to install a third window to represent the Trinity. Her father was furious at her conversion to Christianity and threatened to kill her. Instead he handed her over to a judge who then condemned her to death (this was the time of the Maximian persecutions). As Farmer writes:
Her father was then struck by lightning and died. This was the basis of her patronage of those in danger of sudden death, first by lightning, then by subsiding mines or cannon-balls. Hence her patronage of miners and gunners. (Farmer, D.H. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints Oxford Oxford University Press 1997 page 39a.)
[iii] http://www.safran-arts.com/42day/art/art4mar/raphael/sismadon.html
[iv] From notes on Schelling’s aesthetics by James Vigus writing about Robinson, with this particular quotation taken from Robinson’s travel diary dated 29th September 1801. See: Vigus, James Henry Crabb Robinson – Essays on Kant, Schelling and German Aesthetics London The Modern Humanities Research Association 2010 p. 65. Robinson’s The Travel Diary June 1801 to January 1802 is in four parts and can be found in Dr William’s Library, 14 Gordon Square, London.
Brislington Community News 