The Sistine Madonna by Raphael

The Sistine Madonna by Raphael

The curtain opens

Raphael paints the moment as theatre. A green curtain has been drawn back and Mary is walking toward us on the clouds, barefoot, the Child held against her, both of them looking straight out with an expression that is not quite calm — she has seen what is waiting for him. Pope Sixtus II points out of the picture toward the congregation, Saint Barbara looks down at the two cherubs, and the cherubs, bored, lean on the ledge and look up. They have been reproduced on their own more than almost any other detail in Western art.

Piacenza to Dresden

Julius II commissioned the altarpiece for the monastery church of San Sisto in Piacenza around 1512. In 1754 Augustus III of Saxony bought it for what was then an unheard-of sum and it went to Dresden, where it has been the centre of the Gemäldegalerie ever since, except for the years after 1945 when it was in Moscow. Dostoevsky kept a large reproduction in his study.

About this print

Made from the Google Arts & Culture capture of the painting, 9,546 pixels tall — enough for the largest size offered.

Sources: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Gal.-Nr. 93 · Wikidata Q328079 · Wikimedia Commons