The ‘Madonna of the Meadow', a prized painting by Raffaello Sanzio (better known as Raphael Santi) grabs your attention even if you are looking at it on screen. The original masterpiece hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Understanding a painting, especially a masterpiece, is not an easy task for the untrained eye. Unravelling its secrets, moving back and forth in time — before and after its creation — is the best way to understand an artist, his work. This is the methodology adopted by Mathew Collings, writer and presenter of a three part B.B.C documentary ‘Rennaisance Revolution'.
At the end of this 60 minute documentary — “Raphael — The Madonna of the Meadow”, the enthralled spectators at Contemplate Art Gallery knew a little bit more about one of the greatest artists of the High Renaissance. The documentary was screened by Konangal film society, and Contemplate Art Gallery.
The 1505 A.D. painting shows Madonna seated in a meadow with Christ and John the Baptist, both infants, holding a crucifix. Collings calls it an “exclusive box of light”. The bright red and royal blue of Madonna's clothing is in sharp contrast to the greenish-brown hues of the meadows in the background.
The three characters with halos over their heads stand sanctified in the everydayness of the town in the background. That said, the painting is so alive you are almost tempted to pinch the infants' cheeks. “This is what is most fascinating about Renaissance art — it was a time that glorified the “tension between the real and the unreal”, says Collings.
Glorious triumvirate
An Italian painter and architect, Raphael was a part of the glorious triumvirate of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Born on April 6, 1483, he died at 37 but left behind a treasure trove of art. He began his journey as an artist under the guidance of his father, Giovanni Santi, a painter and poet at the court of Duke Frederico da Montefeltre.
Though historians are unsure of its age, Raphael sketched a self-portrait in his teens. By the time, he was 17, Raphael was apprenticed to the Umbrian master, Pietro Perugino.
He was quick to emulate his master and, in time, shot past him. By 1504, he moved to Florence where he was greatly influenced by the two great artists of the time, Leonardo da Vindi and Michelangelo. Da Vinci was older to him by 30 years while Michelangelo was older by eight years. It was here that Raphael began his series of Madonna paintings, numbering 20. This time in Florence catapulted this genius into the minds of popular imagination.
In 1508, Rome came calling with an invitation from Pope Julius II to design the Stanza della Segnatura, the new papal apartment in the Vatican Palace. The School of Athens painted in 1511 is one of the four frescoes on the walls of the Palace, the most celebrated creation of the artist. It is believed that nearly every Greek philosopher finds a place in this fresco.
Raphael was also commissioned to work on the portraits of Pope Julius II and Medici Pope Leo X, his main patrons. Raphael's popularity made him a favourite choice for portraits of aristocrats, two of the finest being the Portrait of Maddelena Doni and Agnolo Doni.
Raphael's last painting was ‘Transfiguration' that depicts the resurrected Jesus Christ and a group of apostles trying to free child possessed by the devil.
The documentary then goes back a full circle to the ‘Madonna of the Meadow'. The presenter considers this painting responsible for shaping the painter.
Most of Raphael's work brought with it a dichotomy, that of the real and the unreal, the mortal and the immortal. This unique tension keeps this genius alive in the minds of art lovers and critics today, says Collings.
