| Nickatilynx |
09-17-2004 11:38 AM |
"One of the most frequently discussed and best-loved paintings of the Renaissance is Raphael's so-called Sistine Madonna. For many people it remains the supreme example of western painting, and its popularity is virtually as great as that of the Mona Lisa. All who have written about this picture have acknowledged the strange and baffling expressions worn by Mary and the child Jesus, although attempts to decipher their meaning have frequently been evasive - "visionary pictorial composition" was one interpretation. Whole anthologies have been devoted to the problem. Famous painters and authors, including Goethe, Runge, Schlegel, C. G. Carus, Hebbel, Schopenhauer and R. A. Schröder (to name only German commentators), not to mention a host of art historians, have attempted to explain the painting, and others again have confessed, as Grillparzer did, how much they "would love to get the bottom of the matter". Schopenhauer spoke of the "terror-stricken" face of the boy Jesus; for the dramatist Hebbel, "The child is wild, teeth clenched, eyes blazing..." In the past, the pointing finger of the Holy Father was almost always interpreted as a gesture commending the worshipping viewer to the Madonna. It was also assumed that the Mother and Child were looking at the viewer. But it is precisely here that the puzzle arises. Why does Mary look so troubled? Why is the child, staring transfixedly out of the picture with his ruffled hair, appear to shrink back? Raphael painted the picture for the high altar of S. Sisto in Piacenza. The small town had become part of the Vatican state in 1512, and the picture arose shortly afterwards. Some see a portrait of Pope Julius II in the figure of St. Sixtus on the left, looking up at the Virgin and pointing out towards the viewer. Only recently have the questions surrounding this painting finally been resolved. As recent research by A. Prager has shown, the key to the mystery 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"."
Oprano , where the Art of business is encouraged ;-))
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