The Painting
The Virgin sits formally on a high throne, with an adult Saint John the Baptist on the left, and Saint Nicholas of Bari to the right. Painted for effect rather than realism, the throne has no arms and the steps are very steep, but beautifully set off the arches above and the approach to the throne.
Read more about this topic: Ansidei Madonna
Famous quotes containing the word painting:
“Painting seems to be to the eye what dancing is to the limbs. When that has educated the frame to self-possession, to nimbleness, to grace, the steps of the dancing-master are better forgotten; so painting teaches me the splendor of color and the expression of form, and as I see many pictures and higher genius in the art, I see the boundless opulence of the pencil, the indifferency in which the artist stands free to choose out of the possible forms.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I don’t know but a book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf—at any rate it is safer from criticism. And taking a book off the brain, is akin to the ticklish & dangerous business of taking an old painting off a panel—you have to scrape off the whole brain in order to get at it with due safety—& even then, the painting may not be worth the trouble.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)