Description
Although there is question about the artist, the composition is almost certainly that of Raphael. Due to the use of bright, acid colors and the porcelain-like finish, it is thought that the painting of the composition may have been the work of one of his pupils, Giovanfrancesco Penni and to be dated around 1518.
The painting is similar to the Madonna of Loreto (Musée Condé, Chantilly), featuring the symbolic lifting of the veil. The use of veil in Renaissance paintings, from the Meditations on the Life of Christ, symbolizes the manner in which the Madonna wrapped the Child in the veil from her head at the Nativity and, prophetically, again at the Crucifixion.
Here the Virgin lifts the veil over the sleeping Child, who is turned toward the audience, with her other arm around the young John the Baptist, who has a reed across his shoulder. Both the Virgin and John are in profile. Attached to a blue diadem, a veil that flows down her head, across her shoulders and clings to her arms. A draped tunic, belted at the waist, flowing overtop her red underdress.
While the paintings has some similarity to the Madonna of Loreto, Raphael make a more dramatic statement, such as through the use of ruins of the Sacchetti Villa and vineyard, near the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
There is also refinement in the features and limbs of the Christ child. The child is very calm, contrasted to the expression of awe and adoration by the young John.
Read more about this topic: Madonna With The Blue Diadem
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