Doni Tondo - Scholarly Theories

Scholarly Theories

There are a multitude of interpretations for the various parts of the work. Most interpretations differ in defining the relationship between the Holy Family and the figures in the background.

Paul Barolsky argues that the Doni Tondo is a "devotional image more than an example of style, symbolism, iconography". Barolsky bases much of his thesis on the language used by Giorgio Vasari in his work Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times. His support for the idea of devotion comes from Christ being presented in the painting like a gift, which he links to the painting’s patron due to a perceived pun on the Italian word for "gift," "donare," and the patron’s name, Doni. Furthering the Christ-as-gift metaphor, Mary’s holding of Christ in the painting is seen to reference the elevating of the host during mass.

Mirella D’Ancona argues that the image reflects Michelangelo’s views on the roles of the members of the Holy Family in human salvation and the soul’s immortality. The Virgin’s placement and emphasis is due to her role in human salvation. She is both the mother of Christ and the best intercessor for appealing to him. Michelangelo, who had been strongly influenced by the Dominican Fra Girolamo Savonarola in Florence, is using the picture to defend the Maculist point of view, a philosophy of the Dominican order rejecting the idea of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Maculist view is that the Virgin did not receive her sanctification at birth but at the moment of the incarnation of Christ; thus, the image depicts the moment of Mary’s sanctification by showing the Christ Child blessing her. Michelangelo depicts Christ as if he is growing out of Mary’s shoulder to take human form, one leg hanging limply and the other not visible at all, therefore making him a part of Mary. Moreover, his muscles and balance convey an upward movement, as if he is growing out of her, although he is above Mary, asserting his superiority to her. Furthermore, she argues that the nudes are to be interpreted as sinners who have removed their clothes for cleansing and purification through baptism. The water, which separates the sinners from the Holy Family, just beyond the horizontal band in the middle of the painting, can therefore be seen as the “waters of separation” mentioned in the Bible. She also argues that the five figures may represent the five parts of the soul: the higher soul (soul and intellect) on the left and the lower soul (imagination, sensation, and nourishing faculty) on the right, a visual depiction of the views of Marsilio Ficino, whom Michelangelo references in other works. Additionally, in looking at them as separate groupings, she suggest that the two figures on Mary’s right represents the human and divine natures of Christ, while the three on her left represent the Trinity.

Andrée Hayum argues that the commissioning of the tondo by the Doni family helped to emphasize the "secular and domestic ideals" of the painting rather than seeing it as a "devotional object." In choosing a tondo as the format for the picture, Michelangelo is referencing the form’s long association with depicting the "Adoration of the Magi, the Nativity, the Madonna and Child." Hayum also finds many allusions to Noah throughout the work. She posits a referencing of the Madonna to Noah’s daughter-in-law, a sibyl, which thus makes Joseph an embodiment of Noah himself. Hayum further supports this by acknowledging the direct link between Joseph and Noah as depicted in Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling paintings. This link to Noah also gives an explanation to the nudes in the background, whose forms may have inspired the sons in the Drunkenness of Noah. The allusion to the Noah story also brings up themes of baptismal water, thus giving rise to an interpretation of the nudes similar to D’Ancona’s: "catechumens awaiting baptism" from John the Baptist, whose "isolation within a pit-like space" indicates his special role as baptizer.

Roberta Olson states that the painting depicts the "importance of the family" and is related to "Doni’s hoped-for descendants." One of the ways in which the painting depicts a "good marriage" is by the seemingly "reciprocal action" of the handling of Jesus between Joseph and Mary. Much importance is given to Joseph by way of the colors of his clothes: yellow, indicating the divine aspect of the family as well as "truth," and purple, standing for royal lineage tracing from the House of David. Additionally, Joseph is important to the painting by referencing the middle name of the "Doni’s third child who lived beyond infancy." Themes of baptism also are referenced by the influence of Ghiberti's Porta del Paradiso on the paintings frame. Located on the doors of the Florentine Baptistry, these sculptural reliefs give reference to the rite of baptism, important for the Doni's and their desire for a child as a product of the good marriage exampled by the Holy Family, perhaps one reasoning behind the commissioning of the work.