How are you?
On every Thursday, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting Art Stories”.
The 8th story for this week is
"The Sistine Madonna" by an Italian painter, Raphael.
Self-portrait of Raphael
Also
known as “the Madonna di San Sisto”, “The Sistine Madonna” is an oil painting
by the Italian artist Raphael and is one of the last Madonnas he painted.
This
painting was commissioned in 1512 by Pope Julius II to be used as an altarpiece
for the basilica church of the Benedictine Monastery of San Sisto in Piacenza,
where the Rovere family had a long relationship, in honor of his late uncle,
Pope Sixtus IV. In
the commission, there was a condition to depict both Saints Sixtus and Barbara
together.
Pope Julius II
In
this painting, the Madonna, next to Saint Sixtus and Saint Barbara, holding the
Christ Child, stands on clouds in front of dozens of blurry cherubim, and two
winged cherubim are beneath her.
In
1754, Augustus III of Poland purchased the painting and moved it to Dresden.
Unlike other works of art, this painting stimulated the imagination of the
Germans and served to unite or divide people in the arts and religions.
This
painting has stimulated many viewers, and it is said that some of them who saw
it fell into religious ecstasy similar to Stendhal Syndrome. It also became an
icon of German Romanticism in the 19th century and influenced Goethe, Wagner
and Nietzsche.
According to a legendary story, during the Dresden uprising of
May 1849, Mikhail Bakunin counseled the revolutionary government to take this
painting from The Gemäldegalerie, and to hang it on the barricades at the
entrance to the city, on the grounds that the Prussians were too cultured that
they cannot fire on a Raphael."
The
painting was rescued from destruction during the bombing of Dresden in World
War II, but the conditions of the painting in which it was saved became the
subject of controversy.
At the time, the painting, along with other works of
art, was stored in a tunnel in Saxon Switzerland, southeast of Dresden, where
the Red Army of the Soviet Union found them and took them to Moscow. After
possessing the painting, Mikhail Khrapchenko, a major official in charge of artworks
in the Soviet Union, has declared that the Pushkin Museum can now be able to
claim as one of the world's greatest museums.
Subsequently, after Stalin's
death in 1955, the Soviet Union returned the painting to Germany with the
announcement "for the purpose of strengthening and furthering the progress
of friendship between the Soviet and German peoples." However, the press
around the world stated that the Soviets damaged it, but the Soviets countered
that they actually saved it.
Regarding
the controversy over the preservation of The Sistine Madonna, in 1991, ARTnews reported
that Russian art historian Andrei Chegodaev, who was sent by the Soviet Union
to Germany to review the painting in 1945, denied it.
A
prominent element in the painting, the winged angels beneath Mary, is very
popular. In early 1913, Gustav Kobbé declared that "no cherub or group of
cherubs is more famous than the two at the very bottom of the painting.” The
two winged angels were used for marketing materials in various fields such as stamps,
postcards, T-shirts, and socks.
Two winged angels
For the background of drawing these baby
angels, according to Fra Magazine's 1912 article, when Raphael drew the
painting, his model, the children, came to see it, and then he added them to
the painting exactly as he saw them.
Currently,
the painting is owned by the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, and the
gallery celebrated the 500th anniversary of the painting from 26 May to 26
August 2012.
Inside the gallery with the Sistine Madonna in the background
The
paintings “Partisan Madonna of Minsk” by Mikhail Savitsky and “And the Saved
World Remembers” by Mai Dantsig are based on The Sistine Madonna.
Partisan Madonna of Minsk, Mikhail Savitsky
And the Saved World Remembers, Mai Dantsig
Italian
artist Giorgio Vasari called it "a truly rare and extraordinary work",
and the Italian painter Antonio da Correggio, who was active in the Renaissance
era, was so inspired to cry, "And I also, I am a painter!"
Thank you.
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