Madonna del Prato (Raphael)
Madonna del prato | |
---|---|
Artist | Raphael |
Year | 1506 |
Type | oil on board |
Dimensions | 113 cm × 88 cm (44 in × 35 in) |
Location | Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
The Madonna del Prato (Madonna of the Meadow), formally Madonna with the Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist, is an oil on board painting by Raphael, created in 1506, now held in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is also known as the Madonna del Belvedere after its long residence in the imperial collection in the Vienna Belvedere.
Subject
The painting was executed by twenty-three-year-old Raphael within months of his 1504–1505 arrival in Florence.
Technique
For this painting, as well as in others such as the
In 1983, the Chief Conservator for Paintings at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna removed the retouchings and varnish that deformed the Madonna of the Meadow.[1] Restoration revealed that this painting's structure is similar to that of the Small Cowper Madonna, and consists of translucent oil glazes, opaque underpaint and gesso ground.[1] Furthermore, the observed damages were caused by the same factors, namely Raphael's painting technique in the robe and mantle.[1] In the Madonna of the Meadow, the blue robe is disfigured by a wide craquelure provoked by the uneven drying of the oil layers.[1] Additionally, the painting is characterized by a great depth of shadows and a subtle interplay of the cool and warm tones that model the flesh.[1] A bluish undertone, visible in the shadows and edges of the panel, underlies the creamy white and pink of the flesh.[1] Moreover, close examination of the work suggests that the sky was painted after the figures were executed, since the blue brush strokes appear to follow the contours of the figures and are perceptible not only on the surface but also in x-radiographs.[1] When examined using infra-red techniques, the Madonna of the Meadow also betrays an underdrawing, completed when the design was transferred onto the panel; the marks left by this transfer are clear,[1] and the lines that connect them are precise, illuminating the artist's process.
See also
References
Footnotes
- descent from the cross.[5]
Citations
- ^ JSTOR 1483213.
- ^ a b "Raphael's Madonna in the Meadow – ItalianRenaissance.org". www.italianrenaissance.org. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
- ^ "Madonna del Prato by Raphael". www.thehistoryofart.org. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
- ISBN 0-15-503769-2.
- ^ Bean, Jacob; Stampfle, Felice (1965). Drawings from New York Collections I: The Italian Renaissance. Greenwich, CT: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 40–41.
External links
- Media related to Madonna del Belvedere (or Madonna del Prato) by Raphael at Wikimedia Commons