DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61022#0210
ROMAN ART
where they showed fields of uniform clear and enamel-like tint
brought into harmony only by the brilliant gold of the back-
ground, he melted and varied his colours and gave them unity by
the clear light of day. It is not of course the light of the bright
sun that he used, but the cooler light of the day towards the
evening or in the north which gives the colour itself its utmost
brilliance and allows the form to show unimpeded, as is required
where the whole significance of the picture is to be communicated
through the character of the forms.
XIII
The ‘ Sistine Madonna ’ is the final embodiment of Raphael’s
conception of the Madonna in Glory, the last step in a series
which produced the ‘ Ansidei ’ and ‘ Sant’ Antonio ’ altar-pieces,
the Madonnas ‘of the Baldaquin,’ ‘of the Fish,’ and ‘of Foligno.’
The ‘ Madonna della Sedia ’ (Plate cxxxvi.) is its counterpart in the
purely human representation of the Madonna which had occupied
Raphael throughout his life. Similarities in form both in the
Madonna and in the child bring the two pictures close together.
The shape of the Madonna’s head, her hair, ears, eyelids, and
the robust limbs, chubby features and tousled hair of the Infant
are almost identical in the two pictures. It is of more importance
that both pictures show the same delight, for their own sakes, in
the strength, amplitude and subtlety of the human form, the
same joy in draperies which are not merely decorative but signifi-
cant and living, and the same thorough understanding of the
body, not as a combination of exquisitely shaped parts, but as a
breathing and moving envelope of the soul. There is also in the
‘ Madonna della Sedia ’ the wonderful sense of pattern in the
composition of the limbs which marked each figure of the Sistine
altar-piece, the power of placing each member of the body where
its lines and masses follow complex but ample curves without
ever suggesting that the figure is in any position but that in which
188
where they showed fields of uniform clear and enamel-like tint
brought into harmony only by the brilliant gold of the back-
ground, he melted and varied his colours and gave them unity by
the clear light of day. It is not of course the light of the bright
sun that he used, but the cooler light of the day towards the
evening or in the north which gives the colour itself its utmost
brilliance and allows the form to show unimpeded, as is required
where the whole significance of the picture is to be communicated
through the character of the forms.
XIII
The ‘ Sistine Madonna ’ is the final embodiment of Raphael’s
conception of the Madonna in Glory, the last step in a series
which produced the ‘ Ansidei ’ and ‘ Sant’ Antonio ’ altar-pieces,
the Madonnas ‘of the Baldaquin,’ ‘of the Fish,’ and ‘of Foligno.’
The ‘ Madonna della Sedia ’ (Plate cxxxvi.) is its counterpart in the
purely human representation of the Madonna which had occupied
Raphael throughout his life. Similarities in form both in the
Madonna and in the child bring the two pictures close together.
The shape of the Madonna’s head, her hair, ears, eyelids, and
the robust limbs, chubby features and tousled hair of the Infant
are almost identical in the two pictures. It is of more importance
that both pictures show the same delight, for their own sakes, in
the strength, amplitude and subtlety of the human form, the
same joy in draperies which are not merely decorative but signifi-
cant and living, and the same thorough understanding of the
body, not as a combination of exquisitely shaped parts, but as a
breathing and moving envelope of the soul. There is also in the
‘ Madonna della Sedia ’ the wonderful sense of pattern in the
composition of the limbs which marked each figure of the Sistine
altar-piece, the power of placing each member of the body where
its lines and masses follow complex but ample curves without
ever suggesting that the figure is in any position but that in which
188