papal statesconcept:movement high renaissance

Sistine Madonna

Name: Provenio Provenance Knowledge Graph
License: https://provenio.art/terms

Oil on canvas by Raphael, 1512. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden. Depicts the Virgin and Child borne on clouds, flanked by Pope Sixtus II and Saint Barbara, with two famous cherubs at the bottom. Commissioned for the church of San Sisto, Piacenza, by Pope Julius II.

Notes

·Commissioned by Pope Julius II for the church of San Sisto (San Sixtus) in Piacenza, to honour the memory of the della Rovere pope Sixtus IV.
·The two cherubs (putti) at the bottom of the painting — leaning on a ledge and gazing upward with bored or pensive expressions — became one of the most reproduced images in Western art, widely appearing in popular culture.
·Sold to the Elector of Saxony Augustus III in 1754; it became the centrepiece of the Dresden gallery.
·During World War II the painting was hidden in a mine shaft near Königstein, then seized by Soviet forces in 1945. It was returned to East Germany (DDR) in 1955.
·The two saintly figures framing the Virgin are Pope Sixtus II (namesake of San Sisto, pointing toward the viewer) and Saint Barbara (the patron of artillery and the dying).