Early Madonnas

Madonna is an Italian word, signifying "My lady," and is specially applied to the Virgin Mary.

Representations of the mother of Christ made their appearance in the fifth century.

At first the lineaments were copied from the pictures of Christ, according to tradition, which declared that the Saviour resembled his mother.

Among the earliest of these representations is the Madonna by Guido da Siena, dated 1311, in the Church of St. Dominic, Siena.

It must be remembered that the names applied to the Madonna pictures are of modern invention, for the purpose of distinguishing them one from the other.

The earliest Madonnas were representations of the mother without the Child; it was only after the Nestorian heresy, in 431, that the Child was added.

In some of them, St. John the Baptist, a near relative and forerunner of Christ, appears also as a child.

Raphael painted fifty Madonnas: one of the most celebrated is his representation of the Madonna enthroned as the Queen of Heaven surrounded by angels. It is now in the Vatican.

Another is the Madonna del Pesce (of the fish), in the Madrid Museum; but most celebrated of all is the Sistine Madonna, painted in 1515 for the Church of San Sisto in Piacenza, at present the masterpiece of the Dresden gallery, (q.v.)

When Murillo was painting in a convent in Spain, he thoughtlessly promised one of the serving-brothers to paint him a picture. Being importuned to redeem his promise, he made many excuses: the last was that he had no canvas. "Paint it upon this," said the monk, spreading out his napkin. This was done; and now, in the gallery at Seville, is "La Madonna de la Servilleta" ("The Madonna of the Napkin").