"Madonna Della Sedia," the "Christian Venus."
RAPHAEL, 1483-1520. PITTI PALACE, FLORENCE, ITALY.
The "Madonna della Sedia," or "Madonna of the Chair," was painted by Raphael in the year 1516. It is a circular picture, with only three figures. The Madonna, in side view, is seated on a low chair, holding the Child on her knee. He is leaning against her in a listless, childlike attitude at her side, while the child St. John folds his little hands in prayer. This representation of the Madonna is evidently an attempt on the part of Raphael to break away from conventional rules. The Madonna is dressed in the gay attire of an Italian woman, and is in no way adoring her divine Child, though filled with maternal love for Him.
The Child's face has a grave and grand expression, as if He were looking into the future. St. John, with a faint outline of a cross at his side, adores almost timidly Him Whom it will be his mission to announce to the world.
Hawthorne says: "The most beautiful picture in the world is Raphael's 'Madonna della Sedia.'" It has been called the "Christian Venus." Guild says: "No idea of its artistic power can be had from an engraving."
Regarding the circular form of this picture, there is an interesting legend. The artist, it is said, strolling along a Roman street, chanced to see a woman seated, with one child on her lap and another at her knee. Their looks and attitudes struck him as a fit model for the Sacred Trio; so he stopped and at once sketched the group on the head of a barrel, perhaps the wine cask that is never lacking in Italian thoroughfares,--hence his picture was round. Many of the designs in Raphael's sketch-book, preserved in the Venetian Academy, were clearly suggested and drawn in wayside walks, and the existence of that book gives some countenance to the tradition concerning the origin of the "Madonna della Sedia."