Madonna Of Raphael And Cimabue
The following paper is a comparison of
Raphael's Madonna of the Meadow and
Cimabue's Madonna Enthroned. Madonna
of the Meadow was painted by Raffaello
Sanzio, otherwise known as
Raphael, in 1505. This time period is known as the
Italian Renaissance.
The painting was oil on panel and stood 3 ft 8.5 in X 2 ft
10.25 in. It
is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Italy (Adams,
567).
Madonna of the Meadow is of a classical nature, which is very common of
the
time period. A good example of this would be the nude characters used in
the
art. The medium used (oil) was also being used very widely in Italy by
this
time. It allowed the painter to make very realistic shades and colors.
The
figures and landscape in the painting also looked very fluid and real due
to the
use of the oil paint. The iconography of the painting lies in the
history of its
famous characters. The three figures come from the Bible;
however, the artist
has taken some liberties. The picture contains the Virgin
Mary, the baby Jesus
and his second cousin St. John the Baptist. The picture
foreshadows the death of
Christ on the cross. This point is displayed in
the action of the painting where
St. John is handing Jesus a small cross
and Mary is looking upon it knowing what
is to come. There is a feeling of
connection between the three of them by the
way they are all looking at each
other and the cross. Although I could find no
documentation on this, I feel
there is also a symbol of the trinity in the three
flowers to Mary's left
side. The flowers are very prevalent and are connected to
the figures in the
painting by having the same color that is in the Virgin's
shirt. It is also
speculated that the water in the background symbolizes the
baptism of Christ
by John the Baptist. The fact that Mary is barefoot in the
painting indicates
that she is walking on holy ground. This painting is among a
series that has
been called Madonna of the Lands because the Florentine
countryside in the
background is said to be under the protection of the Virgin,
the Child and
the infant Baptist. The Virgin Mary is also joined to the
landscape by her
sloping shoulders which make a continuation of the mountainous
peaks of
Florence in the background (Hartt, 470). The positioning and placement
of the
three biblical characters are said to be in a Leonardesque-type pyramid
(Hartt,
470). Raphael favored this style and positioning from Leonardo
DiVinchi. The
poses of the three are very calm, relaxed and subdued. His
overall style of the
painting was very realistic and smooth. The use of light
was very natural and
soft with delicate shadowing and a continuous flow of
the direction of the
sunlight. The setting is very spacious and deep and his
use of atmospheric
perspective is very noticeable, allowing the scene to
become even more alive and
believable to the eye. The halos adorning the
three are also put into
perspective by an elliptical shape and by being very
faint. The colors and tones
are very natural and soothing, much like the
brushwork of the painting as well.
The best description of the painting
comes from our textbook Art Across Time
stating that, "Raphael's style is
calm, harmonious, and restrained".
In comparison, Madonna Enthroned has
many differences although it contains two
of the same characters. The
painting is much larger having a height of 12 ft 7
in and a width of 7 ft 4
in. It was designed about 200 years earlier than
Madonna of the Meadow
during the Byzantine Influence. It is currently being held
in the Galleria
degli Uffizi. Its medium also differs quite much in that it is a
tempera on
wood (Adams, 452). The tempera does not allow the painting to look as
real
and as fluid as does the oil. The Christ child is very much adult-like in
his
appearance and gestures, nothing like the one in Raphael's painting. It
is,
however, very typical of the Byzantine style as is the gold background
and thin
figures (Adams, 450). The figures in the painting are once again
from the Bible.
However, in this painting we also have angels and four
older men at the bottom
of the throne holding scrolls. These men depict the
four prophets of the Old
Testament. The style differs quite a bit from
Madonna of the Meadow in that it
is not as soft and realistic. The light does
not seem to come from one clear
direction and the illusion of space is
somewhat flat and non-dimensional. A big
difference is the appearance of the
halos around the heads. They are very flat
and non-realistic which is typical
of the time period, but very unlike the
elliptical halos of Raphael's
painting. The colors are not as natural and
realistic in that Cimabue used
distinctive golds all through the painting. The
figures are not relaxed and
smooth as Raphael's. Their faces do, however, look
calm and restrained, but
the positioning of the bodies and expressions are not
fluid and natural. The
figures also seem much more confined and
"scrunched" unlike the open and free
figures of Rafael. The brushwork
also seems tighter and less smooth almost
making a very hard edge to the objects
and figures of the art. The painting
is, however, very balanced in the placement
of the angels and the prophets
around the Virgin and Christ. One aspect of the
painting that is quite
interesting is the use of the throne. It looks like the
structure of a
cathedral in an abstract way, thus tying Christ to the modern
church.
Although both paintings are very different in many aspects they are
extremely
good representations of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. Despite
their
differences they still portray two very prevalent characters from the
Bible and
relate though they were created over 200 years apart.