Madonna di Foligno Raphael (1483-1520)
Raphael – Madonna di Foligno
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Painter: Raphael
Location: Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani), Vatican.
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One day in the town of Foligno lightning struck near the house of a wealthy man, but no one was hurt, nothing was charred and not even a fire occurred. To commemorate this amazing event, the man - his name was de Copney - commissioned Raphael to make an icon of Our Lady that would help him never forget how close he had once come to being killed and how far away he was at that moment from God, repentance and the absence of sins. So Raphael set to work.
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Description of Raphael Santi’s Madonna di Foligno
One day in the town of Foligno lightning struck near the house of a wealthy man, but no one was hurt, nothing was charred and not even a fire occurred. To commemorate this amazing event, the man - his name was de Copney - commissioned Raphael to make an icon of Our Lady that would help him never forget how close he had once come to being killed and how far away he was at that moment from God, repentance and the absence of sins.
So Raphael set to work. During his life he painted many icons, and most often they were icons of the Virgin Mary. His most famous work is the "Sistine Madonna" and the "Madonna di Foligno" is called a sample of his pen, the forerunner of the famous icon.
At the center of everything, of course, is the Madonna - with a baby in her arms, she floats in the air surrounded by cherubs and clouds against a golden circle symbolizing her holiness. Her face is benign. Her pose is relaxed. Below are the people listening to her apparition.
Awe, disbelief, religious ecstasy are on their faces, de Kopni kneels with his arms folded prayerfully before his chest. Behind them, on the horizon, is a small town. It is Foligno, with its vineyards, its low houses, its mewling dogs, its quiet and honest people. Above it, a trail of fire stretches across the sky - that meteorite, that lightning, that celestial apparition from which the icon was commissioned to celebrate its salvation. It stretches across the sky, crossing it with a golden arc.
The Madonna di Foligno is executed in the general style adopted during the Renaissance. A kind of soft realism, absolutely different from the canons of Orthodox iconography. The people here are simply people, and there is something human in the Mother of God and Christ Himself, albeit combined with the divine. It makes us remember that he is not only God, but God who came down to earth in a human body to atone for the sins of others.
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This work by the Urbino master predates such a masterpiece of all time and peoples as the Sistine Madonna in the Dresden Gallery of Old Masters, and largely determines its composition. The painting was commissioned by papal historian and secretary Sigismondo de Conti for the Roman church of Santa Maria Aracheli in 1511, to celebrate his deliverance from death when a meteorite fell into his house in Foligno. There is no documentary evidence that a meteorite actually fell into Sigismondos house, but there are versions about lightning striking him and about a projectile hitting him during the siege of Foligno. Until 1565, the painting was located on the altar of the church of Santa Maria in Rome, where the commissioner was buried, and after that it was moved to the church of Santa Anna monastery in Foligno. In 1797, the Madonna di Foligno was taken to Paris by Napoleons army, where it was kept for some time. After Napoleons fall, it was returned to Rome, where restoration work was carried out in 1958.
In the left part of the painting is depicted Saint John the Baptist and Saint Francis of Assisi. On the right is Saint Jerome with a kneeling Sigismondo, gazing gratefully at the Madonna with the infant. The Virgin Mary with the Christ Child floats in clouds against a golden disc, symbolizing Her heavenly glory (another name for the painting is Madonna in Glory), surrounded by cherubs. Between these groups, in the center, is an extraordinarily beautiful angel with a commemorative inscription on a tablet that has not been preserved, reminding viewers that He will always be with us. Against this backdrop, behind the angel, is a landscape with the city of Foligno, which is attributed to the Ferrarese master Giovanni di Luter, nicknamed Dosso Dossi (c. 1486 Mantua – 1542 Ferrara). In some places in the painting, art historians have seen the work of Raphaels assistants from his workshop.
The masterful composition, delicate drawing, skillful and restrained use of color, and above all, the elevated spirit of the Madonna di Foligno gained immense popularity in the world of art, and today this altarpiece ranks among the best masterpieces of the Renaissance.
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Below them, in the earthly realm, a series of figures are arranged in an arc. On the left, Saint John the Baptist, distinguished by his rugged attire made of animal skins and holding a cross, points upwards towards the Madonna and Child. Beside him, a kneeling friar, possibly believed to be Sigmund Bonaiuti, looks up in devotion, clutching a cross. He is dressed in a simple brown habit.
Positioned between the celestial and earthly realms is a cherubic putto, an angelic child with wings, holding a wooden tablet or cartouche. This element often serves as a space for inscriptions in Renaissance art.
On the right side of the composition, a wise, elderly man with a long white beard, likely Saint Jerome, guides the hands of another kneeling figure. This figure, dressed in radiant red robes with ermine trim, is Sigismondo de Conti, the patron who commissioned the altarpiece. Both men gaze upwards with expressions of awe and petition.
The background depicts a landscape with buildings reminiscent of Foligno, Italy, the namesake of the artwork, and a distant city shrouded in atmospheric haze. The overall composition creates a sense of divine revelation and earthly petition, with the figures interceding between the heavenly vision of Mary and Jesus and the hopeful supplicants below.