The panel, which is presumed to have been painted for private devotion, is similar to works painted by Raphael in 1513 and 1514. This scenario was the subject of an 1839 lithograph by August Hopfgarten and a painting by Johann Michael Wittmer. It depicts Mary embracing the child Christ, while the young John the Baptist devoutly watches. [1], It depicts Mary embracing the Christ child while sitting in a chair as the young John the Baptist devoutly watches. It was certainly included in the works of the Uffizi in 1635, where it has remained ever since with the exception of a short period between 1799 and 1816 when it was taken to Paris by the French. [8] The technical execution of the painting lies within its remarkable composition, which was originally envisioned as a rectangle. [6], The Madonna’s image also shows less attention to careful selections, which takes the focus off refinement, and shifts it to more of a rapid representation of an observation or attitude. They both look toward the observer inviting he or she to participate in the tender and intimate relationship the artist attempted to reproduce. The Madonna della Sedia balanced simplification and detail with the treatment of her embroidered shawl, the directness of the figures and the touching of the two heads (Madonna and Christ child). [10], Ingres greatly admired Raphael and paid tribute to him by including this painting in many of his works, such as in the background of Henri IV playing with his children and Raphael and La Fornarina on the table in front of the subject in his Portrait of monsieur Rivière. The Madonna della Sedia is one of the single most important of Raphael’s Madonnas. The painting also revolutionized the Madonna format in the Renaissance style due to its departure from the pyramidal composition of the Madonna, Christ child, Saint Joseph, and by giving the painting a superficial background, [2] which is radically different when comparing it to an earlier Madonna portrait, The Alba Madonna (c. This painting is believed by some to be the one kept in the Galleria degli Uffizi since 1589 and by others the painting which in 1609 hung in the chapel of the Ducal Palace in Urbino and reached Florence with the legacy of Vittoria Della Rovere in 1631. Copyrights Reserved © 2008 - . Unfortunately, the Madonna della Sedia's commission is undocumented despite it being created while Raphael was spending a relatively well-documented period of twelve years in Rome. [4], The painting also revolutionized singular portrait painting during the Renaissance by enlarging the figure’s scale and how they compositionally occupy the entire plane. [1], Already in the Gallerie Degli Uffizi, it was then moved to the Pitti Palace by the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Madonna della seggiola or Madonna della sedia is a Madonna painting by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael, dating to c. 1513-1514 and housed in the Palazzo Pitti collection in Florence.It depicts Mary embracing the child Christ, while the young John the Baptist devoutly watches. Singing Palette, Promote Contemporary Art Globally • No Commissions • Free of Charge. The image was worked into the carpet in Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne. The Madonna della seggiola or Madonna della sedia is a Madonna painting by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael, dating to c. 1513-1514 and housed in the Palazzo Pitti collection in Florence. [2] The composition is entirely from Raphael’s hand, which was a result of him shuddering off the legacies of Leonardo da Vinci and Pietro Perugino, who early on had influenced his career and style substantially. Raphael happened upon the trio and used a barrel bottom to paint them. The Madonna della Seggiola or The Madonna della Sedia (c. 1513-1514 AD), oil on panel, 28" in diameter (71 cm) is a Madonna painting by the High Italian Renaissance artist Raphael Sanzio da Urbino, also known as Raphael, and is housed at the Palazzo Pitti Collection in Florence, Italy. [1] Raphael did not consider the circular shape during the preliminary sketches for this painting, even though it is a form he favored during and after his Florentine period. [5] Mary is depicted wearing a striped headdress, which falls behind her backside and compliments her richly colored ornamental dress with fringe. Of the many Madonnas he produced from his youth, this is the one in which there is a greater interaction between a balanced composition and the naturalness seen in the gazes of the Virgin and child. [3] Painted during his Roman period, this Madonna does not have the strict geometrical form and linear style of his earlier Florentine treatments of the same subject. The chair dictates the outer limits of the composition and is the painting's namesake.[4]. [2] Throughout Raphael’s life, this humanistic representation of the Madonna occupied his mind. [8] There are a few enchanting legends connected to the Madonna della Sedia painting, one being about a beautiful Urbino peasant girl, who was as good as she was beautiful, charitable, and pious, who gave her assistance to an ill hermit she had stumbled upon. Most of Raphael's commissions for this period were under the strict guidance of Pope Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici), who was known to be one of Raphael's biggest patrons at the time. Madonna della seggiola (The Madonna of the Chair), Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio deMedici and Luigi deRossi master Raphael, Aldobrandini Madonna (The Garvagh Madonna), The Granduca Madonna (The Madonna del Granduca), Madonna and Child with the Book Connestabile Madonna, The Entombment Pala Baglione or The Deposition, Madonna and Child The Small Cowper Madonna, Canigiani Holy Family (Sacra Famiglia Canigiani or Canigiani Madonna or The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John), St Cecilia with Sts Paul John Evangelists Augustine and Mary Magdalene master Raphael, The Stanza della Segnatura The Judgment of Solomon, The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila, The Presentation in the Temple Oddi altar predella, The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, The Stanza della Segnatura Apollo and Marsyas, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints 1504, Justinian Presenting the Pandects to Trebonianus. The hermit rewarded the girl by blessing her and stating that she would be painted as the mother of God. They suggested to a German writer with a lively imagination at the start of the Ottocentro that the scene was from a fable which told how the painting was the portrait of the young daughter of a vintner with her two children, who was drawn from life by Raphael on the lid of a barrel. Leo X was also the successor to Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere) who was another major patron of Raphael and a central contributor to the High Renaissance. Years later, the girl had two children, and the tree was made into wine barrels. By radically changing the scale of the figures in this painting, allowing them to occupy most of the available space, the Christ child seems to be the basis of both the Madonna and Saint John the Baptist's proportions and relationship within the painting. The painting was painted during the same time Raphael was working on the frescoes in the Vatican Stanze and loggia of the Vatican, including the paintings Incendio del Borgo, Battle of Ostia, and Coronation of Charlemagne. [4], The Madonna della Sedia has been admired by many artists, poets, and engravers.