Madonna and Child with the Book Connestabile Madonna

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Madonna and Child with the Book Connestabile Madonna: Raphael

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Raphael Oil Painting - Madonna and Child with the Book Connestabile Madonna

Keywords: Madonna, Child, Book, Connestabile, Madonna

Work Overview: Madonna and Child (with the Book) (The Conestabile Madonna)
Artist Raphael
Year 1502–1504
Type Tempera on canvas transferred from wood
Dimensions 17.5 cm × 1 8 cm (6.9 in × ??)
Location Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

The Conestabile Madonna is a small (and probably unfinished) painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was likely the last work painted by Raphael in Umbria before moving to Florence.

Its name comes from the Conestabile family of Perugia, from whom it was acquired by Alexander II of Russia in 1871. The Tsar presented it to his consort, Maria Alexandrovna. Since then, the painting has been on exhibit in the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg.

The painting portrays the Madonna holding the Child while reading a book. In 1881, when the picture was moved to canvas, it was discovered that in the original version the Madonna contemplated a pomegranate (symbol of the Passion) instead of the book.

Raphael entered the history of Italian art as the "genius of harmony". The ideals of the High Renaissance were best embodied in his works. The Conestabile Madonna is one of the early works by the master. Despite his still unformed style, the picture is remarkable for its superb composition, the beauty of the linear rhythms, the nobility of the colour harmonies and the perfection of the images - everything which was to be developed to such heights in Raphael's mature work. The transparency of the spring landscape in the distance is in harmony with the image of Mary - young and beautiful like the world which surrounds her. The painting is still in its original frame, decorated with grotesque ornament and evidently made to a design by Raphael himself. Before the painting was transferred from panel to canvas, the frame and the painting formed one united whole. In 1871 the Russian Tsar Alexander II purchased the painting and presented it as a gift to his wife, Maria Alexandrovna.

Before his arrival in Florence, Raphael had already had occasion to compose small-scale devotional icons of the Madonna and Child, linked to a taste for the versions created by Perugino. An interesting sequence of this type can be seen in several examples, all from around 1502 to 1504, built on the motif of the Madonna holding a book. They are known as the Solly Madonna (in Berlin), the Norton Simon Madonna (in California) and the Conestabile Madonna (in St. Petersburg).

The painting was a gift of the Conestabile family of Perugia to the Russian tzaress in 1871. When transferring to canvas at the end of the last century it was discovered that originally instead of the book there was a pomegranate in the hands of the Madonna. The landscape of the background with snow-capped peaks deserves a particular attention.

Raphael met the challenge of creating a round composition when he painted this delicate Madonna. He provides a stable structure for the round picture by means of the vertical figure of the Madonna and the horizontal lines of the landscape. The Madonna's head is gently inclined and the contour of her left hand flows rhythmically into the outline of the Christ Child's body, thus responding to the circular form.

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Madonna and Child with the Book Connestabile Madonna

Raphael

Work Overview