How does this artwork elucidate its Description and style?
On a dark background, in which most features are barely discernible – a niche with an open door, a bench – the Virgin nurses her Child in her lap, while He gently moves around on the left. In an exceptionally harmonious and balanced group, the pair are characterised by their opposing and divergent gestures that generate a serpentine movement – the Child's arms holding the Madonna's veil, her hands touching the Child's body. In an effective way, the intense and vivid colours bring substance to the intertwined figures emerging from the shadows.Raphael made many drawings and paintings of the Virgin and Child in Florence. The artful combination of gestures are particularly graceful, with an elegant contraposto twist. The gaze between the exquisite Mother and Child underlines its tenderness. Technical X-ray analysis shows that originally the artist painted a landscape as background, typical of earlier portrayals of the Madonna. Probably Raphael later decided that choosing a dark background allowed the pair to be painted more subtly, increasing the contrast between light and shade, and thus enhancing the sense of volume and monumentality.Raphael's motifs were foreshadowed by two earlier Florentine artists of the High Renaissance, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. In Michelangelo's sculpted Taddei Tondo, the Madonna is portrayed with the Christ Child outstretched on her knees, accompanied by the infant St John clutching a fluttering bird; and the motif of a serenely smiling Virgin and Child, depicted in contraposto on a dark background, is derived from da Vinci. Other copies of Raphael's painting exist: a version in the National Gallery, London; and an oval version, now held by the National Trust in Nostell Priory, Yorkshire.
Florence Nostell Priory National Gallery, London Raphael National Trust Taddei Tondo Michelangelo St John Yorkshire High Renaissance contraposto Leonardo da Vinci National Gallery