It took an act of papal intervention for Raphael’s “Madonna of Foligno” to leave the Vatican and travel to Dresden, where she is on show alongside her sister, the “Sistine Madonna,” for the first time.
Pope Benedict XVI is paying an official visit to Germany, his native country, from Sept. 22 to 25. To coincide with his stay -- which includes meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel and her former boss, Helmut Kohl -- he wanted a “unique cultural event,” according to Germany’s ambassador to the Holy See, Walter Juergen Schmid.
Though the Madonna is one of the artworks that, on principle, never leaves the Vatican Pinacoteca, the pope allowed an exception to be made. Dresden’s Gemaeldegalerie Alte Meister, housed in the sandstone grandeur of the Baroque Zwinger palace, is using the occasion to show the Raphaels with Madonnas by Albrecht Duerer, Lucas Cranach and Matthias Gruenewald among others.
The “Sistine Madonna,” which turns 500 next year, is Dresden’s best-known painting and arguably one of the most famous paintings in the world. Arguably, because it’s not the Madonna herself -- beautiful though she is -- who features on myriad mouse mats, umbrellas, cups, Christmas cards, fridge magnets, labels of sparkling wine and serviettes.
It’s the two impossibly cute cherubs resting on a ledge at the bottom, looking up at her with bored expressions on their angelic faces, who get all the attention.
Waiting for Jesus
They almost look like an ironic footnote, commenting on the action above them. Raphael’s purpose -- painting them in waiting poses -- was probably to emphasize the great distance Mary had to travel with Jesus to arrive among mankind from the distant heavens.
It was the Foligno Madonna who first grabbed the fancy of the Saxon elector and Polish king, August III. In 1750, his court sent an agent to the Umbrian town of Foligno to buy the painting. He returned empty-handed. Four years later, August acquired the Sistine Madonna.
It took a while for her popularity to catch on: Not until about 1800 was the painting discovered by a wider public. Guess which bit was first copied back then? Yes, those two cherubs, who went on to conquer the world.
Raphael painted the two Madonnas at around the same time -- between 1511 and 1513 -- and it is likely they hung alongside each other in his studio. This is their first reunion since.
