The Sistine Madonna is a painting by the world-renowned genius Raffaello Santi, inspired by biblical motives. The canvas depicts the Mother of God with the Christ child in her arms. The painter depicted her in full growth, walking from the sky towards the viewer. This fills the masterpiece with movement and gives vitality and realism to the rest of the characters.

Painting “Sistine Madonna” by Raphael Santi – a masterpiece rescued by Soviet soldiers

The image of the Madonna is the embodiment of the ancient ideal of beauty and Christian spirituality. Her gaze is full of humility and deep sadness. She understands what fate awaits her son, but does not protect an innocent child. And a child who came into the world to save people does not cling to his mother. They deliberately go towards a tragic fate.

Green color means God’s mercy and patronage. St. Sixtus II and the Great Martyr Barbara are placed next to the main characters. Two angels, having the appearance of plump peanuts, are located below at the feet of the Madonna.

Name of the painting: “Sistine Madonna”
Author: Raphael Santi (1483-1520).
Year of writing: 1512-1513
Size: 265 x 196 cm.
Style: Renaissance.
Genre: Religious.
Technique: Oil painting.
Material: Canvas.
Location: Gallery of old masters, Dresden, Germany.

Rafael Santi is an amazing master of painting and graphic works.

His brilliant creations are distinguished by realistic emotionality and spirituality. The artist sought to transform the earthly, human into the eternal, divine.

The fate of the painting “Sistine Madonna” in a special way intertwined with the fate of Russia. In 1945, the work, along with other art exhibits of the Dresden Gallery, was hidden by the retreating Nazis in a freight train driven into an abandoned tunnel. The valuable cargo was discovered by Soviet soldiers and delivered to Moscow.

For a long time the picture was kept in the storerooms of the Pushkin Museum. Only after Stalin’s death was the painting returned to the GDR. Before being sent abroad, the masterpiece was shown to Moscow connoisseurs of art. The work of the old master had a huge emotional impact on the public and merged in the minds of the Russian people.

Soviet writers (V. S. Grossman, L. N. Volynsky) connected the personal fate and the fate of the people with the pictorial work. Prose and journalism inspired cinematographers to make films, and artists to create paintings in the spirit of socialist realism, dedicated to the miraculous salvation of a brilliant creation.

The painting “The Sistine Madonna” by Rafael Santi still admires the monumentality of the characters and the power of emotional experiences. In his work, the painter managed to establish spiritual contact between divine beings and human society.