Lot number 3505 - Auction 155
MARIA MIT DEM CHRISTUSKIND IN DEN WOLKEN

CIRCLE OR SCHOOL RAFFAELLO SANZIO DA URBINO 1493 Urbino - 1520 Rome MARY WITH THE CHILD JESUS IN THE CLOUDS Oil on solid walnut (?) wood panel (joined in several parts). 133 x 89 cm. Verso: Old London auction number of Christie's auction house "FK 4SI" on the panel. Age-related drying cracks and joint lines visible, but overall stable condition. Slight retouching and later reworking. The painting shows the enthroned Madonna with the Christ Child in an idealised vision of heaven. Mary sits on clouds and holds the child close to her; the intimate relationship between mother and son is emphasised by the Madonna's inclined head and the softly rounded, calmly modelled forms of the child. A golden nimbus surrounds both figures, clearly distinguishing them from the cool greenish-grey sky background. In the upper areas of the painting, angel heads executed in grisaille appear, lending the depiction an additional transcendent dimension. The composition is balanced and pyramidal in structure, characterised by calm lines and harmonious proportions. The colour scheme follows the classical canon of the High Renaissance with its interplay of blue, red and gold. The finely modelled faces, the soft sfumato and the idealised yet intimate conception of the mother-child group suggest that the painting was created in the early 16th century. Stylistically, the painting follows the tradition of the Italian High Renaissance and is clearly oriented towards Raphaelite pictorial solutions, as they were widespread in the Roman-Florentine circle through workshop works and successors. The combination of idealised beauty, calm sublimity and emotional restraint corresponds to a pictorial formula that was intended in particular for private devotion. Provenance: Private collection in the Rhineland.