“Madonna in the Meadow” by Raphael

“Madonna in the Meadow” by Raphael depicts three figures in a meadow, all linked by looks and touching hands. The figures represent the Madonna with the Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist as a child.

The Madonna is shown wearing a gold-bordered blue mantle, set against a red dress, and with her right leg lying along a diagonal.

The blue symbolizes the church and the red Christ’s death, with the Madonna uniting the Church with Christ’s sacrifice. In her hands, she holds up Christ, as he leans forward to touch the cross held by John. The poppy refers to Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.

The painting shows a peaceful and tender moment and was painted by Raphael while he was in Florence and depicted a landscape backdrop that places the scene in a Tuscan setting.

Saint John the Baptist was the patron of Florence, making his presence here in a Florentine environment symbolic for his audience. The peacefulness and harmony of the painting would have been held in high regard by Renaissance patrons.

The painting is the first of a series of full-length figure compositions that portray the apocryphal encounter between the Child Jesus and the boy Baptist.

The boy Baptist is supposed to have recognized Christ as the Redeemer even in their childhood. Raphael makes this clear by letting Christ take the cross from John.

Michelangelo’s influence on Raphael is evident in this composition. The figures in the painting are arranged in a pyramidal composition.

This is something that Raphael would have studied in Leonardo’s famous drawing showing the Virgin, St. Anne, and their children, which was in another church in Florence.

The “Madonna in the Meadow” painting is also known as “The Madonna with the Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist” and “Madonna del Prato,” which means “Madonna of the Meadow.”

Historically it has also been called “Madonna del Belvedere” because of its long residence in the imperial collection in the Vienna Belvedere.

Raphael

Raphael (1483–1520) was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he is one of the great masters of that period.

Raphael was enormously productive, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work.

Many of Raphael’s works are in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best-known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican.

His career started in Umbria, then for four years he spent time in Florence absorbing the artistic renaissance of Florence and then his last twelve years in Rome, he worked for two Popes and their associates.