Madonna with the Blue Diadem

The Madonna with the Blue Diadem is generally attributed to Raphael and his pupil Gianfrancesco Penni, most likely painted in Rome around 1512. The Virgin lifts a veil over the sleeping Christ Child, who looks out toward the viewer, while her other arm rests around the young John the Baptist, who gazes at them with awe. Both figures are shown in profile. The veil carries meaning: in Renaissance religious art it recalled how the Virgin wrapped the Child at the Nativity and, prophetically, again at the Crucifixion. The composition is almost certainly Raphael's, while the bright, acidic colours and the smooth, porcelain-like finish may be the work of Penni, which would date the final execution to around 1518. Closely related to the Madonna of Loreto, it feels more dramatic, with ruins that evoke the Sacchetti villa near St Peter's in Rome. The painting then passed through French and Piedmontese princely collections before Louis XV acquired it in 1743.

Painter

Gianfrancesco Penni

Date

1515

Medium

oil paint, poplar panel

Dimensions

68 × 49 cm

Museum

Louvre Museum, Paris

Movement

High Renaissance

Genre

religious art

Depicts

landscape, Child Saint John, Mary, Christ Child

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