Raphael, 'The Ansidei Madonna', 1505

This is the main panel of the Ansidei Altarpiece that the 22-year-old Raphael painted for the Ansidei family chapel in the Servite Church of S. Fiorenzo in Perugia in 1505.

The Virgin sits in majesty on a carved wooden throne with the Christ Child upright and alert on her lap. A small book is open on her knee and she follows the text she is reading with her finger. She draws her baby’s attention to a passage in the book, presumably containing allusions to his future sacrifice. A string of coral beads ending in jewelled crosses is suspended from the throne and resembles a rosary, a reminder of the blood Christ will shed at the Crucifixion. The Latin inscription at the top of the throne, ‘SALVE MATER CHRISTI’ (‘Hail Mother of Christ’), would have acted as a prompt to the recitation of the rosary.

John the Baptist points to the infant Christ and gazes at his rock crystal cross, in foreknowledge of Christ’s future death. The older, more contemplative Saint Nicholas, identified by his bishop’s mitre and crosier, withdraws slightly behind the throne. His furrowed brow indicates that he is concentrating on his book. At his feet are three golden balls which represent the purses of gold he gave as dowries to the three daughters of an impoverished nobleman to save them from prostitution. This type of composition, with saints flanking the enthroned Virgin and Child in a unified image, is known as a sacra conversazione (’sacred conversation').

The lower horizontal panel, known as the predella, beneath the main panel of the altarpiece probably depicted two scenes: John the Baptist Preaching and another scene showing a posthumous miracle of Saint Nicholas. Each narrative scene would have been positioned beneath the saint in the main panel to whom it related.

Raphael carefully calculated the geometry of the composition, dividing it horizontally and vertically into harmonious thirds. The picture surface was incised with a grid nine squares wide by six squares high. This suggests that Raphael worked out his scheme in squared composition drawings on paper and then transferred the design to the panel before he began painting.

Technical investigation has revealed that the pale grey architecture and vaulting behind the Virgin’s throne, which provides a sacred space for the figures, was not planned by Raphael from the beginning but was painted over the sky and landscape. Raphael used the pre-existing grid to position the parapet a third of the way up and the mouldings two-thirds of the way up the panel. This explains why this late addition appears so integral to the composition. He may have decided to include the barrel-vaulted architecture in the altarpiece to compensate for the plainness of the Ansidei Chapel.

The Ansidei Madonna is the grandest and most successfully designed of Raphael’s early Madonnas. The painting is closest in style and form to the Colonna Altarpiece (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), which gives an idea of how the Ansidei Madonna would have appeared before Raphael added the architectural backdrop.