UNDERSTANDING THE PROPHECY: The Sistine Madonna
Sistine Madonna 1513-14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Raffael_051.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Renai...pment_of_themesThe Sistine Madonna by Raphael, probably his most influential work, uses the formula not of an altarpiece but the formal portrait, with a frame of green curtains through which a vision can be seen, witnessed by Pope Sixtus II for whom the work is named. The clouds around the Virgin are composed of cherubic faces, while the two iconic cherubs so beloved with the late 20th century fashion for angels, prop themselves on the sill. This work became the model for Murillo and many other painters.
http://www.sttimothyla.org/parish_history-paintings.htmCopy by Thomas Lawless of Raphael's Sistine Madonna, Gemaldegalerie, Dresden, Germany. This noble painting, the most celebrated of all Raphael's Madonnas and the first to be painted on canvas, portrays St. Sixtus' first glimpse of heaven. The curtains, symbolical of the "veil" between heaven and earth, open to reveal to the kneeling Sixtus, the Mother, and Child with St. Barbara on their left. In the original, Barbara's symbol, a tower, appears between her back and the curtain. Here, the tower is difficult to perceive. Sixtus, however, is very clearly portrayed, in fact, so clearly portrayed that scholars have recognized the figure as an obvious portrait of Pope Julian II, Raphael's patron and friend.
The two cherubs at the bottom have been reproduced on the U.S. Postal Service "Love" stamps for 1995. USPS describes the cherub on the left, which is used on the l-ounce stamp, as "a whimsical cherub contemplating the enigma of romance." Although the description is obviously inappropriate for the cherub viewed in the context of this painting, it does indeed seem apt when the cherub is viewed on a "Love" stamp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Raphael_missing.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RaphaelRaphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello)[1] (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520)[2] was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.[3]
Vasari, in his biography of Raphael, says that Raphael was also born on a Good Friday, which in 1483 fell on March 28. This would mean that while Raphael was born and died on Good Friday, he was actually older than 37 on the 1520 Good Friday which fell on April 6.[64]
His funeral was extremely grand, attended by large crowds. The inscription in his marble sarcophagus, an elegiac distich written by Pietro Bembo, reads: "Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori." Meaning: "Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die."