The Madonna and Child with Saints

by Luca Signorelli

The Madonna and Child with Saints
1519-23
Painting

Details

In the latter part of his career his works became notably more conservative and traditional, with many, including Madonna and Child with Saints, relying on a more simplistic bilateral symmetrical composition than one saw in his best earlier works. Moreover, the quality of the rendering of the figures is markedly less impressive than in his earlier works, indicating that significant portions of these later works were delegated to his assistants. That having been said, Michelangelo held this work in high esteem; a view supported by Giorgio Vasari,an Italian Renaissance painter and architect, who is best known for his work Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, considered the ideological foundation of all art-historical writing,Vasari  argued that the painting was final proof of "the considerable importance of [Signorelli's] contribution to the development of Italian High Renaissance painting".

who argued that the painting was final proof of "the considerable importance of [Signorelli's] contribution to the development of Italian High Renaissance painting".

About This Artwork

This, Signorelli's last completed painting (before his death in 1523), is a Holy Conversation composition (or Sacra Conversazione). The Virgin sits in the upper center of the work, upon a throne that appears to be supported by, and/or adorned with, human heads or skulls. On her lap is a naked Christ Child. She is surrounded by several saints engaged in various activities (such as gazing at Mary with admiration, playing instruments, kneeling in prayer, and reading), as well as two angels to either side of Mary's head, playing instruments. At the very top of the image, God himself, along with several cherubs, is seen looking down from the heavens. These figures fill Signorelli's packed frame. 

This painting is  tempera on panel - and is in the Museo di Arte Medievale e Moderna, Arezzo, Italy