‎The Sistine Madonna

‎The Sistine Madonna is perhaps the most celebrated painting in the world. It is called “Sistine” because it was originally painted for Pope Sixtus who was the great art patron of Raphael’s period. The beauty of the Sistine Madonna lies in its grace and in the self-sacrifice, the deep, universal love which pervades the mother’s countenance.
‎The prophecy of the birth of Christ echoes through all the prophets; not only in many passages from Isaiah, but in Jeremiah, 31, 22; in Daniel, 9, 24–26; in Ezekiel, 34, 23, and in several of the lesser prophets, especially Hosea and Zechariah. The picture of the virgin mother with her son has always been the favorite theme of religious art. St. Luke, the writer of the gospel, is reputed to have painted from life the earliest picture of Christ’s mother. This strange little painting, almost black with age, is still preserved at Rome, as an object of deepest reverence. Sketches of the Madonna have been found in the early catacombs, and when the great period of Italian art culminated in the beautiful works of Raphael, the master chiefly devoted his genius to copies of this subject.