Raphael / Raffaello Sanzio: Madonna of the Meadow, Part 1

In this painting the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael depicts the Virgin Mary watching over her son, Jesus Christ, and his cousin John the Baptist.

This is the first of two videos examining Raphael’s Madonna of the Meadow.

One of the main visual devices by which Raphael unites his motif and his composition is the slim wooden cross that the kneeling John gives to his cousin Christ.

This motif visualizes John’s proclamation that Christ is the savior of the world.

However, Raphael positions this cross, within his composition, so that our reading of the image, from the lower left toward the upper right, follows this cross from one infant to the other.

What initially might look like a sacred playdate, visualizes a sacred question, “how did salvation enter the world?”"