The Alba Madonna
Painter: Raphael, time created: 1511, material: canvas painting, measure: 98 cm diameter, collection: Washington National Gallery.
The Alba Madonna was famous because of Alba duke. Da Vinci give people a mysterious feeling, Michelangelo leaves a grand and severe touch, but Raphael produces a sense of elegant ease. In this painting, human characters are greatly organized in circular composition, with tender, and vigorous and dignified mood. The increasing passion reaches the climax in Maria's facial caring face. Her quiet melancholy conveys a strong dignity and spirit. In the painting, she is staring at Christ's wooden cross which is the symbol of the suffering. The painting is based on the traditional paintings of religious subjects, depicting the intimacy of Madonna and St. John bathing in the twilight. On the painting screen, Madonna sits on the ground with her knees sitting the child Jesus and Baptist John aside by. Perhaps Madonna is tired of reading the Bible; she is looking at the children playing with a love and quiet eyes with her left hand holding the just closing Bible, and right hand lovingly resting on the knees of Baptist John.
Three characters'eyes are all condensed to the small cross, as if they all feel the heaviness and sadness that the son Jesus will sacrifice his life to redeem the human sin. In the evening twilight, mellow fresh sunlight of summer shines in the farm and the distant rolling hills, making the whole painting coated with a layer of melancholy. The human figures in the whole oil painting are very natural, but they form an unnatural outstanding balance composition. The slow and soft moving curves accurately outline the bent image and manage to retain all the spiritual being of a painting.
