La Belle Jardiniere
The composition of La Belle Jardiniere is very naive. John looks at Jesus, and Jesus looks at Madonna. Their attention is naturally focused on the face of Madonna. And Madonna is the real theme of this painting. The characters form a triangle, and it is an isosceles triangle. Dominated by this method, the characters not only give the whole painting a unified feeling, but also make it more stable. There is neither straight rigid line nor too sharp angle, only the beautiful and soft curves to form a staggered image. The facial expressions of characters are very quiet; little Jesus smiles at Madonna, and Madonna smiles at little Jesus. The scenery in the background more adds the harmony. Several horizontal lines and a few deep green hills make touch on lightly; a calm river, rich and pleasant fields, tall trees and slender shadows; scattered flowers in the nearby view. No leaves are shaking and a few light clouds in the sky reflect the gentle light, so that all things are bathing lovely and charming atmosphere. From the romantic era, the scenery has become the embodiment of people's mood. In the eyes of Raphael, the scenery is just matched with the background painting.
In the painting, Raphael adds the perspective matters: hands and feet are almost used in shortened form in a very skillful way. At that time, perspective and shading were the new sciences. Raphael was only 24 years old when he boasted of his skills. With a kind of style and form beauty, Raphael expressed this charming and elegant Christian poetry in the simply ancient pastoral atmosphere.
