Raffaello's Madonna della Seggiola
The Madonna della Seggiola is an oil painting on wood (ø 71 cm) by Raffaello Sanzio, dated 1514 and preserved in the Palatine Gallery of Palazzo Pitti in Florence.
Raphael was born in 1483 in Urbino and trained in his youth in the workshop of his father Giovanni Santi. Later he collaborated with Perugino and was in Siena alongside Pinturicchio. He was open to many experiences and assimilated the lessons of Leonardo, Michelangelo and other artists of Florence whose compositional schemes he also acquired.
A popular tradition has it that the inspiration for this work came to the artist while he was passing through Velletri, where he saw a local peasant woman cradling her child in her womb.
It was almost certainly Pope Leo From the beginning of the 18th century it was moved to the Royal Palace (Palazzo Pitti) where it had various locations until its emigration to Paris in 1799 due to the Napoleonic spoliations. Fortunately it returned to Palazzo Pitti in 1815 and since 1882 it has been located in the Sala di Saturno.
The work shows Mary sitting on a chair, hence the name. She turns, with the Child held in a tender embrace, towards the spectator. He assists Saint John, on the right, who makes a gesture of prayer to Mary, emerging from the dark background. The Madonna raises one of her two legs, covered by a blue cloth, almost sliding forward, so as to create a circular rhythm that seems to suggest the rocking of the rock. She bows her head towards her son, making her two heads touch, thus creating an atmosphere of intimate sweetness.
Warm tones prevail in the painting, among which some cold colored parts stand out. The red color of Mary's sleeve and the orange color of Jesus' garment meet right in the center of the composition. The same colors are then found in the decoration of the Virgin's shawl and on the armrest of the chair.
A very refined compositional scheme, enhanced even more by the shine of the golden fringes on the back of the chair.
In 2001 La Bottega Tifernate was included among the official suppliers of the Uffizi Gallery, Palazzo Pitti and the Accademia.
We therefore had to thoroughly study all the works destined for the bookshop, in order to recreate their "essence". The professor. Paolucci, then Superintendent in Florence, asked us to create every single detail with the utmost accuracy. This possibility has provided us with the solution for a perfect reproduction: Pictography, which uses ancient materials and methods, combined with the on-site study of a work of art, allows us to recreate the pathos you feel when faced with the original.
From 2001 until 2010 we have established strong collaborations with the most important museums in the world, from the Louvre in Paris to the British Museum in London, up to the MET in New York. When we need to reproduce a work of art, we always have the possibility of studying it on site.
With this work on panel, created for the Pitti Palace in Florence, we won the award for best product for museum bookshops for two consecutive years (2002-2003).