“The most beautiful pastel ever seen” by Stephan Koja

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Raphael attempted to paint the Virgin countless times before achieving his magnum opus. Like the Renaissance itself, whose spontaneity owes a debt to medieval artistry, so Raphael’s Madonna has humble beginnings. In Raphael and the Madonna, Stephan Koja illuminates the pivotal place of this masterwork in the aesthetic and religious debates of the sixteenth century. A groundbreaking accomplishment, Raphael’s Madonna breaks through clouds, flanked by saints, while two famously wistful cherubim look up from an unseen altar. The Virgin Mary features in more Renaissance paintings than any other subject, yet Raphael’s Sistine Madonna towers over them all in artistic and theological significance.

“The most beautiful pastel ever seen” by Stephan Koja