-Russian theorist plekhanov
Many painting connoisseurs think Raphael is too happy. Compared with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, he solved the inner conflict at a very young age, so he rarely showed superhuman strength to promote the great soul. His paintings are very skillful, but not works with deep feelings or beliefs. He complied with the pope's needs and pleased him, swinging happily between the virgin and mistress, and reconciling the pagan and Christian beliefs. He didn't deeply explore the mystery and conflict of life or belief, he just wanted the lust and joy of life, the creation and possession of beauty, and the loyalty of friends and lovers. He brings us peace, does not ask questions, does not create doubts or fears, and does not create conflicts between reason and emotion, or between body and soul. What he saw was the coordination of opposites. His art idealizes everything, religion, women, philosophy, history and even war, and his own life is too smooth and happy.
Such comments are not entirely correct, as can be seen from the Madonna of the Sistine Chapel in Raphael's later period. Raphael's The Sistine Madonna is no longer the Madonna of the past, nor is it the emaciation, pain and rigidity of medieval painting art, nor is it the extreme of debauchery, frivolity and informality described by Venetian painting school, but it shows a quiet, peaceful, kind, virtuous and beautiful expression, which can not only give people good feelings and reverie, but also make people feel reverent. Raphael let the Sistine Madonna walk slowly towards people.
On the screen, the virgin came down from the clouds holding the son. A man and a woman are painted beside the curtains on both sides. The male elder in a golden robe is Pope Siscott, who made a welcome gesture to the Virgin, while the young woman kneeling slightly is a disciple of the Virgin Vavala. She lowered her eyes devoutly, bowed her head and looked slightly shy, showing respect and obedience to the virgin child. The virgin in the middle is plump and graceful, with dignified and serene facial expression and beautiful and quiet. The two little angels lying below are looking forward to the arrival of the Virgin Mary with their eyes wide open, and their innocence is vividly painted.
In order to make the Madonna on the altar feel close to people, Raphael made his painting have three horizontal points (one is an angel, one is a saint and the other is the Madonna), so that the closer the viewer is to the painting, the closer the Madonna is to people. In addition, the general distance method is abandoned, which makes the distance between people in the painting very vague and unreal, and the elliptical movement melody (through clothes folds and color arrangement) is added to the stable composition of the pyramid. This abandonment of the most important form of the Renaissance shows that the Virgin is not only the concept of absolute beauty, but also the Virgin that people can be close to and rely on, and the Virgin that can cry on her. What does this mean? In his later years, Raphael moved from harmony, pleasure, balance, tolerance, rationality, sensibility, knowledge and belief to depicting people with pity and suffering, and the painting theme also moved from beauty to hope in suffering. It even led to the division of art history and attributed Raphael's late works to the enlightenment of another era.
No matter what significance this change of painting style has on the staging of painting history, even if the painting style changes again, it will still be Raphael-style, but it is undeniable that Raphael is moving from painting theme to another mysterious experience. This is Raphael's unspeakable mysterious experience.
It is not entirely fair to say that Raphael does not ask questions, that reason and emotion do not conflict, or that body and soul do not conflict, but that he sees coordination. It can be said that Raphael dealt with conflict and soul struggle, and finally he put the solver on Christ and the Virgin Mary who entered the suffering world. He created a maternal image with lofty sacrifice spirit in the Sistine Madonna. The works are extremely mature and perfect in conception, composition, modeling color and expression techniques. Raphael pinned his beautiful ideal on the Virgin Mary, hoping that the Virgin Mary he wrote would bring hope and all the beauty to mankind.
In the hearts of many westerners, maternal love is the most sacred, selfless, tolerant and greatest emotion. "Holy Mother, you are like a bottomless cup filled with bitter tears!" Perhaps because of this, the Madonna of the Sistine Chapel has become an enduring theme in western culture. (Anonymous)