<note><![CDATA[© NGA, Washington DC, the Andrew W Mellon Collection]]></note>
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<title><![CDATA[The Alba Madonna]]></title>
<title2><![CDATA[<br>1509-10 (detail)]]></title2>
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<body><![CDATA[Once owned by the Duke of Alba, the painting shows not only the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus but also the young John the Baptist, identifiable by his sheepskin tunic and the reed cross that connects him to Christ. All are sitting on the ground against a beautiful landscape. (SheΓÇÖs leaning against a petrified tree stump, whose likely symbolic significance has been lost in the mists of time.) Their location stresses the ordinariness of the mother and child: more often they're shown seated on a heavenly throne or even on an elaborate cushion. Raphael painted this picture in Rome, where he arrived in 1508 after four years in Florence, hoping for commissions from the powerful Pope Julius II, an extravagant patron. The picture is round, a form known in Italian as a tondo (a contraction of rotondo). The best-known tondo in Britain is a sculpture by Michelangelo, owned by the Royal Academy in London. It, too, shows the mother and child, and Raphael might have seen it. Certainly the circular format is associated more with Florentine than Roman art. The way the roundness determines the composition is masterly. The figures create an equilateral triangle that sits inside the circle. One side of the triangle is echoed by the VirginΓÇÖs leg, while the horizontal of the river, trees and mountains behind them stabilises the whole. The format recalls RaphaelΓÇÖs connection with Florence, but stylistic characteristics that he refined in Rome ΓÇô above all, the delicate colours and the idealised, classical landscape ΓÇô are already evident. As is usually the case, the symbolism of the scene requires comment. All three figures are looking at the simple reed cross given to Jesus by John the Baptist. This is meant to make us think of the Crucifixion. The MadonnaΓÇÖs index finger is presumably keeping her Bible open at an account of ChristΓÇÖs death.]]></body>
