Dresden celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Sistine Madonna with an exhibition

In 1512, Raphael (1483-1520) was hired to write the Sistine Madonna. In 2012, the State Art Collections of Dresden (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) decided to celebrate the 500th anniversary of this great canvas. The exhibition will shed light on the cultural and historical context, as well as on the history of this masterpiece.

Rafael’s "Sistine Madonna" in a new frame at an exhibition in Dresden. According to the information of the Gallery of Old Masters, consisting in the State Art Collections of Dresden, the outstanding work of Raphael - “The Sistine Madonna” - turned 500 years old. The museum celebrated this anniversary with a special exhibition, which will be open for visitors until August 26.
Photo: Jens Meyer

The exposition is divided into four segments:

I. Raphael in Rome

This section of the exhibition presents the “Sistine Madonna” in the context of Roman works by Raphael and other Renaissance artists. The exposition presents outstanding works of the artist of that period. Among them - “Madonna Aldobranini” (1509-10) from the National Gallery of London and “Fragment of an Angel” (c. 1512) from the Vatican Pinacoteca. Among the other masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance: “Mary in the Mandorla with Apostles and the kneeling Pope Sixtus IV” from the Albertina Gallery in Vienna, as well as “Madonna” by Filippo Lippi (c. 1475) from the Szépmüvészeti Museum in Budapest. Moreover, the section will feature a portrait of Pope Julius II, for whom they wrote an altar in San Sisto, Piacenza.

II. “Give place to the great Raphael!” - Significant acquisition by Augustus of the III “Sistine Madonna”

For almost 250 years, the Sistine Madonna remained an unknown masterpiece in Piacenza. Only after the acquisition of an art gallery in Dresden in 1752-54. the picture appeared in the face of the public. Adolf Menzel wrote down the legendary phrase of Pope Augustus after the appearance of the picture: “Give place to the great Raphael!” (1855-1859). In this section of the exhibition is the purchase history presented in the Dresden State Archive, in the Passerini-Lundi Library and in the Guilleri Archive in Piacenza. Most of these materials, until recently, have never been shown to the public.

III. A peculiar myth is the “Sistine Madonna” in literature, painting, music and design

References to the “Sistine Madonna” in literature, painting and works of art, photography and music began to appear in the 1800s. The theme of the Madonna was copied and developed in many works of art. One of the most striking examples is the painting by Friedrich Burst “Electress Auguste copies the Sistine Madonna” (c. 1808-09) from the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe museum in Kassel. This canvas has become one of the favorite subjects in magazines, embroideries, advertising, caricatures and other visual materials of the Biedermeier era and the German Empire. The myth surrounding the canvas continued to live in the twentieth century, when, after the Second World War, the painting was brought to Russia in 1945. According to propaganda, she was saved by the Soviet army. According to legend, a masterpiece in 1955 was returned to Dresden, and this is reflected in the painting “The Salvation of the Madonna” (1984-85) by Mikhail Kornetsky, which is now exhibited at the Latvian National Museum in Riga.

IV. International career: little angels in kitsch and art

The angels were first copied around 1800, and this was the beginning of their solo “career”. The exhibition provides examples and copies dating from the nineteenth century onwards.

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