拉斐尔作品《草地圣母》又名《圣母与圣婴和施洗者圣约翰》高清图片

作品简介

《草地圣母》(Madonna del Prato)，正式名称为《圣母与圣婴及施洗约翰》，是拉斐尔于1506年创作的木板油画，现藏于维也纳艺术史博物馆。因其长期收藏于维也纳美景宫皇家收藏，亦被称为《美景宫圣母》。

这幅画由23岁的拉斐尔在其1504-1505年抵达佛罗伦萨数月后完成。画面以金字塔式构图展现了圣母玛利亚、圣婴耶稣和幼年施洗约翰在宁静草地上的场景，人物通过视线相互联结。圣母身着金边蓝色斗篷与红色长袍，右腿沿对角线伸展。蓝色象征教会，红色象征基督之死，圣母与耶稣双手相触暗示着圣母教会与基督牺牲的结合[需要引用]。她目光凝视约翰，头部左转微倾，双手扶稳蹒跚前倾想要触摸约翰手中小十字架的耶稣。罂粟花暗喻基督的受难、死亡与复活。画面捕捉了宁静温柔的田园时刻，唯耶稣抓取施洗约翰手中十字架的动作暗示着未来的受难。这种静谧和谐的风格深受文艺复兴赞助人推崇，为拉斐尔赢得了为教皇绘制梵蒂冈宫壁画的委托。

拉斐尔作品《草地圣母》红色粉素描稿(大都会艺术博物馆藏)

在创作此画及《金翅雀圣母》时，拉斐尔借鉴了当时同在佛罗伦萨的达芬奇的金字塔构图法，这可见于达芬奇的《岩间圣母》等作品。大都会艺术博物馆藏有一幅红色粉笔构图草图，是拉斐尔为本作创作的众多预备素描之一。

1983年，维也纳艺术史博物馆首席油画修复师清除了《草地圣母》上导致变形的补笔和清漆。修复显示该画的层次结构与《小考珀圣母》相似，由透明油彩釉层、不透明底色和石膏底组成。损坏原因也相同，源于拉斐尔在绘制衣袍时的特殊技法：蓝色斗篷因油层干燥不均产生大面积龟裂。此外，画作以深邃阴影和冷暖色调的精妙互动塑造形体，肉色下的蓝调在阴影和画板边缘清晰可见。细节观察表明天空是在人物完成后绘制的，蓝色笔触随人物轮廓延伸，不仅在表面可见，X光片也显示此特征。红外检测还发现了转印到画板前的底稿，连接线精准清晰，揭示了艺术家的创作过程。

The Madonna del Prato (Madonna of the Meadow), formally Madonna with the Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist, is an oil on board painting by Raphael, created in 1506, now held in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is also known as the Madonna del Belvedere after its long residence in the imperial collection in the Vienna Belvedere.

The painting was executed by twenty-three-year-old Raphael within months of his 1504–1505 arrival in Florence. The scene represents the figures of the Virgin Mary, the infant Jesus, and an infant John the Baptist shown in a calm grassy meadow, in a pyramidal arrangement linked by their gazes. Mary is wearing a gold-bordered blue mantle set against a red dress, extending her right leg along a diagonal. The blue symbolizes the church and the red Christ's death, with the Madonna touching hands with Jesus the uniting of Mother Church with Christ's sacrifice.[citation needed] Her eyes fixed on John, her head turned to the left and slightly inclined, and her hands steady him as he leans forward unsteadily to touch the miniature cross held by John. The poppy refers to Christ's passion, death and resurrection. The painting depicts a peaceful, tender and idyllic moment, disturbed only by child Jesus's grabbing at the cross held by John the Baptist, which hints to the forthcoming Passion of Jesus. This kind of serene and harmonious composition was held in very high regard by Renaissance patrons and earned Raphael a commission to paint a fresco for the Pope at the Vatican stanze in Rome.

For this painting, as well as in others such as the Madonna of the Goldfinch, Raphael followed the techniques of Leonardo da Vinci (who was also in Florence at the time) in blocking its subjects in pyramidal form; this can be observed in such works as Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks. A red-chalk composition study, one of many preparatory drawings for the painting made by Raphael, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[a]

In 1983, the Chief Conservator for Paintings at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna removed the retouchings and varnish that deformed the Madonna of the Meadow. Restoration revealed that this painting's structure is similar to that of the Small Cowper Madonna, and consists of translucent oil glazes, opaque underpaint and gesso ground. Furthermore, the observed damages were caused by the same factors, namely Raphael's painting technique in the robe and mantle. In the Madonna of the Meadow, the blue robe is disfigured by a wide craquelure provoked by the uneven drying of the oil layers. Additionally, the painting is characterized by a great depth of shadows and a subtle interplay of the cool and warm tones that model the flesh. A bluish undertone, visible in the shadows and edges of the panel, underlies the creamy white and pink of the flesh. Moreover, close examination of the work suggests that the sky was painted after the figures were executed, since the blue brush strokes appear to follow the contours of the figures and are perceptible not only on the surface but also in x-radiographs. When examined using infra-red techniques, the Madonna of the Meadow also betrays an underdrawing, completed when the design was transferred onto the panel; the marks left by this transfer are clear, and the lines that connect them are precise, illuminating the artist's process.