Rafaello Sanzio, known as Raphael, painted the "Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints" around 1504-05, early in his career. The painting was an altarpiece executed for the small Franciscan convent of Saint Antonio de Padova in Perugia and hung in the part of the church reserved for the worship of nuns (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1). Also known as the Colonna Madonna or Altarpiece (a reference to Raphael's patrons, the powerful Colonna family), the work consists of two main sections. The lunette at the top of the piece presents three saints and is balanced by the figures in the main panel. The entire work is tempera and gold on wood with the main panel 67 and 7/8 inches by 67 and 7/8 inches and the lunette has an overall measurement of 29.5 inches by 70 inches (Metropolitan Museum of Art 1).
The overwhelming impression of the work is of great joy in the birth of the Christ child who is held by His mother at the center of the main panel. The colors used by Raphael are vivid in tone and hue and the figures of the saints surrounding the Madonna and Child are executed in bold strokes. This group of figures forms a pleasing, balanced, and symmetrical composition. Flanking the Madonna and Child with the infant St. John the Baptist are Saints Peter, Catherine, Paul, and a female saint believed to be St. Cecilia (Kren and Marx 1).
Of special appeal are the figures that are presented in the lunette รป the half-circle superimposed over the main panel. The three figures in this panel fill the space completely without overwhelming it and without seeming to be out of perspective with regard to the figures in the main panel below. On both panels and in the architectural frames that surround and contain them, Raphael made extensive use of gold decoration. Interestingly, both the Christ Child and the young St. John the Baptist are presented fully clothed. Art historians at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1) stated that it was th...