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The Art Gallery at the Athenaeum contains one of America’s unique collections of 19th century American paintings. Each week we will feature a different work on this page. We hope educators will use this link as a tool to enrich their art curriculum. Vermonters and other citizens throughout the nation can now visit our gallery in this new, intimate, and informative way. The text describing each painting was written by Mark D. Mitchell, Assistant Curator of Nineteenth-Century Art at the National Academy Museum. The digital images were prepared by Robert Jenks of Jenks Studio of Photography in St. Johnsbury, VT. Please note that the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum prohibits the use of images from its collection in public exhibition, broadcast, electronic reproduction or publication in any form without prior written permission from the institution. If you would like to reproduce any of the Art Gallery images in any form, contact Irwin Gelber at 748-8291, extension 307. See the archive of previously highlighted works.
L. Baroli, after Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520), Italian This reproduction of one of Raphael’s early masterworks conveys a send of the delicacy and sensitivity that distinguish the original painting. The Madonna del Granduca (Madonna of the Grand Duke) demonstrates the artists early emphasis upon the Madonna's modesty. She does not meet our gaze, but instead looks downward, maintaining perfect tranquility and decorum in an age that celebrated the idealization of divine figures. Renaissance naturalism (in contrast to its nineteenth-century form) favored the appearance of humanity in portrayals of the holy family and saints, but not with individual specificity, which was the preserve of portraiture. The Virgin Mary and infant Jesus had to appear human, but still embody an ideal of flawless grace. |
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Last update: 11/12/08 |
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