Madonna
Madonna
(Latin: mea domina, my mistress)
A name given to representations of the Blessed Virgin in art and occasionally used as an invocation in devotions to her. In painting and sculpture she is invariably represented with the Christ Child in her arms, alone or surrounded by an adoring group. In early Christian times, there were crude representations of her in the catacombs. In the 15th and 16th centuries she was a favorite subject of painters and sculptors. Noted masters who have represented her are:
Fra Angelico
Fra Bartolommeo
Bellini, Giovanni
Botticelli
Cimabue, Giovanni
Correggio
Dolci, Carlo
Zampieri, Domenichino
Eyck, Jan van
Giotto di Bondone
Holbein, Hans the Elder
Lippi, Fra Filippo
Memling, Hans
Albertinelli
Alvise Vivarini
Andrea da Solario
Antonio da Solario
Antonio Vivarini
Baroccio
Bellini, Jacopo
Boltraffio
Borgognone
Cariani
Carpaccio
Cignani
Cima da Conegliano
Credi
Crivelli
Da Vinci
Della Robbia
El Greco
Ferrari
Feuerbach
Francia
Lochner
Loefen
Lotto
Luini
Mantegna
Master of the Moulins
Mengs
Moretto
Morone
Murillo
Pacchiarotto
Perugino, Pinturicchio
Raphael
Reni
Rubens
San Severino
Santi
Sarto
Sassoferrato
Sesto
Signorelli
Squarcione
Titian
Trevisant
Van Dyck
Verocchio
Veronese
Among famous paintings of the Madonna are
Sistine Madonna
Madonna della Sedia di Foligno
Madonna of the Goldfinch
Madonna of the Harpies
New Catholic Dictionary
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Madonna
(Italian, My Laddy), a term applied in the language of art to representations of the Virgin Mary. Such representations first made their appearance after the 5th century, when the Virgin was declared to be the Mother of God. The face of the mother is generally full, oval, and of a mild expression; a veil adorns the hair. At first the lineaments of the Virgin’s countenance were copied from the older pictures of Christ, according to the tradition which declared that the Savior resembled his mother. A chronological arrangement of the pictures of the Virgin would exhibit in a remarkable manner the development of the Roman Catholic doctrine on this subject. The Madonna has been a principal subject of the pencils of the great masters. The grandest success has been achieved by Raphael (q.v.), in whose pictures of the Madonna there prevails now the loving mother, now the ideal of feminine beauty, until in that of St. Sixtus there is reached the most glorious representation of the Queen of Heaven. Murillo’s Conceptions also should be noticed here. SEE MURILLO. One of these has lately been presented to the American public in chromo by the American art publisher Prang, of Boston.
Among symbolic representations may be mentioned Mary with the white mantle, i.e. the mantle of love under which she receives the faithful; and the Virgin with the half-moon or with the globe under her feet, according to the meaning put upon the twelfth chapter of Revelation. The Virgin was never represented without the Child until comparatively recent times. See Mrs. Jameson’s delightful work, Legends of the Madonna (3d ed. Lond. 1863, 8vo); Christian Remembrancer, 1868 (July), p. 130; Old and New, 1872 (April).