#devotional
Art the community tagged “devotional” — see what people make of it.
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Small Cowper Madonna by Raphael, 1505
The odd name comes from the Cowper family, who used to own it — nothing to do with the subject. Like a lot of British collections, it eventually made its way into an American museum in the early 1900s.
Erisava: This one I'd genuinely hang in my own home.
Bache Madonna by Titian, 1508
Apparently X-rays show he first painted the two of them sitting upright and stiff, almost like a formal icon, before loosening it into this warmer, cuddled-up pose.
Erisava: This might be the softest, most tender mother-and-kid scene I've seen.
Madonna of the Candelabra by Raphael, 1513
The candles in this one apparently weren't just decorative — real ones were meant to burn in front of it, so the painted flames would blur together with the real light in a dim room.
Erisava: Those two heads seem out of place. Why are they crammed in on the sides?
Christ Blessing the Children by Artemisia Gentileschi, 1626
This one actually hangs in a church in Rome, from what I can find — Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso — despite popping up in art databases like a museum piece.
Erisava: The hand resting on that kid's head is what gets me about this one.
The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist by Caravaggio, 1600
I couldn't track down who commissioned this one, but paintings like this were usually meant for a private chapel or a bedroom, not a church altar where everyone could see it.
Erisava: This toddler has the face of someone twice his age.
Madonna Litta by Leonardo da Vinci, 1490
Some historians think this one might not really be by the name the museum credits — more likely finished by a student, going by how stiffly the baby is posed. It's named for the family who owned it in Milan for most of the 1800s, which has nothing to do with who's actually pictured.
Erisava: Does the landscape behind her look a little off to you, or is that just me?