Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni - Delphi Complete Works of Michelangelo

Completed by c.1497 and also known as The ManchesterMadonna, this unfinished painting is another attributed work ofMichelangelo, which is housed in the National Gallery, London. It is one of three surviving panelpaintings attributed to the artist and is dated to his first period in Rome. The paintingsattribution to Michelangelo was in doubt for much of the last two centuries, althoughnow most scholars are in agreement that it is in fact a genuine attribution. Thepainting first came to public attention in the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in 1857, whenit received its title the Manchester Madonna.

Thecompositions subject arises from a non-Biblical tradition that the Virgin Maryand Jesus met Christs cousin, St. John theBaptist, on the Holy Familys Flight into Egypt. The Virgin is depicted with abared breast, as if she has recently been suckling her infant son, recalling thetheme of the Virgin breastfeeding common in medieval painting. She grips a bookthat she attempts to hold away from her son, the contents of which foreshadowhis future sacrifice. She looks over her left shoulder at a scroll being readby a pair of angels, bearing the reading: EcceAgnus Dei (Behold the Lamb of God), a customary attribute of John theBaptist.

The figuresare arranged as if in a frieze, revealing Michelangelos predilection for a sculptorsvision rather than a painters. The frieze becomes more convex at its centrewith the figures of Virgin and Child, as in the later Pitti Tondo. Another similarity of the painting to the art of reliefsculpture is in the plain background: rather than the landscapes more commonfor exterior settings, Michelangelo has simply painted an expanse of sky. Manyareas of the painting have been left in a preliminary state, where the artisthad intended to paint over the black of the Virgins robe with the rich bluepigment lapis lazuli and the angels on the left are indicated only by the greenunderpaint used for flesh tones.