The Sistine Madonna

A history of the Sistine Madonna from its commissioning by Pope Julius IIPope Julius II in 1512 from Raphael as an altarpiece for the Benedictine monastery church ofSan Sisto , Piacenza San Sisto in Piacenza through its purchase by King Frederick III of Saxony in 1754, its sojourn in hisZwinger Palace , Dresden Zwinger Palace in DresdenDresden, its removal as a spoil of war by the Red ArmyRed Army in 1945 to the Pushkin MuseumPushkin Museum in Moscow and its restoration in 1954 to its present location in the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister in DresdenDresden. An accepted autograph piece, the personae in the Sistine Madonna and the models used by Raphael are considered and compared with the de Brécy study painting. Pigment analysis of the Sistine Madonna and the influence of conservation and restoration undertaken in 1945 and thereafter. Public perception of the Sistine Madonna and its acceptance as Raphael’s brilliantly conceived masterpiece and chef d’oeuvre. Relationship of the de Brécy Tondo to the Sistine MadonnaSistine Madonna. Copying undertaken in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.