(piano music) Male voiceover: We're in the
National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and we're looking at a
really beautiful painting. It's Raphael's Alba
Madonna from about 1510. Female voiceover: Raphael was
famous for his incredibly beautiful and sweet Madonnas, and this
is the perfect example of that. Male voiceover: It's a
really unusual painting. You have the Virgin Mary. You have the young
Christ on her lap, but if you look at the way her arms are extended and the way that her lap is extended. It's almost as if she's really
a throne for him to sit on. Female voiceover: But we have
essentially the same cast of characters that we have in
Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks. Male voiceover: So, the third figure. Female voiceover: Saint John the Baptist. Male voiceover: How can you tell? Female voiceover: The only thing that's
missing here that was in the Leonardo was the figure of an angel. Male voiceover: And of course we've
entered into the high renaissance now. In a sense the angel
has really disappeared. Those sort of overt expressions. Female voiceover: Spiritual figures. Male voiceover: That's right, those
overt expressions of the divine. Female voiceover: Right. Male voiceover: In a sense they've
been replaced by nature itself. Female voiceover: Raphael
definitely has looked at Leonardo and his Madonna has her
arm around Saint John much the same way that she does
in the Virgin of the Rocks. Male voiceover: Yes. Female voiceover: And we have
those lingering faint ... Male voiceover: Well
after all she's his aunt. Female voiceover: That's true. We have those lingering faint halos. Male voiceover: The faintest trace still. Female voiceover: Right, and
they're going to be gone. Actually I suppose with Leonardo
they'd already been gone, but Raphael is still
holding onto them a bit. You're right there's a kind
of overwhelming humanism here, a humanism that's transcended by
the ideal beauty of the figures. Male voiceover: So he's really expressing
divinity through this ideal beauty then. Female voiceover: And also I
think through the incredibly fluid and graceful way that the figures move. Male voiceover: It's almost like dance. Female voiceover: It is almost like dance. It's incredibly complicated. Mary looks down past Saint John,
almost looking into the future, her arm around him, her left
hand holding a page in the Bible. The Christ child twisting his body. Male voiceover: He's sort of
accepting the cross. Right? Female voiceover: A kind of acceptance
of his destiny, of his sacrifice. Male voiceover: Right. Female voiceover: Mary has her
right leg tucked under her left leg. There's a since that
she's caught moving here. There's nothing static about
any part of this image. Male voiceover: And even though
there's this lack of static there's also a kind of, I guess because
of their scale within the landscape ... Female voiceover: They're very monumental. Male voiceover: Yes, there's
this monumentality, this sort
of sense of seriousness here. Female voiceover: Absolutely. Male voiceover: They are in this
beautiful natural environment and yet we get a sense
of a kind of classicism. Raphael is in Rome. Female voiceover: Yes. Male voiceover: And he's really
looking at the classical. Female voiceover: And he's
concurrently working on ... Male voiceover: This is
quite a moment isn't it? Female voiceover: ... the Stanza della
Segnatura in the school of Athens included there, and at the same time
Michelangelo of course is painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Male voiceover: Right at this moment. Female voiceover: So there's this
incredible interest in monumental serious figures and monumental commissions
and major masterpieces. Male voiceover: But this is a
fairly modest painting in its scale. Female voiceover: It's about three feet. Male voiceover: Yeah, that's right. This is just something
he does on the side. Female voiceover: Amazing isn't it? What a man. Male voiceover: Going back
to the idea of Leonardo. Female voiceover: Yes, there's
a lot of Leonardo here. Male voiceover: If you look
at the delicate and careful
rendering for instance ... Female voiceover: The flowers. Male voiceover: Yeah. The
botanical specimens, very much
like in Madonna of the Rocks. Female voiceover: Very much
like the Madonna of the Rocks. Hard to know if Raphael himself is
looking at northern Renaissance painting or he's got that influence
sort of indirectly. Male voiceover: So, that's interesting. We talked about that classical influence
but also a little bit of the north. Female voiceover: Yes, and
we have an oil painting here. Male voiceover: That's
right, that's right. Originally on panel. Female voiceover: And we have
none of that kind of sfumato, smoky, mysteriousness that
we have in the Leonardo. There's a real clarity here and
sweetness instead of mystery. I think. Male voiceover: If you look
at the composition it's
just so beautifully handled. Female voiceover: Within
the circular frame. Male voiceover: Which is a tough thing. Female voiceover: Oh
my God it's really hard to make things fit comfortably
within that circular shape. Male voiceover: And the
figures don't feel cramped. They feel as if they have room to move
and yet it does not call attention to the circle at all, to the rondel. It's just this really
carefully rendered, and this incredible kind of intimacy
as well between the figures. They're not really looking at
each other, although Christ
may be sort of looking at John. John, as you said, is sort of
looking upward toward heaven. Mary seems to almost be looking a
little bit past the two of them, but nevertheless there's
this wonderful kind of bond, this wonderful kind of
beautiful kind of intimacy. Female voiceover: There
is, and there's a kind of interaction between the figures
that I think is really unique
to the high Renaissance, the loss of that kind
of static separateness between the figures that was still
there in the early Renaissance. I forget what Vasari calls it. It's a little bit of a kind of
clunkiness that's still there. Male voiceover: A kind of
isolation of the figures. Female voiceover: Yeah. Male voiceover: But we see it disappear
certainly in Leonardo's Last Supper and of course we also see that
in Michelangelo's ceiling. Female voiceover: Yes. Male voiceover: Which is being
painted at this very moment. Female voiceover: That idea
of unifying the composition within a pyramid shape also is here, and the atmospheric
perspective is just beautiful. Male voiceover: It's gorgeous isn't it? Female voiceover: Do you think
that looks like a Tuscan hillside? Male voiceover: You know,
I would think so except because of the classical
influence and because of the idea that he's in Rome maybe
something closer to the outskirts of Rome. Especially with some of the older
buildings in the back, very picturesque, really the kind of thing that later
18th century painters would pick up on. Female voiceover: And is she
sitting and looking at ... Her right side, is she
leaning on some rocks? Male voiceover: It must be, or
sitting against a tree stump. It's a little bit hard to make out. Female voiceover: So we have the
idea of the Madonna of humility, seated on the ground and the image
which emphasizes her humbleness and even though she sort of provides
her body as a throne for Christ she herself is sitting on the
ground and is a very humble figure. Male voiceover: That's right, humble
but still having a kind of ... Female voiceover: Divinity. Male voiceover: Divinity and
importance and part of that again comes from the classicizing of
the pose of the figures, but also look here Raphael has dressed
at least Mary in classical garb. Female voiceover: Very
classical, and in fact the way
her clothing clings to her leg reminds me of classical
sculpture, very specifically. Male voiceover: That's true. Probably sculpture that Raphael
would not have seen yet, right? Things that are in Greece. But nevertheless you're right. Maybe there were some sources. Female voiceover: But
he must have seen some ancient Greek relief sculptures I imagine. Male voiceover: Yeah and there
was real interest at this moment. Female voiceover:
Absolutely they were digging things up all over Rome. Male voiceover: Yes. (piano music)