ANDREA DEL SARTO (b. 1486, Firenze, d. 1530, Firenze) Madonna of the Harpies 1517 Oil on wood, 208 x 178 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Perhaps the most famous work of Andrea del Sarto is the altarpiece painted for the nuns of San Francesco dei Macci, known as the Madonna of the Harpies. According to the contract signed on May 14, 1515 the picture was to depict the Madonna and Child crowned by two angels and flanked by St John the Evangelist and St Bonaventure, and to be delivered within a year. But in fact the work is dated 1517, and shows St John the Evangelist and St Francis on eithe
ANDREA DEL SARTO (b. 1486, Firenze, d. 1530, Firenze) Madonna of the Harpies 1517 Oil on wood, 208 x 178 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Perhaps the most famous work of Andrea del Sarto is the altarpiece painted for the nuns of San Francesco dei Macci, known as the Madonna of the Harpies. According to the contract signed on May 14, 1515 the picture was to depict the Madonna and Child crowned by two angels and flanked by St John the Evangelist and St Bonaventure, and to be delivered within a year. But in fact the work is dated 1517, and shows St John the Evangelist and St Francis on either side of the Madonna and Child on a high polygonal pedestal. The latter is decorated at the corners with monster-like figures (the so-called Harpies), while in the centre, beneath the artist's signature, are the opening words of a hymn to Our Lady of the Assumption. We therefore have not the Coronation of the Virgin but the Virgin of the Assumption. These variations on the original commission, and the subject itself, which is not a traditional Madonna and Child Enthroned between Two Saints, but a highly unusual presentation of the Virgin, full-figure on that enigmatic pedestal with the images of the "harpies," have led to a lot of thought and attempted explanations on the part of all critics. The most recent interpretation is that it is a depiction, based on the text of the Book of Revelations, of the Virgin triumphant over evil, symbolized by the monstrous figures, the "harpies," which are in fact the "locusts" mentioned in Revelations; and besides that, bears witness to the cult of the Virgin by the clients, the conventual Franciscans. Having removed the layers of dirt and overpainting, the 1984 restoration has re-established the exceptionally rich colouring of the work, praised by Vasari as being "of singular and truly rare beauty." The figure of the Madonna, wrought into a composed chiasmus in order to balance the weight of the Child (who on the other hand is lively, smi
Size: 3600px × 4168px
Photo credit: © Carlo Bollo / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: artwork, paint, painter, painting, paintings
