The Sistine Madonna, or
The Madonna Standing on Clouds with Sts. Sixtus and Barbara, was painted for the church of San Sisto, Piacenza. It made its way from there to Dresden, Germany, because it was sold to Augustus III of Poland and then to Russia during WWII before being returned to East Germany a decade later in 1956. In all of the places it has been, the Sistine Madonna has been almost universally admired. It was a remarkable influence on German culture - in Germany a legend spra
ng up explaining the origin of the painting as having been given to Raphael in a divinely inspired dream. This legend was later expressed in paintings, stories and a play. Some other praises: Goethe revered the Sistine Madonna as the "queen of all mankind"; Thomas Mann praised her as "my greatest experience in the art of painting"; and Johann Joachim Wincklemann said that this painting was "the most perfect modern rediscovery of the Greek ideal". According to Dostoyevsky, the painting is "the greatest revelation of the human spirit", while even Nietzsche praised the Madonna, identifying her as "the vision of the future wife". Among the many Madonnas that Raphael painted, the Sistine Madonna is often regarded as the greatest, in terms of the balance of design, masterful execution, and elevation of expression.
