Madonna of Foligno

Find the kneeling man in red on the right side of the Madonna of Foligno. He is Sigismondo de' Conti, the man who commissioned the painting in 1511. His hands are joined in prayer, and the older saint behind him presents him to Mary and the child Jesus above. Raphael has given a living patron a place among saints. Follow the man's gaze and notice how the heavenly group now draws the people below towards it. Sigismondo commissioned the painting for the high altar of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome, in thanks for his Foligno house surviving a lightning strike. The background landscape recalls that event. The small angel in the centre holds a tablet without an inscription. The painting moved to Foligno in 1565 and entered the Vatican collection in 1816, after its return from France. Its title preserves a stage in that journey rather than its original destination.