Episode 265 - Caravaggio’s “Madonna of Loreto”
Rebuilding The Renaissance
English - February 14, 2024 11:30 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MB - ★★★★★ - 202 ratingsArts History florence italy milan renaissance rome architecture art history painting sculpture Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Previous Episode: Episode 264 - Caravaggio’s “Amor VIncit Omnia” (“Love Conquers All”)
Next Episode: Episode 266 - Caravaggio’s “Death of the Virgin”
Located in the Augustinian church of Sant ’Agostino in Rome, Italy, the “Madonna of Loreto” is one of Caravaggio’s most beautiful paintings. It was painted for the Cavalletti family in 1604 and depicts a barefoot Virgin Mary (who was modeled from a well-known prostitute) standing in a rundown contemporary Roman doorway carrying the Christ child who blesses two peasant pilgrims. The stark realism and lack of pretense made it very popular amongst the masses, who, according to one of Caravaggio’s biographers, “made a great cackle over it.”