Madonna di Foligno (Raphael) September 2015-1a

The Virgin and Child sit enthroned upon a cloud within a brilliant golden solar disc, surrounded by a choir of cherubim emerging from the atmosphere. Below, the saints and the donor observe the vision against a landscape featuring the town of Foligno, which is struck by a fireball or meteor under a faint rainbow. At the center, a winged putto stands holding an empty plaque known as a tabula ansata.

Commissioned as an ex-voto for Sigismondo de' Conti's survival of a celestial event, the painting reflects the High Renaissance synthesis of natural philosophy and Neoplatonism. The use of the sun as a divine mandorla mirrors contemporary philosophical ideas regarding the sun as a visible manifestation of the 'One' or the supreme deity.