The ''Madonna of Loreto'' or ''Pilgrim's Madonna'' is a painting (1604–1606) by the Italian Baroque master

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

, located in the Cavalletti Chapel of the church of Sant'Agostino, just northeast of the

Piazza Navona Piazza Navona () is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in the 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans went there to watch the '' agones' ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. It depicts the barefoot

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

holding her naked child in a doorway before two kneeling peasants on a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

. In 1603 the heirs of marquis Ermete Cavalletti, who had died on 21 July 1602, commissioned a painting on the theme of the Madonna of Loreto to decorate a family chapel. As instructed by the marquis's will, the Cavaletti's purchased a chapel in the church of Sant'Agostino in Rome on 4 September 1603. The painter

Giovanni Baglione Giovanni Baglione (1566 – 30 December 1643) was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. He is best remembered for his acrimonious and damaging involvement with the slightly younger artist Caravaggio and ...

, a competitor who had successfully ensured Caravaggio was jailed during a libel trial, said that the unveiling of this painting "caused the common people to make a great cackle (''schiamazzo'') over it". The uproar was not surprising. The Virgin Mary, like her admiring pilgrims, is barefoot. The doorway or niche is not an exalted cumulus or bevy of putti, but a partly decrepit wall of flaking brick. Only a slim halo indicates her saintly status. While beautiful, the Virgin Mary could be any woman emerging from the shadows. Like many of Caravaggio's Roman paintings, such as the ''

Conversion on the Way to Damascus The ''Conversion on the Way to Damascus'' (''Conversione di San Paolo'') is a work by Caravaggio, painted in 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome. Across the chapel is a second Caravaggio depicting the '' C ...

'' or the '' Calling of St Matthew'', the scene is a moment where an ordinary person encounters the divine, whose appearance is equally ordinary. The woman modelling Mary appears to be the same as that in Caravaggio's canvas in the

Galleria Borghese The Galleria Borghese () is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate tourist ...

: '' The Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Dei Palafrenieri)'' (1605). It has been suggested that Caravaggio's composition is at least in part derived from a detail of a 1574 engraving, ''Adoration of the Magi'', after

Rosso Fiorentino Giovanni Battista di Jacopo (8 March 1495 in Gregorian style, or 1494 according to the calculation of times in Florence where the year began on 25 March – 14 November 1540), known as Rosso Fiorentino (meaning "Red Florentine" in Italian) ...

, by Caravaggio's friend

Cherubino Alberti Cherubino Alberti (1553–1615), also called Borghegiano, was an Italian engraver and painter. He is most often remembered for the Roman frescoes completed with his brother Giovanni Alberti during the papacy of Clement VIII. He was most prolifi ...

(1553–1615).William Gavin, Caravaggio's Madonna of Loreto Reconsidered, SOURCE, Notes in the History of Art, Fall 1986, pp.20-23.

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External links

* {{Authority control 1600s paintings Paintings by Caravaggio Paintings of the Madonna and Child Paintings in Rome

See also

References

External links