Giovita Garavaglia’s print reproduces Raphael’s painting of the Virgin sitting on a chair – “segiola” in Italian – or a kind of throne, with the Infant Jesus on her lap. The post in the foreground is a corner of the Virgin’s chair. The spatial effect in Raphael’s (1483-1520) painting is quite striking. The infant Jesus’s elbow is notably shortened, and the Virgin’s upper arm is incorrectly drawn. We have the impression that the surface of the picture curves outwards. The picture creates an illusion of the mirrors of the time. They were convex and curved outwards. Mirrors were still rare. And they were seen by theologians of the time as parables of the divine, and more precisely of Our Lady’s virginity. As light can enter the mirror without damaging it, they saw the Virgin as the mirror and God as the light. And so the mirror was seen as a symbol of the Immaculate Conception.
Raphael painted a large number of motifs of the Madonna, though only a small number of them are circular.
Raffaello d'Urbino dipinse / Samuel Jesi disegno / Giovita Garavaglia inscise 1828 / A Sua Altessa Imperiale e Reale / L'ARCIDUCA LEOPOLDO II GRANDUCA DI TOSCANA / Luigi Bardi D.D.D. / Firenze presso L'Editore Luigi Bardi Caleografe Borgo degli Albizzi
