This divine piece of Renaissance art features a harmonious balanced design, practiced illusionism and church rhetoric. At the top, The Madonna is holding the Christ Child. Lower down to the left, Saint Sixtus humbly looks up to her while pointing outward to the faithful congregation with his right hand.
This divine piece of Renaissance art features a harmonious balanced design, practiced illusionism and church rhetoric. At the top, The Madonna is holding the Christ Child. Lower down to the left, Saint Sixtus humbly looks up to her while pointing outward to the faithful congregation with his right hand. In this act of mediation between the heavenly Madonna and the earthly plane of the viewer, he is joined by Saint Barbara standing opposite (whose relics were worshipped in the church of San Sisto), who inspects the scene with her downward gaze. At the foot of the picture, two picturesque winged cherubs are pictured resting on their elbows while gazing distractedly at the three figures above them. To the left, the Papal tiara of the former Pope Sixtus I rests on the frame of the painting, acting as a sort of bridge between the real and pictorial space.
