(Copying-studying Raphael’s Madonna with baby Jesus, Paula Kuitenbrouwer)
Have a look at the two paintings-drawings by Raphael showing baby Jesus reaching for his mother’s chest. All mums who have breastfed their child know babies and young toddlers do this, even months after the nursing has stopped. Young toddlers like to touch base; they poke their small hands under mum’s dress and just let their hands sit there. As if they need to be sure that the most important, life sustaining part of their mum hasn’t mysteriously disappeared. As soon as the toddler feels the warmth of their mum’s chest, it will settled down or fall asleep being warm, cosy and reassuringly close to mum’s heart, mum’s breasts, mum’s heartbeat, or mums softness. Later, when a toddler knocks its heads or is in pain, mum again presses its head to her chest, to the place were the young child feels good and feels close to mum’s warmth, heart and love.
Raphael must have observed this typical mum-toddler behaviour because there are different drawings and paintings in which he shows how a wriggly baby Jesus tries to put his hands near mum’s chest.
The fact that Raphael has drawn and painted this scene more than ones, makes me think he was the father of the child. See, in both paintings the mother and baby are the same models. The baby looks at Raphael (the painter) while searching for mum’s chest. ‘Mine’, seems the toddler to say. Although I’m told some fathers don’t like this, most fathers I know enjoy immensely when a mother and child are in harmony and enjoying each others warmth. Soon the warmth or milk will has it calming effect, and mum and child will be lovingly smiling at each other. That moment of calm is probably exactly what Raphael wanted. Let the baby drink, let the down-time for mum and baby start. That will make it much easier to sketch a Madonna with a content baby Jesus.
Paula
I love your explanation! Thank you for sharing your thoughts…
Hope you are all well again?!
Much love, anja
I’m improving but I need to take care of my family dealing with a second wave of flu. A nasty flu it is!
I hope you and your family are well.
Hi, many rumours have been done about a possible fatherhood of Raphael: we know he had at least a regular lover, but no real news about an eventual child has survived. We know, nonetheless, that he has been a careful observer of reality, which was an important focus in each Renaissance painter’s consciousness. It may simple be that he, as an artist and as a master of feelings and emotions, had been able to capture the essence of motherhood, without necessarily be the father of the child
Welcome and thank you for your comment, Sara. I appreciate your comment highly.
Raphael has made many sketches and studies of his beautiful model and child. If I were to vote whether this child would be his, I would vote ‘yes’. For me key to that ‘yes’ is the way the child looks at the painter and claims his mother’s chest. I have seen this baby-toddler behaviour in real life and I would vote for ‘yes’ because to me (but I could be wrong nevertheless) this baby communicates with this typical sign-language of putting his hand in her chest ‘This is my mummy’ to his daddy. I know this isn’t art history, and there is no way I can prove this. My ‘yes’ is based of the combination of these paintings combined with my own experience of breastfeeding my child while my baby-toddler is communicating with her daddy.
I hope I do not in any way claim my ‘yes’ to be right, because, as you say, we don’t have evidence for any ‘yes’ nor ‘no’ when it comes to Raphael being the father of the child.
Thank you again, Sara. I hope you will comment more in the future on art history.
I love Raphael’s Madonna and Baby Jesus paintings. I think you are right that the artist may well have been the father of the baby, or maybe a very fond Uncle!
Nevertheless, your drawing, which appears unfinished, is really beautiful. You have caught the essence of the painting, without slavishly reproducing another “Raphael”
When I say it seems unfinished I think you could increase the light and shade to give it more depth and spatial perspective. It may of course be the camera that flattens its perspective.
I set out to make the baby Jesus look at bit younger. Raphael’s baby Jesus, or his son
, looks a bit serious and older. I preferred to draw a baby-baby. You are right that my sketch looks unfinished. Part is the light of the photo, and part is my collection of graphite pencils. Somehow, no matter what kind of graphite I used, I couldn’t get the background darker. I fell for the sketch book but the paper doesn’t hold much quality. Anyway, it is nice to sketch Raphael, not only technically but also to supplement it with some research, read about his life and remember the real sketches I’ve seen in the Haarlem Rafael Exhibition last winter.
Thank you for commenting, Ruth. I hope you will return and share your thoughts more often.
beautiful!
Welcome and thank you, Melvin. I have no Twitter. If you have a website, please list it so that I can view your work.
Really enjoyed reading your mother-baby post. Like most Western people, I have seen so many of these Madonna and Baby Jesus paintings that I have grown a bit bored of them. You helped me to see them with fresh eyes again
Thank you, Sasa. I think more research and sources make studying classical art so wonderful. Not a year passes without somebody adding a new idea, perspective, or source that changes and enlarges the story of a classical art piece. Rafael will always mesmerise people. He died so young and was so talented.
Paula, Thank you for sharing so much of your sensitivity and knowledge of art. I enjoy reading your point of view on the classics. I’ve never taken an art history class during college; your comments inspired me to be more sensitive to the expressions of classical art.
You don’t need art class to appreciate art, but it does help.
Maybe you like the (free on YouTube) BBC series ‘The Private Life of a Masterpiece’. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Private_Life_of_a_Masterpiece)
I enjoyed already a few episodes of the series and they learned me to appreciate the stories behind masterpieces.
That’s quite an impressive observation and insight, Paula. It sure makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you for sharing this.
I’ll never tire of your presentation of wonderful artwork or your beautiful interpretation of it, Paula. I hope by this time you are all well again!
Thank you, Sid. We are well again and back on track. Like you, we look so much forward to spring. We are waiting for the birds to arrive from Africa. It will take more time for the trees to leaf out and for the flowers to appear, because we had some cold days again. I enjoyed your icy photos, but I was happy that Jack Frost didn’t touch our trees that badly!
Well wishes to you and your family.
Wow! Paula I never thought about that before. Whenever I come here, I learn something … and this is a particulary touching something. Lovely …
I had to laugh and smile when I read this article ! My daughter did not did this at all but my son do it very often ! Mostly with me but also with women looking after him such as my mum or my mother in law
) He never tried this with men 
) I think I am going to print these pictures and put them into my son’s diary, if you allow!
Certainly! Go ahead. Print it and store all text, pictures, and your comment in his baby-book. He won’t laugh reading this when he is a teen, but when he is a father, he will smile reading your comment.
yes you’re right ! I did it !