Benedetto Pagni: The Medici Madonna (1547)

(John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, USA)

A painting by the Italian artist Benedetto Pagni (1504-1578). This painting is highly symbolical and is intended to show the glory of the Medici family. The woman on the right is the city of Florence in the guise of Flora, the Roman goddess of Nature and Spring. She is offering gifts to the Madonna (the virgin Mary with child Christ), thanking the Virgin for the glories she has bestowed upon the Medici and especially on the Duke Cosimo I. Flora also represents the state of Peace and Prosperity under Medici rule. The gifts Flora is giving to the Madonna all refer to the Medici family: the six balls (the coat of arms of the Medici); the blue balls (symbols of Cosimo the Elder); a genealogical tree of Cosimo; two papal tiaras (the Medici Popes, Leo X and Clement VII ); a crown (represents the Duchy of Tuscany); a diadem of pearls encircling a sheaf of Valois lilies (this refers to Catherine de Medici who married with king Henry II of France). The Madonna is a patron saint of the Medici and one of the saintly protectors of Florence. Painting from 1547.