From November 28th to January 12th, Milano is hosting a masterpiece from the Musei Vaticani: the "Madonna di Foligno" by Raphael, the artist from Urbino who, together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, forms the traditional trinity of great masters of the Renaissance.
It was painted between 1511 and 1513 as an offering in gratitude, after the house of Sigismondo de' Conti, who commissioned the painting, survived the strike of a lightning. A lightning, or maybe a meteor: if you look carefully at the landscape on the background, you may spot a ball of fire which, according to American astronomer H. A. Newton, is in fact a bolide, or a big meteor.
At the center of the scene, the Virgin is sitting on a cloud of angels, between Saint Frances, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Jerome. Kneeling on the right is Sigismondo himself, in what is considered one of the best portraits ever made by Raphael.
A rainbow overwhelming the distant village represents the happy ending of the event.
The painting is on display in the magnificent Sala Alessi, the main hall of Palazzo Marino, decorated with beautiful frescos and stuccos. Entrance to Sala Alessi is usually not permitted to the public: so there are plenty of reasons to join the patient queue of Milanese art lovers in Piazza della Scala.
Admission is free, every day from 9.30 am to 8 pm (10 pm on Thursdays).