Madonna of the Rosary (Caravaggio)

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Madonna of the Rosary

Caravaggio, 1607

Oil on canvas

364,5 × 249,5 cm

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Madonna of the Rosary is a painting finished in 1607 by the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. It is housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna.

In its huge scale and multi-figured design the grandest of Caravaggio's paintings, this may have been commissioned by Cesare d'Este, Duke of Modena, in 1605 and undertaken in Naples. It was offered to Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, in 1607 and was bought by a consortium of Flemish artists, including Rubens, by whom it was offered to the Dominican church in Antwerp.

The theme is Dominican. St. Dominic and his friars spread the devotion of the rosary; and here the Madonna, as Queen of Heaven, issues orders to the saint to her right, who clutches a rosary, and the Dominican St. Peter Martyr to her left. Beside St. Peter Martyr stands the most famous of Dominican theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas.

Madonna, Child and saints form a heavenly triangle concealed from the classically costumed suppliants at the front, who kneel in prayer with arms outstretched to St Dominic, while a donor in modern ruff and doublet eyes the viewer. The column to the left and the curtain overhead add to the formality of the scene. Caravaggio achieves an elaborate ordering and interlocking of forms that heralds the typical Baroque altarpiece.

v • d • e Caravaggio List of works 1593-1594 Boy Peeling Fruit (c. 1592)  • Self Portrait as Bacchus (Il Bacchino malato) (c. 1593)  • Boy with a Basket of Fruit • The Fortune Teller (Buona ventura) (c. 1594) • Cardsharps (I bari) (c. 1594) 1595-1599 (the Del Monte paintings) The Musicians (c. 1595)  • Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (c. 1595)  • Saint Francis in Meditation (c. 1595)  • Boy Bitten by a Lizard (c. 1596)  • Apollo the Lute Player (c. 1596)  • The Lute Player (c. 1596)  • Bacchus (c. 1596)  • Penitent Magdalene (c. 1597)  • Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1597)  • Medusa (c. 1597)  • Portrait of a Courtesan (Fillide Melandroni) (c. 1597) • Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto (c. 1597) • The Fortune Teller (c. 1597-98)  • Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c.1598)  • The Sacrifice of Isaac (Princeton version) (c. 1598)  • John the Baptist (c. 1598)  • Martha and Mary Magdalene (c. 1598)  • Portrait of Maffeo Barberini (1598)  • Basket of Fruit (c. 1599)  • Judith Beheading Holofernes (c. 1599)  • David and Goliath (c. 1599)  • Narcissus (c. 1599)  • Boy Bitten by a Lizard (c. 1600) 1600-1606 (Most Famous Painter in Rome) The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599 - 1600)  • The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (1599 - 1600)  • The Conversion of Saint Paul (1600)  • The Crucifixion of Saint Peter (1601)  • The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus (1601)  • Supper at Emmaus (London) (1601)  • The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew  • Amor Victorious (1602)  • Saint Matthew and the Angel (1602)  • The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602)  • John the Baptist (Capitoline) (1602)  • John the Baptist (Pamphilij) (c. 1602)  • The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (c. 1602) • The Taking of Christ (1602)  • Saint Francis in Meditation {Cappuccini) (c. 1603)  • The Entombment (c. 1603)  • The Sacrifice of Isaac (1603)  • Madonna of Loreto (Madonna dei Pellegrini, Pilgrims' Madonna) (c. 1604)  • John the Baptist (Kansas City) (1604)  • John the Baptist (Palazzo Corsini) (1604)  • The Crowning with Thorns (Prato) (1604)  • The Death of the Virgin (1604)  • Christ on the Mount of Olives (1605)  • Ecce Homo (c. 1605)  • Saint Jerome in Meditation (c. 1605)  • Saint Jerome Writing (Borghese) (c. 1605)  • Portrait of Pope Paul V (1605)  • Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge (1605)  • Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Madonna de Palafrenieri, Grooms' Madonna) (1606) 1606-1608 Naples and Malta Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy (1606)  • Saint Francis in Prayer (Cremona) (1606)  • Supper at Emmaus (Milan) (1606)  • The Seven Works of Mercy (1606)  • The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew (1607)  • David with the Head of Goliath (Vienna) (1607)  • Madonna of the Rosary (1607)  • The Crowning with Thorns (Vienna) (1607)  • The Flagellation of Christ (c. 1607)  • Christ at the Column (c. 1607)  • Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (London) (c. 1607)  • Saint Jerome Writing (Valletta) (1607)  • Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page (1607-1608)  • Portrait of Fra Antionio Martelli (1608)  • The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608)  • Sleeping Cupid (1608)  • John the Baptist (John the Baptist at the Fountain) (1608) 1608-1610 Sicily and Naples The Annunciation (1608)  • Burial of St. Lucy (1608)  • The Raising of Lazarus (1609)  • Adoration of the Shepherds (1609)  • Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence (1609)  • Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid) (1609)  • Denial of Saint Peter (1610)  • John the Baptist (Borghese) (1610)  • The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (1610)  • David with the Head of Goliath (1610) Works attributed to Caravaggio Still Life with Flowers and Fruit  • John the Baptist (Reclining) (1610)  • The Tooth Puller (1607 - 1609)  • John the Baptist (Basel)  • Boy Peeling a Fruit (c. 1593)  • Holy Family with St. John the Baptist  • Cardsharps (pre-1594)