Madonna della seggiola

Infobox Painting|

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title=Madonna della seggiola
artist=Raphael
year=1513-1514
type=Oil on panel
height=71
width=71
city=Florence
museum=Palazzo PittiThe Madonna della seggiola or Madonna della sedia is a painting by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael. It depicts Mary embracing the child Christ, while the young John the Baptist devoutly watches.

Painted during his Roman period, this Madonna does not have the strict geometrical form and linear style of his earlier Florentine treatments of the same subject. Instead, the warmer colors seem to suggest the influence of Titian and Raphael's rival Sebastiano del Piombo.

Maria Montessori, Italian doctor and pioneer in pedagogy, wrote that it was her wish that the Madonna della seggiola hang in each Children's House (Montessori school) as a symbol of "humanity [St. John] rendering homage to maternity [Madonna] ".¹

¹Montessori, Maria, "The Montessori Method" (Schocken Books Inc., New York, 1964) pg. 82.