„Make room for the great Raphael!“

Painted in 1512/13 in Rome, it had slept like sleeping beauty in the small town of Piacenza in northern Italy for 200 years before the art agents of August III were made aware of it. The Saxon elector and Polish king, son of August the Strong, set his mind on possessing his own Raphael just as all the other important collectors in Europe had one. The church in Piacenza was highly indebted and virtually forced to sell the painting, which was commissioned by Pope Julius II and depicts a lovely Madonna surrounded by the Holy Sixtus and the Holy Barbara. The purchase was sealed in 1753.

August III paid the high price of 25000 scudi romani for the Sistine Madonna, comparably large paintings of contemporary artists were sold for 1000 scudi! Having arrived in the audience hall of the king in Dresden , August III moved his throne himself and, following the legend, called: “Make room for the great Raphael!” The painting hung in the gallery in the former Stallhof near the square Neumarkt in Dresden since 1754. In 1855, it was moved to the Semper building where it was presented like a reliquary. After its relocation, the former gallery director, Schnoor von Carolsfeld, is said to have welcomed the art work with the words “His majesty, Raphael of Urbino”.

After its evacuation during World War II and its transport to Moscow, the painting returned from the Soviet Union in 1956.

In 2012, the Sistine Madonna is celebrating her 500th anniversary.