Madonna di Foligno (Rafael, obraz)

A meteorite?

Fragment obrazu z widocznym bolidem i pustą tabliczką trzymaną przez anioła (tabula ansata) (źródło: 3PipeProblem)

Nineteenth century authors described a small background object depicted with a flame trailing behind it as an aerolite, or meteorite - theorising that the painting referred to an event affecting the patron. In an 1890 publication of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Edward S. Holden notes:

Its purely astronomical interest consists in the portryal of the fall of the aerolite itself, which occupies the centre of the picture.[12]^[1]

Another explanation was offered by Professor H. A Newton, following up in 1891 on Holden’s notice the previous year. Newton cites a phenomenon reported in several contemporary sources:

On the 4th of September, 1511, in the second hour of the night, there fell on the banks of the Adda, near Crema, some leagues southeast of Milan, a number of stones [...]^[2] We may well question nearly all the details of all the accounts, but that many stones fell and some were carried to Milan and other cities, can hardly be doubted. It is, so far as I know, the only detonating meteor falling in Italy during several years preceding 1512, of which account has been preserved. I believe that Raphael meant to represent this Crema aerolite in his painting of the Foligno Madonna.[13]

This object was also addressed by Schröter in 1987, emphasising that early sources do not mention that Sigismondo personally endured any form of bombardment or a lightning strike.[14] Schröter further suggests that the object depicted was a comet, symbolic of plague or an impending disaster. This is refuted by Meyer zur Capellen, arguing that the bright palette of the work does not match the types of works commonly associated with plague.[15] (…)