The Sistine Madonna
Raphael
1513-1514
Oil on canvas
104 x 77 inches (265 x 196cm)
Gemäldgalerie alte Meister
Dresden
This image is a plate in Wittemeyer (link)
Italian Renaissance Art.com, explains both the somber expressions of the Madonna and child: In the painting’s original location it faced a “crucifix attached to the [rood]screen. . . . [which made] the Virgin and infant Jesus gaze out on the crucifixion. The frightened expressions are understandable, Jesus sees his own death and his mother is witness to the torture and death of her child. It is to the scene of the crucifixion that St Sixtus also points and not to the viewer.”