Commonplace

In a museum in Florence, Italy, there is a painting by Raphael called “The Madonna of the Barrel.” The story is told that Raphael was walking one day through the market place of Florence when he saw a mother, evidently a very poor woman, sitting in the street with her child at her breast. She was dressed in shabby attire, but on her face was the caring expression of mother love. Raphael was so charmed by her appearance that he decided to paint her at once, right where she sat.

He took for his canvas the end of an old barrel which was conveniently nearby. Using color and brushes which were in his pocket, painted on the barrel head a picture which today hangs in one of the galleries of Florence, a masterpiece. Raphael was an immortal artist by reason of his native gifts, but more than that because of his capacity to see the beautiful and the romantic in commonplace people, even a poor…