Sacra conversazione
The name, which only appears as a title retrospectively in the 18th century, has been explained with reference to "their rapt stillness of mood, in which the Saints, scarcely looking at one another, seem to communicate at a spiritual rather than a material level".
[6] In Italian the term is perhaps used more often and more widely than is usually the case in English, for example covering in aria compositions in the tradition of Raphael's Sistine Madonna where the Virgin and Child hover in the air well above the saints.
[7] The sacra conversazione developed as artists replaced earlier hieratic and compartmented triptych or polyptych formats for altarpieces with compositions in which figures interacted within a unified perspectival space.
They therefore tended to move towards a horizontal format, as there was little but angels and architecture to put at the top of a vertical one, unless the divine figures were raised on a very high throne, as in the unusual composition of the Castelfranco Madonna by Giorgione (c.
Often such works, especially if in a horizontal format and at half-length or with seated figures, were painted for the homes of wealthy faithful (and often collectors), whether for a private chapel or to be hung in other rooms, treated not unlike portraits or secular scenes.
[13] The early examples such as the Bellini illustrated rarely show actual "conversation" or much interaction, though this may be seen from the 16th century on,[14] as in the Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria by Titian.
The mixture of figures from different periods that is normal in the type makes it clear that no historical incident is being depicted, and whatever the setting, the space should be understood as mystical rather than any actual place.
Palma Vecchio became a specialist in strongly horizontal sacre conversazioni, with the figures mostly seated or kneeling in a rather tight group, combining informality and a monumental classicism.
By the end of the 16th century, "the dominant relationships in an altarpiece such as Annibale Carracci’s Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine and John the Evangelist (1593, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna) were not between the figures within the picture but between them and the spectator.
The latter doctrine was still a matter of controversy in the Reformation, and a sacra conversatione hinting at it may have been preferred by some patrons to a full depiction, which rather required the choice of saints to be restricted to the Apostles, and often had an empty tomb in the centre.
[26] They claimed "with remarkable élan" that Palma Vecchio was "the inventor of the large Sacra Conversazione in which full-lengths of saints hold court in the presence of the Virgin ....",[27] suggesting a rather more narrow sense of the term than prevails today.
