Madonna and Child with Two Angels ("Soli Deo" Madonna)

In 1510 the Palazzo della Ragione in Piazza dei Mercanti was still Milan's court house and market hall, with an open arcade at street level where the city's business got done. This Madonna was painted high on its wall, and Bramantino built the whole thing to be read from below. The throne is barely there, and the Virgin leans out as though from a loggia. The angel beside her holds up a tablet reading SOLI DEO, to God alone, the opening of a phrase that goes on honour and glory. Milan in those years was a possession of the French king Louis the Twelfth, and the men walking under the fresco were on their way to the money changers or to court. It reached the gallery in 1808, already lifted off the wall, and was listed then as the work of the architect Bramante.