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‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. -Alter Realism
The ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ is a symbolic place within the gardens of the Papal Summer
Residence at Castel Gandolfo and signifies the connection of heaven and earth.
Symbolically the Madonna represents the Queen of Heaven and Earth. The Earth Mother
historically has also been represented as Isis and the Goddess Natura.
The composition connects the locality of Gandolfo through the superimposing the nearby lake,
‘Lago Albano’ and the capturing of moonlight and sun reflections on the water surface of the
lake. Both are cosmic symbols of the Madonna , ‘the Moon’ and Christ , ‘the Sun’.
The gold frame is part of the painting of the Madonna placed in the Papal Summer Residence.
The background patterning alluding to the created cosmos was referenced from an exhibit of
opaque blue glass (2nd - 1st century B.C) presented in the Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
