heavenly intervention. According to the historian Massimo Polidoro, this painting has been used by UFO websites as evidence of a flying saucer crash. Polidoro states that the house of Sigismondo Conti and a fireball are visible in the painting, and that painters at this time used "symbolic meanings that were anything but random". The angel is holding a sign with nothing written on it; according to Polidoro this was because Sigismondo died before he could tell Raphael what "thank you" to the Virgin he wanted written on the sign. Polidoro describes the UFO explanation as "reinterpreting with the eyes of twenty-first-century Europeans the product of other cultures". See also List of paintings by Raphael Gozzi Altarpiece References External links Paintings of the Madonna and Child by Raphael 1512 paintings Paintings depicting John the Baptist Paintings of Francis of Assisi Raphael Paintings in Rome Lions in art Angels in art