The Guardian Angel

A wave is just about to crash onto the rocky shore where an angel takes hold of an infant’s arm. In the Christian tradition, angels often act as liaisons between God and people. In this painting, the angel is in the middle, guiding the infant towards the heavens. As the angel points, the infant gazes up in awe at the sun which, although out of frame, bathes the figures and the landscape in a divine light.  

Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729) was one of the preeminent masters of the turn of the eighteenth century in Bologna, northern Italy. He traced his artistic lineage directly back to the Carracci family of artists who had radically redefined the Bolognese school of painting two centuries prior. Franceschini followed the classical-idealist strain in Bolognese art, striving toward the compositions, figure types, and poses that were believed to have been perfected in the Greco-Roman tradition.