The Story
The Madonna and Child in the Round by Guido Reni. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1926
Created in 1642 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Guido Reni worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in Etching, measuring diameter 16.5 cm, the surface rewards close looking. Guido Reni builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
