Papal Saint n.d.

Giovanni Antonio Burrini made this drawing of a Papal Saint with pen and brown ink on cream laid paper. It depicts a Pope, his gaze directed upwards, holding a papal tiara in his left hand. The visual codes in the image denote religious authority; his halo, liturgical vestments, and tiara signal his divine connection. Burrini was working in Bologna in the seventeenth century, a time and place still deeply shaped by the Counter-Reformation. Here we see the Catholic Church attempting to restate its authority through images of piety, and this drawing is an interesting artifact of that. Art historians rely on extensive research to understand the significance of works like this. By studying the religious, political, and institutional contexts in which they were created, we can better understand the social structures of the past. It reveals the complex relationship between art and society.