The Madonna of Paradise, Our Lady of Good Counsel 1700 - 1800

Curator: Here we have “The Madonna of Paradise, Our Lady of Good Counsel,” a compelling mixed-media piece created sometime between 1700 and 1800. Editor: It's... intense. A miniature riot of materials vying for attention, like a textile reliquary. Curator: Precisely! Look at the various methods employed; there is tempera paint, along with what appear to be printed or drawn elements. Then consider the various fibers of textile. Editor: The central image of Mary and the child Jesus—note the very specific and somewhat stiff rendering. The symmetry, particularly the haloes, is clearly designed to reinforce the central meaning. It's baroque excess tempered by formal precision, intended to create a harmonious whole out of a collage of ideas and processes. Curator: I'm interested in the relationship of class and accessibility it proposes. This work almost seems born out of the remnants of textile and popular media. Its function in the devotional and didactic practices of the common worshiper comes into sharp focus when we explore it through a study of distribution, religious workshops, and possibly byproducts from the production of other pieces. Editor: While the symbolic and visual elements create a particular sacred mood, which aligns well with Baroque aesthetics, I’m taken by the small inset miniature further below, nestled at the border between earthly and divine activity. Curator: That miniature speaks volumes! We could spend considerable time deciphering this microcosm's context within broader issues of devotional practice, gendered production, or its accessibility relative to other devotional objects, for the masses perhaps! Editor: Ultimately, I feel the effect relies less on its component materials and processes of making but more upon formal concerns that help arrange this work's disparate, and potentially chaotic, elements. Curator: An intersection between material, social spheres and divine representation perhaps. Interesting food for thought.