The Holy Family with Two Angels 1598 - 1654

Editor: This is "The Holy Family with Two Angels," a drawing made with pencil and charcoal, sometime between 1598 and 1654 by Alessandro Algardi. There's a real tenderness in the faces of Mary and Joseph, and a curious watchfulness in the angels... what jumps out at you when you look at this? Curator: Tenderness indeed. You know, what grabs me is the *effort*. The sheer, palpable *work* that Algardi poured into capturing such ephemeral things as, say, love or divine serenity. See how the charcoal sort of vibrates around the edges of their forms? Editor: Yes, it's not crisp, it’s almost hazy… Curator: Exactly! It gives the whole scene this… otherworldly quality, doesn’t it? Almost as if he’s trying to trap a dream on paper. Tell me, do you get a sense of this being a study for something larger, or a finished piece in itself? Editor: I can see it as a study. It feels like he's working out the composition and light… preparing for something bigger, perhaps a sculpture. Curator: Precisely! Think of Algardi primarily as a sculptor and this makes sense. What I adore is how the constraints of a single medium, pencil on paper, became a springboard. It's more than just preliminary. This drawing contains something of the monumental even at this scale. You almost hear the clang of chisel against marble, don’t you? Editor: I think I do. This changed the way I look at drawings as preparations... now I’ll be thinking about them as complete thoughts! Curator: That's the beauty of diving into these works, isn't it? Discovering new ways to listen, new ways to feel.