Cartoon Fragment for Adolescent Angel Leaning on a Tablet or Closed Book 1685 - 1695

Marcantonio Franceschini made this cartoon fragment of an adolescent angel, with chalk and brown wash, sometime around the late 17th or early 18th century. During this period, academies of art across Europe promoted history painting as the most elevated genre, filled with moral and philosophical lessons derived from the Bible, classical literature, and ancient history. Franceschini played a key role in the Bolognese School and his work epitomizes the grand, decorative style favored in aristocratic and ecclesiastical circles. Here, we see a preparatory sketch for a larger composition, likely a ceiling fresco or altarpiece. Note the angel's downcast gaze and the closed book: is this heavenly being contemplating divine knowledge, or is he simply bored with his studies? The social function of art at this time was to ennoble its patrons and inspire religious devotion. To understand this drawing more fully, we might delve into the artistic conventions of the Baroque era, or examine the commissioning practices of the Catholic Church in Italy.