The Archangel Gabriel Kneeling to the Right; Small Study of Head at Lower Left. 1560 - 1700

Curator: Before us is "The Archangel Gabriel Kneeling to the Right; Small Study of Head at Lower Left," a pencil drawing from somewhere between 1560 and 1700, attributed to Jacopo da Empoli, also known as Jacopo Chimenti. What strikes you about it? Editor: A kind of vulnerable intensity. The sketchiness gives it a sense of searching, like Empoli’s trying to catch a fleeting, heavenly moment. I get this feeling of hushed reverence, like I’m witnessing a sacred event from afar. Curator: That's a good way of putting it. It's important to remember the role drawings played in workshops during this time. This wasn't necessarily meant as a finished piece. It may have been created as an early study for a painting or sculpture. Editor: Oh, absolutely! I imagine Empoli playing around with ideas here. The tentative lines—the way the drapery seems to almost float—gives the archangel an ethereal quality, even a human vulnerability, right? Curator: He would have wanted to get the fabric and posture correct because this would ultimately convey something. The pose, kneeling, hands clasped, embodies humility and respect, key components within Renaissance religious narratives, usually commissioned for public spaces. Editor: Right, it's fascinating how this raw sketch performs that function so powerfully, maybe even more powerfully than a more "finished" piece. I mean, look at how those wings are barely there! They're suggested, implied... like he's still deciding whether Gabriel has them or not! It's wonderful! Curator: Precisely, you see artistic practice laid bare and made more apparent for modern viewing sensibilities than how Jacopo might've intended this drawing's historical purpose to serve a wider religious viewership of commissioned works. Editor: That's the magic of stumbling upon something like this in a museum, isn’t it? It's a direct link to the artist's thought process. I can almost hear the scratching of the pencil. Curator: Yes, in many ways the aura of authenticity overrides traditional, intended purposes once it's displaced and enshrined as a unique object within these very specific institutions. Editor: Exactly! I love that. It becomes something new entirely. It has moved me and, I think, might have done for our listeners as well, in considering Empoli’s rendering of something greater at work in the Archangel Gabriel sketch.