Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist 1620 - 1630

Orsola Maddalena Caccia painted this oil on canvas, Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, in seventeenth-century Italy, a time when few women were professional artists. Caccia came from a family of painters and entered a convent, where she produced art for religious and aristocratic patrons. This work is a devotional image, showing Mary with Jesus and John the Baptist as children. It is set in an idealized natural landscape that evokes the Garden of Eden, a popular theme in Counter-Reformation art, the Catholic church's campaign to respond to Protestant criticisms. We might ask ourselves, what was the role of female artists in promoting religious doctrine? To fully understand this painting, we need to examine the social and religious institutions that supported Caccia's career. Convent records, inventories of aristocratic collections, and theological treatises can shed light on the networks of patronage and the cultural values that shaped her art. Art is always produced within particular institutions and social contexts.