Head of a child 1592 - 1636

This is an anonymous drawing of a child’s head. During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the image of the child was often loaded with religious and cultural significance. We see this especially in countries with large Catholic populations. A plump child such as this would usually represent the infant Jesus. The image is not simply an innocent or sentimental one but part of a tradition, a common visual language. Without knowing where and when this drawing was made, it is difficult to say for sure. But we could start by comparing it to paintings by Italian artists of the 16th or 17th centuries. Access to visual archives and digital resources allows us to situate artworks within the broader social and institutional contexts that gave rise to them.