Design for a Console or Capital with a Cherub 1652 - 1725

Editor: So, this is Giovanni Battista Foggini's "Design for a Console or Capital with a Cherub," made sometime between 1652 and 1725. It’s a drawing, perhaps also a print. There's something quite light and airy about the sketch, even a little unsettling considering it is Baroque. How do you interpret this work? Curator: It’s tempting to view cherubs simply as symbols of innocence, but in their historical context, especially within the Baroque period, they often served to reinforce social hierarchies and power structures. The design, intended for a console or capital, implies a support, a foundational element, almost as though these cherubs are bearing a weighty system above. How do you feel about that in terms of labor and its representation? Editor: I see your point. The cherub's placement does feel like a structural element, so that reading really complicates what the image is doing. It makes me think about the exploitation of innocence, the cherub forced to bear weight… Curator: Exactly! And considering Foggini’s patrons would have been from the aristocratic class, we have to consider whose stories are being centered and at whose expense. How might contemporary viewers challenge this representation, disrupt its intended reading? Editor: That’s fascinating. Maybe we can see it as an opportunity to reclaim and reimagine the cherub's role, to empower it, to rewrite a more equitable narrative for such figures who were historically disenfranchised. Curator: Precisely. It invites a dialogue about how we represent vulnerability and power, even within seemingly innocent artistic expressions. What a single drawing can open up for a broader discourse. Editor: I had never thought to question a cherub. It shows how much historical context matters!