Guardian Angel - Technique and Styles
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Guardian Angel
ca 1817
Francisco de Goya, prema B. E. Murillu
The guardian angel, with his gentle face and light walk is leading a small boy through a rocky pass discernible in the browns of the background. The angel holds him by the left hand, and with the right hand is pointing upwards to the light on which the boy fixes his gaze. The subject of a guardian angel watching over people from birth to death was a favourite one in the 17th c. and much fostered by the Jesuits. It has its roots in the iconography of Tobias and the Archangel Raphael and emerged as a subject in its own right in the 16th c. at the time of the religious wars.