The Guardian Angel, Alonso Cano (Granada, 1601 – 1667)

Alonso Cano
(Granada, 1601 – Granada, 1667)

The Guardian Angel (The Archangel Raphael showing the way to Tobias)

Oil on canvas (114 x 73 cm. – In frame 127 x 86 cm.)

Full details of the work (click HERE)

The protagonist of our canvas is the Archangel Raphael, immortalised while protecting a child [1]: the meaning of this iconography, which spread especially between the 16th and 17th centuries, has taken on a broader significance over time, thus ending up becoming the emblem of the guardian angel whose task is to protect every human being.

[1] In the 'Book of Tobit' the angel Raphael was invoked by Tobit, a just and poor man, to accompany his son Tobias during a journey; Raphael showed Tobias the safest path and saved him more than once, without ever revealing himself as an angel, except at the end of the story.

The Angel is depicted here with the usual features of a young man with delicate features and a robe tight at the waist and punctuated by ample drapery. The young boy, innocently frightened, instead turns his eyes to the sky, where the light of divine grace appears through a rift in the clouds.

The stylistic and figurative characteristics of the painting evoke echoes of seventeenth-century Spanish painting, distinguished by its refined style, capable of combining the Baroque language, by definition sumptuous, with elements of classicist ancestry.

In particular, observing the iconographic characteristics and the design features, the approach to the style of Alonso Cano (1601–1667), one of the most versatile and influential figures of the Spanish Golden Age, seems appropriate: his work marks the transition from tenebrist realism to a more idealised and classicising Baroque.

In particular, as regards the drawing, we can detect a clear derivation of our painting from an etching by Simone Cantarini (known as il Pesarese), entitled Guardian Angel, created around 1640.
which our author must have studied and reworked (see: “Simone Cantarini il Pesarese” by Mario Mancigotti, 1975, Banca Popolare Pesarese, page 201, see image 1).

Simone Cantarini was one of the greatest engravers of 17th-century Italy, and his prints enjoyed widespread circulation throughout Europe in the 17th century, profoundly influencing devotional painting in Spain. His etchings circulated in Spanish artistic centers such as Madrid and Seville, where they were copied or "translated" into paintings to satisfy the demand for sacred images with a classicist flavor.

The influence of the Bolognese school on the Spanish Golden Age was profound, fueled by the circulation of prints that served as true “style manuals” for Iberian painters, and besides Alonso Cano, many other Spanish masters looked to Bolognese classicism.

Interestingly, while Cantarini's print is distinguished by the lightness of its lines and the influence of Guido Reni, our painting translates the model into a more sculptural and monumental form, with primitive beams, typical of the Spanish Baroque.

Image 1 Guardian Angel, Simone Cantarini
1640 c.
From “Simone Cantarini il Pesarese” by Mario Mancigotti, 1975, Banca Popolare Pesarese, page 201

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The painting is sold complete with a pleasant golden frame and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and descriptive iconographic card.

We take care of and organize the transport of the purchased works, both for Italy and abroad, through professional and insured carriers.

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