Carlo Saraceni’s Madonna and Child with St. Anne – an everyday life scene and… a dove

The little boy seated upon his mother's lap grabs at the clothes of an old woman standing next to them, who seems to be wanting to free herself from his grasp. She herself in a rather brutal way, holds a dove by one wing in her left hand. The mother raises her finger admonishing the child. Where do we know this from? Right in front of our eyes, an everyday scene takes place in which the main participants are the grandmother, the mother, and a playful little boy. And only the dove arouses anxiety – what is the old woman intending to do with it? Is she trying to get the child interested in...

Pierre Le Gros (1666–1719) – the dramatically halted magnificent Roman career

After the death of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, there came the time of monumentalism in the spirit of Classicism among Roman sculptors. The art of Le Gros was at the other end of this phenomenon. The statues which he completed with unimaginable virtuosity, eccentric in their form, seemed to be living their own life full of convulsions. They were the last breath of a grand style, which we usually refer to as late Baroque.

The Funerary Monument of Pope Gregory XV – a breath of subtle Jesuit propaganda

The majesty, grandeur, and splendor of the monument of the posthumous glory of Gregory XV cannot be expressed in words. And it would be impossible to find another similarly triumphant monument even in the papal necropolis, meaning the Basilica of San Pietro in Vaticano. It is also hard to believe that, it immortalizes the pope who had not distinguished himself in any special way, one who held power in the Vatican for merely twenty-eight months. However, the monument was to not so much immortalize him but more importantly serve another much more pragmatic purpose – a propaganda and advert...