Christuskind aanbeden door drie engelen 1642 - 1657

Bartolomeo Biscaino made this print, titled "Christuskind aanbeden door drie engelen", sometime in the mid-seventeenth century. It’s a delicate etching showing the infant Christ adored by angels. The imagery here draws on a long tradition in Italian art, powerfully shaped by religious institutions. Biscaino’s native Genoa, the probable location of this work, was then a Republic, but was also heavily influenced by the Catholic Church and its artistic patronage. The print’s relatively small size suggests it was made for private devotion rather than for display in a church or public space. Prints such as this one circulated widely and were important in spreading artistic ideas. Biscaino, who died young, came from an artistic family and would have learned his skills in a workshop. We can imagine him selling prints like this to collectors and religious orders. It’s a reminder that art history is also the history of social networks and economic exchange. To understand this work more deeply, we might research the religious culture of Genoa in the 1600s or study the print market of the time. The meaning of art, after all, is always shaped by the society around it.