Angel's head 

Giovanni Maria Morandi created this drawing, Angel’s Head, with graphite. It suggests a larger cultural interest in the divine, in the kind of access to God that was promoted by the Catholic Church in Morandi’s time. Morandi, born in 1622, was an Italian painter of the Baroque period when sacred imagery served the needs of religious institutions. The Catholic Church had long been a powerful force in Italian cultural life, and by the 17th century, it had developed sophisticated ways of using art to promote its agenda. In its Counter-Reformation response to Protestantism, the church called for art that was emotionally engaging, art that could inspire religious feeling in the viewer. How better to make the divine seem accessible than by giving angels human features? To understand this work better, one might study the patronage systems of the Italian Baroque, the relationship between artists and the church, and the visual strategies used to convey religious ideas. Religious imagery has always been used to exercise soft power.