Het Christuskind met de jonge Johannes de Doper en twee cherubijnen 1800 - 1835

Giovita Garavaglia made this print of the Christ Child with the young John the Baptist and two cherubs at an unknown date, using etching and engraving. It is an intimate scene, but at the same time imbued with the authority of the Catholic Church. Prints like this one were made in vast numbers, mostly by anonymous craftsmen, and they catered to a booming market in religious imagery that spread across Europe and the colonial world in the 18th and 19th centuries. Artists like Garavaglia saw an opportunity to profit from this demand, putting their own stamp on traditional Christian iconography. This was a self-consciously conservative genre, reinforcing existing hierarchies. The Latin inscription - "Verbum caro factum est" (the Word was made flesh) – signals the Church's insistence on the unique status of Christ as both human and divine, and the engraver would have known his audience would be familiar with this idea. To understand the world of this image more fully, we can consult archives and collections of popular prints from across Europe.