Madonna and Child at center with Saint John the Baptist, Saint Luke, Pope Peter Celestini, and angels 1694

Robert van Audenaerde created this engraving, "Madonna and Child at center with Saint John the Baptist, Saint Luke, Pope Peter Celestini, and angels," sometime between 1663 and 1743. The print reflects the entrenched power dynamics of 17th and 18th-century Europe. The Virgin Mary and Christ child occupy the highest register of the image, while in the foreground, Pope Peter Celestini kneels in a posture of subservience. Figures like Saint John the Baptist and Saint Luke flank the central figures, legitimizing religious and artistic authority. The cherubic angels, common in religious art of this time, add a layer of divine approval. Note how the composition and the very act of kneeling reinforce a hierarchy, one where religious figures are seen as intercessors between the divine and the earthly. What feelings does this artwork evoke in you as you consider its historical context? Does it invite reverence, critical reflection, or perhaps a mix of both?