Week 20: May 19, 2024

Saint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino, Italian, 1652-1653, Oil on canvas

The fourth wall…

I usually walk quickly through the European art from the years in which everything seemed to focus on brutal deaths or portraits of the rich and uptight. However, I walked into the room with baroque art and was startled at this kind and welcoming gentleman, St. Luke as it turned out, inviting me to step into the painting with him and be introduced to the Virgin Mary. I don’t recall an oil painting that so effectively broke through that fourth wall to say, “Join me…what do you think?”

I was also intrigued by the angel who seems not to notice the artist or the audience engaging in this dialogue of sorts. She gazes at the infant Jesus and is unaware of us.

I chose to include the entire painting and the frame and parts of the surrounding wall because it all seems to be part of the story of this invitation to the viewer to step right in and view the painting within the painting.