Allegory of Learning

Guido Reni was one of the most important artists of the baroque and a member of the Carracci academy. He was known as an exquisite painter and draftsman as well as an ingenious and experimental printmaker, producing approximately fifty-nine etchings. This print depicts a seated woman gazing at a tablet and holding a compass while a winged putto dips a pen into an inkwell. The image, often referred to as "Allegory of Learning," is likely an invention by Reni or a variation of the personification of disegno (drawing/design).