Madonna and Child in the Clouds

Barocci, a native of Urbino, was celebrated in his day for his emotionally moving, yet naturalistic style of painting. His great altarpieces were executed in keeping with the principles of the Counter-Reformation and represented a rejection of the exaggerations of Mannerist painting. Some of these works, located for the most part in not easily accessible towns in the Marches of Italy, were made known to a wider audience through the medium of printmaking: first in engravings by Cornelis Cort (1533-1578), a Flemish artist who worked in Venice and Rome, and later, in etchings made by Barocci himself.

Barocci made only four etchings in his lifetime, but these were much admired and had a marked influence on other printmakers, including Goltzius, Annibale Carracci, and Rembrandt. The Madonna and Child in the Clouds is notable for the tenderness and idealized beauty of the figures. The artist employs a variety of techniques to depict textures and volumes, as in the stippling of the Christ child's arm raised in blessing.