Guardian Angel Tutoring the Christian Child

This painting is one of Dolci’s many half-length compositions. The angel holds a Bible and with his right hand points to a line therein. The child, his hands clasped together in prayer, looks not at the book, but at the angel, showing with his rapt expression that he has understood the message of the Scriptures. In the seventeenth century the iconography of the guardian angel is generally close to the depiction of Tobias and the angel.