Jonathan Kamholtz spends time with Guercino's painting Mars With Cupid at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Kamholtz observes in the painting "the era’s fundamental interest in the nature of imaginary space. Drawing aside a curtain to reveal a battlefield reminds us of the ways that the painting is taking place both indoors and outdoors. But, even more, it asks us to think about exactly what space is being represented in pictorial art. This painting records something originally seen in a studio in such a way as to evoke a larger world. The partially-drawn curtain calls to mind that the artist has stitched two realms together; the understanding audience must do so too."