For the Preservation of Italy, Guardian of the World’s Most Precious Heritage of Beauty. Italian War Relief Poster

In this poster that Oakley designed to help raise money for the Italian relief effort, she reminds Americans that the war threatened the cultural patrimony of the Renaissance. A female personification of “Italy, Guardian of the World’s Most Precious Heritage of Beauty” stands sentinel before a Fra Angelico altarpiece inside Siena Cathedral’s black and white marble striped interior. Attired in scarlet, she holds a halberd, the weapon of the Swiss Guards, on the celebrated intarsia pavement next to the panels of David and Goliath.