Angel

Ludovico del Duca

ca. 1590–1600 · Copper alloy, with brown patina under a grayish lacquer and various spots of bright green corrosion · Robert Lehman Collection

Standing in an assertive contrapposto pose, this diminutive trumpeting angel rests its right foot on a pyramid of stylized mountains referring to the arms of Pope Sixtus V (r. 1585–1590), who commissioned a tabernacle in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome on which identical trumpeting angels can be found. Ludovico del Duca was one of the craftsmen responsible for producing the bronze ornaments for this tabernacle. As an independent statuette, this trumpeting angel may well have served as a personal gift. In this context, it may have conveyed a secular meaning such as the triumph of love.

Artist

Ludovico del Duca

Date

ca. 1590–1600

Medium

Copper alloy, with brown patina under a grayish lacquer and various spots of bright green corrosion

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975