Relief with Half Figure of an Angel

Unknown

ca. 1430–35 · Marble (Lunense marble from Carrara) · Medieval Art

This angel, with its soft facial features and weighty, voluminous folds of drapery, represents the medieval style of sculpture typical of Venice in the early 1400s. The earliest sculpture in this gallery, it belongs to a category of figures in high relief made by itinerant workshops for altarpieces and choir screens in churches in northern Italy and Venice. Saints or angels were often massed together within elaborate architectural frames. Half-length angels such as this one often surrounded images of a saint or the Virgin and Child, becoming heavenly mediators between the divine world and that of the viewer.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1430–35

Medium

Marble (Lunense marble from Carrara)

Culture

North Italian

Department

Medieval Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1948