Description:

Highly Important Musician Angel
Flemish
1460/1480
Bronze perdu; cast & chased in lost mold
Sculpture: height 48 cm, width 47 cm, depth 20 cm
With base: height 58 cm, width 52 cm, depth 21 cm

This masterful sculpture probably represents a music-making angel of Flemish origin, which can be dated around the middle of the 15th century. The hollowed back as well as the traces of abrasion testify to the age of the bronze sculpture (dimensions: 48 x 47 cm), which was made in the lost wax process, as was common from the early 14th century onwards.

The androgynous seated figure could also be interpreted as a male saint or benefactor, whereby the tense vagueness of the depiction with long open hair most likely points to a depiction of an angel. In his hand he could have held a lily (as an angel of the Annunciation) or a musical instrument - for example a lute (cf. Master of Frankfurt: Holy Family with an Angel Playing Music, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Barbara 1510 - 20, Museo del Prado, Madrid).

The Christian sacred reference created by this interpretation could equally be replaced by a mythological attribution: the wingless youth could also represent a genius, a guardian spirit who enjoyed great popularity since Roman antiquity.

Bronze sculptures often served for private use, as secular patrons replaced the church as patrons of art. This figure's detailed realism is strongly rooted in the early Dutch Renaissance, popularized by Jan van Eyck beginning in the 1420s. In this context, the hypothetical depiction of the genius could also already have echoes of Renaissance humanism, as motifs from classical antiquity were implemented especially during this period. The almost photographic realism is not oriented to the preceding Gothic, but takes inspiration from the Italian early and high Renaissance (compare Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise").

The sculpture is depicted seated and its gaze is directed straight at the viewer; the left hand is raised, holding the neck of a lute, as is the right, probably in a gesture plucking the strings. The striking, vividly modeled face is framed by shoulder-length wavy hair. The elegant posture of the delicate fingers as well as the borders of the richly decorated mantle, which is held together with a clasp over the chest, are related to the figures of the Ghent Altarpiece (1420s-1432).The rich drapery with voluminous sculptural crease configurations of superimposed and puffed pleats developed from the Beautiful Style of the International Gothic, although here the emphasis is less on the anatomy of the figures than on the pronounced fabric texture of the surface characterization. The "mesh-like" pleats are comparable to the robes of Robert Campin's Mérode triptych. However, here the brocade-like heavy textile is adorned with retadating Gothic trefoil motifs, more commonly encountered in architecture and less often as garment motifs, while the borders are designed in an exotic zigzag frieze. The inside is decorated with typical Gothic star motifs, which additionally put into focus the high quality materials of the fabric, this being a particular feature of 15th century Flemish art.While the sculpture's robe motifs still have echoes of the late Gothic period, the rich, voluminously constructed drapery already indicates a stylistic attribution to the Dutch Renaissance. In its physiognomy - with the straight nose and prominent cheekbones - and stylized robe drapery, the angel is related to the funerary figures of Isabella of Bourbon (1476), created by Reiner van Thienen, a Flemish bronze caster (active 1465-1498) from a family of sculptors. He was a respected Brussels citizen and held several municipal offices in 1477-91. Since the angel figure differs from the bronze caster's oeuvre in the texturing of the textiles, it is reasonable to assume that the artist knew van Thienen's works and made the figure in his circle.

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