Cleveland Museum of Art

Angel from an Architectural Reliquary

Date

c. 1400

Medium

gilt bronze

Culture

Franco-Netherlands or Paris, 15th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This beautiful Gothic angel is probably a surviving element from a large architectural reliquary. The last clue to its lost context disappeared when the symbolic attribute was twisted from the angel’s fingers, possibly during the destructive zeal of the French Revolution. The technique and style are characteristic of the lay workshops employed by the Valois courts during the early 1400s.

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