Details

LOT 0409

Medieval Marble Relief of an Angel and a Donor

ITALY, VENICE OR VENETO, 1490-1500 A.D.

16 1/4 in. (13.7 kg, 41.2 cm high).

A Pentelic marble relief depicting a kneeling donor and angel; the donor wearing a pleated tabard split along the sides and belted at the back, over-shirt gathered above the elbow; schematic facial features; angel facing right, wearing flowing robes, textured feather detailing to the wings, downcast head with naturalistic facial detailing; background of lozenges occupied by stylised foliate motifs, likely imitating a cloth of honour; traces of gilding on the hair of the angel and drilling for pupils of the eyes; traces of polychrome. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Marc-Arthur Kohn SARL, 4 August 2010, lot 187.
Ex central London gallery.
Accompanied by a copy of a previous typed catalogue page.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr. Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate no.11413-192178.

Literature

Cf. Passuello, A., ‘Per la scultura tardogotica veneta. Due opere di Antonio da Mestre in diocesi vicentina’ in Arte Cristiana, No.898, Jan-Feb. 2017, pp.19-28, figs.1,3,5; Wright, A., Frame work: honour and ornament in Italian Renaissance art, Yale, 2019.

Footnotes

The relief, from a tomb or tabernacle, was likely once located next to an image of a patron saint or, most probably, Virgin and Child. 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 especially in Venice, but the workshop could also be a consolidated one. The angel, with its soft facial features and weighty, voluminous folds of drapery, represents the medieval style of sculpture typical of late North Italian Gothic and especially Venetian in the late 15th century A.D. This style is visible in famous monuments, like the magnificent grave of the Doge Mocenigo, realised between 1476 and 1481 in Venice by Pietro and Tullio Lombardo, today kept in the Church of Saint John and Paul in Venice.

CONDITION