Musical Angels – France 17th Century

Formerly polychromed carved wood.
Musical angels seem to have always been present in churches, yet their appearance dates back only to the height of the Gothic period in the 13th century. Their instruments symbolize praise and are the means of carrying the divine word. We find these musical angels painted or sculpted first in Marian representations (Annunciation, Virgin and Child, Coronation and Assumption of the Virgin) to gradually focus on Christ himself. Thus the "Christ in Glory" are in turn surrounded by musical angels as in the Altarpiece of San Domenico de Fiesole painted by Fra Angelico around 1430 where a crowd of angels appear playing music.
Our angels with youthful faces, one of whom holds a trumpet and the second plays a lute, were undoubtedly detached from an altarpiece celebrating a religious scene. Traces of coating show that they were polychrome. French work from the 17th century, 50 and 51 cm.