This elegant angel was originally part of a group of statuettes depicting either the Annunciation to the Virgin or Christ as the Man of Sorrows; if the latter, the angel's crossed hands may have held Instruments of Passion. The angel's refined features, the loose curls of long hair, and the fluid treatment of the folds in the thin drapery recall a group of alabaster sculptures from a retable with the Crucifixion and the Twelve Apostles formerly in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Rimini- Covignano (now in the Städtische Galerie Liebieghaus, Frankfurt). The anonymous artists responsible for the ensemble probably worked in the Burgundian Lowlands or the Rhineland, but, as the Rimini altar suggests, they appear to have produced many sculptures in alabaster for export. The personal style of the Rimini Master is closely linked to the widespread, so- called International Gothic style of about 1400, seen in this and many other alabaster statuettes of the first half of the fifteenth century.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Kneeling Angel
Date:ca. 1430–40
Geography:Made in Burgundian territories or Rhineland
Culture:South Netherlandish or German
Medium:Alabaster
Dimensions:14 1/2 x 3 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. (36.8 x 9.5 x 22.2 cm)
Classification:Sculpture
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1965
Accession Number:65.215.3
Henessy, Paris ; [ Mrs. Anne Otto Wertheimer, Paris (ca. 1957)] ; Private Collection, Paris ; [ Hermann and Maria Schwartz, Mönchengladbach-Hardt (sold 1965)]
Museum Schnütgen. "Grosse Kunst des Mittelalters aus Privatbesitz," April 23–June 6, 1960.
Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum. "Bewahrte Schönheit. Mittelalterliche Kunst der Sammlung Hermann Schwartz," May 13–July 16, 1961.
Hessisches Landesmuseum. "Europäische Skulpturen des Mittelalters. Die Sammlung H. und M. Schwartz," July 28–September 3, 1961.
Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum. "Meisterwerke Christlicher Kunst aus Aachner Kirchen und Privatbesitz," December 1961–January 1962.
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. "Europäische Kunst um 1400," May 7–July 31, 1962.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965–1975," December 6, 1975–March 23, 1976.
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," June–December 1989.
State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," February–July 1990.
Paatz, Walter. "'Mit einem gemalten Band'." In Festschrift Kurt Bauch: Kunstgeschichtliche Beiträge zum 25. November 1957, edited by Berthold Hackelsberger, Georg Himmelheber, and Michael Meier. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1957. p. 130, fig. 5.
Schnitzler, Hermann, ed. Große Kunst des Mittelalters aus Privatbesitz. Cologne: Museum Schnütgen, 1960. no. 46, p. 36, pl. 47.
Schnitzler, Hermann, and Wolfgang Beeh. "Ausstellungskatalog "Bewährte Schönheit": Mittelalterliche Kunst der Sammlung Hermann Schwartz." In Aachener Kunstblätter. Vol. 21. Aachen: Museumsverein Aachen, 1961. no. 28, p. 18, pl. 31.
Ludwig, Peter, and Ernst Günther Grimme. "Meisterwerke Christlicher Kunst aus Aachener Kirchen- und Privatbesitz." Aachener Kunstblätter 23 (1961-1962). p. 30, ill. p. 31.
"Die Sammlung Hermann Schwartz/ Mönchengladbach in Suermondt Museum Aachen." Kunstchronik 14, no. 7 (July 1961). p. 180.
Grimme, Ernst Günther. "Mittelalterliche Plastik in der Sammlung Hermann Schwartz." Pantheon 20, no. 2 (March-April 1962). p. 76, pl.
Europäische Kunst um 1400: Achte Ausstellung unter den Auspizien des Europarates. Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1962. pl. 65.
Grimme, Ernst Günther. "Der Alabasteraltar aus Rimini." Städel-Jahrbuch, n.s., 2 (1969). p. 149, fig. 65.
Raggio, Olga, ed. "Medieval Art and the Cloisters." Notable Acquisitions (Metropolitan Museum of Art) no. 1965/1975 (1975). p. 149.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. p. 145, pl. 133.
Wixom, William D. "Medieval Sculpture at The Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 46, no. 3 (Winter 1988-1989). p. 15.
Pushkin Museum and State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki: Kratkii Katalog Vystavki. Moscow: Pushkin Museum, 1990. no. 67, p. 13.
State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum, 1990. no. 67, pp. 140–141.
Williamson, Paul. Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2002. p. 64.
Luchs, Alison. "Rimini Master." In The Encyclopedia of Sculpture, edited by Antonia Boström. Vol. 3. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004. p. 1433.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 90, pp. 127, 197.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 136.
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