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Not currently on display at the V&A

Panel

1475-1500 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This panel shows an angel with a banderole or ribbon-like scroll, a traditional symbol of St Matthew. In the Bible Matthew is one of the Four Evangelists, the writers of the gospel accounts of Christ's life. The convention of representing the four as winged creatures is based on the book of Ezekiel, chapter 1, verses 5-14, where Ezekiel tells of a vision of three beasts and a man, all winged. Medieval commentators argued that the man represents Matthew, because his gospel begins with an ancestral tree of Christ's forebears.

This expressive panel was carved from a single piece of oak, and was probably one of a set of four (another of which survives in the Museum, 676-1895). It was formerly in the collection of Emile Peyre (1824-1904), a notable Parisian collector of French Medieval and Renaissance woodwork. The V&A bought many pieces from him in 1895.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Carved oak
Brief description
Panel of carved oak, in the shape of a quatrefoil, carved with the angel of St Matthew
Physical description
Quatrefoil panel of oak with cavetto moulded edges, carved in the solid in high relief with an angel holding a banderole, representing St Matthew. His left hand and a portion of the banderole missing. With three fixing holes and a central round hole in the centre of the back.
Dimensions
  • Height: 23cm
  • Width: 21cm
  • Depth: 5cm
Marks and inscriptions
37/67 Mons. Peyre (Pasted label on reverse)
Object history
Bought with 676-1895 for £15 from Emile Peyre, of Paris

This panel was formerly in the collection of Emile Peyre (1824-1904), a notable Parisian collector of French medieval and renaissance artefacts. In 1895 the South Kensington Museum (renamed the V&A in 1900), bought over 300 pieces of furniture and woodwork from him, (as well as sculpture and metalwork), at a cost of £11,878. 16s. 9d.
Subject depicted
Summary
This panel shows an angel with a banderole or ribbon-like scroll, a traditional symbol of St Matthew. In the Bible Matthew is one of the Four Evangelists, the writers of the gospel accounts of Christ's life. The convention of representing the four as winged creatures is based on the book of Ezekiel, chapter 1, verses 5-14, where Ezekiel tells of a vision of three beasts and a man, all winged. Medieval commentators argued that the man represents Matthew, because his gospel begins with an ancestral tree of Christ's forebears.

This expressive panel was carved from a single piece of oak, and was probably one of a set of four (another of which survives in the Museum, 676-1895). It was formerly in the collection of Emile Peyre (1824-1904), a notable Parisian collector of French Medieval and Renaissance woodwork. The V&A bought many pieces from him in 1895.
Associated object
676-1895 (Set)
Bibliographic references
  • W.G. Paulson Townsend, Measured Drawings of French Furniture in the South Kensington Museum (London 1899), part 12, plate 121.
  • Eleanor Rowe, Practical Wood-Carving; part 2 Advanced Wood-Carving (London, 1907), p 22-27. Ill. [Writing of museum nos. 675-1895, 859-1895, 858-1895, 676-1895] '...Of the Frech panels the winged ox is the least satisfactory. The lion is admirably carved. Note the simple massing of the hair and the feathering of the wings. Both examples of the eagle show an excellent broad treatment of the bird's plumage without any small realistic details. The angel too is well designed for the space it has to fill, and is executed in the same simple broad manner as the others. The emblems are about 1 in. in relief, and the ground is sloped from the edge but is otherwise flat...'
Collection
Accession number
675-1895

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Record createdApril 16, 2008
Record URL
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