Not currently on display at the V&A

Angel Holding the Cross

Statuette
ca. 1450 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
France (made)

This stone statuette representing an angel holding the Cross, has formed part of a six-piece Entombment Group.
The left hand of the angel would have presumably held the nails from the cross.
The angel would seem to be close in style to those on the north doorway of the Church of Saint-Maurice at Vienne, dating from the first half of the 15th century.


Object details

Categories
Christianity
Sculpture
Object type
Statuette
TitleAngel Holding the Cross (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Stone
Stone
Brief description
Statuette, stone, Angel holding the cross, South-Eastern France or possibly Vienna, middle of 15th century
Physical description
An angel, wearing a diadem set on billowing hair, a cloak clasped at the neck, a stole, and a long tunic caught at the waist with a cord, stands on a pentagonal plinth and holds the Cross against his body with his right hand.
Dimensions
  • Height: 58.7cm
Object history
Given by Sir Thomas Barlow, London, in 1960. Formerly in the M.F.Roybet Collection (sold Petit, Paris 1920), where it formed part of a six-piece Entombment Group.

Historical significance: The angel would seem to be close in style to those on the north doorway of the Church of Saint-Maurice at Vienne, dating from the first half of the 15th century.
Historical context
The left hand would have presumably held the nails from the cross.
Production
Sout-eastern France or probably Vienna
Subjects depicted
Angel
Cross
Diadem
Summary
This stone statuette representing an angel holding the Cross, has formed part of a six-piece Entombment Group.
The left hand of the angel would have presumably held the nails from the cross.
The angel would seem to be close in style to those on the north doorway of the Church of Saint-Maurice at Vienne, dating from the first half of the 15th century.
Bibliographic references
  • Williamson, Paul. 'Loose Ends and a Discovery: Cataloguing French Late Medieval Sculpture', in: The Sculpture Journal, III, 1999, pp. 1-3, and fig. 2
  • Gillerman, Dorothy (ed.). Gothic Sculpture in America, I, The New England Museums, London, New York, 1989, cat. No. 23
  • Forsyth, William H. The Entombment of Christ : french sculptures of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Cambridge Mass., 1970, fig. 16&17
  • Artists and Craftsmen of the Middle Ages: exhibition from private collections of incunabula, sculpture, paintings and drawings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Manchester: Whitworth Art Gallery, 1947.
Collection
Sculpture Collection
Accession number
A.29-1960

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O313489/angel-holding-the-cross-statuette-unknown/
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