The Angel musicians are two paintings created in the late 15th century to frame Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks. Their purpose was to decorate the side panels of the Altarpiece in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, created to decorate a chapel in the Church of San Francesco Grande in Milan. Separated from their original altarpiece at the very end of the 18th century, they have been in the National Gallery in London since 1898.
Both paintings are dated between 1495 and 1499. The first is entitled Angel in Green with a Vielle; it has long been attributed to the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis, but recent research shows that it may instead be due to Francesco Napoletano, one of Leonardo da Vinci's pupils. The second, entitled Angel in Red with lute, is generally attributed to Ambrogio de Predis. The influence of Leonardo da Vinci is evident in the treatment of these classical figures.
Although the two paintings are described in documents dating from the time of their creation, these are only indirectly so, since they mainly concern The Virgin of the Rocks. As a result, they remain objects of speculation for researchers as to their status as first or second versions of the work, their creation, attribution, dating, exact placement on the altarpiece and the reasons for their alterations over time - particularly regarding the background color.
Description
Both paintings are mounted on an identical support: poplar panels. Both use the same medium: walnut oil paint. Their dimensions, very similar, are 117.2 × 60.8 cm for the Angel in Green and 118.8 × 61 cm for the Angel in Red.
The two panels share many similarities: each features a single full-length figure, standing in a trompe-l'œil niche featuring the same gradations of gray. The figures stand on their right legs, with their left feet pointing towards the viewer. Wings open slightly behind their backs, indicating their angelic nature. With long, curly hair, they are dressed in long, colored robes, one with a round collar, the other with a square collar. Each holds a musical instrument, which they appear to play. Their differences lie in the instrument they play, their posture, and the appearance and position of their heads. The angel in green is playing the lira da braccio;Although this instrument belongs to the vielle family, it differs in that one or two drone strings run parallel to the handle. On the work, such a string is clearly visible under the figure's left thumb. he appears to be rubbing the bow on the strings. He inclines his head towards his instrument in a posture identical to that of the Virgin in Leonardo da Vinci's the Virgin of the Rocks. The angel in red plays the lute; his hand plucks the strings. His face, seen in profile, is turned to the viewer's left.
History
Attributions Researchers agree that the two panels originated in Leonardo da Vinci's studio: indeed, they resemble the style used by the master in the London version of the central panel of the retable (the Virgin of the Rocks); moreover, the three panels of the altarpiece demonstrate similar technical processes - the use of fingers, for example, to finish the contours of the figures - which, in some cases, are the source of identical problems - such as cracks in the paint layer appearing as soon as the drying process begins.
More precisely, tradition has long held that the two paintings were by Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis alone, since he was one of three artists named in the commission contract, each with a role identified by art historians: Leonardo da Vinci for the central panel of the altarpiece, Evangelista de Predis for the gilding and his brother Ambrogio for the two side panels. However, numerous stylistic and technical clues tend to show that the two works, despite their great visual similarities, were produced by two different hands. The attribution of the Angel in Red thus enjoys a consensus in favor of Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis. While the Angel in Green was long attributed to the same painter, research carried out at the end of the 20th century now links it much more surely to Francesco Napoletano, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci. Indeed, the technical characteristics visible through scientific imagery alone, such as the very different proportion between the colors and the black for the rendering of the skin, indicate that the painting is probably by an artist different from the one who created the Angel in Red. Furthermore, technical and stylistic comparisons with Napoletano's creations from the same period, such as Madonna and Child (now in the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan) or Madonna and Child with St. Sebastian and St. John the Baptist (now in Zurich), both dated from the late 1480s, point to this painter. Finally, the hypothesis of another disciple of Leonardo da Vinci, Marco d'Oggiono, is sometimes evoked but without convincing.
Titles
The modern titles of the works correspond to their descriptions. They are established throughout the scientific literature as Angel in Red with a Lute and Angel in Green with a Vielle. However, with regard to the latter painting, most art historians specializing in painting incorrectly identify the instrument played by the angel as a vielle, whereas he is actually playing the lira da braccio. Although it should be Angel in Green with a lira da braccio, it is a title that has become inappropriate in both French and English.
Dating It is reasonable to think that the two paintings were produced at the same time, between 1495 and 1499, even if this contradicts the National Gallery's estimate, which dates the Angel in Green between 1490 and 1499.
Certainly, at the earliest, and taking into account the preparatory phase of the works' production, both paintings were created from 1490 onwards, as they are clearly inspired by the London version of the Virgin of the Rocks, which itself is dated between 1491 and 1499 (then, after a pause of a few years, between 1506 and 1508). But more precisely, it is accepted that the Angel in Green was inspired by the figure of John the Apostle in The Last Supper (1495-1498, Milan, Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie), whose creation dates back to 1495. What's more, Ambrogio de Predis didn't return from Innsbruck, where he was in the company of Francesco Napoletano at the invitation of Bianca Maria Sforza, until July of that year. Finally, technical analysis clearly indicates that the two panels were created at the same time, thus ruling out the possibility that they were created several years apart, as has been argued.
Moreover, this creation could not have taken place after 1501, the date of the death of Francesco Napoletano, the putative author of the Angel in Green.
Nonetheless, a minority of authors strongly postpone the creation of the two panels: in particular, they rely on the hypothesis that Giovanni de Predis drew inspiration for the Angel in Red from Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Isabella d'Este, which dates from 1499 to 1500. They put the creation date at 1506–1508, i.e. during the final production period of the Virgin of the Rocks.However, this hypothesis is hampered by the death in 1501 of Francesco Napoletano, considered by researchers to be the most likely author of the Angel in Green panel, which was created at the same time as the Angel in Red.
Creation context and initial commission The creation of the Angel Musicians panels was part of the decoration of a retable, the Altarpiece of the Immaculate Conception, itself the centerpiece of a newly built chapel, between 1475 and 1480, within the Church of San Francesco Grande in Milan. In 1482, the woodcarver Giacomo del Maino (before 1469 - 1503 or 1505) delivered a large-scale structure that still had to be decorated. Three artists, the brothers Evangelista and Ambrogio de Predis and Leonardo da Vinci. were commissioned to gild the timbers and carved parts, and paint the panels. Ambrogio was responsible for creating the two panels dedicated to the angel musicians, most certainly under Leonardo's supervision. In all probability, these two paintings were intended to frame what would much later be known as the Madonna of the Rocks.Although it remains the majority view among researchers (, Carlo Pedretti (),, or as reported by for example), this hypothesis is sometimes contested. Rachel Billinge, Luke Syson and Marika Spring, for example, based on Hannelore Glasser's doctoral thesis () suggest that the two paintings were initially located above Leonardo da Vinci's until 1579, arguing that the contract's enumeration of requests was from the top to the bottom of the altarpiece. Such an arrangement is not unprecedented, since it can also be found in the Altarpiece of the Virgin preserved in the church of Saint-Maurice in Ponte in Valtellina. According to the commission contract, each panel was to feature four angels, some singing, others playing music. In the end, however, each panel featured just one angel musician: the angel on the left played the lira da braccio and the one on the right played the lute.
Sponsor and progress of the works The work was commissioned by the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, a Milanese secular confraternity attached to the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan (Italian: San Fransesco Grande): a contract was signed before a notary on April 25, 1483, between the confraternity on the one hand, and Leonardo da Vinci and the portraitists and miniaturists, the brothers Evangelis and Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis on the other. The contractual delivery date for the two panels is the same as for the central panel, the Virgin of the Rocks, i.e. December 8, 1483.In the case of the Virgin of the Rocks, this date is the subject of debate among scholars, for although the contract indicates a deadline of "December 8" - corresponding to the feast of the Immaculate Conception - it does not specify the year: most art historians maintain that it is the year of the contract, i.e. 1483.29.30 Nevertheless, Frank Zöllner, recalling the twenty-four to thirty months that had been estimated for the Adoration of the Magi a few years earlier, considers that seven months is an insufficient timeframe for such a large-scale project, and pushes the deadline back to December 1484.21
However, the commissioners were dissatisfied with Leonardo's work, and he was obliged to sell his first production and produce a second one from the early 1490s onwards. This raises the question of the identification and dating of the two side panels, since it is highly probable that they met with an identical fate, and that those currently in the National Gallery are not the ones originally painted for the altarpiece. Indeed, like the London version of the Virgin of the Rocks, which replaced the one in the Louvre on the altarpiece, they could be the second version of a first one, now lost,In fact, the discrepancy between the requirements of the commission contract, which calls for four angels on each of the two panels, and the currently visible panels, which each depict a single angel, could be a revealing clue. and may have been sold to the person who bought the first version of the central panel. In any case, these are the two panels we know of, which were exhibited in the altarpiece with the second version of the Virgin of the Rocks by 1503 at the latest.