Candle-Bearing Angel (France, c. 1250–1270)

This serene angel, carved in limewood, kneels gracefully with the remnants of a candle holder in the hands. The angel’s slightly inclined head, ‘archaic’ smile, and carefully arranged folds of drapery reveal a sensitivity to both form and devotion, characteristic of mid-thirteenth-century French ecclesiastical carving. The smile can be related to the famous ‘smiling angel’ of the cathedral in Reims (1245 AD).

Style and Iconography
Candle-bearing angels (anges céroféraires) occupied an important liturgical role in Gothic church interiors, flanking altars, tabernacles, or monumental crucifixes. Serving both symbolic and functional purposes, they “embodied the divine illumination of the sacred mysteries” (Hourihane, 2012).
The stylistic vocabulary of this figure - elongated limbs, idealized genderfluid facial features, and rhythmically ordered drapery - finds close analogies in the angelic figures at Reims Cathedral (c. 1230–1260), where a new humanism infused the sculpted forms with life and grace. This may suggest a workshop from northern France, perhaps Champagne region.

Technique and Material
Limewood - prized for its fine grain and ease of carving - was frequently used for sculpted altarpieces and liturgical figures. The back of the sculpture shows two vertical cavities in the shoulders, where the wings of the angel would have been attached. Dimensions: h65xw38xd26cm

Context and Comparisons
Comparable examples include the famous smiling angel from the Cathedral of Reims, the smiling angel from Saint-Louis de Poissy (dated 1297), in the Musée Cluny (Ref CL.23246), a pair of French angels of the thirteenth century (1275-1300) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Object Number: 52.33.1 and 52.33.2) and the ‘Anges de Saudemont’ (13th) from the Musée des Beaux Arts d’Arras.

Such figures would originally have formed a pair, placed symmetrically on either side of an altar or tabernacle, symbolizing the perpetual praise of heaven. Their gestures of offering or illumination reinforced the theological idea of angels as eternal acolytes in divine service.


Condition

Weathered, cracks, multiple traces of xylophagi, losses (candle holder, wings).


References
• Bony, J. (1983). French Gothic Architecture of the 12th and 13th Centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Hourihane, C. (ed.) (2012). The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Williamson, P. (1995). Gothic Sculpture 1140–1300. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Kessler, H. L. (2000). “Materiality and Meaning in Medieval Art.” Speculum 75 (1), 1–19.