Illumination Excised from a Choir Book: Two Female Angels (c. 1332): Art, History and Details

Illumination Excised from a Choir Book: Two Female Angels (c. 1332) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Niccolo di ser Sozzo Tegliacci (Italian, Siena, active 1334–63).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This miniature was taken from a choir book and shows two female figures. Their golden halos mark them as saints and the lily scepters as virgins. It is attributed to the Sienese painter Niccolò di ser Sozzo. Although more than half of the population of Siena is said to have died of the plague, the city’s finances recovered quickly. In the arts, however, there is a continuation of the traditions of the first half of the century, of which Niccolò is a characteristic representative. It is therefore often difficult to decide whether a work was created before or after the plague wave.

Object facts

• Title: Illumination Excised from a Choir Book: Two Female Angels
• Date: c. 1332
• Creator attribution: Niccolo di ser Sozzo Tegliacci (Italian, Siena, active 1334–63)
• Culture: Italy, Siena
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: tempera and gold on parchment
• Dimensions: Sheet: 8.2 x 7.3 cm (3 1/4 x 2 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1924.430

A detail from the museum

Niccolo di ser Sozzo Tegliacci was one of the leading panel painters and miniaturists working in Siena. His father is believed to have also been an illuminator although he was a little known.

Collection credit

Gift from J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• W. M. M. "Illuminated Miniatures in the Cleveland Museum of Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 12, no. 4 (1925).
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.