Model for an Angel (c. 1583–84): Art, History and Details

Model for an Angel (c. 1583–84) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Annibale Fontana (Italian, 1540–1587).

The work and its context

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

Annibale Fontana created this wax model, perhaps in part for the patron’s approval, while preparing a sculpture for the Church of Santa Maria presso San Celso in Milan. The angel was mounted high on the facade, so the composition needed to be impeccably balanced as well as legible from the ground. Wings and a trumpet appear in the final work, but Fontana here concentrates on the deep folds, clinging drapery, and forceful pose.

Object facts

• Title: Model for an Angel
• Date: c. 1583–84
• Creator attribution: Annibale Fontana (Italian, 1540–1587)
• Culture: Italy, Milan
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: wax on a metal armature, mounted on wood
• Dimensions: Overall: 54 x 16 x 26 cm (21 1/4 x 6 5/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1984.38

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Fusco, Peter. "Two Wax Models by Annibale Fontana." Antologia di belle arti 21-22 (1984): 40-46.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1984.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 2 (1985): 163–207.
• Duffin, Ross. "The Cleveland Museum of Art." RIdIM/RCMI Inventory of Music Iconography no. 8 (1986).

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.