The Angel Calling the Birds (n.d.): Artwork and History

The Angel Calling the Birds (n.d.) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Jean Duvet French, 1485-after 1561.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

An avenging angel, arriving on the heels of the militant Christ’s triumph over the wicked world, serves as a cleansing force. Revelation 19:17 describes the vision: “an angel standing in the sun . . . cried, with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that did fly through the midst of heaven: come gather yourselves together to the great supper of the Lord.” The bodies of the slain were devoured regardless of rank, and the “false prophet” was “cast alive into the pool of fire, burning with brimstone” (19:20).

Object facts

• Title: The Angel Calling the Birds
• Date: n.d.
• Artist attribution: Jean Duvet French, 1485-after 1561
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Image/sheet, trimmed within platemark: 29.2 × 20.7 cm (11 1/2 × 8 3/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.1056

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.