Entry

These hovering angels with banderoles (for the pendant, see BK-1964-10-B) were acquired in 1964 from the Utrecht goldsmith Leo Brom. They wear on their heads, crowns of interlocking, flowering rose stems. Richly pleated drapery falls from one shoulder. The text on the banderoles, which they hold in both hands, is now missing. The oak wings of the angels, which for the rest are made of lime wood, are most probably not original.

Stylistically, the plump, winged cherubs are still deeply rooted in the late-baroque,¹ but with their delicate elegance and sweet looks they already usher in the Rococo. That would lend credibility to a date in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Apart from the dominant art centre of Antwerp, already suggested as their place of origin,² the angels could also have been made in the Northern Netherlands for a clandestine Catholic church (in view of the possible Utrecht origin) by a sculptor from the southern part of the country who had settled there. However, as a comparison with sculptures of young children carved by the Amsterdam sculptors Ignatius van Logteren (1685-1732) and his son Jan (1709-1745) demonstrates (cf. BK-1959-32-A and -B), the possibility they were made by a local Northern Netherlandish sculptor should not be ruled out.³ The unusual and explicit presence of rose stems in the angels’ hair implies that the works might have been part of a rosary altar.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025