Armorial Shield Supported by Angels, made in Beauvais, late 15th to early 16th century (painted...

Pairs of angels holding shields with coats of arms abound in French art and architecture from the decades around 1500. The arms on this shield have been identified as those of Antoine de Bois, abbot of Saint-Lucien in Beauvais from 1492 to 1537. Although the original location of the work is unknown, the sculpture's fine state of preservation argues for an interior placement. Throughout the early sixteenth century various stylistic currents coexisted in French art, sometimes appearing in a single work. In the Museum's sculpture, the complicated yet delicate folds of the angels' robes reveal familiarity with Italian style, while the carefully described swag and sober faces of the angels are examples of an indigenous French monumentality and naturalism. Certainly, too, the sculptor's expertise in carving the soft material of wood played an important part in this demonstration of complete mastery of the advanced styles of the time. Dean Walker, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 116.