This fragmentary relief of flying angels playing musical instruments exemplifies the work of the Flemish-born sculptor François Duquesnoy (1597–1643), who achieved great success in papal Rome. Very likely a sketch model for a relief carved in marble for a church in Naples, the terracotta shows the lively and tender way Duquesnoy presented winged babies (putti in Italian), the subject for which he is best known. Delicately and skillfully blending higher and lower relief, it fills a major gap in the Museum’s collection, which lacks fine examples of early Baroque sculpture.

Terracotta.

Anonymous gift.

2021.705