Angel with Candlestick
by MICHELANGELO Buonarroti, Marble, height 51,5 cm
Michelangelo made two small free-standing figures (St. Proculus and St Petronius) for the shrine of St. Dominic in San Domenico, and one angel candelabra for the altar of the chapel. Clearly, he had been looking at San Petronio’s major masterpiece, the great portal carved by Jacopo della Quercia nearly sixty years before. He adapted the older master’s directness of characterization, his admirable economy of gesture which concentrates the impact of the figure, and also the use of bulky draperies to give mass and weight.
The pair of this angel was executed by Niccolò dell’Arca.