A PAIR OF CARVED MARBLE ANGELS

The exaggerated rococo forms of the pair of marble angels offered here relate very closely to the works of the Bavarian sculptor Johann Baptist Straub. The connection between Straub and the marbles can be seen when comparing them to his figure of an angel on the high altar of the Klosterkirche, Munich (Volk, loc. cit.) carved between 1737-1739. In each instance one can see a similar attention to the rounded, expressive, faces that have almond-shaped eyes and close, clinging, hair, and in the treatment of the drapery, which falls in broad flat planes that terminate in angular corners. Similarities can also be found in the stylised carving of the feathers and in the placement of the wings, where one is depicted fully extended while the other rests lowered.