Figures of Two Music-Making Angels 1600 - 1700

This pen and brown ink drawing depicts two music-making angels, their forms emerging from loose, sketchy lines. Considering that this work was created by an anonymous artist, one might be interested in the institutional histories which may explain this. Perhaps it was made by an apprentice in a Renaissance workshop in Italy, as a preparatory sketch for a larger painting. The Catholic Church was a major patron of the arts and so artworks of this kind served a very public role. But the question of authorship also needs to be considered. How did the workshop system, like the Church, establish an internal hierarchy? And how did this affect the creative freedom of those who were lower down? What was the public role of art during this time? To better understand this, we need to study surviving documents like workshop inventories, contracts with patrons, and artists’ manuals. This research will help to reveal the social conditions that shaped artistic production during this period.