Spandrel Angels

These angels come from the upper part of a panel which showed Saint Francis (now lost), and which appeared in the main tier of a large altarpiece. The saint was framed by a painted arch within a rectangular panel; the gaps on either side of the arch were filled with angels. One looks up, while the other looks across at him. They appear to lean on the edge of the arch, which once framed the image of Saint Francis but now frames an empty space.Saint Francis was the founder of the religious order that became known as the Franciscans. Franciscan friars had a convent at the church of Santa Croce in Florence, where the altarpiece once occupied the high altar. An eighteenth-century drawing shows the altarpiece when it was still in the convent at Santa Croce. The image of Saint Francis was very badly damaged, and it is likely that it was discarded and that the angels were saved because they were in better condition. The panel showing Saint Francis was situated below an image of Saints Simon and Thaddeus.Ugolino included similar angels in an altarpiece now in the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. The idea for the design may have come from his Sienese contemporary Duccio’s altarpiece for San Domenico, Perugia.