Museum-quality pair of flying angels

Museum-quality pair of flying angels
Brabant/Brussels
c. 1500
Oak, carved in the round
Height 40/38 cm

These two figures depict a pair of flying angels, crafted around 1500 in the province of Brabant in Flanders. They are carved from oak and measure 38–40 cm. The angels can be attributed to the Circle of Jan Borman the Elder, a prominent Flemish master carver of the Late Gothic and Dutch Renaissance periods, who was active in Brussels between 1479 and 1520.
He was the founder of a Brabant dynasty of sculptors and joined a woodcarvers’ guild in Brussels in 1479. The St. George Altarpiece for the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Ginderbuyten Chapel in Leuven, which he may have created together with his son Jan Bormann the Younger in 1493, is considered the signature work of this family of sculptors. In 1511, he was also commissioned to create wooden models for the tombs of the Duke and Duchess of Brabant.
The angels are depicted in an elongated, Mannerist style with dynamic poses; their angled legs and billowing robes suggest that the angels are likely in mid-flight. The slits for the separately carved and later attached wings are clearly visible on the backs of the fully rounded figures. Particularly impressive is the richly adorned clothing, featuring differently decorated tops with an artful, ornate textile surface. The long, tubular folds of the drapery are also typical of Brabant woodcarvings. Particularly characteristic, however, are the short, almost weightless, voluminous curls of hair, which are parted in the center and end in two small curls above the forehead. This stylistic feature is comparable to a figure in the Arenberg Lamentation from 1470–80 (Detroit Institute of Arts, Inv. No. 61.164) or the Candlestick Angels from around 1500 (Detroit Institute of Arts, Inv. No. 25.18–19). Further comparable examples can be found at the Cleveland Museum of Art (Inv. No. 1948.475) and in a 2019 Sotheby’s auction (Lot 21), with the latter angel figure featuring a similar mane of hair as well as the same slit-like openings on the back where wings must originally have been attached. However, the angels presented here are far more richly decorated, as is often seen in Jan Borman’s carved figures. His style is particularly associated with meticulously carved decorative details in the contemporary costumes and elaborate hairstyles, as well as with dynamic poses.
The serene, benevolent faces—with almond-shaped eyes, straight noses, and small mouths—are turned downward, seemingly gazing down at the viewer.
The faces, which appear almost individual, convey a lifelike expression of devout piety, emphasized by the hands clasped in prayer. In this way, the heavenly beings demonstrate to the faithful the posture they should adopt. Since the demand for altars for private devotion had been rising since the 15th century, these figures may have been part of an altar for a representative house chapel. In this context, the early 16th-century carved altar from Brussels, now in the Schnütgen Museum in Cologne, is very similar. This represents an extremely rare opportunity to acquire a work from the Circle of this important dynasty of sculptors—and, in particular, two figures of museum quality from the Dutch Renaissance.