Sainte Cécile et l'ange

Sainte Cécile et l'Ange (Saint Cecilia and the Angel), dated 1630 and in the Department of Paintings of the Louvre, brings Strozzi's musical sensibility to the patron saint of music herself. Cecilia — the Roman martyr who sang to God in her heart even during her wedding ceremonies — was conventionally depicted at an organ, a lute, or singing, with an angel who joins or responds to her music. Raphael's famous Bologna altarpiece set the iconographic standard, and Baroque painters competed in finding new angles on the celestial musical encounter. Strozzi, whose musician pictures show genuine understanding of instruments and performance, brings particular authority to Cecilia's playing. The Louvre acquisition places it among the great examples of the subject.

Canvas with warm, golden tonality appropriate to a scene of sacred music-making. The instrument — organ pipes, lute, or viola da gamba — is painted with the material precision visible in Strozzi's secular musician pictures. The angel's presence is indicated through luminosity and feathered wings, the supernatural light different in quality from the earthly warmth falling on Cecilia.