Six Angels

Jacopo di Cione, the youngest brother of the famed Andrea di Cione (Orcagna) and Nardo di Cione, painted these six angels likely as part of a larger altarpiece ensemble around 1365. The Cione workshop dominated Florentine painting in the decades following the Black Death, producing some of the most important altarpiece commissions of the period including works for San Pier Maggiore and the Zecca. Angel groups frequently appeared in the upper registers or flanking panels of Gothic altarpieces, forming the celestial court surrounding the central devotional image.

Executed in egg tempera on gold-ground panel, the six angelic figures are arranged in a symmetrical grouping with the characteristic haloes and decorative wings of the Orcagna workshop style. The figures display the solid, sculptural modeling and sober expressions that define the Cione brothers' post-plague aesthetic.