Two Angels

Ugolino di Nerio's Two Angels (c. 1324) at the National Gallery in London is a fragment from the artist's monumental Santa Croce altarpiece, one of the most important Sienese paintings to be commissioned for a Florentine church. The polyptych was created for the high altar of the Franciscan basilica of Santa Croce, and its dispersal in the early nineteenth century scattered fragments across collections in London, Berlin, and Philadelphia. These angels, originally flanking a central Madonna or Crucifixion, demonstrate the celestial grandeur of the complete ensemble.

Rendered in egg tempera with burnished gold leaf on panel, the angels display Ugolino's refined Sienese draftsmanship with elegantly modeled drapery in delicate pinks, blues, and whites. The figures are set against the original tooled gold ground with fine punch-work haloes, and their inclined poses and gentle expressions reflect the lyrical sweetness characteristic of Duccio's school.