An Angel in Red with a Lute

Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis, who collaborated with Leonardo on the Virgin of the Rocks altarpiece for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception in Milan, created this work around 1495, now in London's National Gallery. This work reflects the artistic culture of Milan during the High Renaissance, when the innovations of the early fifteenth century reached their mature expression in works of unprecedented technical and compositional sophistication.

The angel figure is rendered with idealized features and graceful proportions, using luminous color and delicate modeling to convey celestial character within the conventions of devotional panel painting.