Angel
by FRANCIABIGIO, Panel, 118 x 53 cm
This painting is one of the painted side panels Franciabigio contributed to frame Nanni Unghero’s wooden statue on the San Niccolò da Tolentino altar in S. Spirito. The two flamboyant angels reveal Franciabigio’s distinctive lexicon with their proto-Baroque sensibility and deep pathos painted in excited, jagged contours, combined with the strong raking light and almost smoldering atmosphere.