An Angel holding a curtain

This is one of two angels in the V&A collection which once formed part of a tomb monument. They would have stood at the sides as though pulling back curtains to reveal the effigy. The sculptor, Tino di Camaino, collaborated with Giovanni Pisano as a young man and then went on to produce important tombs in central Italy and Naples.

This and a companion figure originally formed part of a tomb monument similar in type to the slightly earlier tomb of Cardinal de Braye by Arnolfo di Cambio in San Domenico, Orvieto. It was once thought that they had been attached to the monument of Antonio d’Orso, Bishop of Florence (d. 1321) in the Florence Cathedral; however, this now seems unlikely and it is probable that they belonged to another, now dismantled tomb of about the same date.

A caryatid from the same tomb is in the Fondazione Salvatore Romano, Florence.