A Rare Late Renaissance Carved Oak & Polychromed Caryatid Figure of a Winged Angel, French, Circa 1600

A Rare Late Renaissance Carved Oak & Polychromed Caryatid Figure of a Winged Angel, French, Early 17th Century.

A most evocative and diminutive architectural carving, conceived as a winged angelic caryatid of tapering term form. The figure stands beneath a rectangular capital, her face sensitively carved with almond eyes, a straight nose and pursed lips, retaining wonderful traces of the original flesh-toned polychromy with rouged cheeks and lips, framed by a mane of thick curled hair picked out in black. The bare torso is flanked by feathered wings carved in low relief, descending to a tapering pedestal support of classical inspiration, headed by boldly scrolled volutes in the Ionic manner, centred by a gilt pendant husk and drapery folds falling to a stepped block base with an old fixing aperture.

Caryatid terms of this type were a staple of French late Renaissance and early Baroque design, employed as applied supports upon buffets, cupboards à deux corps and chimneypieces, and within ecclesiastical joinery flanking altarpieces and retables. The survival of so much early painted decoration - the crackled gesso ground, flesh tones, black hair and parcel-gilt enrichments - is exceptional in a carving of this intimate scale and lends the figure enormous presence as a standalone sculptural object.

Provenance: France. Early 17th Century, circa 1600.

Material: Carved wood with gesso and polychrome.

Condition: In good condition commensurate with age; the polychromy with honest wear and minor chips, a small loss to the front-left corner of the pediment and two old perforations. With an old brass collection or inventory seal to the reverse and a suspension wire, ready to hang.

Dimensions: 9 in (23 cm) high, 1¾ in (4.5 cm) wide, 1¼ in (3 cm) deep.