Lute-playing Angel
Hans Schnatterpeck (Austrian)
made shortly after 1503
- Medium
- Black Forest balsalm fir with polychromy
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 75 cm (29 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Austria, Tyrol, early 16th Century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Medieval Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Severance A. Millikin
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This sculpture was originally placed at the top of the altarpiece of the high altar in the church at Nieder Lana, near Meran, in the South Tyrol (now part of present-day North Italy). The sculptor had contracted in 1503 to complete this altar within eight years for the payment of 1,600 gilders. Hans Schnatterpeck was originally from Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria. By 1478-79 he had settled in Meran where he operated the leading workshop in the area. This angel is a surviving element from his most famous work, the largest Gothic altarpiece of the Alpine region. Other elements survive in various public and private collections.
