Angel (Right Hand)

This angel flew in the top right corner of the altarpiece from Pistoia, its body stretched out toward the centre. When the altarpiece was cut up in the late 18th century, both flying angels passed to the Lombardi family in Florence, and from there they went separately to English collections.

In England they passed for the work of Masaccio, the Florentine who died young in the 1420s and was admired as the founder of the new style. This one was lent under his name to an exhibition at the New Gallery in London in 1893. Technical study now gives both angels most probably to Pesellino himself. Its last private owner, Countess Brownlow, left it to the National Gallery in her will in 1917.