Angel Playing the Viola da Braccio

Author: Rosie Razzall

This figure of an angel playing a viola da braccio (viol) appears in at least four paintings by Perugino dated between about 1496 and 1510: the figure in the top left corner of the Ascension of Christ painted for San Pietro, Perugia and now in Lyon;^[1] a Virgin in Glory now in Florence;^[2] an Assumption, for the Annunziata in Florence;^[3] and the Ascension of Christ in Sansepolcro.^[4] There is also a pen-and-ink drawing of the same angel in London,^[5] first attributed to Perugino by J.D. Passavant.^[6]

As the Rotterdam drawing includes details of the viol bow and angel’s wings that are incomplete in the London drawing, it is not a copy of that possibly autograph sheet. Instead, our drawing must be after one of the paintings or a different, more complete drawing that does not survive. The figure was probably much repeated in Perugino’s workshop, as there is another version of the angel, the sheet badly damaged, in Florence.^[7] The Rotterdam drawing is executed in metalpoint, a medium often used by pupils, as it cannot be erased and thus encouraged the artist to exercise more precision. Philip Pouncey described the Rotterdam sheet as a ‘weak drawing’,^[8] in recognition of the handling of the stylus in short, stilted lines, especially around the wings. Other metalpoint drawings by Perugino himself, such as an example in Windsor,^[9] certainly exhibit greater fluidity with the medium. The inscription at the bottom of the sheet has been added by a later hand.