18 - Two candle-bearing angels, a PORTUGUESE or LUSO-BRAZILIAN work from the first half of the 18th century

Two candle-bearing angels, a PORTUGUESE or LUSO-BRAZILIAN work from the first half of the 18th century A pair of full-relief, carved wooden figures, polychromed and gilded, with pronounced hip curves; each holds a candleholder and leans on a shield bearing the following inscriptions: "HE HAD THIS CHAPEL BUILT AND PLACED THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT WITHIN IT, PLEDGING TO PROVIDE THE OIL FOR THE LAMP FROM THE FRUITS OF THIS CHURCH DURING A SHORT PONTIFICATE" and “IN THANKSGIVING, HE SAID THAT MASSES SHOULD BE CELEBRATED.” [ HE HAD THIS CHAPEL BUILT AND PLACED THE BLESSED SACRAMENT THEREIN, UNDERTAKING TO PROVIDE THE OIL FOR THE LAMP FROM THE FRUITS OF THIS CHURCH BY PONTIFICAL BULL - IN THANKSGIVING, HE ORDERED THAT MASSES BE CELEBRATED ] Each rests on an added carved and painted wooden capital H: 154 and 158 cm Restorations, some of which are older, including fill-ins and repainting; missing wings. A conservation-restoration study and treatment report dated June 2006 is available to the purchaser. It was on the walls of their church—which they adorned with carved and gilded wood—that Portuguese artisans and artists chose to showcase their full range of expertise. The altarpieces—along with the relief panels, paintings, frames, cornices, partitions, pulpits, choir stalls, sculptures in the round, and organ cases—which together form this tapestry of wood—belong to an art form that combines elements of both architecture and sculpture. In Portuguese, this art form is known as “talha” (wood carving) and possesses a remarkable distinctiveness that makes it instantly recognizable. This art form, which reached its peak in the first half of the 18th century through a series of sumptuous gilded interiors, is distinctly Portuguese. It is within this “total” decorative framework that our two carved angels seem to fit. It is likely that they occupied a prominent place in adjacent niches of an altarpiece, much like the pair of saints on the high altarpiece of the main chapel of the Church of Paulistas in Lisbon, which is one of the finest examples of “talha” ” style. We must, however, exercise some caution regarding the strictly Portuguese origin of these sculptures, since Brazilian places of worship in fact benefited from this enthusiasm for the new Joannine style as early as 1720. Related work: The Baroque Angel of Aveiro in Reynaldo Dos Santos, *L'Art Portugais*, Édition d'Histoire et d'Art, 1953, p. 48, fig. 95 Bibliography: Reynaldo Dos Santos, *Portuguese Art*, Édition d’Histoire et d’Art, 1953 Robert Chester Smith, *The Art of Portugal, 1500–1800*, George Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1968 Germain Bazin, Aleijadinho and Baroque Sculpture in Brazil, 1968 Aziz José de Oliveira Pedrosa, “Reflections on the Joanin Style in 18th-Century Luso-Brazilian Religious Decor,” in *Perspective: Portugal and Lusophone Regions*, 2021 Cabral Moncada Leiloes Auction, September 26, 2017 Lot 785