Angels from the Vatican

Published as the catalogue of an exhibition which opened in Los Angeles in February 1998 before moving to St Louis, Detroit, Baltimore and West Palm Beach, this study of angels in art through the ages draws on the extensive collections of the Vatican. The Vatican's collections date from the time of the Renaissance, since when the popes have collected and commissioned paintings, sculpture, liturgical vessels, vestments and tapestries. Reproduced here are more than 100 treasures by artists such as Gentile da Fabriano, Fra Angelico, Ghirlandaio, Raphael, Veronese, Rouault and Salvador Dali, as well as ancient works by Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman artists. Arnold Nesselrath provides an essay on the iconography of angels in the Western artistic tradition, and a team of scholars contribute additional pieces and a history of the Vatican collections.