Angel with Candlestick by Luca della Robbia

I saw this piece in the V&A.

Della Robbia’s angel is a plaster cast of a Renaissance sculpture in Florence’s Cathedral (now: Duomo’s museum).

The angels would have held the sanctified bread used during the Mass.

According to the V&A, “the plaster copies displayed here do not reproduce the colour of the originals”. That is because Della Robbia was known for inventing his “tin-glazed terracotta” sculpture technique. This glazing created a lustrous & water-resistant surface which exists to the present. Thus, they retain their white, deep cerulean blues and gilding against the deteriorating of the weather.

For art history, Luca Della Robbia holds an important role. He was pivotal in the early Italian Renaissance influencing the latter generation, including Michelangelo. Wikipedia says:

Della Robbia was praised by his compatriot Leon Battista Alberti for genius comparable to that of the sculptors Donatello and Lorenzo Ghiberti, the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, and the painter Masaccio. By ranking him with contemporary artists of this stature, Alberti noted the interest and strength of Luca’s work in marble and bronze, as well as in the terra-cottas always associated with his name.