Music-Making Angels (inv. 779)
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
Sizes
About this painting
Storm clouds part above the angels to bare a field of gold — heaven breaking open, not a backdrop. They wear liturgical garments, and this panel stood above the high altar: players vested like the clergy below them.
Prior Gonzalo de Cabredo ordered it for his abbey at Nájera in 1483, made in Flanders at any cost, and died in 1486 having paid 6,500 maravedís of the 239,383 it came to. His successor paid the rest. The concert opened in 1494, eleven years after the order and eight after the prior who wanted it, in the year Memling died.
Sources: Vlaamse Kunstcollectie restoration webpage · Lisa Monnas, in HNA review of 'Harmony in Bright Colors' (Brepols, 2023) · KMSKA object page · 'Hans Memling's Nájera altarpiece: new documentary evidence' · KMSKA, Antwerp, object page for 'God the Father with Singing and Music-Making Angels' (companion to inv. 779) · KIK-IRPA (Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels), press release, 21 February 2018, 'Decouvertes sur le retable de Najera de Memling' · Brepols, publisher's description of 'Harmony in Bright Colors: Memling's God the Father with Singing and Music-Making Angels Restored' (2023)
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 26,234 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.