Editions
God the Father with Singing and Music-Making Angels
Sizes
One complex, one multi-part accession: the KMSKA holds it as 778-780 and it is sold whole. Three sheets, one edition, $569 — the printed images hang level within 0%.
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God the Father sits among the clouds in a jewelled tiara, His right hand raised in blessing, His left holding a staff topped with the Cross that rests on a crystal globe. Angels on either side sing from open books; on the wings more angels play lute and harp, fiddle and trumpet, all on gold. The KMSKA describes His red cope worked in gold thread, pearls and precious stones, and reads the globe with its Cross as a sign of dominion. Hans Memling's altarpiece stood above the high altar of Santa María la Real at Nájera. Prior Gonzalo de Cabredo ordered it from Flanders in 1483 and died having paid only part of what was owed; his successor, Abbot Pablo Martínez de Uruñuela, paid the rest. It was installed in 1494, the year Memling died, and the angels are still playing.
All three panels are 165 cm tall on the wall in Antwerp, so a tier is only honest if the PRINTED images hang level. At 24×36 each image is 24.0 in high and they do, exactly. The hung image measures 95.9 inches across - close to eight feet - which is worth saying plainly before anyone buys three sheets expecting a mantelpiece.
| Held by | KMSKA, Antwerp · 778-780 the museum’s record |
|---|---|
| Source file | Wikimedia Commons · Hans Memling - Musicerende engelen - 779 - Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.jpg |
| Licence | Public domain |
| Panel · left | Music-Making Angels (inv. 779) — 26,234 × 19,461 px |
| Panel · centre | God the Father with Singing and Music-Making Angels (central panel) — 24,402 × 19,316 px |
| Panel · right | Music-Making Angels (inv. 780) — 26,356 × 19,054 px |
| Chain | Each panel taken from the source file above and cut to its own painted field; held as 3 print masters. |
Sources
- Object description: crystal globe with cross symbolizing dominion; tiara; red cope embroidered in gold thread, pearls, precious stones
- Psalm 150 as the organizing scheme for the wings' instruments
- '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)
Printed on demand as one edition. The whole image is printed on every sheet — never cropped to fit — so each panel carries an archival margin.