Angel with Harp

Cristoforo Cortese's Angel with Harp, dated around 1401 and also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the companion panel to his Angel with Portative Organ and belongs to the same dismembered polyptych. The two musician-angel panels together demonstrate the heavenly music that frames the central devotional subject of the original altarpiece. The harp was one of the most ancient instruments associated with divine music, with strong Old Testament resonances through David the Psalmist. Such paired or grouped musician-angel panels were standard in Venetian altarpiece production at the turn of the fifteenth century and survive in significant numbers in museum collections.

Cortese paints the harp-playing angel with the same decorative refinement as its companion panel: elaborately tooled gold ground, richly layered robes in warm and cool tones, and delicate facial features. The harp is depicted with structural accuracy. The angel's wings are differentiated from those of the organ companion through slightly varied color.