Child Angel playing a flute

Child Angel Playing a Flute from around 1507 is an early work by Bernardino Luini that reflects the influence of the Lombard decorative tradition. Such musical angel fragments often survive from larger altarpiece or fresco programs that have been dismembered over the centuries Oil on canvas, increasingly preferred over panel in the sixteenth century, offered greater flexibility for large-scale compositions The work is now in the collection of Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

The charming figure of the musical angel displays Luini's gift for graceful, sweet characterization, with the soft modeling derived from Leonardo's technique.