Study for an angel holding wreaths

This study of an angel is related to the mural decoration of the church of Saint-Germain-de-Prés in Paris, one of the earliest religious buildings erected in the city and the capital’s very first basilica. Between 1842 and 1870 the church was renovated and transformed with a new decorative campaign of murals covering the interior walls of the choir and of the nave with episodes from the Old and New Testament. The decorative project was entrusted to Hippolyte Flandrin (on the commission see B. Horaist, ‘Hippolyte Flandrin à Saint-Germain-des-Prés’, Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français, CVI, 1980, pp. 211-232; and S. Paccoud, É. Checroun and L. Delbarre in Hippolyte, Paul, Auguste. Les Flandrin, artistes et frères, exhib. cat., Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2021, pp. 246-259, nos. 291-330, ill., pp. 280-289). Partly executed in encaustic, in an attempt to reproduce ancient techniques, contemporary critics declared the interior of Saint-Germain-des-Prés Flandrin’s masterpiece. This figure of an angel is painted in the uppermost portion of the choir above the stained glass windows.