Angel

Artist Niccolò di ser Sozzo Italian, active 1350 - 1363

Dateca. 1350

Place of OriginSiena, Italy

MediumTempera and gold leaf on panel

DimensionsPanel: 13 1/8 × 9 3/4 in. (33.3 × 24.8 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 15 1/2 × 11 3/4 in. (39.4 × 29.8 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineBequest of Charlotte Pruyn Hyde

Object number1971.27

On View

On view

Collections

European Paintings & Sculpture

DescriptionOriginally part of a large polyptych, now dismembered and lost, this angel would likely have been one of several similar figures surrounding either an enthroned Madonna and Child or possibly an Assumption of the Virgin. Typical of a number of Sienese fourteenth-century angels, this one stands with arms folded across its chest, likely a pose of adoration.

While scholars agree this panel dates from the mid-fourteenth century, its attribution to Niccolò di Ser Sozzo Tegliacci is widely challenged. Creighton Gilbert, in a 1977 communication to The Hyde, suggested the attribution to Niccolò, a fourteenth-century Sienese artist about whom little is known. But today’s scholars favor an attribution to Mello da Gubbio, active 1330-1360, also an artist about whom little is known. Mojmír Frinta had already in 1974 analyzed the panel’s punch marks, leading him to propose an origin in Umbria, Emilia, or Romagna, not Tuscany. Gubbio is indeed in Umbria; however Frinta’s assertion that the angel is Gabriel at the Annunciation is untenable. Former Hyde curator Jonathan Canning noted that Erica Neri supported such a reattribution to Mello, as do other scholars. Most recently, art historian Christopher Darly, in 2024-2025 conversations with Hyde curator Bryn Schockmel, also supports the reattribution to Mello da Gubbio.

Text by Penny Howell Jolly, Professor Emerita of Art History, Skidmore College, February 2026Exhibition History"Winter Exhibition," Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1930-31.

"The Commonwealth of Painting," Addison Gallery, Andover, MA, 1946.

"Medieval Art in Upstate New York," Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, 1974,

"Objects of Devotion", Hoopes Galllery, The Hyde Collection, Nov, 30, 2003- Dec. 29, 2004.ProvenanceSmeaton-Hepburn House, nr. Preston Kirk, East Lothian, Scotland, Sir Archibald Buchan-Hepburn (d.1929)
London, England, R. Langton Douglas (dealer)
London, England, Rt. Hon. Godfrey Locker Lampson
New York, NY, Parke-Bernet (auction)
1947, Glens Falls, NY, Mrs. Charlotte P. Hyde
1963, Glens Falls, NY, The Hyde Collection Trust (Bequest of Charlotte P. Hyde)