Head of an Angel
Creation
The sculpture comes from the high altar of the Missionary Fathers’ Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in Horodenka. The church was built during 1745-1769 according to Bernard Meretyn’s design. Johann Pinsel created the sculpture in 1752-1755Description
The head of an Angel is the only surviving fragment of a sculpture that was located on the right column of the high altar of the Missionary Fathers’ Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in Horodenka. Old photographs show that the angel’s body was bent in a bow. He had bared powerful shoulders and arms spread and bent at the elbows. His legs were hidden behind his robes and he had huge strong wings behind his back. The author vividly traced the exposed parts of the angel’s body and hair and covered his clothes with gilding.
The expression on Angel’s face is ecstatic: opened eyes and mouth, graceful and pointed eyebrows, a narrow forehead and restrained wavy hair. It is in this fragment of the sculpture that Pinsel captured the mystery of the great inner ascent and exit from reality through the gateway to heaven.
- Head of an Angel. 1752-1755.
- Limewood, lost polychrome.
- Size: 44×33×35.
- Location: Johann Georg Pinsel Museum in Lviv. LAG inv. no С-1-1074.
- Provenance: the high altar of the Missionary Fathers’ Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in Horodenka, Ivano-Frankivsk region.
- Literature: Bochnak, 1931, p. 51-55, 85; Mańkowski, 1937, p. 35-36, 91, 136-137, il. 2; Hornung, 1937, p. 29-33, 56, 58, il. 22; Hornung, 1976, p. 44; Lyubchenko, 1967, p. 21-23; Gębarowicz, 1986, p. 24; Voznytsky, Opanasenko, 1988, p. 9; Voznytsky, 1991, p. 111.